Installing the Largest 1860 Army Grip Frame on the Vaquero

[Sharps40]

The 1860 Army Grip is the largest and closest to the trigger. Many sizes. The smallest are on the old Pietta/CVA percussion guns from the 80s and 90s.
The late model uberti's and piettas, are closer to full size, with the pieta being bigger/closer to original than the uberti.
But, as you'll see, all can fit the ruger single actions and in this case, i'll use the largest pietta steel backstrap for the most original size and the somewhat shorter uberti steel trigger guard because the pietta steel trigger guard is not readily available.
As usual, the Italian back straps, steel or brass are usually an effort free install on the ruger frame, here a vaquero 45. This one, a rough cast full size steel pietta 1860 Army with rifle stock cut is a bolt up with the original ruger screws, smooth off the sides and ready for final polish and blue.
As for the uberti steel 1860 army trigger guard, nearly the right thickness to match the pietta, rear holes took some light tweaking and as always, the front hole has to be relocated or the hole in the frame filled and redrilled, and the trigger slot widened for the ruger trigger. That, plus the 1860 uberti army grip is shorter than the pietta but similar in distance from trigger and the bottom screw will line up dead center with the pietta backstrap hole once a filler block of steel or brass is soldered into place.
To the photos.

 

[7pt62THOR]

Dang! Glad you're back! Where in the heck have ya been? All of us junkies have been dying for a fix!

 

[Sharps40]

Took a year off to sell a house, buy one to retire in next year, set up my shop, get an 87 Jimmy running good, build a small backyard range, declared war on fire ants and shot 7 deer.....was busy. But 328 working days to full retirement and I'm breaking in the new workbench on this project.

 

[Sharps40]

Too hot to mow or otherwise be outside, so to the shop to get the hard work done. A brass plug sweated in place to fill a divot in the uberti trigger guard, then drilled at the right angles for the cylinder bolt plunger and spring. The trigger slot was opened by hand from narrow colt to wide ruger, then all the metal behind the trigger was plowed out by hand to make way for the trigger return spring and its cross pin. Some cleaning up to do but you get the idea.....plenty of work to go from flat spring to coil. As for the grip, a set of 50 anniversary Blackhawk grip panels over the 1860 army grip frame for reference.

 

[Sharps40]

This one is the house/yard gun. 45 ACP. Not the 1860 grip but it works for me. i'll probably load it with 260g lee REAL at about 900 fps for hunting and I have trim up some old 7 or 8 mm brass to make up cylinder length shot shells for all the copper heads around here. Flat top with rounded edges. Local hand carved grips for $60. Fiber front sight mounted in a dovetail on the remnant's of the lowered front sight ramp (cut the barrel off even with the end of the original ruger sight blade slot) Shortened bbl and shortened hammerli steel rod housing with wedding band. Crescent ejector from the hammerli saa and shortened the cylinder pin to be removeable without dismounting the ejector rod tube. Widened and sharpened the grasping grooves in the cylinder pin too, easier to get the thing out in that cramped space under the barrel.

Front sight is the .570 steel Williams red fire on the lowered remnants of the front ramp. Ramp was lowered to about .095", dovetailed, rounded over and the sight pushed into place. Works great with the factory low rear blade. with the rear sight base just below level the 230g federal fmj and hydrashok hit just above the fire sight at 10 yards. Plenty good for a easy center hold on the 6" and 4" steel swingers.

 

[Sharps40]

Continuing the trigger guard, readying it for coil spring conversion. remove the lower flat spring foot and thin the tang to .275" or so. plow out a well centered groove for the main spring as it travels down and forward on compression.

 

[Sharps40]

Experimenting with a one piece grip for this job....very colt like.

 

[Sharps40]

All steel now.....no alloy left. Ruger parts for direct bolt on. Crescent rod and steel tube, under $30 total.

 

[Sharps40]

Extended the trigger guard .168" to meet up with the bottom of the back strap, soldered the extension in place and started the shaping. Reinstalled it all, and its a good fit. Some hand filing and shaping to do yet but first I need to go back and convert the grip from flat spring to coil spring.

 

[EMC45]

What's turning on the record player for this project?