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I bought this 3.75" .45ACP Ruger birds head Vaquero a while back. I really like the gun but I haven't been a huge fan of the birds head grip, it's not great but it's okay so I've lived with it.
Well, thanks to a bunch of issues with the Ruger/TALO Carryhawk I recently purchased and a post I saw on another forum where a guy had replaced the steel birds head grip frame on his Carryhawk with a standard aluminum one, I purchased an aluminum "plow handle" style grip frame and buffalo horn grips intending to put them on my Carryhawk like he did with his. That gun's situation took a completely different turn yesterday and now the Carryhawk is going back to Ruger and they're sending me a new Ruger 57 to replace it(!!!) so I decided to swap the aluminum grip frame onto the Vaquero.
There's a number of different Ruger models and grip frames and they're kind of confusing but after a lot of reading and some Dremel work I was able to fit new grip frame to the gun. Apparently, they're all individually fit at the factory so it's seldom that a swap is a perfect fit but it turned out pretty good, definitely serviceable, especially sine this gun mostly gets carried around the farm. The new grip set up fits my hand much better than the birds head plus the aluminum grip frame took almost 6oz off the gun, shifting the weight forward which helps to balance the shorter barrel, and it rides better in the holster since it's not as butt heavy. I ran a couple of cylinder fulls through it and it points well and shoots just fine. Looks better, too, I think.
Before-
After-
Well, thanks to a bunch of issues with the Ruger/TALO Carryhawk I recently purchased and a post I saw on another forum where a guy had replaced the steel birds head grip frame on his Carryhawk with a standard aluminum one, I purchased an aluminum "plow handle" style grip frame and buffalo horn grips intending to put them on my Carryhawk like he did with his. That gun's situation took a completely different turn yesterday and now the Carryhawk is going back to Ruger and they're sending me a new Ruger 57 to replace it(!!!) so I decided to swap the aluminum grip frame onto the Vaquero.
There's a number of different Ruger models and grip frames and they're kind of confusing but after a lot of reading and some Dremel work I was able to fit new grip frame to the gun. Apparently, they're all individually fit at the factory so it's seldom that a swap is a perfect fit but it turned out pretty good, definitely serviceable, especially sine this gun mostly gets carried around the farm. The new grip set up fits my hand much better than the birds head plus the aluminum grip frame took almost 6oz off the gun, shifting the weight forward which helps to balance the shorter barrel, and it rides better in the holster since it's not as butt heavy. I ran a couple of cylinder fulls through it and it points well and shoots just fine. Looks better, too, I think.
Before-
After-