Rossi Rifleman

I had hopes it would not have happened, but... the transfer bar in my N.Vaquero 45c snapped in two while I was dry firing it a bit. Well, that's how the Oreo crumbles, I s'pose.

Ruger won't sell it. But Midway has 'em... except they're out. They _do_ have the transfer bar for the Blackhawk series, in stainless only (its only made that way these days). The difference is that the N.Vaquero has a little lip on the edge of its top surface to "fit" the transfer bar for minimal (or no) pinch. My other N.Vaquero (birdshead) came with a Super Blackhawk hammer and _no_ lip on the transfer bar, and it hadn't been "fit" either, as its casting goes right to the top. Since I fit a Super Blackhawk hammer to the gun that has the broken transfer bar (and removed the tab enough to get no pinch), I figured I'd just get the one with no tab and give it a try for all of $5.00. Worst case, I got a spare for the birdshead model. Best case is it fits just fine.

I gotta say the outsides of the current Rugers seem better and better. But, the insides... jeeze. Back in the day, at the range where I had my gunsmithing set up... I literally never saw a broken Ruger single action. Never. Oh, a few that were bubba'd and easy to restore to perfect. A few that needed a little sharp edge fixed inside. But nothing ever broke. We sold a ton of Ruger single action guns too, by far the most popular because... they were available, while most Smiths and Ruger DA and Colts were just a lot harder to come by (unless you wanted to order $20k worth of leather from Ellett Brothers), or take a few dozen police trade ins for every new Smith. It was crazy back then.

And... first the birdshead had a snapped pawl - and I know why it snapped. Just terrible file work, which left a spot where a stress riser could form at the middle "hand". Now the transfer bar. I knew it was being pinched, should have corrected it, but waited till I found and fit the new hammer. Not really my fault, but I could have prevented it.

Well that's annoying.
Pictures?

I've seen or heard tell of a couple Rugers that got messed up by a reloader who didn't know his limits.
I was told at the shop they were instructed by Ruger NOT to sell that guy any more Ruger firearms in the future and that his 'warranty' on the gun that got sent back was zeroed out/null and void.

I'll post a few pics when the part arrives.

I'd see sloppy cylinders once in a while. I always figured it was that rough machining wearing smooth. There's enough meat in a Ruger cylinder to make a short bushing to correct that. Sometimes the gap would end up sort of wide, so if there was a chance for that I would send it to Ruger for a new cylinder. I guess heavy loads would wear things faster. Once at the county range a guy screwed up his powder and kaboomed a Super Blackhawk on shot number one. He was fine but guy a lane over got his hand messed up bad. Bad being permanent nerve damage and disuse of his right hand
And.... Squibs in the barrel goose eggin' things. Had one guy with 14 .22lr in his single six. Pressed em out with a 14ton hydraulic press! And the gun was no worse for the wear too. I feel like Farmers Insurance sometimes....seen a thing or two.

Yep,
I've got stories from the shop when I was helping out or hanging around and they just did a little armory work no involved gunsmithing.

I have a spare. Can't remember why.
I will be getting rid of my last New Model as soon as a find an original to replace it.
Started out a Ruger fan until I began working on my early New Model Blackhawk.

I broke my original Vaquero transfer bar back in the 90's. It happens. I was dry firing the heck out of that one though. Ruger took it back and fixed it up very well. I am pretty sure they did a trigger job when they had it because it came back much smoother than it went to them.

Well, part should arrive today. I've had the transfer bar out of this revolver, but not lately. Can't remember any sort of weird stuff, other than it was the "pinch" type which is known to break. But I've got to see where it broke (the end still in the gun) and try to figure out the stress that caused the breakage.

On the other Vaquero, when the pawl broke, I knew why right away. The "aye-dee-ten-tee" at the Ruger assembly line filed too much off the "finisher" hand (ledge) on the pawl, so the front of it got whacked with a hammer to turn up a "lip" on the edge of the ledge. You whack the part with a hammer, and it sets up a stress failure on the other side of the part, which is exactly how and where the part broke. (self deleted the rest of my thread, it was too much of a rant).

Well, there ya go. Busted up transfer bar.

The questions are why did it break?

And how is the Blackhawk part different from the New Vaquero part?
As best as I can tell, the part broke along the ledge, as its pretty clearly visible in the picture. That ledge is not too tall. On the new part, it was about .005 or so. Very close examination showed no radius to speak of in the corner of that ledge. Stress riser territory. The transfer bar (New Vaquero type) has a "pad" on the front down low, and a "pad" on the top where the hammer can hit. Both of those showed fitting. I don't know what the lower pad does, except maybe prevents the transfer bar from moving forward past a certain point. The upper pad controls the hammer final resting spot. I have no clue as to why they do this on a Vaquero. There's no interference with the extra plunger for the cylinder. I don't know what other differences the Vaquero has that might make the use of a different part needed.

At any rate, the Blackhawk transfer bar went in and was about .003 too thick A very light "clean up" of the casting marks and such got it to a good fit (no pinch), and I test fired it in the backyard to make sure firing pin protrusion was adequate. It is.

So for now, all's well that ends well.