Ruger Vaquero

I owned one of these Ruger revolvers in .357 magnum, making it a powerful shooting iron and fine for target practice when I switched to .38 ammo.

This was a pretty good gun. I won't say it's one of the best I ever had, but I enjoyed it. I was a decent shot with it, but the relatively short barrel (something a little less than five inches, if memory serves) didn't allow for much range, but you can't expect great range with most handguns anyway.

Overall, the quality of this weapon was pretty good, but I wouldn't quite call it top-notch, though it didn't strike me as chincy. It had a good weight and feel in my hands, and was fun to do handling tricks (like twirling the gun around by the trigger guard, but only when unloaded).

A lot of fun for Old West collectors and shooters. This single-action revolver is the only revolver I've ever owned that had the firing pin not attached directly to the hammer, instead, the firing pin floating on a small block of metal which was struck by the hammer; regardless, this did not cause any problems, though it struck me as something that might break off (though mine never did even after hundreds and hundreds of rounds being fired).