Joe, GREAT link! Thanx!
The combination I'm considering right now:
Vaquero or Bisley Vaquero in 4&5/8ths barrel, .45LC. If I can find one with a 2nd cylinder in .45ACP, cool, and I have a slight preference for stainless. But I'll take whatever I can find that's *tight*, has a small gap, tight cylinder bores, good cylinder/barrel alignment and little play at full lockup. I'm going to figure out whichever local dealer has the biggest selection, and then go to that dealer with an inside-diameter micrometer in hand, buy the best one he's got.
Then add:
1) Belt Mountain stainless Sheriff's model base pin - allows longer ejection strokes, plus locking hex screw and tighter fit.
1) NCO Lightning grip frame.
1) cylinder hone tool.
1) Power Custom freewheel pawl.
1) Ashley Express small dot Tritium front sight - for an AR15. I'm going to cut it to the proper vertical height, cut a channel up the base wide enough for the factory front blade to fit in, then I'm going to drill two small holes all the way through the factory blade and the body of the Ashley sight, and then bolt it up - this after divining the correct vertical for my loads via the original sight. If the windage needs tweaking, make the cut in in the bottom of the Ashley sight wider so that you can use shims to adjust windage. I may have to use the Ashley BIG dot sight because the metal of the sight base underneath it would be wider allowing for more windage adjustment. Also, if I ever get into SASS, the Tritium front sight could still be unbolted, leaving the stock blade, albiet drilled in two places
.
The Ashley sight would be a bit taller than normal, because I want the inner Tritium dot to be right in the bottom of the rear channel. The upper half of the front sight's white enamel outer ring would then form a "sunrise" pattern. The reason is, if I'm in total dark but shooting at an illuminated target, by raising the front sight carefully until I can barely see the Tritium I'd have proper alignment even though the only part of the gun visible is the Tritium dot. This is contrary to Ashley's recommendations (whole front dot just over rear sight) but I think it'll work for me.
I may turn the rear square notch sight into a slight "V". One good reason to go stainless is that this could be done without re-blueing afterwards.
Load would be Cor-Bon's 200grain JHPs at around 1,100fps, if they shoot OK. I'd accuracy-test them against Winchester Silvertips and a few other candidates. Buffalo Bore is about to ship a personal defense 45LC very similar to Cor-Bon's...if accuracy is better, fine, if not stick with Cor-Bon, esp. when the PowerBall in 200grain ships.
In .45LC, the "speedloader" would be a plastic tube with a cork in the end, carried underarm. At some point I'll want a .45ACP cylinder to play with.
Oh yes, one other thing: on this barrel length, the end of the ejector housing is a small circle just beneath and left of the barrel as you look down the business end. I believe in making BG's do a double-take as they look down the barrel, so the end of the ejector housing will be painted with a little yellow smiley face
.
Also sort of a "tribute to TFL"
.
I may do a custom cylinder and alignment job later, maybe a custom barrel although I doubt that latter, the factory twist rate is fine for the loads I plan on using.
This is my idea of the ultimate CCW SA.