I held a Ruger New Bearcat, the blued 4" version. It felt a tad small even in my smallish (for a guy) hands, but a few sight pictures later it felt right. The fit and finish was exceptional, the hardwood grips were finished perfectly and fit the frame exact. The hammer and trigger are stainless, contrasting nicely with the blued gun. Fixed sight, nothing fancy. A week later when I saw it still lying in the case, I had to take it home. Paid around $500 for it price, tax, and the $10 background check fee (I live in Colorado) inclusive. Even scored a 325 rd box of Federal Automatch for $30
Despite my five year sojourn in the Great State of Texas, I have never owned a SA revolver, only fired a couple cylinders through a Dallas Pistol Club member's Single Six. Being that this is my first SA revolver, I scored a couple books on shooting them from the library, and brushed up on some of the finer points of shooting old timey guns.
I visited my favorite indoor range, after blasting away with my Glocks for a few minutes, I stapled up a NRA B-2 and ran it out to 50'. I loaded up the little revolver with some Federal 711B, and spent about 5 minutes firing 30 rounds. I could not see the holes in the target, and as I ran it back was concerned that I did not hit it at all. Much to my delight I observed one ragged hole in the 10 ring and 2 fliers, one high right, one low right. Slapped another one on and sent it back down, fired another 30, this time the Federal Automatch. Not sure if it was the ammo or my now excited emotional state but the group grew an inch but one less flier. I also ran a couple cylinders of CCI CB Short at a target at 25', all tightly grouped in 1". The range was closing in 5 minutes so my party ended, but I went home doing this
So the next surprise came today when I took the little Ruger out to give it a thorough cleaning. I've owned over a dozen revolvers, all double action. I was quite surprised how much easier it is to clean a revolver when the cylinder can be removed, and doesn't have a crane flapping around on the front of it. Ditto for the gun. Sometimes we seem to think that all the people who have lived before us are somehow stupid because they didn't have Ipads or smartphones. However I must concede some older technology is quite excellent, and maybe the adherents of SAA style revolvers are on to something.
So overall I am quite pleased with my New Bearcat, and dreams of exotic hardware from the Continent have faded. It's simple, accurate, and easy to take care of.
Now I want to try a center-fire SA revolver. Turned down a couple of old model 357 Blackhawks today, I'm leaning toward the fixed sight system of the Vaquero, and I want one with the transfer bar.
