Maybe Not Welcome Here: Ruger Old Army Results?

[Maven]

I've own a Ruger Old Army .457"cal. BP revolver for more years than I care to remember, but didn't shoot it much as it was prone to misfires. I.e., it needed two strikes to set off the percussion caps. (It wasn't the caps!) At first I thought it was the factory nipples, but once I swapped them for "Uncle Mike's" brand the problem remained. A couple of years ago, I read rave reviews of "Slix Shot" nipples (from Badman products), bought and installed a set and was bowled over. They turned the ROA into a 100% reliable revolver. Btw, in my hands it feels exactly like my Ruger BH and SBH and has a slightly better trigger than the former.

The other day I felt the need to fire it again @ 25 yd. with home cast .457" RB's (unweighed; Lee mould) + 30 and 35 gr. thrown charges of Pyrodex P with Ox-Yoke lubed over powder felt wads. Although Pyrodex is a propellant people love to hate, I wanted to use mine up rather than throw it out in these times of shortages. Here's a photo of the results of 15 shots with the30 gr. charge @ 25 yd.; the 35 gr. ones, also 15 shots @ 25 yd., were maybe a tad better, so there's no need to show them. ROA's are accurate revolvers!

 

[Rick]

Not welcome here? Good post, interesting and informative.

 

[Petrol & Powder]

That's good shooting.

I've always enjoyed showing others what can be done with a cap & ball revolver. That old tech stuff still works

 

[Joshua]

I’ve had an inexpensive 1858 brass framed revolver since I was thirteen. Mail ordered from Gander Mountain. I come from a fishing/camping family, not a gun family, a cap and ball revolver was all that I could get parental authorization for when I was a kid. I already had a few long guns, but they weren’t to hip on me buying a pistol.

I’ve only ever shot Pyrodex P out of it. Hot soapy water and a few minutes in a 200°F oven has always worked.

I once tried to just wipe it down and oil it. That didn’t work, it started rusting, so I went back to the soapy bath/oven routine.

 

[Ian]

Pyrodex Pistol residue is a real pain to clean, but other than that works fine. Really good info on the nipples. I switched to Goex Smoldering Dirt and then some stuff repackaged by Graf & Sons that's much better.

 

[Joshua]

I forgot to say, Nice Shooting!

 

[Jeff H]

I remember the first article I saw about these, in Guns and Ammo, I think. The cover had a ROA in stainless on a plastic bucket full of soapy water and a garden hose lying in the grass. My dad eventually bought one some time in the eighties and abhorred t he cleaning routine and GAVE it to me out of complete disdain for the time he had to spend after cleaning it. He eventually started shooting a ML rifle at least to extend his deer season.

Anyway, a marvelous revolver from a time when I feel Ruger was more HIT than MISS on fit/finish and QC. I shot it a lot for many years, but eventually found the grip frame fit me better on my OM SBH, so the ROA got used less and the SBH more.

Accuracy was always good - in the 2" range if I was being lazy and more like 1 1/2" if I really focused and concentrated. I shot mostly Speer RBs and I cast LEE RNs and HPs from two moulds I had. I don't remember the charge weight, but either all the Pyrodex RS I could fit a ball over, or half Pyrodex P or RS under half "instant grits" (some feel that's the only fitting use for instant grits) - whatever kept the ball almost flush with the face of the cylinder.

CCI caps would turn to shrapnel and tie up the gun. Dixie Gun Works cheap, ($1/c) Italian caps were dead reliable, but were so snug as to be almost water-proof and had to be pried off the nipples with a dedicated pair of needle-nosed pliers from my pouch. I initially had an issue with caps not firing, and found that if I backed the factory nipples were backed out a quarter-turn, they would fire, but they worked in or out and it was a PITA. I did find that Uncle Mike's "Hot-Shot" (?) nipples gave 100% reliable ignition and stuck with those thereafter.

Mine shot very high with the factory sight, so I made a new one from a piece of 10 gauge cold-roll. After I got the height sorted out, I made a new one from brass, and the patina it took provided one of the best front sight colors I've used.

I've had other BP revolver replicas, and the next most favorite was a Lyman Remington '58 copy which was much slimmer and lighter than the ROA, but not as accurate. THAT was one of the nicest-handling SA revolvers I've owned.

@Maven , thanks for stirring some good, old memories.

 

[Outpost75]

My experience parallels that of Jeff H. Only thing I would add is that the Lee 200 grain R.E.A.L. is more effective on game than the round ball.

 

[Maven]

Thanks for the positive comments! Now, I need to add some things about Pyrodex in my stainless steel ROA. I wiped the cylinder sides and face after each 5 shot string and ran a dry patch down the bore as well: Not a lot of fouling, but it was there. Clean-up was with hot, soapy water and took no more time than it does with my CF revolvers. Three additional thoughts: I added a pc. of black plastic (a pc. of an HO gauge track crosstie) to the front sight to get the right elevation. While it's still a tad high, it ain't too bad. Second, I switched from commercial to home cast round balls (Speer) as I suspected the commercial ones shot poorly. When I substituted the home cast ones, there was an immediate and significant improvement. (I dumped the remaining swaged ones in my Lee 10 lb. furnace.) Lastly, with nipples other than Slix Shot, caps would stick and try to fall into the action, but never enough to entirely gum up the works. With the Slix Shot, they split open and fall right off. As I've written before, the gun is now 100% reliable and impressively accurate.

P.S. I've found using a healthy smear of white lithium grease on the base pin (arbor), rear of the cylinder, and front cylinder bearing really prevents powder fouling and binding in BP revolvers.

P.P.S. I tried Pyrodex P with patched RB's in my Lyman/Investarms .50cal. Great Plains rifle and found it to be easy to ignite with the same size and brand of percussion caps I used on the ROA. 50 yd. accuracy from a rest was quite good with a 60 gr. charge, but diminished a bit with 70 gr. Clean up wasn't difficult either, but I took the extra precaution of "swabbing" the bore with 0000 steel wool wetted with Marvel Mystery Oil and wrapped around a bore brush after cleaning it with hot soapy water. I checked it yesterday and there's not an hint of rust.

 

[RBHarter]

I shot one last weekend loaded with 30 and 35 home screen and very soft 454424s probably the NOE version . Definitely a nice pistol to shoot .

A little bit of otherwise useless information , the Italians produced replicas most likely from 2-3 original specimens making only changes as needed where tooling was simply not practical , hand forged hammer springs for example . The original Army , Cav , and "Expedition" forces wanted pistols sighted for 50 yd and the Dragoon and Walkers were sighted for 100 . I think it was a 220 gr Pickett conical in the horse pistols and RB in the 58 & 60s . As a result at modern pistol ranges you have to back a 58' off to 14-16 gr or raise the front sight considerably . 60's just get the hammer notch relieved unless you want to dovetail them .

35 gr of FFFg under a shallow HB RNFP 255 gr bullet was the original balloon head case 45 Colts load , the Dragoon (1849 Colts) loaded 40 gr under the 220 gr Pickett and the Walker 50 gr . It seems pretty sedate by modern standards but the 11" of 1" pine boards at 25 yd came from the 44 RB pistols . The Walker design criteria was for a repeater that would kill or critically injure a cavalryman behind his horse and saddle at 100 yd .

Errors may exist but the gist of the text is accurate , it's been 12 yr or so since I read that in discussion and the OP may have exaggerated claims .

 

[Petrol & Powder]

Years ago I found that my own cast round balls shot better than anything I could buy.
I also had far better accuracy with round balls than I did with conical bullets.
I don't use Pyrodex but that's more out of tradition than any scientific reason.

 

[Ian]

The Walker is a massive revolver and 50 grains of the Holy Black is quite formidable on both ends.

 

[Brad]

We used about 20 gr of black with cream of wheat as a filler on top so the ball seated just below flush. Beeswax, Vaseline, lanolin mix as a lube.
mine was always 100% reliable with factory nipples and CCI caps.

 

[RBHarter]

58&60 , Dragoon and Walker were kind of the Colts , 454 , and 460 of their era . Yeah , no I don't think I want to be on the business end of any of them .

I've dabbled with enough C&B and side locks to develop a healthy respect for them .

 

[Winelover]

Maven, I use pretty much the same load, except for the bullet, in my SS ROA.

Ruger "Old Army" Buck

Took this seven point last season with ROA. Load was 35 Grains of Pyroxex "P", Oxyoke Wonder Wad, Lee 220 Conical,topped with Wonder Seal lube cake. Essentially a fifteen yard"bang-flop".

www.artfulbullet.com

Arkansas requires a conical for hunting deer. I use the 220 grain Lee.

 

[JonB]

We used about 20 gr of black with cream of wheat as a filler on top so the ball seated just below flush. Beeswax, Vaseline, lanolin mix as a lube.
mine was always 100% reliable with factory nipples and CCI caps.

Brad,
That is about the same as my recipe, 20 grs and home cast 457 RB ...but different filler and different lube.

Maven,
I've read other reports of unreliable firing, I guess I am lucky with my SS ROA as it hasn't had any reliability issues with factory nipples, but I do use CCI caps and get the occasional cap shrapnel tying up the gun as Jeff mentions...but at least that's a fairly rare event, maybe 1 out of 24 shots?

another thing to mention, I never had luck with the Lee 220gr Conical specific for ROA.

 

[Maven]

JonB, As I don't hunt, I haven't tried any conicals in my ROA. However, I am tempted to try Outpost's research-based suggestion to try the Lee 200 gr. REAL. I just don't want to pay exorbitant prices for a Lee mould right now.

 

[Intel6]

I like my stainless ROA, shoot it with both Black and Pyrodex. Not as easy to get real black around here so I tend to shoot the P more. It shoots well and I havent had any issues and it cleans up well for me. I cast my own balls and conicals with the Lee moulds. I also picked up a Lee 6 cavity that makes a 250 gr. WFN hunting style bullet for the ROA. I was looking at Lee's bargain page and saw it listed and figured it had to be for the ROA. It think it may have been a batch of moulds they made for that Kaido (SP?) guy and he rejected them? I bought one to try it out, at $40 I was stupid not to buy more. It shoots well and when stoked with 777 I can really send them, lots of power. They load and shoot great also so I figure I am set with 3 different projectiles, lite/medium/heavy.

 

[Winelover]

I don't care for the #11 CCI caps on my ROA factory nipples. Remington #10's fit better.

 

[CZ93X62]

I haven't owned a Ruger Old Army, but have fired a couple of them with roundballs. Lots of fun, and they are big ol' powerful beasts.

The large-frame Walker and Dragoon models were not intended to be carried on a belt holster--Samuel Walker's concept was to issue 2 of these behemoths to mounted troops, carried in saddle holsters (usually across the pommel) to counter Mexican cavalrymen and their deadly lances. 12 shots without a reload was incredibly decisive during an age of single-shot muzzle-loading muskets, lances, and sabers. This tactic remained effective through our Civil War years, used with deadly effect by irregular cavalries on all sides of that conflict. Repeating rifles spelled the end of such stuntwork in short order. "That damn Yankee rifle that ya load in the morning and can shoot all afternoon with!"