Lead for Ruger Old Army

[MikeS]

Hi All.

I have a Ruger Old Army muzzle loading revolver, and I bought the Lee mould for it (456-220-1R). I got the mould when I first started casting, and cast about 100 boolits using stick on wheel weights. The thing is I had maybe 1/2" of clip on wheel weights in the pot (a Lyman 10# Big Dipper), and I just checked one of the boolits I cast and it was fairly hard, using the pencil method it was a 3B pencil hardness which is supposedly around 10BHN. I understand why with a true muzzle loader you want a really soft boolit, but the revolver isn't truly a muzzle loader as you're loading the boolits into the cylinder not down the bore. So I was wondering, will these boolits be OK, or should I melt them down and recast them with pure lead?

[Wayne Smith]

The issue with revolvers is the strength of the loading lever. The ball or bullet is oversized and typically shaves a ring of lead off on the mouth of the cylinder. On the typical Colt/Remington designs anything harder than soft lead will break or bend the loading lever. That's one reason Colt went with the rachet design in the 1860 model.

Yours is somewhat stronger. I don't know how much. It isn't an issue of shooting the harder ball, it's an issue of loading it. I suppose if you take off the cylinder and load it on a separate loading bench, or even a drill press, you would have no problem and no risk.

[MikeS]

Well, after looking at the boolits I had cast for the Old Army I decided to scrap them (back in the pot) and cast some out of pure stick on wheel weights (pure lead). Not only were the old boolits probably too hard, but they were also from when I first started casting, and my standards were much lower back then so many of the boolits were horrible looking!

Now I know these boolits will work well in the Old Army! I wonder if Lee is the only one that makes a mould specifically for the Old Army?