Ruger Old Army - how often to fully break it down?

[tacotime]

Inherited an Old Army that had been shot and left to rust by the former owner. Taking it apart, almost all internal surfaces had rust to some degree. All out now.

Shot the gun (Pyrodex P) maybe 15 rounds, gave it the water rinsing called in the manual, and lubed. Shot again the next weekend, maybe 25 rounds, wondered what was going on inside it. Pulled it apart completely. No new rust but plenty of powder fouled surfaces that I suppose would have rusted again in due course.

Taking it all apart and really cleaning it and the cylinder takes a real effort. How often are you guys fully breaking the ROA down to clean?

How many rounds or how much time are we comfortable leaving the inside unattended?

Thanks.

[Dan Cash]

I stay away from that highly corrosive BP substitute but still fully disassemble my Old Army any time I may not shoot it for a month or so. With the right screw driver and practice, it does not take long and ensures a long, long life for your revolver.

[John Allen]

I really do not like pyrodex. I take mine apart every time I shoot it. I use hot water with dishsoap. I then use super hot water and blow it off with a blow gun. I then personally saturate (dripping wet) all the internals, barrel and cylinder with Breakfree CLP spray and leave the grips off for an hour. I then wipe the gun down and put it away. By doing it this way I have never had a problem. I think by using the pressurized can of CLP anything I miss is washed away.

[Dryball]

It should be taken down and cleaned every time you shoot. It's very easy just boil some water with a little dish washing detergent and toss the parts in. Pull them out, shake dry and any residual moisture will quickly evaporate. After that I coat with bore butter (that will melt into the warm metal) then wipe off. I also only shoot real BP. In CB and BPC the real stuff has proven to be more accurate.

[Nobade]

As long as you don't use subs but stick to real gunpowder, there's not much need to disassemble it all the way. After normal cleaning, and removing the grips, spray oil like Ballistol or even wd-40 into the innards to keep all the fouling wet and it lasts forever without rusting. I will take revolvers all the way down maybe once a year, after shooting them nearly weekly, and never find rust. Just soft black gunk that wipes right off. As long as the fouling is oily and not dry it's no problem. Of course if you have one revolver and shoot it once a year, might as well take it all the way down.

Pyrodex changes the rules. Complete strip, boiling water, good scrubbing, each part cleaned and oiled, and checked again weekly for rust forming. Nasty stuff.

-Nobade

[Shooter]

I have a lazy friend who removes the grips, and puts the rest in the dishwasher with the cylinder removed. after the cycle, he sprays it with WD40.
No rust.
When I whimper, he says; "It will never be collectable, it is a tool!"
YMMV

[fcvan]

When I shot my 1858 Remington copy a lot I washed in hot soapy water, rinsed in very hot water, sprayed it down and I side with WD-40 and wiped it down. Oh, and ran an oily patch in the barell and chambers.

Recently, I brought the gun out and stripped it all the way down after not having shot it for 15 years. Totally devoid of visible rust except one tiny little spot. Actually, I couldn't even see the rust. The spring steel on the indexing hand must have rusted away as it came off in disassembly.

This is the second time I've had this happen, the first when the gun was about 5 years old. I'm going to order 2 replacement parts as they are only 12 bucks. Before assembly, I'm going to coat the part with Alox to seal it and hopefully this won't happen again, but I'm still buying 2.

[tacotime]

Good info. I think the plan will be to give it the standard rinsing and light oiling at the end of any shooting day, and then a full strip if it will be more than a few days until shot again. For starters. And more carefully if a blue gun.

[bigted]

I guess im courting disaster. I don't take mine apart completely but once inna blue moon. never have rust and always easy and fun to clean...never any time involved and both c&b revolvers... [remmy and 1860] ... as well as my vaquero and smith 629 and ruger 357's when I shoot the dreaded bp in them.

my cleaning goes something like this...gleaned this from a friend here on the forum;

1- shoot Crisco or bee wax/Vaseline smeared in the front of any chamber loaded with bp. c&b or cartridge.
2- after the shoot I remove the cylinder and spray down with ballistol/water mix ...[25% ballistol / 75% water] ... and allow to permeate the gun as well as sweeten the house smells.
3- after 3 or 4 min I spray down again with the ballistol mix and wipe down and scrub with a toothbrush all the nooks n cranny's
4- wipe the cylinder and barrel with ballistol soaked patch's till clean... [about 2 or maybe 3 swabs]
5- wipe entire gun down till dry and swab the barrel and cylinder till they are dry and all swabs are sparkling clean.
6- take rem gun oil or outers gun oil and spray copious amounts into every open orifice and the entire gun.
7- wipe down again and swab barrel and cylinder with clean swabs and put away.
8- time on cleaning expect around 4 to 5 minutes minus the soaking time at first.

my remmy 58 has been put away for three years with this as the last treatment and I plan to shoot it tomorrow with no expected ill effects. I swabbed the thing today with all swabs completely clean and no residue other then the leftover oil [very clean oil] from its last cleaning in such manner.

no mess nor problems... just plain ol fun ... and here is the benefit to the lube on the front of the chambers ... I can shoot till it gets so hot I cant hang onto the dang thing.... no cylinder drag nor binding unless I rest for a few minutes every once inna while and the fouling gets dried out and hard. then the removal of the cylinder and squirt of ballistol and wipe er down and on with the action...loss of accuracy will need a swab or two of the ballistol soaked swabs in the barrel and then back to the fun.

[Lefty SRH]

When I had an ROA I always used/cleaned with HOT HOT water and Murphy Oil soap, then rubbed down with EEZOX. This also works for my flintlock rifle.