omgb
08-04-2013, 01:07 AM
So I was at our annual kids shooting camp running the BP shooting experience. We had a great day with kids shooting all kinds of BP firearms. At the end of the day I wanted to fire my Ruger Old Army one last time now that the kids were gone. I pulled back the hammer and pulled the trigger. Zip, nothing happened. The hammer would not fall. Any and all attempts to drop the hammer failed. So what to do? I have six loaded and capped chambers, a hammer at full cock and now way to remove the cylinder. So, a took some patches and stuffed them into the hammer well on the back of the gun. That way the hammer couldn't fall and hit a cap. I had no tape or zip ties so the next part was going to be tricky. I had to keep the patches wedged in tight as I began to disassemble the pistol. Since the cylinder would not come out I decided to at least get the spring pressure off the hammer. I removed the grips and then removed the screws that hold the grip frame to the gun. In doing so, the hammer spring backed off and the gun was much less likely to discharge. At this point I was able to get the cylinder out. (I'm working in the hot sun, 5K feet above sea level using a hay bale as my table.) I box every thing up in plastic zip lock bags and head home. I was able to remove the nipples and soak the powder. Then a punch drove out the balls from behind. I took the rest of the gun down, even the trigger and the return spring. It looks as if a small piece of a cap got jammed in there. I cleaned it up and the gun works like a charm. It was kind of spooky there for a while, almost like I had an unexploded grenade ticking away. Shoot, just getting the caps off the nipples was hair raising. Thought I'd share this just in case anyone finds themselves in a similar situation. R J Talley