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Thread: Ruger Old Army...talk me in or out of one.

  1. #21
    Boolit Master
    winelover's Avatar
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    Those are my tracking clothes. I never go after a deer till after 30 minutes has expired. Give it a chance to lay down and expire. In the meantime, I go back to the house and change out of my camo. Keeps the hunting outfit, blood & sweat free.

    Winelover

  2. #22
    Boolit Buddy pull the trigger's Avatar
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    Good plan.
    NRA Life Member
    Amvets life member

  3. #23
    Boolit Buddy John Van Gelder's Avatar
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    If you have the opportunity to purchase an Old Army, do so. It is probably the best percussion revolver of all time, not representative of classic black powder revolvers, but a good useful tool.

  4. #24
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    SSGOldfart's Avatar
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    When you but it start looking for a kriest cylinder for 45LC gives you many options.
    I started out with nothing and I still have most of it left.
    Paralyzed Veterans of America

    Looking for a Hensly &Gibbs #258 any thing from a two cavity to a 10cavityI found a new one from a member here

  5. #25
    Banned








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    "HAD" two. HATE CLEANING GUNS!! So theres my answer. had one of them I sent to dave clements bored a bit deaper to hold about 5 more grains of fff and I had a mold custom made that casted a 230 grain wfn and a 240 grain swc fit to that gun. Intended to kill a deer with it but after all the load development and cleaning that summer it went down the road with the other one.

  6. #26
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    Buy it. Mine shoots great with round ball. Added new nipples from Tresos. Hold caps better.

  7. #27
    Boolit Master
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    Have had a stainless for about 18 years...have only shot it a few times but it's a GREAT shooter. Found a set of OEM Lett simulated ivory grips for it and it a really stunning piece.

    Also had two of the high polish 5.5" fixed sight guns...but at $1200 they were just too valuable to shoot so I sold them for a hefty profit...

    My long time hunting/shooting partner died ten years ago next month...one of the last gun shops we were in together had a blue Old Army with the very rare brass gripframe. They were only made one year...1970 I think... I told him buy it or I will. He never did get to shoot it...his brother now has it.

    Bob

  8. #28
    Boolit Buddy John Van Gelder's Avatar
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    Te Lee 200 gr. "heeled" bullet is a good choice, I recovered s number of those I shot into a wet sand bank at about 300 yards, the bullet retained enough velocity that there was some appreciable deformation even at that range. The recovered bullets averaged .60. The load was all of the Pyrodex that would allow the bullet to seat.

  9. #29
    Boolit Master
    bullet maker 57's Avatar
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    I sold one to a customer a while ago. He calls and says we have a problem with the old army. Seems the barrel is bulged and he wants his money back. That is not going to happen. There is a powder cut on the top strap. According to the Ruger engineer, the only way that either one of these things can happen is a smokeless powder charge. It is a crying shame that this happened. I'm trying to find a barrel for it. Like looking for hen's teeth.

  10. #30
    Boolit Buddy TomAM's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bullet maker 57 View Post
    I sold one to a customer a while ago. He calls and says we have a problem with the old army. Seems the barrel is bulged and he wants his money back. That is not going to happen. There is a powder cut on the top strap. According to the Ruger engineer, the only way that either one of these things can happen is a smokeless powder charge. It is a crying shame that this happened. I'm trying to find a barrel for it. Like looking for hen's teeth.
    David Clements has some barrels for sale:
    http://www.clementscustomguns.com/itemsforsale.html

  11. #31
    Boolit Master
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    Thanks for the heads up Tom AM. I'll get in touch with him.

  12. #32
    Boolit Buddy John Van Gelder's Avatar
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    bullet maker 57

    There are these folks out there that have no comprehension of the difference between black and smokeless powder. I grew up in the Finger Lakes region of NY, in the little town closest to our farm
    there was a little gun shop that dad and I used to frequent, the owner related a story to us about a fellow that came in one day and wanted a can of gun powder, when asked what kind he had no idea. The owner recommended that he do some reading and to come back after he knew what he needed.

  13. #33
    Boolit Master
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    The ROA is the best! I drizzle American Pioneer 3f through a powder funnel into a .41 Mag case with extra in the funnel, tap the case three or four times with a screwdriver to settle more in, pour the case-full into the chamber and seat a LEE 200gr REAL sized and lubed in a .454 sizing die. The nose of the REAL ends up some .050 below the cylinder face on mine with this amount of AP. This load delivers good power. A .357 case-full with a 250gr works well. You can use conventional lubes with American Pioneer. Unlike BP, it's also readily compressible, so you can get more in there than with BP. I read that Black MZ is a more energetic version of American Pioneer but I haven't managed to find any just yet. American Pioneer has exhibited no tendency to corrode in either blued or stainless guns, as far as I've been able to tell, and it really does clean up with water.

    The next great advance will be to put together paper cartridges for easy reloading in the field. Loose components are fine when you have a table handy to hold all your accoutrement, but for a plinking-at-stuff woods walk, paper cartridges can't be beat. Many Youtbe videos for this, but Paper Cartridges My Way (if I remember the title correctly) is one of the simplest/quickest way of doing so.

    BTW, there's an easy way to "heel" a conventional cast boolit so the base driving band is correctly sized to enter the chamber mouth. Most high-power rifle cartridges have tapered bodies and the taper can be used to reduce the diameters of driving bands along the boolit's length. An 8x57mm sizing die with the decap/expander stem removed works perfectly for this. My ROA chambers are .453 in diameter, so, with a conventionally sized and lubed boolit, I insert it heel-first into the 8x57 die and use a Lee push-through die stem to force the cast boolit in far enough to get sufficient reduction in the heel driving band for easy chamber entry. It will also work for the Pietta and Uberti repro revolvers on which the chambers are .447 to ~.450, you'll just have to run them in a bit deeper. A long punch is used for ejecting the boolit from the die. For use in paper cartridges, the heel band should be at least .005 smaller than chamber diameter for easy entry when wrapped with the paper of the cartridge. The most durable paper I've found is "end wraps" paper for doing permanents on hair, available at beauty supply places. It's $3-4 for 1000 and each sheet will make 2 cartridges.

  14. #34
    Boolit Master

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    Quote Originally Posted by siamese4570 View Post
    Nope, not going to try to talk you out of it. You came to the wrong place for that. I have one and it is one of the most accurate guns that I own and I own several. Buy it!
    Siamese4570

    My buddy was given one by his uncle. We shot that thing in the sandpit as young lads. Easiest pistol to be accurate with that I ever fired. Close second was a Walter PP in .32.

    The Ruger easily lay them into a playing card with little effort.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check