Ruger Old Army, need help.

[44man]

I've been fooling with mine for a few days. I cut and lapped a perfect 11 degree forcing cone in it. I started with the Lee old army boolit with 34 gr's of Swiss FFFG and they scatter all over. The round ball shoots around 3 to 3-1/2" groups at 50 yd's with 41 gr's of Swiss. My hunting load because I never shoot over 25 yd's with it.
Someone had given me some boolits to try a long time ago so I loaded them with 34 gr's. They shot better then anything I have tried at 50 yd's. These are the perfect target boolits but I can't identify them.
They weigh 188.5 gr's out of pure lead. They measure .454" to .455" . They have a bevel base that makes them easy to start and the grease grooves are .037" deep and round bottom. Does anyone know what boolit this is?
Here is the 50 yd group and the boolit.

[TAWILDCATT]

its a 45 acp swc brand unknown maybe.looks like RCBS 45-185-swc-bb=044-82052.:coffee: :Fire: you might try lees 45 acp 452-200-swc gr looks close and has bevel also[smilie=1:

[mazo kid]

Don't quote me, but I don't think the Lee 452 ACP bullet will work in the Old Army as it takes (if I remember correctly) a .457 RB normally. Granted, the cylinder will shave a bit off the RB when it is seated, but I don't know how much. Emery

[44man]

The boolit has to be at least .454". .456" is better. Thats why I don't know what it is.

[DLCTEX]

I have fired a lot of 200 gr. Lee SWC in my ROA with decent accuracy. My barrel slugs about .452. I use a case mouth chamfering tool (RCBS) to lightly taper the bases to aid in starting the bollits squarely in the cyl. which just about eliminates boolit jump from recoil. My most accurate boolit is RCBS 255 gr. SWC (254 dia.), treated the same way. I use Oxyoke wads. Dale

[44man]

I worry about getting a mold large enough. I tried a .452 boolit for fit and it is loose. I guess I will have to cut a cherry and make my own mold.
I don't understand why the Lee boolit made for cap and balls shot so bad. I never had much luck with it. It has such tiny grease grooves it needs a wad under it. I tried lube over the nose and point of impact changed drastically. I have a hunch there is too much weight foreward for it's length. The semi wadcutter moves weight to the rear even with the deep GG's.
I might hollow point a few of the Lee's to see what happens.

[ARKANSAS PACKRAT]

44man; I have a Lee HP mold, if you want to try it PM me
Nick

[44man]

I chucked 6 boolits in the lathe and drilled them with a no. 30 drill to 3/16" deep. They look good and it will tell me if I am right. Thanks for the offer though. Might be a good deer boolit too.

[shdwlkr]

44 man
I have used nothing in my ROA that was smaller then .456 and it shoots just fine. Mine is one of the early ones and when I find another that is as good I will buy it so I have a pair.
Someplace I read that the max load for it is 40 grains of FFFg and have never exceeded it.
I have the lee solid nose bullet but have yet had a chance to use it and it is .456 in diameter.
Size does matter in the ROA and as others have said round ball size is .457 it is really a large 45 caliber pistol
my 3 cents

[Bad Ass Wallace]

The Ruger will accept any 45 cal boolit in the cylinder as the bore is .451 the same as any standard 45LC revolver. As a hunting boolit try the excellent 245gn Lee WC over 28gn FFFG. Lee also used to make a 172gn WC and a 220gn RN for the old army.
The Ruger cylinder is actually tapered so that it will accept the 457RB and cuts a small ring off the ball as it is seated. I lapped out a mold to .462 and found the bearing area after seating was almost double that of a standard 457 ball.

[44man]

I started a cherry. I polished it to .457. Anything from .454 to .455 as cast should be OK. I need to cut flutes yet and make blocks.
Here is the start on a piece of block material. I will make a double or triple cavity if I have room.

[44man]

Wallace, I have to look at that Lee mold.
I made my nose at 11 degrees to match the forcing cone. Don't know if it helps but can't hurt.
Shdwlkr, you can't get 40 gr's of black under a boolit. 34 to 35 at the most. I get 41 under a ball. Now Pyrocrap is different and we have filled the chambers to the top, scraped off excess and crunched in balls. The stuff will compress.

[Bad Ass Wallace]

I used to shoot a 50m competition in the State pistol team for many years. The best accuracy obtained was with 28gn FFFG and a little corn meal filler. The ball must be finished seated just under the cylinder mouth.

Try pushing a ball in further and you'll find that the cylinder is slightly tapered and actually sizes the ball smaller the futher it is seated in.

My ROA is a little special, in that I fitted 11" of Shilen match grade barrel to get a bigger sight radius. After wearing out 2 barrels over 15 years of competition I had to retire the gun as gas cutting had almost severed the frame thru after nearly 45,000 rounds:(

[44man]

I shot a lot of the 28 gr loads and they are, indeed, accurate. I hunt deer with mine though and need a little more power. It is amazing how effective it is on deer.
Hard to believe the top strap was cut that much.