Cast Boolits in the Ruger Old Army?

[ShooterAZ]

I recently acquired a ROA, and have been really enjoying shooting it. I have a few question...I have read a few articles about loading for it and there was mention of shooters using cast boolits for it. I have the RCBS .45-185-SWC Bevel Base mold. Is this a suitable boolit? It seems like the bevel base would load easier.

I have some relatively soft boolits (1/3/96 alloy) already cast and sized to .452 and lubed with BAC. Can I use these, or should I go even softer? Is .452 OK? I have a .457 round ball mold too and have been casting pure for those. I have both Pyrodex and Goex fffg powders on hand, and some lubed felt wads. Anyone here have any experience with this?

Any and all comments are welcomed and appreciated! Thanks...Shooter

[rodwha]

I have bought Kaido's bullets he made. They are .456", and from what I understand is that it should be .454" minimum. I have heard of people using bullets meant for the 45 Colt with success. I'm not sure how they load them straight though.

[rodwha]

Kaido sells the molds too.

[ShooterAZ]

Thanks,

I just slugged the bore, and it is .452. Looks like I need to be looking for .454 molds.

[rodwha]

The chambers are typically .454" from what I understand.
IIRC Ruger states to use a conical/bullet of .454" as well. I don't notice any shaved ring from the .456" bullets.

[rodwha]

Here's a link to a 6 part video a fellow did using Old Armies, different projectiles, and Goex vs Triple 7 powders.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdauzEFXMNc

[Nobade]

The chambers on all three of my ROAs are dead nuts on .454". I have shot H&G #68 through them, DD's EPP-UG little 150gr. Biglube boolit, #454255 Keith boolit, they all work. I still prefer round balls though, they hit to the sights and seem to be more accurate. But if you wanted to go deer hunting the boolits would be better I suppose.

[rodwha]

I wanted bullets mostly for the hogs, but it would make me feel better shooting at deer that are further (>25 yds - if I can do well enough, which I haven't shown yet as I always get a flier or two). The deer here are fairly small (75-125 lbs), but the hogs easily get up to 300 lbs and more with 200-250 lbs being typical.

[rodwha]

Alloy bullets may be difficult, and may even damage the rammer if it's too hard. I'm not sure where that point is, but the Kaido bullets are 7-11 BH, which some feel is a little too hard. It certainly takes effort to get 'em in there, and after a day at the range my hand is a little sore. But that's a part of the fun!

[Baja_Traveler]

I have this mold for my ROA : http://www.biglube.com/BulletMolds.aspx?ItemID=09d6fdda-c105-4c87-b269-68ebfdaba982

I pan lube them using my regular BP lube and they shoot great, but can be touchy to seat square using the Old Army lever. I intend on getting this seating press from the same source to make loading a breeze: http://www.biglube.com/BulletMolds.aspx?ItemID=1302742a-9e12-41e5-881f-f99340c6d9e6

[ShooterAZ]

Great info guys, thank you. Baja Traveler, may I ask...what is your regular BP lube?

[tacklebury]

I have shot 200 gr. .452 through them often using 36 gr. FFFg. I also used some 255 gr. with 30 gr. FFFg powder with good success. Bit more knockdown power with the 255 gr. Anything bigger takes up a bit too much powder capacity in my opinion. Neither seemed quite as accurate though as the .457 RB at close range and the sights were bottomed out and they still shot high. I ended up selling the gun recently though, so never fit one of the shorter sights to it.

[Mike.44]

I too have a ROA and was wondering the same thing. I think they need to be pretty soft to load well and bump up upon firing. I am having my chambers lengthened by Clements to be able to accept longer boolits.

[Omnivore]

I too have a ROA and was wondering the same thing. I think they need to be pretty soft to load well and bump up upon firing. I am having my chambers lengthened by Clements to be able to accept longer boolits.

Well if your chambers are .454 and your bbl groove dia is .452 there's no bumping up to be done, is there. You're "bumping down", as is the preferred situation.

[rodwha]

Clements deepens the chambers to accept 5-10 additional grains of volume.
I've been considering it too, but quite frankly I'm getting more horsepower from it than a 45 Colt (~550 ft/lbs) so I'm not sure there is a need.
I want one of ClassicBallistix cylinders, which is ~10 grains deeper.

[Baja_Traveler]

Great info guys, thank you. Baja Traveler, may I ask...what is your regular BP lube?

My BP lube comes from a recipe I got from an old BPCR silhouette shooter up at LASC. It works awesome for all my BP loads.

It's 1 pound of Beeswax, 1/2 pound of Lanolin and 1/2 pound of vegetable oil - all by weight. Optional is adding peppermint or spearmint oil to make it smell nice.

[ShooterAZ]

Thanks for the recipe. I have been using a mix of beeswax and olive oil.

[Willbird]

I got my ROA for Christmas probably 32 years ago.......never really had a rb mold for it,always shot the lee bullet made for it, also never knew 50-50 Alox/beeswax was bad I used it too in a lube sizer. Loaded it with as much fffg or even ffffg as I could get in there :-). Never really shot a lot of groups with it.....but at 50 yards seated on the ground I always busted more beer and soda cans full of water than old family friends did with their magnum smokeless revolvers :-)