Right size conical for the Old Army

[tacotime]

Been shooting the .457 round ball. Might look into the conicals...

What are my best options in diameter, weight, and maker, and suplier, for the Ruger Old Army?

Not casting at the moment.

Thanks.

[Maven]

Search through these, especially for a cut & paste of an article by C.E. Harris: http://www.google.com/cse?cx=001951264366462437169%3Aggn3vg-bjum&ie=UTF-8&q=Ruger+BP+revolver+loads&sa=Search

[rodwha]

Masscaster, on this forum, casts a 180 grn bullet for it that's very reasonable. I think he also makes a traditional conical.

Kaido makes a 240 and 255 grn FN bullet that's a little harder that many use for hog hunting. They are quite pricy though.

I've read that some use Hornady lead 45 bullets too.

Dixie Gun Works sells something...

[Junior1942]

Lee makes a conical mold for the Old Army. Mine works fine, but the Lee round ball mold for the Old Army works a tad better than fine. Don't ask me to explain "better" as it's been 30 years since I shot my Old Army pistols. I just remember the ball shooting better.

[John Taylor]

several years ago a magazine story said to try conical loaded backwards, make for wad cutters and the story implied that they shot great. It is still best to stay with soft lead or the loading lever can get damaged. Also slug the barrel and make sure the cylinder bore is about .001" over groove diameter. This will also give you an idea of the bullet size needed.

[Good Cheer]

tacotime,
Speaking only to my experiences, getting any given mold or pre-made conical to work well in any given revolver is based upon luck unless the conical is sized for the revolver just like you would do for a cartridge .44 and .45. Being a tinkerer I've played with bullets for percussion revolvers off and on since getting an 1861 in 1973. The best way I've found to go about it is to get a mold you want to use, cast them from soft lead and size the back 1/2 to 3/4's or so of the bullet so as it's just under the chamber diameter, leaving the front big to shear off on the chamber mouth just like a round ball. That way the bullet to chamber alignment is a foregone conclusion and there isn't too much lead to shear off. Then the problem is finding a design that doesn't unnecessarily take up too much powder space.
But then again, I've never had a ROA either so maybe all that stuff is already taken care of.

[oldfart1956]

Lee makes a conical mold for the Old Army. Mine works fine, but the Lee round ball mold for the Old Army works a tad better than fine. Don't ask me to explain "better" as it's been 30 years since I shot my Old Army pistols. I just remember the ball shooting better. What Junior said. The mold is the Lee 90384 made specifically for the Ruger Old Army. (actually a .45 cal.) And they don't shoot particularly well. Recoil is double, velocity is down and it takes up too much room to add more powder to compensate to speed it up enough to work at the given twist rate. So you wind up with a slow moving unbalanced conical. I was not impressed. Tried every granulation of black powder.....meh...stay with the roundball. Tried sizing the .457 conical down to .452 for the .45 Colt and that was less than spectacular. I might end up lapping that mold out for the Trapdoor. :) Audie...the Oldfart..

[rodwha]

I've heard that the Old Army does a little bit better with a RB, but that you can get good enough groups with bullets/conicals for hunting with.

I don't see much difference between the RB's and many types of bullets/conicals I've used, but I'm also no pistol expert.

[Outpost75]

Important to remember is that factory sights are optimized for round balls. If you shoot a conical heavier than 180 grains you will be unable to adjust sights to point of impact, so are into a gunsmithing project to install a higher front sight.

[winelover]

I'm actually getting better results with the Lee 220 grain conical than the Speer .457 swagged RB's in my SS ROA. The Lee mold fits as described by Good Cheer, without having to resize the back half. This is an older mold bought when I purchased the ROA. Probably 1980's vintage and the one and only Lee mold that I own!

Ruger's owners manual recommends 20 grains of BP with a roundball and the factory sights seem to be regulated for that load. My load is much hotter than that. I'm using a 308W case, with a felt wad seated in the bottom, as a dipper and using Pyrodex "P" which will yield 10% more pressure than BP. I have found that this load fills the cylinder and leaves just enough room to seat the conical over an Ox-yoke felt wad. Recoil is almost at 44 Magnum levels.

RB or conical, this load prints high with rear sight bottomed out. Since my gun is the SS version, the front sight is pinned and an easy fix. I recently called Ruger and asked for a .455 high front BH 45 LC sight, IIRC. They sent me one for free. All I had to do is drill the hole for the pin. Now the rear sight sits in the middle of the adjustment range.

Here in Arkansas, we are required to use conicals in BP revolvers for deer hunting. YMMV

Winelover

[rodwha]

I sent Ruger an email this morning asking about a front sight having read your post, and they sent a reply asking me to call, that they'd fix me up right away. I called and the part they will be sending me is a lower rear sight. Awesome customer service!

Just received a phone call from Ruger. The rear sight is actually the one on the gun now, and so they will be sending a front sight.

[Baja_Traveler]

This is the mold I use in my ROA: http://www.biglube.com/BulletMolds.aspx?ItemID=09d6fdda-c105-4c87-b269-68ebfdaba982
It's a six gang mold of high quality (much like a NOE mold) for a great price. I also order the stainless mold handles to go with my Dastardly molds, they are excellent also.

I pan lube it with my standard BPCR lube, and it works wonderful. I have the same point of impact problem as most shooting ROA's have. Maybe I'll give Ruger a call also and get the taller front blade...