7 1/2" Old Army

[Good Cheer]

On a 7 1/2" Ruger Old Army, adjustable sights, what have you found to be the heaviest boolit that the elevation adjustment was good for?

[Outpost75]

Factory front sight is correct for round ball. Anything heavier shoots high. If you bottom the sight out solid against the frame, the 200-grain Lee R.E.A.L. with a compressed chamber full of 3Fg Goex will still shoot moderately high, but with good 40-50 yard zero which is OK for hunting if you are familiar with the gun, and that load is effective. It is possible to carefully reduce the height of the rear sight blade only, and to cut the notch deeper to obtain a point of aim=point of impact hold at 25 yards with the 200-grain bullet.

When working on a revolver always modify the cheapest and most easily replaced part first!

[Tatume]

Mine zeros the Lee 452-200-RF 200 grain bullet with plenty of adjustment left over.

[rodwha]

Mine shoots high at 15 yds with anything other than a ball. That goes for my lightweight 170 grn bullet too.

If you contact Ruger they will send you a .45 Colt Blackhawk front sight for free. I still have mine in the package.

[Tatume]

I bought mine in used but looks-like-new condition. However, I don't know if the front sight was replaced before I got it. What are the heights of the original and 45 Colt replacement sights?

I've never shot it at 15 yards, only 25 and 50 yards. It may shoot high at 15 for all I know. It couldn't be much high though.

[Chill Wills]

In the '70's I had a SS ROA and thought I needed to shoot the 220gr LEE bullet loaded full out. To address the bottomed out rear sight, I glued a 0.100" square by 0.25" long piece of white ABS plastic on top of the front sight. This acted like a white front insert and got some adjustment back into the rear.
This worked well and I shot the snot out of it for a few years and then lost interest in handguns. The cast bullet rifle bug hit hard.

Now I only have the blue ROA and wish I had keep the SS one also. Why do we sell good guns only to regret it later?
My son and I have been shooting the blued ROA with round balls only and have been very happy but not trying to hunt with it, just plink.

[winelover]

IIRC, the 45 Colt replacement sight measures .455 inches. Just ask Ruger for the sight for the 45LC BH. You will have to drill it, to accept the pin, for the SS ROA.

Winelover

[rodwha]

I looked high and low for sight but cannot find it measure for you. I'll have to get real mean and determined as I know it's somewhere. But that will have to be for another day as I have out of town family in today with beer drinking and floating down a river to do followed by dinner.

[Good Cheer]

Uh oh. Wear long pants or keep re-applying the sun screen washing off your shins!

[John Taylor]

Many years ago I found that the ROA I had at the time would shoot best with 2F, was able to hit a 200 yard target. A magazine article a few years earlier said to try loading the bullets backwards for wad cutters but I never tried it.

[Good Cheer]

Yeah, I recommember reading that about loading them backwards. Made me think that a blunt round bottom with a blunt round nose might be grand. Maybe something that looks about like a vitamin pill with a shearing belt around it. Tried drawing one up a while back just for fun.

[rodwha]

I was given some standard .45 SWCs that a fellow said would load. My chambers were apparently smaller so I tried them backwards and they did just fine.