ruger old army

[mrc]

I have orderd a new lee mold for the ruger black powder revolver 456-220-1r. In the past I have shot round balls and wiped the lube on top of all the balls. With this conical bullet what would you recomend the best way to lube them before or after loading.
thanks
Mike

[fryboy]

lee actually states that with the grooves filled lubing the top to prevent crossfires isnt needed .... i go one step beyond and use wonder wads before inserting the boolit but old habits die hard so i still cover the top with lube ( i call them my only self lubricating pistols as lube seems to go everywhere lolz ) i tried them on the sizer and while it works the bottom band being smaller as it is kinda leaves a lil to be desired and my best lube attempts have been with pan lubing and emmerts or pearl lube

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

mrc,
in the Old Army,
I do not put extra lube on top of conicals, as I do with round balls,
assuming the Lube groove/s of the conical is filled with lube.

PS check out my photo in the castpics section this month :)
Jon

[mrc]

thanks for the information on the lube. Are you using soft lead or WW for your boolits?
thanks again
Mike

[fryboy]

very soft lead or rather the softest of my stash , i also use it for maxi's ,mini's and r.e.a.l.'s my buddy was amazed that soft lead could deform from a colt 44 copy ( the softest shooting of the various designs erm less powerful) the soft lead deforms great at cap n ball velocities !

[Ohio Rusty]

Pure lead is best in the BP revolvers. You have to squeeze the boolit into the cylinder, and the lead needs to compress to make a tight fit. If not tight, then the conical can move forward. The lube grooves are shallow, so you can easily libe them by hand before inserting in to the cylinder. I've used any soft lube like T/C's bore butter. I also prefer a thin lubed felt wad between the powder and boolit whether I'm using a conical or round ball. Keep the pin the cylinder rotates on lubed well so the fouling doesn't cause the cylinder to become sticky. Since the Ruger old army had a bigger cylinder hole, you need to use .457 round ball in those guns. The conical mould you bought should work fine. You bought one of the best BP pistols made, and that gun should last you a lifetime.
I know you will enjoy shooting it.
Ohio Rusty ><>

[Springfield]

These work well in ROA's. The newer version has a 2 step bottom that will actually work in Pietta's, also. I don't have this mould yet, I have the older version with the round nose. A friend of mine sent me some of these and I think I will be ordering the mould as I use the old version in my Uberti Dragoons and always wanted to use them in my Pietta '51's. The moulds can be bought from www.biglube.com Plenty of lube on the bullet from a 6 cavity mould.