Ruger Old Army black powder revolvers..

Mus408 · Sep 18, 2016

Was out at our range area yesterday and a buddy came by with on of these in SS with 7 inch barrel.
When did Ruger stop making these?
Nice looking and well built revolver and I got to shoot it a couple times!
It is a bit of work loading and cleaning it though.

Lngstrt · Sep 18, 2016

Mus408 said:
When did Ruger stop making these?

Through 2008(?)

Mus408 said:
It is a bit of work loading and cleaning it though.

You gotta see cap and ball revolvers as fun .... otherwise it's why we got Single Action Armys, swing out cylinders .... 1911s, Lugers, P38s ........ M9s, Glocks. ;-)

Mus408 · Sep 18, 2016

Oh yeah it was fun. The guy had some of that "Bullet Butter" clogging up the nipples where the caps go and forgot his pipe cleaners to clean it out. I found a suitable weed to run thru and clean it out.
Maybe that's how they did it way way back in the day!

Hellraiser · Sep 19, 2016

Hey... Mus408... the ROA is one of the greatest, strongest BP revolver's ever produced. Practically industructible.... built like an M1 Abrams tank... an ROA should last forever. I bought my 5.5" SS ROA's back in 2008... for about $250 each. Not consec-serial numbered... but close...

If you want to see the difference in apparent frame-strength... just compare these two pictures...

Ruger Old Army's… top two in this pic... with black buffalo-horn grips (my modification)...

2nd Generation Colt 1851 Navy made in 1982… SS open-top revolver in .36 caliber…

The ROA's top-strap... and additional frame-strength is kinda obvious....

Mus408 · Sep 19, 2016

Yes it was very well built!

Hellraiser · Sep 21, 2016

Mus408 said:
Yes it was very well built!

An interesting comment from Wikipedia... regarding the original testing of the ROA...

"The revolver was tested by loading each chamber to capacity with Bullseye smokeless powder and a lead ball. While this might result in catastrophic failure in other firearms, the Old Army proved to be strong enough to handle the pressure."

From the 4th paragraph under "Design"...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruger_Old_Army

That's kinda hard to believe... but demonstrates the strength of the ROA.

.

k22fan · Sep 22, 2016

A long time ago I watched a friend at our local range experiment loading Hercules Green Dot in his Ruger Old Army. (ROA) He tried various bullets, balls and charges. To one extent or another all shots hangfired blowing the nipple off and spitting a tiny roman candle back out the nipple. From that I extrapolate that the test load of a ball over a chamber full of Bullseye never built up the pressure that occurs in a double charged center fire case. If it were sealed in why would it not burst the cylinder?

I am not suggesting that ROAs are weak. Mine were packaged with instructions that wrote that any change of black powder or Pyrodex that could be compressed in would do no harm. Pyrodex was the only black powder substitute available at the time my instructions were printed. My GUESS is that would apply to all the newer black powder substitutes as well but that is a question for the factory.

Flash · Sep 22, 2016

k22fan said:
A long time ago I watched a friend at our local range experiment loading Hercules Green Dot in his Ruger Old Army. (ROA) He tried various bullets, balls and charges. To one extent or another all shots hangfired blowing the nipple off and spitting a tiny roman candle back out the nipple. From that I extrapolate that the test load of a ball over a chamber full of Bullseye never built up the pressure that occurs in a double charged center fire case. If it were sealed in why would it not burst the cylinder?

I am not suggesting that ROAs are weak. Mine were packaged with instructions that wrote that any change of black powder or Pyrodex that could be compressed in would do no harm. Pyrodex was the only black powder substitute available at the time my instructions were printed. My GUESS is that would apply to all the newer black powder substitutes as well but that is a question for the factory.

I shoot Trail Boss in mine all the time. It is safe for a 19th century Colt so I use the same loads in my OA. Gas check over powder, cup side down and topped with a semi wad cutter lubed with Alex.

powder smoke · Sep 22, 2016

One fun gun to shoot, especially with black powder love it! ps

Rclark · Sep 22, 2016

especially with black powder love it!

+1! There are many other SA revolvers for smokeless use, but the ROA is super for what it was designed for. Enjoy mine!

any change of black powder or Pyrodex that could be compressed in would do no harm.

Applies to all BP substitutes. Slightly compressed is what you want as you should never have 'air space' under the ball.

Ruger Old Army black powder revolvers..

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