Old Army Re-do

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Bought this gun a few years back from rugerguy. His recent find of a really nice Old Army package got me thinking to post a progress report.

Speaking of Old Army's that I like to resurrect. I aquired this early OA from rugerguy a few years back. I liked the early SN# and have been working on getting it back together. It had severe rust damage especially on the last few inches, inside of the barrel.
The plan; Trim it down to a 5.5" w/ adjustable sights, a gun Ruger never made. (except for the 5.5 fixed sight)
Going to rust brown and rub it out good to give it a working gun look with ample patina.

Pictures when it was offered for sale, as purchased…
53104625401_34bae54320_z.jpg

53105036015_259f74c3f0_z.jpg


Progress as of today.
53217867010_f38135f1c2_b.jpg

Turned the Barrel 1/4 turn to keep the SR&Co.
53217396106_3cc2e32767_b.jpg

The Brass Grip Frame used was bought on the cheeeep ($40) because it was messed up from somebody that didn't have the ability to do the job,,,, right. 🙄
Qualite XR3-RED.
A lot of time and patience and it's just about perfect.
53217743773_ddfb1858c9_b.jpg
 
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Holy Crap that's AWESOME !!! What an unbelievable job you did.....

Do you have any problem ramming the ball into the cylinder with the shortened lever...??

I use a vertical ram tool and just take the cylinder off to reload....sounds like a pain but actually makes reloading much faster

Congrats on your really nice OA....
 
FWIW here is a 66 that I rust browned the barrel and magazine tube due to rust and scratches. I like the browned look and it holds up better than home bluing IMHO I have two muzzle loaders that I built and browned the barrels in the mid 70s and they look as good as the day I did them.
Hvymax said:
Awesome! Have you considered Plum Brown?
Click to expand...


1695916866058.png


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1695917161871.png
 
Is that a stainless Old Army or a blued one polished down to bare metal ??? Looks like stainless in the pics ….
 
Thank you to all for the compliments and suggestions.

The gun is/was a Blue gun, I recall rugerguy stated; started to fix it and then he and his customer made the decision to sell it off as parts, IIRC $200. (2012)
They started cleaning up the cylinder the reason it looks better in picture 2. Re-Blue the cylinder, it would be worth the $200.
Old Army’s we’re just starting to rise in price, not where they are now.

Browning; This gun will be going Deep Chocolate Brown.
Plum Brown is what Birchwood Casey calls their browning solution, it’s ok.
I use Laurel Mountain Forge Barrel Brown & Degreaser. It produduces a darker thicker deep brown. It’s amazing, forgiving and WORKS.

You can even use it to rust blue by doing one more step… boiling & dipping in distilled water. For the home gunsmith it’s works way better than anything that is cold blue or quick blue. Labor intensive yes, but this is the process that old world Rust Blued guns used.

Lots of good reading/ education available. Shop a bit, prices vary dramatically. I will leave a link,

https://laurelmountainforge.com/barrel_brown.htm
https://laurelmountainforge.com/barrel_brown_inst.htm
Brown, Brass, & Stag … good stuff.😁
Lots of hours of handwork on this project, it’s the process that I really enjoy. Thanks again.
 
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Nice job on saving that Old Army.
I saw one at a show years ago that was in worse, much worse condition.
The low price stopped me and then I REALLY looked it over.
Deep, deep pitting all over the frame, barrel and worse, the cylinder.
I doubt it was safe to shoot or even could be unless the cylinder was replaced.
Some folks seem to think stainless steel means NO maintenance required and not stains less.
 
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