Montelores said:
Thanks for all the advice, fellows.
I'm looking at a used Ruger Old Army, and it has started the gears turning in my brain.
Now, to just find the time...
Thanks to all -
Monty
That's how it always starts!
There are a couple of very knowlegeable cap 'n ball revolver shooters here. Do some searches on "Old Army," and you should get a wealth of info.
One thing I'd suggest when looking at a used gun is to be sure that the nipples are all "free," and not seized. I bought a beater Pietta 1851 Navy, primarily as a wall hanger. I started dinking with it, and it cleaned up pretty nicely. The problem was with the nipples. All six were seized. Five of them came out with a little persuasion. The sixth was a son-of-a-gun. It soaked in penetrant for a year, and was eventually removed with heat and some "impact" medicine from a center punch. Destroyed the nipple, but it came out, and the threads in the cylinder were saved.
Another source that you might find useful is "Gatofeo" over on the Graybeard Outdoors forums. His "Proper Use of a Cap 'n Ball Revolver" is a pretty decent primer. Lots of stuff on the Italian clones, but lots of it is also transferrable to the ROA. It's not gospel, but it's certainly a great starting point.
http://www.go2gbo.com/forums/index.php/topic,3932.0.html
Gatofeo has a similar post over at the Firing Line forums: http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=207028
FWIW, I find that Remington #11 caps work very well on my ROAs. That's all I use. Others will tell you Remington #10 is the only cap to use (as per the manual), so each to his own.
The previous owner of my first ROA gave me a bunch of stuff with it, including a Ted Cash "snail" style capper, full of caps that didn't fit- too small! There was plenty of grumbling, as I'd have to go "twice around the wheel" before the gun would fire. The first time around the cylinder simply seated the caps fully. When I eventually had the bright idea to try the #11 caps that I had bought, and the sun started shining upon me! I still wonder if the guy sold his revolver because he couldn't get it to run reliably- just because the caps were too small!
Clean well, as there are a lot of used cap 'n ball revolvers with a lot of rust/corrosion/pitting- including stainless guns! :shock: That said, I think there are a lot of folks shooting badly corroded guns that still seem to perform just fine. Just be aware of the fact that you need to clean well, and perhaps take a peek at the gun a week or two after you clean it and put it away. I've had some creeping crud "appear" on my first ROA, long after I had put it away "clean." It was pitted when I bought it, so it wasn't a heartbreaker, but it's something to keep in mind.
Don't be afraid of, or intimidated by, the cap 'n ball revolvers. Read up a little, and have at it. They're fun to fool around with, and (especially if you get a beater to start with) there's not really anything to wreck. I'm mostly a rimfire kind of guy, but the cap 'n ball guns can be a real hoot!
Happy reading, and good shooting!
