Conical Bullet For Ruger Old Army.

I agree with Rifleman1776. I tried the Lee .456 conical and was not satisfied with the bullet performance in my Ruger Old Army. I went back to the Lee .457 round and got better accuracy and the ball sailed through a piece of 3/4" plywood at 25 yards with 30 grains of Hodgdon 777.

Hello Rifleman1776.

Realistically if you are using the ROA for defence it matters not what bullet you use as you can still stuff enough black powder behind it that they will all have the desired effect for protection.
But, for target shooting it makes a difference. round ball is highly accurate but tears a ragged hole but a wadcutter goes through cardboard like like a wad punch leaving a neat circle. The heavy conical makes the gongs ring with a nice sound. Plus if you want to make a paper cartridge then decent shoulders are an advantage.
Truly there are distinct advantages and disadvantages to all it is a matter of trial and error with all types until you gt your best balance...that is part of the fun of BP pistols.

I believe Lee still sells that mould but not the Hollow Point one.

Rifleman1776 said:

Lee used to sell a mould specifically for the ROA. It came in two versions, round nose and hollow point. I had one in hollow point. At one time the ROA was the only handgun I owned so I kept it loaded as my home personal defense firearm. I also did some highly 'scientific' tests with it to compare results against a round ball. The medium I shot into was a rotted stump. The bullets punched holes but did no other noticeable damage. The round balls tore large chunks out of the wood where they hit. I cannot explain why but after that I switched my defense loads back to round balls. Part of the explanation might be in velocity. The round ball allows larger charges to be put in the cylinder. And, of course, the rb is lighter in weight so will go faster. Based on that, IMHO, there is no advantage to be gained by using bullet style projectiles.

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I guess it all depends on the powder used since standard Goex and the like can’t get a RB to the velocity that soft lead readily expands. In such cases a wide flat meplat would be far superior as we see in gel tests a ball just produces a ball-sized hole unlike the wide meplat even at dismal velocities. Assuming 1100-1200 FPS (depending on who you talk to it seems) can be achieved I wonder if the “meplat” created would really create any better of a meplat. My 195 grn WFN is just 0.458” long so I can get as much powder behind it as a ball minus maybe a grain or two. But my meplat is 0.375”. I use the powder load I found to be more accurate that I feel comfortable enough in, judging 25 grns of energetic 3F to roughly replicate the .44 Spl, or my baseline for acceptable. Regardless I’d prefer that bullet pushed by a weighed 33 grns of Olde E to a ball even pushed by what I assume 40 grns weighed would be roughly max. And I have a shorter 0.400” 170 grn version as well which would really scream with a max load I’m sure, but being short I’m not so sure how straight it would track.

Gel testing without at least a T shirt covering it is deceptive of the actual results you might see in a self deference situation. Would like to see feedback of a comparison of with and without cloth on gel.

Also, on getting more powder in the charge, has anyone considered using a drop tube when loading?

Carl in France said:

I like the EPP-UG 145-50 for the ROA by Dick Darstardly http://www.biglube.com/BulletMolds.aspx?ItemID=d3fb4508-70e1-4d9b-87bd-6d9c2d504d33

they require pan lubing but work a treat.

It is the second from the left. Comparable in accuracy to the round and better than the wad cutter and conical to its right.

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The link doesn't seem to work for me. However, has anyone heard of Viking Bullets?

Sorry Bisleyjohn i probably pasted a crappy link...try this Welcome to BigLube.com

rodwha said:

standard Goex and the like can’t get a RB to the velocity that soft lead readily expands.

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Big time disagree with that statement. In front of me on my desk is an expanded .45 cal. lead rb I recovered from a deer. Range was about 75 yards. The, now flat, rb is about the size of a quarter.

CJoeJ said:

Gel testing without at least a T shirt covering it is deceptive of the actual results you might see in a self deference situation. Would like to see feedback of a comparison of with and without cloth on gel.

Also, on getting more powder in the charge, has anyone considered using a drop tube when loading?

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There’s a video of one shooting through denim. I’ll look for it and post a link.

Rifleman1776 said:

Big time disagree with that statement. In front of me on my desk is an expanded .45 cal. lead rb I recovered from a deer. Range was about 75 yards. The, now flat, rb is about the size of a quarter.

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Did it hit bone or something? What was the estimated velocity?

I’ve often read here how the popular consensus seems to be that a lead ball expands out to around 75 yds or so, and after that it does not. Seems this is more typically spoken of with larger .50 and .54 cals where the velocity is lower than a .45.

One of the two velocities I mentioned (1100 or 1200) came from a lead bullet manufacturer or something like that, someone quite familiar with lead projectiles and expansion so I’ve taken that as roughly truth. I’ve read it claimed to be as low as 1000 FPS

CJoeJ said:

Gel testing without at least a T shirt covering it is deceptive of the actual results you might see in a self deference situation. Would like to see feedback of a comparison of with and without cloth on gel.

Also, on getting more powder in the charge, has anyone considered using a drop tube when loading?

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Averaging 900 FPS I would bet on it being Swiss or Olde E for 30 grns of powder.

rodwha said:

Did it hit bone or something? What was the estimated velocity?

I’ve often read here how the popular consensus seems to be that a lead ball expands out to around 75 yds or so, and after that it does not. Seems this is more typically spoken of with larger .50 and .54 cals where the velocity is lower than a .45.

One of the two velocities I mentioned (1100 or 1200) came from a lead bullet manufacturer or something like that, someone quite familiar with lead projectiles and expansion so I’ve taken that as roughly truth. I’ve read it claimed to be as low as 1000 FPS

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Y’all never know what it will hit... I saw a .454 round ball after it hit a mans sternum. It was flattened of course and lodged against his spine. It worked for its intended purpose. Can’t imagine anything more effective.

Those manufacturer’s might want to qualify the statements. Gelatin? Rarely encountered in the wild... ;-)

Rifleman1776 said:

Lee used to sell a mould specifically for the ROA. It came in two versions, round nose and hollow point. I had one in hollow point. At one time the ROA was the only handgun I owned so I kept it loaded as my home personal defense firearm. I also did some highly 'scientific' tests with it to compare results against a round ball. The medium I shot into was a rotted stump. The bullets punched holes but did no other noticeable damage. The round balls tore large chunks out of the wood where they hit. I cannot explain why but after that I switched my defense loads back to round balls. Part of the explanation might be in velocity. The round ball allows larger charges to be put in the cylinder. And, of course, the rb is lighter in weight so will go faster. Based on that, IMHO, there is no advantage to be gained by using bullet style projectiles.

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Years ago I shot a large boar with a Ruger old army. Stainless . Used wheel weight bullet cast out of a Lee road mold.Have both rn and hp. Anyways I put in as much 4ffffg as she would take. Put the hog right to sleep.Don't know if it expanded or not, went clean through. Sure put it right down. Think I posted this once before. Get your self a Lee roa mold hp too if you can find one.

QUOTE="Woodnbow, post: 1706616, member: 15612"] Gelatin? Rarely encountered in the wild... ;-) [/QUOTE]

The other point I often make, sadly on deaf ears, is that gelatin is a homogeneous medium - living targets are certainly not.

Gents, the point to pointy bullets (1860's military) was to poke a hole through outdoor clothing.

After personally experimenting with round noses, semi-wadcutters and wadcutters in percussion revolvers I think they missed the boat. Semi-wadcutters give the best penetration without using up so much of the powder space.

Rifleman1776 said:

Big time disagree with that statement. In front of me on my desk is an expanded .45 cal. lead rb I recovered from a deer. Range was about 75 yards. The, now flat, rb is about the size of a quarter.

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I checked out my Lyman handbook and it seems a .440” ball is near or over 1100 FPS at 75 yds assuming Goex and the like powder was used, and that’s at 900’ altitude, the setting for me here.