Ruger old army loads

[Pete453]

I use a 50/50 mixture of beeswax and beef tallow then throw in a little olive oil. Smear that over the mouth but I'm gonna give wads a shot. Would I just heat that up and soak them in it, then when they hardensl punch them out?

That's one way to do it. You don't want it dripping wet, just saturated. A little tinkering will tell you how much. I substitute deer tallow in that lube, works excellent. My barrels are clean to the muzzle. If you get fouling, add lube until you have a lube star on the muzzle.
For range use, I use wads under balls or bare conicals. For hunting, I dip or pan lube the conicals and load over a max charge of Goex 3f. Here's my post from another topic, max loads in a 58 Remington on page 1:

Post in thread 'Maximum loads for 1858 Remington' https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/maximum-loads-for-1858-remington.157428/post-2237967

 

[Smokerr]

I had a decent day temperature wise (40-42) though the wind was kind of crazy.

As a result I was able to re-load the ROA a number of times playing with combinations of powder, no wad, wad.

The big improvement came when I tried a .454 ball vs the .457. Got a good 2.5 inch group (15 yards). First time I got something decent out of it.

Yea you got less chamber seal, I did put a wad under it as a bit of insurance and will see what kind of seal band I get with the .454. I figured if it was designed for .457 I should stick with it and no issues doing so, and no wad or lube.

It did shoot the Pyrodex 2F well, unlike the Pietta NMA (Slixshot cones).

 

[Bad Karma]

This may be of some help, its a link to Guns Magazine with a different article that has some loads for the ROA at the end. He is an advocate of something over the end of the bullet. I am not but.....

https://gunsmagazine.com/discover/handloading/reloading-the-original-way/

How do we know the article was written long ago?

“Ruger stopped production of the Old Army nearly 10 years ago and I doubt we will ever see it again. They still show up infrequently at gun shops and still at relatively reasonable prices.”

Reasonable prices are a distant memory. Still, an Old Army in good, useful condition for $700 or so is worth every penny. Maybe it isn’t so unreasonable after all.

 

[Smokerr]

I got mine for $600 though it was some hassle on shipping and the required by seller FFL.

Then I ejected a rammer, $40 for a replacement and the snow was all gone when I went down Wds and no where to be seen and not turned in. Unless its atop the beam in the shed, hmmm.

The cylinder has to be out for a cease fire, I got in a hurry and never saw it depart. Lesson learned (painfully).

I really like the ROA, I don't like the system for cylinder release as the NMA is a lot better with the captive rod. I would like to get a spare cylinder or two but unobtainium.

Other parts if an issue are hit and miss if you can find after market. It should be a consideration and the thought you might need two guns to keep one running.

It has a small timing issue that is annoying (it worked fine until fired then the timing issue showed up so it was on the edge)

 

[Bad Karma]

I’ve long thought that a useful improvement to the base pin retainer would be to mill away the screw slot and then weld a small lever in place perpendicular to the original orientation of that slot. In normal use the lever would be oriented parallel with the barrel and easily visually verified before ramming bullets, (single reason base pins are bent and damaged) removal would be a simple matter of rotating the retainer 90 degrees without any tools needed. The third picture shows a similar lever in place on an SAA.

 

[ADK Bigfoot]

I tried some wads with my revolver, and found I had extra holes at 15 yards. The wads!

ADK Bigfoot

 

[garypl]

I tried some wads with my revolver, and found I had extra holes at 15 yards. The wads!

ADK Bigfoot

How thick were the wads you used?

 

[Tyler L]

Using 1/8" thick felt, I too have had some make it to the target ~20 yards away

 

[garypl]

Using 1/8" thick felt, I too have had some make it to the target ~20 yards away

I use 1/8” Durofelt wads and have not yet experienced this - time will tell!

 

[M. De Land]

I've recently bought a Ruger old army. Everywhere I read says to use a .457 ball and work from there with different powder loads to find the most accurate load. Allegedly the .457 should be shaving off a ring, but it doesn't with my gun. At best i can shave off a sliver from one side of the ball. No matter what powder charge I use I can't get better that a 3" group at 15-20 yards. Been using graf and sons FFF powder. I'm wondering if maybe they made a larger caliber version that I don't know of or maybe this is just normal for the ROA?

You need a larger diameter ball. Try .460.

 

[Bad Karma]

I've recently bought a Ruger old army. Everywhere I read says to use a .457 ball and work from there with different powder loads to find the most accurate load. Allegedly the .457 should be shaving off a ring, but it doesn't with my gun. At best i can shave off a sliver from one side of the ball. No matter what powder charge I use I can't get better that a 3" group at 15-20 yards. Been using graf and sons FFF powder. I'm wondering if maybe they made a larger caliber version that I don't know of or maybe this is just normal for the ROA?

Somebody has mucked around with that gun. I’ve had a few and checked the chambers on every one. Never seen any over .4525 or so. And they’re generally pretty round unlike many of the replica pistols which typically are undersized and sometimes oval to some degree. And sometimes as out of spec as they are they can still be quite accurate.
As @M. De Land says, try a larger ball. I use .465” in the Pietta Shooters Model as recommended by the manufacturer.

 

[Moasf]

I've recently bought a Ruger old army. Everywhere I read says to use a .457 ball and work from there with different powder loads to find the most accurate load. Allegedly the .457 should be shaving off a ring, but it doesn't with my gun. At best i can shave off a sliver from one side of the ball. No matter what powder charge I use I can't get better that a 3" group at 15-20 yards. Been using graf and sons FFF powder. I'm wondering if maybe they made a larger caliber version that I don't know of or maybe this is just normal for the ROA?

.457 and goex get it done every time

 

[SGB65]

I'll get one soon as I can and find out those measurements

Remember that lead (and alloys) shrink about 1% after casting. While there are data on this, "soft" lead in the .45 cal range ends up about 0.001" less than mould size. Good moulds account for this such that the finished ball meets the specified size within tolerance. I reamed and chamfered my Pietta 1858 cylinders to 0.456" to match the Shooters barrel (in a standard cast frame), which also swages/squeezes the ball in rather than shaving a ring. That's more preference as I measured no meaningful changes in cold bore accuracy (Ransom rest with remote trigger). Yes, I'm overboard on quantifying a revolver with many uncontrollable variables and stacked tolerances, but it's fun! I'm currently adding cylinder leads and timing for fanning.

 

[Bad Karma]

His number actually look just fine. I’ll bet he’s got it sorted out by now.

 

[rodwha]

I've recently bought a Ruger old army. Everywhere I read says to use a .457 ball and work from there with different powder loads to find the most accurate load. Allegedly the .457 should be shaving off a ring, but it doesn't with my gun. At best i can shave off a sliver from one side of the ball. No matter what powder charge I use I can't get better that a 3" group at 15-20 yards. Been using graf and sons FFF powder. I'm wondering if maybe they made a larger caliber version that I don't know of or maybe this is just normal for the ROA?

I’ve tested mine fairly thoroughly. It does best with a weighed charge of 38 grns 3F Olde Eynsford or equivalent Triple 7 and I’ve tried a ball, and two of my custom conicals. I was getting 3-3.5” groups at 15 yds.