5 shot 50 cal ROA.

[himem777]

In the thread about 4f in Cap and ball someone mentioned the capability of the Ruger Old Army. So I had to do some snooping on the web, and I found something interesting. I found a company that will take your ROA make it a 5 shot .50 cal. It was so cool that I had to mention it. The balistics of this thing makes some .44mags green with envy. :shocked2: I just had to mention it.

 

[Norinco]

Can it take conicals?

 

[himem777]

Yes their load data was for a .225 grn conical with more than 700lbs of muzzle energy. In a "light load".

 

[mtmshieldshotmail.com]

OAL of the cylinder is the same, so the only powder capacity gained is the difference between the new .50 and old .45 cyl. chambers.
I didn't bother to calculate the difference, but I don't believe the gain will take you into the "magnum" CF world, especially if you're loading it with a RB. And if you load it with a conical, you lose powder capacity. Back to square one.

Regards,
Mike

 

[mtmshieldshotmail.com]

OK, looked at Clements Custom Guns. It is impressive. About 600Ft# energy w/ a RB, about 730 or so with a conical. Gun Blast did a review and equated it with a .357 Magnum, suitable for deer or porkers. I'm downrange far from my bookshelf so can't research the numbers.

Good luck in your quest for a BP hand cannon.
Mike

 

[himem777]

I really cant afford one, but I thought it was cool. I am happy with the performance of my Remington. All tho some where I remember such a conversion for the remmie :grin: :shocked2: . I do not think that the remmie frame is up to that, but I could be wrong.

 

[Zonie]

In order to have over 700 ft/lbs of energy a 225 grain slug would have to have a velocity of about 1200 ft/sec.

Call me skeptical but I can't figure out how a .50 caliber pistol with a pistol length barrel is going to get that velocity out of black powder. :hmm:

 

[himem777]

you may be onto something (like marketing fraud). The ROA modified will take around 50 grns of bp, well thats the max load for a dragoon. Do they hit those levels?

 

[Zonie]

Lyman's BLACK POWDER HANDBOOK says a Walker shooting a .454 roundball over 45 grains of 3Fg powder had a muzzle velocity of 983 fps.
It doesn't give any data for a 50 grain powder load but when they went from a 40 grain powder load to a 45 grain powder load the velocity only increased 33 fps.

If 5 grains of powder increased the velocity 33 fps and assuming it would make a similar increase (which is unlikely due to the barrel length) then the most that could be hoped for would be 1016 fps.

I should also point out that the larger the bore, the more powder it takes to get high velocities so I would expect a 50 grain powder load in a .45 to produce higher velocities than it will in a .50 caliber gun.

Although I'm only guessing it sounds to me like they loaded the gun with 50 grains of T7 to push the velocity up to a point that it might make the energy they claimed it does?

 

[himem777]

Thats cheating. Seems like the only good reason to have one of those is to say you have one or to burn more powder. Do not know of any where you can hunt with one.

 

[trent/OH]

Do not know of any where you can hunt with one.

I'm sure there are plenty of places to hunt with it, if that's your interest. Here in the East, it would be potent medicine on woodchucks and coyotes. Certainly overkill on squirrels, but the fun factor and whompability of the gun would be undeniable.

 

[himem777]

Yes but all those things would be just as dead with a factory ROA. You are right the thump would be fun. :shocked2: :grin:

 

Quoted from the Clements web page:

"Gun will shoot .490" round balls @ 1250 fps and a 250 gr. .488" dia. bullet @ 1150 fps using Hodgdon's Triple 7 powder."

I do not know whether it is true or not, but he does specify Trip 7 from the get go.

 

[bigbore442001]

I bet it would be fun for feral hogs in Florida?

 

[CoyoteJoe]

I think that's the way Ruger should have built them, they're way to big for a .44 caliber.

 

[BrownBear]

I think that's the way Ruger should have built them, they're way to big for a .44 caliber.

I've never been tempted to pick up a ROA, but I'd be all over a factory version in 50 cal. It would be great fun, I think.

But pay big buxx for a custom conversion? Nah. Net gain in honest ballistics probably wouldn't justify the cost of round trip postage, much less the cost of parts and labor.

 

[Greg Hardy]

I say if ya gonna go big, go BIG! Four shot .54 or even .58 if possible! There's a lot to be said for frontal area.