New Toy / Ruger Old Army

[rodwha]

Might even just try an alcohol swab, though, in my rifle I do as you with one patch (both sides) with water followed by an alcohol patch (both sides).

Those bullets i seated backwards were standard cast .45 cal boolits sent to me to try by a fellow who claimed a rebated base wasn't necessary. I didn't find that to be true. Maybe his chambers were larger. The only way I could load them straight was reversed. I prefer a proper boolit though and eventually set to create them.

I've been using T7 for years, and after cleaning I've always reloaded either my Ruger or Remington. I generally went to the range once a month and never had an ignition issue.

I moved and there's no outdoor range nearby and so my Remington has sat for 2.5 years now. I'm interested to see what I see. However without a chronograph it would be hard to determine for sure if the powder degraded at all. Maybe POI will have a story to tell.

Quite frankly it's likely better to just skip any potential problems and use Olde Eynsford or Swiss. We know those are more than reliable.

I'm curious why you chose his 255 grn version over the others.

 

[Gary Miller]

Well I wasn't sure. Kaido asked me what I wanted to use the bullet for. He seemed to think the 255 would fit my needs the best. Hell being from Tejas you ought to know everything bigger is better.

Me,I like that massive frontal area on the 255. I expect it will prove to be devastating if / when I shoot a deer or pig. Ultimately I did something that I've never been famous for and that's, asking someone with more experience and following their advice. Seems to be working better than School of Hard Knocks. Thanks for reply on powder.

 

[rodwha]

Nothing wrong with big, and may very well be a better all around projectile.

It seems a ball at that velocity often gives complete passthroughs on a broadside shot. That's one reason I felt created a boolit that was roughly the length of a ball ought to be spectacular. It shouldn't lose much if any velocity (one fellow found the same powder charge pushing a 180 grn boolit gave a slightly higher velocity over a ball) but have a fair bit more mass with a wide(r) meplat.

But for the possibility of needing to track a wounded hog I've been wanting to create a heavier boolit between 230-250 grns.

I created a 285 grn version of my boolit but with longer driving bands to create more pressure as it was designed specifically for my ROA that can handle that (was never designed for a Walker and was never recommended in anything else other than a ROA) as we considered moving to VA giving me the opportunity to hunt bear as well. I figured heavy was better. Didn't move though...

 

[Gary Miller]

Well I'm planning on moving back to Louisiana in 2.5 years. There's lots of hogs and some get pretty big. As you know handguns guns just don't have the disruptive secondary wounding that lifts spines and incapacitates the way modern high velocity rifle cartridges do. Hoping the 255 flies true and Ill be satisfied. I live in condor range out here so can't use any lead for big game. Also to make it worse you can't sabot a projectile either. Gotta match the bore with a copper slug or something else approved.

 

[george tennant]

a few years ago ,there was some one on the e-bay making a cylinder base pin and selling them for about 80 dollors ,think they were from arkansas ,i bought one , it worked , dont remember there name

 

[Pete44ru]

I failed to seat the bullet deep enough and dumped three cylinders of powder on the ground.
Of course it stuck to everything considering I had enough bore butter slopped around to skid an Egyptian pyramid stone.

When I had a stainless ROA, I used Crisco cooking lard to fill the mouths of the loaded chambers, because it kept fouling loosey-goosey long enough for a full day's shooting.

Cleaning the stainless was painless, since I used the EASY button, removing the grip panels, parting the loading lever parts and the cylinder from the cylinder frame before placing everything metal in the top rack of my household automatic dishwasher, with dishwasher soap loaded into the soap dispenser.

I ran the dishwasher through the first wash and hot rinse cycle before stopping it, letting the latent heat dry the gun metal as it evaporated.

A few squirts of oil as the ROA was re-assembled restored it to new.

I always, however, re-ran the washer through the rest of it's cycle, still empty, to ensure no residue would remain to later taint supper plates, etc.

 

[md2020]

T7 ignites pretty good, but does not like to be compressed very hard, so you have to figure how deep the bullet or ball sits below chamber face and how much powder will go below that without undue compression.

 

[rodwha]

Hodgdon's has removed their loading instructions, but what was said was that when loading cartridges compression needed to be slight whereas in any other fashion the projectile should be "firmly" seated. Not exactly what "firmly" is but I have seated all of my projectiles on any powder used with a nice firm amount of force and never had ignition issues or erratic groups as they've been identical to the ones when using Pyrodex P or RS or 3F Olde Eynsford.

 

[ZUG]

Yea - CA sucks with their ban on lead for hunting. My buddy and I went on a pig hunt in AZ because of the ban. I want "one-shot-kills" and you don't get that from a non-lead bullet no matter where you hit em - they WILL run.

 

[Gary Miller]

Funny to see this post still receiving comments. My ignition problems were a result of the hammer striking the frame before reaching the nipple. I shimmed the hammer and no issues. I have since found a replacement hammer and all is good. Seems my gun show revolver had been monkeyed with quite a bit.The hammer had been polished profusely and uneven. I purchased a NIB ROA fixed sight gun as well. Sent it it Dykes Reber and had cylinders deepened a bit, rifle front sight installed, Chamber mouth evened and forcing cone cut 12 degree. Both guns shooting well. I've got a bunch of casting time under my belt this year as well.Set my reloading equipment back up and started sizing my bullets for cartridge stuff. I found quite a bit of smokeless powder and Pyrodex RS that are 25-30 years old lying in my barrel of dies and crap. One can of the RS was previously open and some discoloration and swelling in spoon sized clumps. It still goes bang with authority so I'm shooting it up as well. The smokeless powder is just as good as new. I guess the California climate is good for powder anyway.

 

[Rifleman1776]

My ignition problems were a result of the hammer striking the frame before reaching the nipple.

That is not a problem. :shake: It is the way the ROA is designed. It is supposed to hit the frame before the nipple. But, with a cap on the nip it will hit that and ignite. Close tolerances but Rugers are good quality items.

 

[Grenadier1758]

Yes, the Roger OA is designed for the hammer to hit the frame and not the nipple. You will have better reliability if you use magnum caps with more primer material.

 

[rodwha]

I couldn't get the CCI #11 mags to fire reliably. I even changed the nipples out for ToTW nipples (they state CCI #11's but apparently mean the non magnum variety as they don't work either). Rem #10's work reliably. I've yet to find CCI standard #11's to try.

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

Word from the Bird says Ruger is going to make the ROA again.

 

[Gary Miller]

I think you missed my statement. The hammer was striking only the left side of the frame. It actually beat a chunk of metal from frame. Shimming it to the right temporarily fixed the ignition. A very knowledgeable ROA guy sent me a new hammer. Works like a charm and does not hit left side of frame. The old hammer was polished or worn unevenly around pivot. My new ROA does not hit the side of the frame. Both guns now fire either #10 or #11 caps without miss fires. The hammer was the problem.

 

[TFoley]

With decent ROA's here in yUK hitting a thousand dollars, that could be welcome news indeed, if it proved to be true.

All the initial decision to halt production back in 2008 did was to leave a sour taste, especially in view of how SRCo reneged on their '10-year spares promise'.

tac