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?
Ruger old army loads
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Howdy and Welcome from Texas! As far as I know Ruger did not make a larger caliber. The .457 balls should work perfectly. Are you sure you got the right size?
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Welcome from North Dakota
Welcome from New York State's Central-Leatherstocking region.
Used to own one and it was astonishingly accurate. So much so that a friend without a pistol permit begged me to sell it to him and I did. Yours may have been cleaned overly aggressively and funnelled the cylinders.
Used to own one and it was astonishingly accurate. So much so that a friend without a pistol permit begged me to sell it to him and I did. Yours may have been cleaned overly aggressively and funnelled the cylinders.
I use .457 balls on top of 25 Gr 3F with a 1/16" card wad on top of the powder and a 1/8" felt wad soaked in olive oil on top of the card wad and under the ball. Shoots clean and is very mild but accurate load. I really don't notice any lead shaving either.
Most of the time my ROA shaves an even amount of lead w/ .457 . Occasionally I get a partial ring. I only shoot max loads and will easily better those groups. I remember reading that owners in the 70's would shoot 20g 3f with 20 grains filler for best accuracy.
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My question also. A previous owner might have messed with the cylinders. Is your lead soft? It should be. Regardless, the balls still must go through the forcing cone. Meaning, if the balls are a bit small you should be OK. As to charge, whatever you can put in the cylinder and still seat the ball will work fine. I doubt you will ever notice a change in accuracy in that gun with tiny changes in the charges.
Yeah I'm certain. Here's my mold. I quality inspect every ball to make sure it's up to my standard and tumble them to get rid of the nipple bump as well.
Gonna try to respond to everyone here sorry if I miss somebody's advice.
First off thanks for the warm welcome to the forum.
Morehop52. I have tried lighter loads like 25 grains, but i have never used a filler like cornmeal or cardboard wads. Could that be affecting my accuracy by not having compact powder? I've never used wads because I make my own lube with beef tallow, olive oil, and beeswax.
Dude. I would love nothing more than to be able to properly measure the size of my balls and chamber, but sadly I don't have the tools to do so. All I know to do is be very picky about the visual quality of my cast balls and lead purity.
Garypl. Thanks for the advice I'll look into wads as a future experiment. I'm not well experienced in using them at the moment.
Stumpkiller. What do you mean by funneled the chambers?
I'll try to post a photo of the cylinders mouths when I get off work. For whatever reason I haven't been able to post photos though
I'm seeing a lot of people recommending a 20-30 grain load with fillers.
1. What should I use for filler?
2. If that load shoots best is is still powerful enough for deer and hog? I want to work up a load for kadio conical in the future for hunting
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Dundee,
Welcome from California.
Sorry I'm going to slip off topic abit and apologize to anyone I may offend.
Are you benching for accuracy?
After tumbling do you check ball weight and diameter? Scale and Caliper?
Have you had the cylinder checked to verify chamber positions? Alignment under rammer?
Do you get the same results in a different cylinder or loading off gun?
My '72 ROA seems to like 37 grains 3FSwiss, an Ox-Yoke or Eastern Mountain precut lubed felt wad under a commercial (Hornady) roundball for 1.25" at 20 yard Offhand.
For home defense I have a Belt Mountain Quick cylinder change setup and keep 2 cylinders loaded this way and a 3rd loaded with 6 LEE 215 grain hollow points on top of 35 grains of the same powder. (This load causes the Walker problem.)
I'm a vision and physically damaged Vet so I'm sure she does better than I am capable of.
Sorry if I slipped off topic.
Welcome from California.
Sorry I'm going to slip off topic abit and apologize to anyone I may offend.
Are you benching for accuracy?
After tumbling do you check ball weight and diameter? Scale and Caliper?
Have you had the cylinder checked to verify chamber positions? Alignment under rammer?
Do you get the same results in a different cylinder or loading off gun?
My '72 ROA seems to like 37 grains 3FSwiss, an Ox-Yoke or Eastern Mountain precut lubed felt wad under a commercial (Hornady) roundball for 1.25" at 20 yard Offhand.
For home defense I have a Belt Mountain Quick cylinder change setup and keep 2 cylinders loaded this way and a 3rd loaded with 6 LEE 215 grain hollow points on top of 35 grains of the same powder. (This load causes the Walker problem.)
I'm a vision and physically damaged Vet so I'm sure she does better than I am capable of.
Sorry if I slipped off topic.
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I wish I could be that precise with my ball quality, but I don't have the tools to get the measurements or weight retention. I just stick the balls in a Tupperware bowl and roll them around for twenty minutes to get rid of the cast ring and nipple.
I have not had the cylinder checked for alignment and don't own a second one. How would I get that checked?
No worries on getting off topic. I'll take any and all advice I can. Thanks!
45man said: "
Can you document that? It may be true but there is nothing "wrong" with Ruger OA barrels. Those pistols shot/shoot very accurately.
Can you document that? It may be true but there is nothing "wrong" with Ruger OA barrels. Those pistols shot/shoot very accurately.
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Cast ring? Sounds like your mold is not sealing completely.
For the Spru, how does it perform if loaded unrolled with Spru up?
The term cast ring is very misleading there is not a physical protruding ring around the ball. Just a faint line that you can see where the Lee mold comes together. They really perform about the same I honestly can't tell the difference. Rolling them in tupperware is just a trick to all the old timers told me about at my local black powder club.
Buy a $20 dial caliper and measure the cast balls. Buy a set of pin gauges from McMastet-Carr sized from .452 to .457 and find out what your cylinder mouths measure. Something’s not right if a true .457 ball won’t leave a nice ring of lead shaving when seated. Just sayin.….
