Ruger Old Army projectile/powder performance yest

[duelist1954]

This six-part series will be my most comprehensive test of both projectiles and powder in the Ruger Old Army cap and ball revolvers. In the series we'll test three different projectiles, round balls, standard conical bullets and Kaido's heavy hunting conicals using both Goex black powder and Hodgdon's Triple-7 substitute black powder. We'll shoot everything through a pair of Ruger Old Army revolvers, one with a five and a half inch barrel and the other with a seven and a half inch barrel. We'll test each load for accuracy, velocity, energy and penetration.

In this episode we'll be testing round balls and Goex 3Fg black powder.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WNYGs2_UZw

 

[Blizzard of '93]

interesting thread. I load Lee mold slugs mostly in my ROA 7.5" bbl

 

[wattlebuster]

Cool thread. I have the 5 1/2 blued model and have wondered about the velocity. :thumbsup:

 

[Don]

Interesting, your data differs quite a bit from the Lyman manual which puts the load you tested at 1076 fps for 370ft/lbs pressure out of the 7.5 inch ROA. Always wondered what accounts for differences like this as testing with my own chrony are often different and occasionally similar to published data that I've seen. I enjoy watching your videos especially the penetration tests. Noticed that you didn't get wet this time around. Remind me, what does one jug of water compare to in terms of ballistic gel? Is one jug equal to 3 inches of gel?

Don

 

[duelist1954]

In my experience velocities in cap and ball revolvers can vary for any number of reasons. Air temperature is one thing I have noticed having a big effect. Extreme heat or cold will really change B-P velocity.

I think a big factor in C&Bs is compression. In a B-P cartridge you can control compression from one cartridge to another precisely. But when I'm ramming that ball or bullet into the chamber, I am rarely that consistant.

Another thing I noticed was day to day differences. I performed all the tests over a three week period as weather and my schedule allowed.

I did round balls in the first shooting session. Just for a lark, I shot a few round balls on the last day of shooting. I only ran one round over the Chrony, but it was almost 200 fps faster than my five-shot average for the first session.

Weather conditions were very different over that 3 week time span. I don't know if that was a factor. Maybe if I'd run the round ball test last, the results would have been very different.

In the final video of the series. I point out that this isn't a rigorous test. There is enough variability in the results to show that this same series of tests would need to be repeated 100 times, before the results would be worth hanging your hat on.

I don't have that kind of time on my hand. But I'd welcome the data from anyone who cares to repeat the tests and share the results.

 

[Don]

Temperature is one variable that I'm aware of effecting velocities even in modern cartridges, cold often slowing the energy of the round. Compression also makes sense as I've chronied the same loads in similar weather and gotten different velocities. I don't know how rigorous Lyman was when they did their tests but probably not a whole lot more than you were. I've been able to duplicate some of their data and at times come up with a wildly different number. One thing I have noticed with Pyrodex is that over time loads will weaken in a loaded revolver or single shot. Pyrodex also seems to degrade over time getting very weak. Thanks again for the fun and informative videos.

Don

 

[BFJ]

Good video. Thanks for your efforts.

BFJ

 

[Tater John]

:thumbsup: Well done and interesting result

Rusty