Ruger Old Army

[Golfswithwolves]

The weather turned nice here so I hit the range with some handguns. The BP revolver I took is my Old Army. Last year ignition was problematic, so I had ordered a set of Treso nipples to replace the factory items. Now the ignition is 100% so far so that fix seems to have worked well . Next up for a change is the front sight, since all shots were hitting about 4" high @ 25 yards distance even though the rear sight is cranked down all the way. I was able to stop by a local gun parts supplier (Jack First) in Rapid City and they had higher Ruger sights in stock; now it's only a matter of drilling a hole in the new sight to fit the roll pin and in she will go! I expect this will allow putting the balls right on target at 25 yards. How have such revolvers sighted for anybody else? By the way, cleanup with my stainless steel revolver was really a snap.

 

[wattlebuster]

I have a Old Army with fixed sights on a 5 inch barrel an at 25 yrds it is dead on an shoots a very good group with 40 gr of fff goex. I also have a conversion cyl an it shoots those very well too In fact I can hit better with this gun than any modern pistol I own :thumbsup:

 

[willypete]

Mine also shoots extremely accurate at 25 yards. Better than most of my semi-automatics. I also use 40 grains of the triple F Goex in my Old Army. I use one of those ultra-sonic jewelry cleaners from Brookstone to clean the nipples when I am done. Throw them in for 90 seconds and man, you would think they were just made every time.

 

[George]

I also found the ROA to be very accurate, best shooting pistol I've had, BP or modern. My accuracy load was 23 gr. FFFg and 17 gr. of buffer, usually cornmeal. It was dead on at 25 yards from the factory with that load.

For a power load, it's approved for 40 grains of 4F, and that is fun to shoot.

Spence

 

[rdstrain49]

Golfwithwolves;

NO WAY, there can't be two ROAs in the Black Hills. Shot a bit today, until fingers got too cold to reload.

 

[Blizzard of '93]

no surprise your ROA shoots well.
they are great revolvers. powerful too with a max charge of 3F and Lee mold conical atop.

 

[bigbore442001]

I found that my ROA shoots very high with the standard factory sights and using a maximum charge of powder and a heavy conical bullet. I tried to replace the front sight with a higher blade but it appears to be crooked to me. In the future I want to send it out to a black powder smith and have them install a higher front sight without it being canted to one side.

 

[D Sanders]

no surprise your ROA shoots well.
they are great revolvers. powerful too with a max charge of 3F and Lee mold conical atop.

I also shoot a Ruger Old Army. I have owned it since I was 15 years old and also found that is the best c and b revolver I have ever owned or shot. I often wonder why Ruger does not make this firearm anymore. I think it would still be a great seller. Does anyone know why it was discontinued? :idunno:

HH 60

 

[Golfswithwolves]

$ :shake: That's why they are not made anymore

 

[mykeal]

According to Ruger the Old Army was discontinued in order to make room on their production tools for more Vaqueros and Blackhawks. They said that they could make more money making those models than from the same investment in labor, time and materials on the OA. In other words, $$$.

 

[rabjr]

Any idea when the last run was? The always did run them and the Bisleys in batches. Stop for a few years to build up demand and then run more off. I had to wait 3 years for the Bisley I wanted. But I think it's been quite a while since the Old Army was stopped ain't it?

Everytime I see an Old Army thread, I'm reminded I sold mine for money to go to the Senior Prom....what an idiot I was. :shake:

 

[junkman_01]

The ROA was produced from 1972-2008.

 

[mykeal]

junkman's right...I believe the last ROA production run was in April of '08. New 'old stock' guns were still showing up on the sutler and auction sites up until a few months ago.

 

[rabjr]

Yeah bought mine in 77' if I remember right it was around $175.00. Sold it in 79' for $150.00. :shake:

 

[rafterob]

what an idiot I was.

I guess you didn't get any for it then :shake:

 

[rabjr]

Heh, well all I'm saying is it wasn't worth a gun to have a good time one night but love is blind...

 

[smokin45]

.That is wild my brother has never had a ignition
problem at all with new caps..

 

[Golfswithwolves]

Well the original nipples on my ROA did not allow the caps I was using (CCI #11) to fit down all the way properly and the hammer hits were therefore not uniform, often would not set off the caps. Same with Remington #10 and 11 :idunno: . I have heard that this was eventually corrected by Ruger with a new nipple design but can't verify this information for sure. At any rate, the Treso nipples seem to be a fine fit for the caps I can find and now there is no issue.

 

[doegirl]

Where and what kind of blade did you order?

 

[Golfswithwolves]

doegirl- I just bought a Blackhawk blade in the next tallest size; I believe the sights are all the same on the Ruger revolvers and there were two sizes in the store that were taller than the stock sight blade. The new sight needs drilling for the roll pin that holds it to the front base. I have figured out a simpler solution by the way: just file down the rear sight blade insert a little bit. There is extra material in that rear sight insert.