Specifications
- Manufacturer: Ruger
- Year Manufactured: 2005
- Caliber: 45
- Capacity: 6
- Overall Length: 13″
- Barrel Length: 7 1/2″
- Barrel Type: Round
- Rifling: 1:16″ RH
- Groove Depth: .006″
- Cylinder Chamber Diameters: .453″
- Cylinder Chamber Depths: 1.22″
- Sights: Rear adjustable, Front blade
- Weight: 3 lbs. 1 oz.
- Percussion Caps: #11
- Availability: Used
Ruger Main Spring
Review
The Ruger Old Army is based on the Ruger Blackhawk frame. The tolerances are tight, but the action is smooth, crisp, yet strong. It gives the feel of a gun that won’t fail. With coil main, bolt, and handsprings instead of leaf springs, the reliability of the black powder revolver jumps to a new level. Out of the five revolvers featured, this would be my choice if I had to choose one for a survival situation. Shooting .45 cowboy loads from a conversion cylinder is no problem, even 255 grains at 850 fps. It’s something I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing a lot of with the 1858.
Loads
Sam Fadala’s “Black Powder Loading Manual” clocks a .457″ round ball at 1047 fps using 40 grains of Pyrodex P. I have shot .457″ balls with a 40-grain load, but I kept no data at that time.
When the shooting ranges were shut down, I decided to shoot in my garage. The .457″ ball was too big to force down to the bottom of the chamber, as I eschew the use of fillers in this type of shooting. With 5 grains of Triple Seven FFF powder, three sizes of round balls (.445″, .451″, and .454″) gave good results at low velocity, short range shooting. Recovered balls worked well, as did swaged conicals derived from them.
Going Forward
Going forward, I plan to continue to use my round ball derived swaged conicals and also, I will shoot, reuse, and swage 200 grain conicals. I will attempt to increase my gallery load qualifying range from 5 yards to 10.
In a future post, I will also be shooting using my conversion cylinder from Howell Arms. I will be shooting some cowboy loads, 205 grain at 650 fps, and 255 grain at 860 fps. I have a lot to do until then, so it won’t happen for quite a while.