Gold & Silver Forum - Ruger "Old Army" BP Cap & Ball Revolver

Some general information on this fine revolver produced by Ruger - ended production in Jan 2008.....if you want one...better get one quickly.

No question - the best black powder revolver ever made.

I bought a stainless steel model with 7.5" bbl used, but never fired "like new". The cylinder bore is 0.456".....so I guess you could call it a "45" but I think it's jargon in really a "44"....

I was interested in the gun just for the education and potential black powder revolver capable of harvesting Michigan deer.

These guns are super strong and based on the Ruger Blackhawk. The cylinder as manufactured by Ruger, uses a very heavy radius almost round nosed end mill to machine the bores....leaving a radiused bottom.....I had these bores squared up to provide about 5 grains more capacity.

I do not shoot round lead balls....only conicles.....220 grain pure lead conicles from a Lee Precision mold (cost under $25). I developed my way up in loads and I am happy with - on a volumetric powder basis - 35 grains volume of Hodgdon 777 (about 10% hotter than Pyrodex....which is 10% hotter than FFFG Black Powder). I have shot a 40 grain volume 777 load...but not much more velocity than the 35 g vol.

With the 220g conicle and 35 g vol 777 and a standard CCI #11 cap, I was getting on average 1150 FPS......that maths out to 646 Ft-Lbs of energy.....thats better than 140% the energy of a 45 Colt, 123% of a heavy weight .357 Mag, and 82% the energy of a 41 Mag. Pretty serious power for cap and ball black powder revolver. With 45 cal and 220g should have great penetration and knockdown power.

By the way - these are not BATF Firearms - no registration required ...at least not here in Michigan.

Even with my cylinder volume increase, the 35 g vol 777 and the 220g conicle was just enough room to seat and compress the load with the pistols built in loading ball rammer. 40 g vol was a bit too much.....so even without the volume modification...you could probably still pack in 35 g vol over a good conicle.

I may make a loading press to load the cylinders out of the gun...and try some hard cast 45 Colt or 45ACP bullets.

The gun is strong and can take the heavy loads....in fact you can buy 45 Colt aftermarket cartridge cylinders for the gun....if you also want to use it as a cartridge pistol.

The factory black powder cylinder is machined from solid stainless and has no flutes...much stronger than most cartridge Ruger Blackhawks.

Overall - very impressive - very powerful. It should do a good job on deer out to 50 yards or so.

Also, if you get a mess of #11 caps.....you can cast your own bullets and make black powder from scratch.....if ammo is ever banned.

When I was a kid in I made black powder from sulphur and salt peter from the local drug store....and charcoal from our BBQ.......by weight 70% Salt Peter (potasium nitrate) 20% sulphur, 10% charcoal (crushed very fine).....cannon fuse and an 8 in long x 5 in diameter well pipe with threaded caps on each end......serious dirt moving tool....it will block out the sun with a cone of dirt projected over 150 feet in the air......moves about 2 big garbage cans of soft earth. Be smart...clean and lube those threads....pack cotton on top of the powder.

We did not have the Xbox back when I was a kid.......we fixed and made things.....