Ruger Old Army shooting low?

[timtriple]

Hi

tried my Old Army for second time at the range today. It is fixed sight model with 7 1/2 barrel I bought second hand but in as new condtion.

I was firing from 25 yards, using 25gr of 777, wad, .457 lead ball then load finished with layer of Trex.

With target & sights 'lollipopped' with wrist benchrested on bean bag it was shooting way low. To hit target I had to aim way above it. Several people at club suggested if it continues to fire low I should file front sight down a bit???

Can anyone suggest anything regarding loads to make it more accurate as I thought fixed sights were set for 25 yards on Old Army

Cheers Tim

[Simon G]

Tim,

First thing, get rid of that layer of Trex over the chamber mouth. With 777 you only need the wad to prevent flash over. (Think how much $hite you're shoving down the barrel!!!)

Secondly, how was it grouping? Is this accurate? If not, don't start filing until you have an accurate load.

You could try uping the load a little to raise the point of aim. Again, develop the most accurate load you can, don't settle for an in accurate load centered.

The fact is, if your accurate load is not centred, then filing of the front sight is what you're going to have to do to raise the point of impact.

[Wobbly 2]

I know that the 5 1/2 " ROA shoots low with 25 grains, but use 32 grains, and it shoots POA. Maybe worth a try.

[John Bedford]

My Pietta Remmington Texas (.44) bought S/H shot way low too when I first tried it. I had to aim so high (at 25m) that my hand obscured the target!

Messing with loads made little difference - I've now settled on 15g by weight 777 + semolina filler + felt wad + lubed (Liq. Alox) .454 ball.

With the foresight Dremelled down to near enough half its original height (in stages) the gun now shoots to point of aim.

[Smokeless Coal]

I'll second what John said, you dont need the trex. The benefit of 777 is its cleanliness compared to black or pyro, so there is no sense adding unneccesary goop.

Hodgdons recommend just a wonderlubed wad but 777 burns slightly faster and hotter and on advice from a great number of experienced American shooters just lubing the ball with alox is ideal and about as clean as you can get with m/l other than a nitro conversion.

They make these revolvers with the front sight a bit long because the only adjustment the user can do to otherwise fixed sights is shortening it.

But as said dont start filing until you have got your load sorted and getting consistant groups.

[Jim McArthur]

Hello, Smokeless! What have you been up to lately?

Jim

[steve medlock]

My Old Army with adjustable sights shot high irrsepective of load or bullet type. I made a new taller foresight element for it to bring it down to POA.

[timtriple]

Hi

Thanks for all comments and info.

Today I tried 30gr of 777 and it shot way low!

I then tried 20g of 777 and I hit target board so I guess I need to work on that load and start practising

Tim

[Auto culto]

bend the barrel in a hydraulic press

[Napoleon IV]

I second all that's been said before. Find your ideal load first.
One of the bizarre things about BP revolvers is that they need a certain amount of power to acheive accuracy. Too little is as bad as too much. This was proved to me when I started shooting my Roger OA at 50 metres. My normal load was 23 grains of black powder and I thought I would up it to 30 to cope with the extra range. Absolutely hopeless. Of course what I should have done is to stay with the normal load and wind up the sights 3 clicks which is what I did do eventually. Obvious when you think about it. My friend had a Pietta revolver that just wouldn't group. I found he was only using 15 grains. When he upped it to 20 things started to improve dramatically. This seems different from the old Police Pistol days when we used to use 3.5 grains of Bullseye at 25 metres and 1.9 at 10. (In a .38 special of course)

[Napoleon IV]

bend the barrel in a hydraulic press

Have you ever done this?

[Wobbly 2]

Have you ever done this?

Think it was a JOKE

[tacfoley]

My Old Army with adjustable sights shot high irrsepective of load or bullet type. I made a new taller foresight element for it to bring it down to POA.

Mine, too. I`ve had it since 1986, and have only ever shot Pyrodex in it with the one charge that suits it well - 24gr of Pyrodex P and a cast RB. I don`t use a wad, a. because I`m a tight-fisted old fart, and refuse to pay the prices they cost over here, and I often shoot around a hundred shots at a session, and b. I have used E45 as a chamber sealer, an emulsion hand preparation sold in large tubs [Boots, the chemist], since I began BP shooting back in the mid-1970`s in Germany.

Last sunday, my first five shots at 20 yds went into just over an inch and half.

Shooting the same charge with the conical results in the bullet heading up about 12 inches higher, but still very accurately. I`ve never bothered to replace the foresight, in fact, after writing a few times to Viking Arms to get ahold of one, I gave up after two years.

One of our club members has been experimenting with paper cartridges made using Rizla `reds` and a former. Having tried them out, I can say that they work VERY well, but were made using BP, a propellant I am not allowed to keep in my house for insurance reasons.

tac

PS - Please note that all weights and measures in this post are Imperial. If any or all of you are offended by this improper use of dimensional data in a metricised country, please write to your MP. Meanwhile, please convert to metric by using 1 inch = 25.4 millimeters. To save looking it up, there are thirty-six of these `inches` in one `yard`. Grains to grammes is something I`ll let you figure out yourselves.

[Napoleon IV]

Think it was a JOKE

It might not be!! I was just looking through the GUN DIGEST for 2000 and there was an author who suggested bending the barrel of a Colt SAA to correct the aim. Until then I'd never heard of this procedure. Very hit and miss I should have thought unless it was bent to start with.