Ruger old army questions

[comitee]

Went to use my newly acquired .45 cal Ruger Old Army in stainless steel yesterday and made the mistake of not locking the base pin screw when loading the .457 ball in the cylinder !! dohhh !!
hence to say it bent it.

Have straightened it out and it looks like new but my concern now is it may have been weakened and if I have another senior moment and do the same thing again it may not be re usable or even snap.

Trawling the web I see I am not alone in making this error and many have done it.

Looking to see if I can buy a spare base pin in ss it would appear that no one sells then !

Does anyone know of a supplier here in the UK or any where ??

Also reading certain forums it seems a lot of folks are using .454 cal balls and not .457 in the .45 Ruger ??
I believe the actual cal is .452 in the barrel ?

Any one hear using .454 in a .45 ??

Steve

[tacfoley]

1. Congratulations on buying the best BP revolver [for less than £900 or so] ever made.

2. Ruger stopped making them in April 2010 and a call to the factory last year for two action screws resulted in this conversation -

'tac, we originally hoped to have stocks of spares for the next ten years, but you know how it is....the screws you want, well, there are only four left on the planet, so I'll send them to the UK distributors - VIKING ARMS - so they can deal them out to you...' Nobody has Ruger spare parts to dish out except Viking Arms through your dealer.

3. That should have answered most of your questions.

BTW, for future reference and cocking a snoot at the UK 'authorities' - the Ruger Old Army was made and sold as a .44cal BP revolver, NOT a .45cal. The rather odd interpretation of the way that BP firearms shoot oversize bullets or balls is only to be found within the confines of the UK. Elsewhere, folks call them what the maker has called them since the day the very first one rolled off the line - a .44cal BP revolver.

The Ruger Old Army was designed to shoot a soft lead ball of .457" diameter - this assures anyone loading it that a goodly shaving is taken off and a good cylinder seal is thereby obtained. You can shoot whatever you like in it that you think is suitable - your choice - providing it doesn't actually either roll back out, or fly out on recoil. Me, I'll continue with the .457" Lee - 'Made for the Ruger Old Army' it says on the box - that I've been shooting since March 2nd, 1986.

Best

tac

[Night Stalker]

I cant answer your spare parts question but I have a ROA stainless with a millet target rear sight. I was Lucky enough to get it for £200 with a rubber hogue grip that replaces the wood one for those with larger hands. It is very accurate with 14.5 gn by weight of 777 fffg a 1/2" wad and a 220 gn Lee conical bullet reversed to act like a wadcutter which leave nice clean round holes I lube the bullets is an old tobacco tin that has a thin piece of foam in the bottom with RCBS case sizing lube on it.

One of my first targets could of even been the first

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/827/ruger.jpg/

Rick

[tacfoley]

Just finished talking to Mr Viking Arms [what a pleasant gentleman he was, to be sure], about my spares. He assures me that he will be on the stand this weekend at Newark, so that those who need ANY spare parts for their ROA can ask him directly.

MY spares were shipped today from Viking Arms, BTW.

Thank you, VA! Great service as ever.

tac