Advice on loading my ROA

[lasbrisas]

Need some views/opinions on loading my Ruger Old Army, 2 other guys at my club do it differently. One uses the wads between powder and ball and the other covers the loaded chamber with grease. Just wondered what is the best way to go really, also just bought some Hornady .457 cal ball, are there any good or bad makes.

[DedIdick]

Need some views/opinions on loading my Ruger Old Army, 2 other guys at my club do it differently. One uses the wads between powder and ball and the other covers the loaded chamber with grease. Just wondered what is the best way to go really, also just bought some Hornady .457 cal ball, are there any good or bad makes.

I'm a grease on top of the ball guy. Also too tight to buy or make greased wads.
I cast my balls these days rather than buy. Don't know if there are good & bad makes of balls, anybody in our club who blames their shooting on their balls is duly ridiculed.

[harricook]

Hiya

I have finally managed to get this new fangled search facility working !!

Heres links to a couple of threads on wads

http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....ighlight=ruger

http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....ighlight=ruger

Regarding ball - cast are cheaper than swaged - but I can't bring myself to pay shop prices even then - think Andy charges £7 or £7.50/100 for his cast ball & the last Hornady swaged I saw were about £11 Edit: - just seen the Hornady ball on MidwayUK .....£14.47/100 [ eeeeeeeeeeek !]

I am casting my own soft lead ball in .457 & also making my own wads - my Dad is using filler - it's all down to preference

I use wads to bring the ball flush & put a tiny squirt of grease on two cylinders to keep any fouling soft when I am shooting BP
With Nitro - I Alox the ball/bullet whatever I am playing with & shoot on

Roy
.

[tim56]

As per above i cast my own .457 balls using lead flashing or old lead water pipes. Iv also been playing with the conical bullets in my ROA cast from the same soft lead but prefer to use round ball. Much less fiddly to load for one thing. I use 16 grns of swiss fffg and semolina as a filler to bring the ball to the top of the cylinder, this is topped of with a dollop of water pump grease on every chamber to keep fouling soft applied with a lolly stick. A no11 remington cap and away we go.
Some shooters prefer wads, some fillers. Some shooters prefer B/P and some 777 or pyrodex. Some use a lube, some dont. It all comes down to personal choice and finding what works for you.
Let us all know how you get on, especially with the swaged balls. I got a couple of boxs with my last Ruger purchase and iv never tried them. Tim

[lasbrisas]

Thanks guys for all the replies, we have an evening of ROA shooting tomorrow, myself and 2 other guys from my club so will see how we get on.

[cmnicholls]

Grease or wad, both are there to do the same thing, keep the fouling soft,
Which is best from a shooting point of view, which ever one works best in your gun, the difference is marginal at best.

Pro and cons
Wads are more expensive to use but are much cleaner as far as your hands are concerned.some of the lubricants used in the wads are better at keeping the fouling down for more shots than lard or Vaseline

Grease is cheap to use but your gun and your hands soon get a good coat of sooty grease.You can buy the same lubricants that they put in the wads but this pushes the price per shot up or you can make your own mixture.

Personally i use wonder lube 1000 in wads when shooting BP revolvers and the same lube on the bullet when shooting BP rifle, i have found it keeps the fouling in check for the mornings shoot and makes it easy to clean up afterwards.

No doubt someone will have a different opinion

Regards
Clinton

[Adept]

Hiya

I have finally managed to get this new fangled search facility working !!

Heres links to a couple of threads on wads

http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....ighlight=ruger

http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....ighlight=ruger

Regarding ball - cast are cheaper than swaged - but I can't bring myself to pay shop prices even then - think Andy charges £7 or £7.50/100 for his cast ball & the last Hornady swaged I saw were about £11 Edit: - just seen the Hornady ball on MidwayUK .....£14.47/100 [ eeeeeeeeeeek !]

I am casting my own soft lead ball in .457 & also making my own wads - my Dad is using filler - it's all down to preference

I use wads to bring the ball flush & put a tiny squirt of grease on two cylinders to keep any fouling soft when I am shooting BP
With Nitro - I Alox the ball/bullet whatever I am playing with & shoot on

Roy
.

Use plenty of grease over the balls it does no really matter what type as long as thick enugh to not spray all over the place (to much) a chain fire is not good only seen one and that was one to many, very noisy and very messy for those concerned !! I have even used LHM at a pinch

[harricook]

Use plenty of grease over the balls it does no really matter what type as long as thick enugh to not spray all over the place (to much) a chain fire is not good only seen one and that was one to many, very noisy and very messy for those concerned !! I have even used LHM at a pinch

Grease is not for chain fires ...... it's to keep the BP fouling soft

Get your balls the right size & you will not have a chainfire.

I HAVE had a chainfire ( 3 cylinders !!) on a Colt revolver many years ago & this was due to being sold undersized balls in too hard a lead (by a reputable dealer at one of the Bisley shows)

I fired that Colt many times after getting the correct balls in soft lead & had no problems

Roy
.