Loading Ruger Old Army Hot...

[frosty]

I am currently shooting 45 gr. of Pyrodex P and a 200 gr. conical with an Ox Yoke wad...The wad is probably uneeded, but I feel it is helping to keep fowling soft. Though it is 5 gr. over max. recomended chargethere are no signs of problems. Caps are somewhat fragmenting, but not jamming into areas they should'nt. My cylinder is definitely unmodified, and I hear Mike Clements can bore the cylinder to hold another 5-7 standing gr. of powder! As of right now, the gun will easily hold another 3 gr of powder...This would take the bullets just below the face of the cylinder(which Ruger says is acceptable with black powder, not Pyrodex). I'm not trying to be ignorant here, but to unlock the potential of the gun. It is documented that Bill Ruger drilled out the nipples and filled a cylinder full of bullseye smokeless(Never Should Smokeless Powder Be Used in Any Black Powder Gun!) To do so would turn it into a grenade I guess the point I'm trying to make is that the OLD ARMY withstood that kind of pressure, and I know tha even tho hotter powder substitutes cant generate that kind of power.

 

[TMM]

Rugers are built like tanks. it can probably easily take the extra abuse.

~TMM

 

[MCgunner]

It is, basically, a superblackhawk frame. They come in .44 magnum, ya know?

How about gettin' one of them 5 shot .50 cal conversions?

I've checked on the boring out the cylinders thing, and it's not expensive, easy mod. I haven't done it. Talk to Manyirons about it. He's done it.

 

[ROAshooter]

ROA Hot

Next step........as I took was same loading with 777......very impressive!

 

[frosty]

Compression of H777

The only thing that bothers me about heavy loads with the H777, is the fact high compression(like you get with 45-50 gr) does crazy things with pressures...(per Hogdgon) I dont know about the pressures with Pyrodex P under high compression levels...

 

[MCgunner]

Pyrodex is forgiving of compression. I load full charges of the stuff just below the lip of the cylinder to give enough room for the conicals I'm shooting. It still plonks out at something over 900 fps with a 220 grain Lee bullet. Not bad. It's packin' about 400-450 ft lbs if I remember right.

Don't know about in the Old Army, but I'm going to play with some 777 in my Hawkin. I ain't too worried about velocity/performance, but I want something cleaner and less corrosive to carry afield. I might not be in a position in camp to throughly clean the thing after use and it'd be nice not to have to scrub the bore at the range every third shot if it'll shoot cleaner. Pyrodex is really messy, worse than I remember BP being, though it was some pretty nasty stuff, too. I haven't shot any black powder in 30+ years.

 

[Manyirons]

Go for it!

It works, I do it, and THA SMITH uses loads in em that would turn you pale.

They DONT break, they DONT blow up, ya cant even blow out a nipple, HES TRIED IT!