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Ruger Old Army Stainless
- Thread starter mahd776
- Start date
longshot1960
Inactive
Old Army
My 7 1/2" with adj sights will print 1 1/2"-2 1/2" groups at 25 yds, at 800fps.I have found that loading 30 grs 777 FFFg by holding a piece of thin cardboard,[ such as what blister packs are backed up with],and giving it a shake, shrinks the groups. I do the same for each chamber.[One good solid shake] This instead of the tip of your finger gives you a more uniform load.I then place the veg wad [.462 dia. .30 thick], over powder and ram it down to set on top of load. Then I seat the ball and compress.I do not use any lube over ball. From what I understand, this is to help lube the bore when shooting dry burning powders more than preventing cross fires. More so in the Rugers because of the safety notch between each chamber. Ignition usually jumps at the nipple end. 777 shoots very wet. This stuff seems to make water!! Using the wad is sort of insurance to prevent the ignition of the other chambers and more importantly keeping the powder evenly compressed. I have been reloading cased cartridges for almost 20 yrs now and by taking the same ideals of consistant and uniform loads equal accuracy to the BP pays off. I really can't complain about grps like this using round balls. I bought a Lee connicle 220 grn .456 dia. mold about a month ago, and am waiting to cast in order see what is possible with these. From what I have read in various publications, The OAs prefer the .456-.457 bullets.
My 7 1/2" with adj sights will print 1 1/2"-2 1/2" groups at 25 yds, at 800fps.I have found that loading 30 grs 777 FFFg by holding a piece of thin cardboard,[ such as what blister packs are backed up with],and giving it a shake, shrinks the groups. I do the same for each chamber.[One good solid shake] This instead of the tip of your finger gives you a more uniform load.I then place the veg wad [.462 dia. .30 thick], over powder and ram it down to set on top of load. Then I seat the ball and compress.I do not use any lube over ball. From what I understand, this is to help lube the bore when shooting dry burning powders more than preventing cross fires. More so in the Rugers because of the safety notch between each chamber. Ignition usually jumps at the nipple end. 777 shoots very wet. This stuff seems to make water!! Using the wad is sort of insurance to prevent the ignition of the other chambers and more importantly keeping the powder evenly compressed. I have been reloading cased cartridges for almost 20 yrs now and by taking the same ideals of consistant and uniform loads equal accuracy to the BP pays off. I really can't complain about grps like this using round balls. I bought a Lee connicle 220 grn .456 dia. mold about a month ago, and am waiting to cast in order see what is possible with these. From what I have read in various publications, The OAs prefer the .456-.457 bullets.
Every day a new theory...
I look forward every day to reading the forums - learn something new every time.
I look forward every day to reading the forums - learn something new every time.
This one I can't quite get my head around - shaking a thin piece of cardboard shrinks your groups? As opposed to shaking the tip of your finger? Somehow I don't have the whole picture here.I have found that loading 30 grs 777 FFFg by holding a piece of thin cardboard,[ such as what blister packs are backed up with],and giving it a shake, shrinks the groups. I do the same for each chamber.[One good solid shake] This instead of the tip of your finger gives you a more uniform load.
I don't understand. Do you mean to say that the Ruger safety notch creates a condition in which "cross fires" are more likely to occur than in other bp revolver designs, and that using a lubed wad mitigates that condition somehow? Do you have some data supporting the claim "ignition usually jumps at the nipple end" (I'm looking for data here, not anecdotes)?I do not use any lube over ball. From what I understand, this is to help lube the bore when shooting dry burning powders more than preventing cross fires. More so in the Rugers because of the safety notch between each chamber. Ignition usually jumps at the nipple end.
I've been shooting 777 for years and never noticed this. What should I be looking for - water in the bore or chamber?777 shoots very wet. This stuff seems to make water!!
longshot1960
Inactive
Ruger Old Army
Using a rigid surface over the spout helps to keep the charge consitant. The pressure of your finger can vary and human skin is elastic. Also sweat on your hands can allow powder to stick to it, again not allowing you to get consitant charges.The back of a Ruger has safety notches in it allowing you to load 6 chambers. You drop the hammer into these notches, in case you drop it ,the hammer is in a safe mode away from a loaded chamber. The notches also act as a spark dam giving more protection in case a cap adajacient to the chamber fired comes loose or falls off completely. If you have the projectiles sized right, .457 for the ruger.You should notice the ring of lead that is cut off when seating the ball.This forms a very good seal.It would be very hard for any spark to get by. AS for the moisture produced with 777 FFFg. I shoot through a muffler I built using 2- 55 gallon drums connected end to end. A 8" round pc of pipe runs down the center with 250 square ft of fiberglass insulation packed in the drums. This is mounted to the outside of my block garage. I cut 1/2 block out of wall and made a sleeve to connect the muffler . When shooting through the muffler, it eliminates the high velosity crack that is pressent when you hit mach 1 the speed of sound. That is what makes this ear splitting crack. Breaking the sound barrier. When I fire my BP Ruger through the tube there is quite a bit of moisture present in the tube. You can check with Hodgdon on this, I think it is this way by design.I don't claim to be any kind of expert on shooting these great revolvers. These are just a few things I have noticed. Everyone should load in a fashion they feel that is safe.
Using a rigid surface over the spout helps to keep the charge consitant. The pressure of your finger can vary and human skin is elastic. Also sweat on your hands can allow powder to stick to it, again not allowing you to get consitant charges.The back of a Ruger has safety notches in it allowing you to load 6 chambers. You drop the hammer into these notches, in case you drop it ,the hammer is in a safe mode away from a loaded chamber. The notches also act as a spark dam giving more protection in case a cap adajacient to the chamber fired comes loose or falls off completely. If you have the projectiles sized right, .457 for the ruger.You should notice the ring of lead that is cut off when seating the ball.This forms a very good seal.It would be very hard for any spark to get by. AS for the moisture produced with 777 FFFg. I shoot through a muffler I built using 2- 55 gallon drums connected end to end. A 8" round pc of pipe runs down the center with 250 square ft of fiberglass insulation packed in the drums. This is mounted to the outside of my block garage. I cut 1/2 block out of wall and made a sleeve to connect the muffler . When shooting through the muffler, it eliminates the high velosity crack that is pressent when you hit mach 1 the speed of sound. That is what makes this ear splitting crack. Breaking the sound barrier. When I fire my BP Ruger through the tube there is quite a bit of moisture present in the tube. You can check with Hodgdon on this, I think it is this way by design.I don't claim to be any kind of expert on shooting these great revolvers. These are just a few things I have noticed. Everyone should load in a fashion they feel that is safe.
longshot1960
Inactive
Ruger Old Army
After rereading my earlier post about the likelyhood of a crossfire in the ROA, I used the term ''more'' Where LESS should have been used. This concerns the safety notches being a design that helps prevent this event. sorry for any confusion.
After rereading my earlier post about the likelyhood of a crossfire in the ROA, I used the term ''more'' Where LESS should have been used. This concerns the safety notches being a design that helps prevent this event. sorry for any confusion.