The RUGER OLD ARMY Club

[Eights]

I've started making phone calls to parts and machine shops. I think I want a backup either way.

The base pin is surprisingly easy to bend. Here's how you do it:
- Forget to turn the base pin retention bolt to the "closed" position after cleaning
- Take a group of scouts shooting shortly before sunset
- fill chambers with powder as per usual
- Attempt to seat a ball with the retention bolt in the "open" position

The force from the .457 ball will lift the base pin slightly, and the excess pressure you exert when the ball doesn't seat will easily bend the pin. At least it easily bent mine. I stopped before I caused too much damage, and the gun is still functional. We continued to shoot that night, even though I felt sick about it. The pin no longer slides in and out of the frame easily, and the slotted section that connects to the loading lever is not parallel with respect to the barrel. It will be easy enough to tap true, but I'm still going to find another base pin. Both my ROAs are stainless. One target, one fixed/polished. There isn't a gun that I own (or know of) that I enjoy shooting more.

 

[robhof]

robhof

Pretty much how mine was bent, except I don't lock mine on purpose, so I can quick change cylinders and continue firing, the pin is held in place by the loading lever, ben doing it that way for 12+ yrs... As I said before. the blued pins come up more often on Ebay and are much cheaper, they can easily and relatively cheaply, be chrome or nickel plated, I have a conversion cylinder that is nickel plated and is over 10 yrs old and still shines like stainless! I do lock mine for hunting as I seldom get to shoot more than one cylinder.

 

[Eights]

For those wondering, Belt mountain has manufactured ROA base pins in both stainless and blued. My bent one is serviceable, but it will be good to have this one as well. Price was $49.95, which is less than some others I stumbled on, and probably more than others have paid.

 

[Timtoolman]

Are the belt mountain pins just for conversion kits or replacement ones for standard factory Ruger Pins?

 

[rodwha]

It does not use the loading lever or plunger/ram. It's just the base pin typically used for conversion cylinders.

 

[SUMIKITO]

Belt Mountain Pins......

The Belt Mountain Pins are for both conversions AND regular cap-and-ball cylinders. However, you can not attach your loading lever to it. It is simply a straight pin with knurling on the tip to facilitate removal or pulling off the pin.

 

[Eights]

I specifically asked for a replacement for the original factory part. I wonder what's going to show up in the mail.

 

[Noz]

I found a Ruger Old Army conical bullet mold on e-bay. I poured 100 or so and decided to do a range test.

Two Ruger Old Armys 7.5", both guns loaded with 6 220 gr conicals. Loaded off gun with cheap loading stand. Powder was Graf FFg. No over ball grease or under wad.

One gun with 22.5 grs (round ball load)

One gun loaded with 33 grs. Had to shave the nose of the bullets so that the cylinder could turn.

All 12 dead center in the steel at 5 yards shot duelist. Loud but not unbearable.

No Hu-haw. Not competition loads because there is enough recoil to raise the gun above normal line of sight with both loads.

Either load would be comfortable all day.

Loading is a pain in the butt. Each bullet must be wiggled into the chamber until it reaches the first lube groove then it can be rammed home. I think it would be a real bear loading on the gun.

30 grains of powder would be useable as a social or hunting load.

The mold will go onto my curiosity satisfied shelf.

 

[kdmmcc]

Any luck in finding someone to make some base pins?

 

[SUMIKITO]

Any machinist worth his salt can make a perfect copy of a Ruger Old Army base pin. Just take your original to him. A car engine machinist is well equipped to do such a simple job........... Lesson to be learned here: Always tighten your lug nuts before you drop the jack !!

 

[Noz]

Dressed up my ROAs with an Indianhead Penny inlet into the grips.

 

[bushpilotmexico]

My 1973 ROA

Just bought this 1973 ROA and appears to be in decent shape considering it's age.

 

[straight-shooter]

Anyone here know the approximate value of a 1994 production blued 7 1/2" ROA with box and manual? I have one in 98% condition I'm considering letting go of. Only 50 rds fired.

 

[Eights]

ROA Base Pin Replacement

I got the ROA replacement base pin from Belt Mountain. It fits perfectly, and it is a quality replacement for the factory base pin. Kelye at Belt Mountain has these in both blued and stainless. He mentioned that he makes them himself. Price was just under $50. I'd recommend it to anyone.

 

[kdmmcc]

Eights,
The Belt Mountain base pin, is it a replacement you can attach loading lever to?
Thanks

 

[Eights]

kdmmcc,

The base pin I received is just like the factory part. Loading lever attaches, etc. I double-checked with Kelye about three times just to make sure, as he does not have the standard, factory-style base pin on his website.

 

[Malachi Leviticus Blue]

I may be contemplating selling a couple of guns, and it got me thinking about their values more than I have in a long time. First off there are no ROA's on the list for now, but I do have a 1972 first year example with the flat top front sight. What to you folks think the fact that it is a first year flat top front sight adds to the value? It is not a safe queen, been shot and shows it, but is still respectable. It might be a mute point since the sell price of ROA's seems to be all over the map without any clear consideration of condition etc.
How much extra would you expect to pay to get a flat top front sight?

 

[ClemBert]

Boo! An update....

ROA Club Members:

01. ClemBert 02. Eights 03. kanook 04. [email protected] 05. mykeal
06. adaptandovercome 07. 461 08. junkman_01 09. lonewolf5347 10. rcflint
11. MCgunner 12.madcratebuilder 13. AbitNutz 14. eastbank 15. robert garner
16. philuk44 17. HUnter58 18. arcticap 19. BullRunBear 20. theotherwaldo
21. SC Slowhand 22. Prairie Dawg 23. wittzo 24. Tallbald 25. Smokin_Gun
26. OB One 27. jungle 28. plumbernater 29. daveinvegas 30. JanZ
31. George Mabry 32. Benmathes 33. Loosenock 34. higene 35. Rock Island
36. Erich 37. robhof 38. J-Bar 39. Nomad, 2nd 40. TAURUSBOB
41. martindl99 42. Vermonter 43. wasatch 44. fogg64 45. BConklin
46. Howdy Doody 47. bushrod2 48. rdstrain49 49. FirinFlatTop 50. rem1858
51. straight-shooter 52. edorfox 53. KevininPa 54. Ringo1234 55. pohill
56. The Don 57. jeepcoma 58. Dave Markowitz 59. Chazz 60. andrewstorm
61. Steel Wheels 62. Legionnaire 63. NineMilePete 64. 94RUGER 65. Acorn Mush
66. R.Ganister 67. Boom-stick 68. Buddy 69. Ghost Dog 70. BML
71. Cult of 1858 72. Jaymo 73. bigbore442001 74. Engineer Bill 75. azyogi
76. Dr. Leaky 77. Clermont 78. Indy4570 79. ozarkguy 80. Plastikosmd
81. mrdo1 82. bax504 83. Constrictor 84. BC Mosaic 85. clepidus
86. did 87. gunboat57 88. Malachi Leviticus Blue 89. Blue Hill 90. Power Keg
91. SUMIKITO 92. ChasMack 93. Larry Flett 94. RugerShawn 95. tdperry
96. Rettech 97. renoman 98. tk1971 99. Curator 100. Dan Carey
101. Old No7 102. Muddydogs 103. Oldnamvet 104. 6.5x55swedish 105. crazysccrmd
106. Jim, West PA 107. rodwha 108. Varmiter 109. Indian Outlaw 110. Patocazador
111. Fingers McGee 112. h0use 113. Huntingsaddles 114. GregP42 115. esims
116. Doak 117. BubbaGoose 118. FreddyKruger 119. Calvados 120. ruger357
121. wap41 122. DurangoKid 123. Yamavira 124. Onty 125. 4speed
126. legend 550 127. bri1462 128. regniflow 129. CageDodger 130. HPBroker
131. mattusmc45 132. 303 133. Jersey Joe 134. Psycho 135. Cast of One
136. sammass 137. jgray 138. bothenook 139. keybuck 140. davepool
141. whitetailbob 142. eddie56 143. wklaus 144. cane 145. dickydalton
146. Sumika 147. woodnbow 148. DMZ 149. white smoke 150. karlthev
151. The-Reaver 152. Beetle-Bailey 153. cwo2lt 154. snakeman 155. BHP FAN
156. grter 157. aHFo3 158. Joe Meyer 159. Wild Tom Hipshot 160. mntns2oceans
161. Btc624 162. kendak 163. pardiniman 164. d-a 165. toolslinger
166. imforguns 167. EmGeeGeorge 168. MRRAGPICKER 169. ALJS 170. Nelg_Kir
171. Head Space 172. mbpennin 173. blfuller 174. gifford 175. BullSlinger
176. jannas1258 177. wkfg 178. rockdc 179. Nite Ryder 180. AmateurSharpshooter
181. fossil 182. rclark 183. Arganoc 184. sword14 185. Chili_pepper917
186. Rodman579 187. avatarshots 188. BowerR64 189. raa-7 190. Aaron871
191. F171 192. adkmountainken 193. The long rider 194. 45 Dragoon 195. lentuk
196. gmaster805 197. T.Horn 198. Flatbush Harry 199. IansROA 200. Shoknaw
201. Halger280HVMag 202. Florida Cherokee 203. conder0289 204. Doc Pecos 205. cowboyyyy
206. ghfljf 207. Scubadale 208. Crisisbill 209. Offthehook 210. xxmaa
211. CabofDoom 212. whughett 213. NoWin 214. felixmophandle 215. wf4933
216. WillaminaOR 217. Two Gun Pete 218. ambrotype 219. blee0360 220. OzRed
221. yugorpk 222. Stukadriver 223. Texas Moon 224. Kulot 225.cyberrman
226. Erwan 227. dsiddens 228. Timtoolman 229. Sunbird 230. 1861Navy
231. baronwolff 232. S.B. 233. moparclan 234. stewbud 235. The_one
236. Noz 237. bushpilotmexico

Welcome stewbud, The_one, Noz, bushpilotmexico!

 

[4v50 Gary]

This is not a for sale forum and I am not selling anything. However, as a service I'm sharing the information that there's a fellow at the Firing Line who is selling a blue NIB ROA for $450.

http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6344476

 

[wap41]

ROA flat top front sights

1st year flat top front sights are quite rare they made less than 800 of them

 

[RogueSniper]

I'm joining the ROA Club! I just recently picked up this little guy. The previous owner, by the looks of it, either dropped in the dirt and proceeded to kick it all the way home or, they dragged it behind a horse! Lots of scuffs, but that'll buff right out; screws where mixed up, pawl plunger & spring are missing, and the loading lever latch spring was squashed, so the loading lever would slip. All minor stuff.
SS frame and Blued Cylinder. Looks like the cylinder was used as a hammer - lots of gouges and scars. Let's just say it's got personality.

 

[J-Bar]

Scared to ask; what does the bore look like?

 

[kBob]

RS,

Looks like a fun way to spend some evenings to me.

Get her going again.

-kBob

 

[moparclan]

Think I bought the twin.

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Cylinder was brand new, bore was not so good.

Used the blue cylinder as a spare and installed a .45 Colt cylinder in it.
Outside had some pitting but cleaned up ok. Haven't tried it yet to see if the pitted barrel will affect accuracy. May part it out for spare parts for the other ROA's I have.
Ruger said they would give me some trade in value toward another pistol.

 

[Patocazador]

Quite a few guys are parting out ROAs because they can make more $$ than selling the gun outright. I bought a never-fired, highly polished ROA minus cylinder and grips for $350. I had spare cylinders and plenty of grips so I just polished the spare cylinder to a high shine and installed it and grips for a "new" ROA.

The seller probably got $200 for the cylinder, ~$40 for the grips, and $350 for the barreled frame. About $540 total. He may have been able to sell the complete gun for that but maybe not.