Ruger old army and cartridge conversion cylinders

[RWMC]

I have a question for Ruger old army owners who use cartridge conversion cylinders. What is the best bullet diameter to use while making . 45 Colt loads; .452 or. 454? I just purchased a used Ruger old army on Saturday for $250 , And I plan on buying a cartridge conversion cylinder for it in the future. Thank you for the information.

 

[Patocazador]

Ruger says the bore of the ROA is .457". I have used .452 cast bullets mainly because the molds I desired were not available in .454 or larger.

 

[KevininPa]

Holy Crap!

An ROA for $250! What condition if I may ask?

 

[Curator]

Ruger used the same .451-452" groove diameter barrels for the ROA is it did for the Blackhawk. The factory recommended .457 round balls to load the ROA cylinder chambers. Every ROA I have seen shoots quite accurately using the conversion cylinder and standard "Cowboy" .45 Colt loads. The only problem I have with mine is that the rear sight won't adjust down far enough when shooting 255 grain bullets (which shoot about 6" high at 25 yards)

 

[Erwan]

I use a Lyman 452-389 antique since 41 years now and it goes pretty good...

Don't forget that the round bullets in .457" are forced in the cylinder with the lever...

 

[whughett]

My personal experience with loading the 45C for use in my ROA with a R&D conversion required that the bullets be sized to .452. Unsized bullets created a bulge in the 45C cases that prevented them from being fully inserted into the R&D cylinder.

 

[dickydalton]

The Black Dawg 235 grain SPG lubed bullets I was loading yesterday are sized to .452.

 

[45 Dragoon]

Ruger says use .457 balls. It doesn't say the bore is .457.

How about a gated conversion if one were available?

Mike
www.goonsgunworks.com

 

[robhof]

robhof

Curater and anyone using a cartridge cylinder; get yourself a spare rear blade and take a fine file to the range and gently file the top of your rear sight till it runs to where you want it, I have done this with both my ROA's and even to a smaller degree my Blackhawk to get POA at 25yds, my preferred target range with open sighted pistols. You can crank it up for 50yd or 100yd. I also deepened the notch slightly.