Ruger Old Army Fixed Sights

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Dwave has done a lot with lube pills and he should jump in on this one but until he does I'll tell you that the pill is a mixture of crisco,beeswax and some guys add parafin. The mixture is heated in a double boiler and poured out on a cookie sheet left to harden and then cut with a round plugger to the approx. cal. your shooting.
 
Another way would be to aquire an aluminum or brass tube or pipe with the same inside diameter as the caliber you are shooting. Put a ear plug in one end and pour the mixture while still hot into the other end and let air cool. Use a wooden dowel rod to push it out thus giving you a "stick". Take a razor blade and cut to appropriate thickness.
 
SS, That is non-sence! You are not supposed to remain clean when shooting BP guns!

Getting crud all over your face, hands and garments is half the fun, and will impress all the women in your life! They just love the scent of a man, smelling like burnt sulfer and covered in black streaks!

When I come home my wife looks like this :what: I can tell she is swooning and spilling over with joy each time! :barf:
 
Lube pills are a mixture of Crisco or tallow,beeswax and sometimes parafin. The objective is to increase the melting point of the mixture to a point were you can make an easy to use tablet. The % of each ingredient varies with the temperature, what works in Alaska would be goo in Florida.
 
I got lucky and found some 100% wool at the fabric shop today. I picked up a 7 1/16" punch at harbor freight and went at punching disks. I made up this above mention mixture and soaked a couple hundered of the wool disks in it and let them cool.

Poor Mans Wonder Wads!! :)
 
There ya go.. Is this wool semi rugged stuff, or a looser blanket weave? Wool felt is like a hat made of wool. cowboy hats that are cheaper are made of wool felt, while the good one costing a good buck to by the way are still made of beaver felt.

I doubt a loose weave is a bad thing, since these appear to be going on top of the load, rather than under it, which I find interesting, but don't see any harm looking forward. If you discover any sing out!


I like creative thinking and you seem to be good at it.
 
The 100% wool I found is semi-rugged I guess you would call it. Actually I layed out the wool material and lightly spread a thin coating of white glue across half of it and then folded the other half over on top of it. Thus doubling the thickness to just over 1/8" thick. I have some wonder wads here and the wool material I made has the same consistency of wonder wads after punching the disks out of it.

These will just be seated on top of the powder and under the ball. I was a little creative when it came to making up this wool but most of the credit goes to members of this forum for getting me started with alot of great ideas!
 
I think the word Fulling is when you boil wool which shrinks it and builds a thickness at the same time. If you can cut a 6x6 out from what you have you might try that. You can expect to find a smaller hunk of wool but it will be somewhat thicker.

Did you get a designer color? Inquiring minds need ta' know! LOL
 
Uh oh CRS strikes... I got you confused with another guy rolling his own in ciggy butt papers, so figured the wool was a top seal and lube over the paper cat'ridge
 
Macmac, Lube pills are actually a mixture of Crisco, beeswax, and in the warmer climates parrifin. Poured out on a cookie sheet and using a punch of proper size punch out 1/8" thick pills. The formula has a lot of wiggle room to allow for where you hunt and shoot and the average temperature there. In Alaska one could get away with Crisco and beeswax. In the South and Southwest you might need to add parrifin to keep it from becoming gooy in you shooting bag.
 
Here is the complete project from this morning of making the Poor Man's Wonder Wads as described in another post. A mixture of 1 part parrafin - 1 part crisco - 1/2 part beeswax.

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Since the lube is the same color of the wool disks it's hard to see the lube on the disks but it is there.
 
Ahh I make lube like that in sticks, but never used it as a pill. I set a hunk in a candy tin lid. Set that over a candle and soak cast slugs to fill the recesses in the base made to hold lube. Then I move the tin off the heat and allow the lube to set up.

The same can be done with wads.. I don't use common candle wax though and mainly use sheep tallow, and bee's wax. Any oils are reneder oils from beef with little to no salts, bea oils, racoon oils, all rendered to be oil and not grease.

The way I make these oils is add them to water in a pan and boil it a while. Crap tends to sink, and once cooled the oil remains on top of the grease which is clean and white. With a butter knife I make an opening in the grease to pour the water out, and the oil moves slow enough to be spooned off before I pour the water. You get oils in amounts related to how much fat and grease you used.

Hamburger oils seem as good, so long as it isn't rancid before you start. In that case I can use a common food can like peas come in, full of grease, with maybe as much water in the pan, and get enough oils to run a sea shell and moss wick lamp. I use these oils to flux casting lead as well.

There is some smell and I seem to ge hungery doing this...
 
Yes it is real 100% wool. They had some wool that was partially synthetic so I didn't bother with it. I purchased it at a shop here called Joann's Fabrics. I would highly recommend !00% wool and no exceptions. I would be afraid that a synthetic type might melt down the barrel leaving a tough mess to clean out.

I could only find this in 1/16" thickness so I spread a light coat of white glue on half the material using a putty knife and folded it over and laid some heavy boxes on it till it dried. Thus giving me the needed 1/8" thickness.
 
I found a little trick by experimenting. I stirred all the wool disks in the mixture till they were fully absored and dry and then let them set for a while. Now that they were all full of the mixture and dry I repeated the process of soaking and stirring them again. This created a nice outer coating on them insuring good lubing propertys when sent down the barrel.

Be sure to only put enough of the melted mixture into your tuna can that will be absorbed by the wool disks. If they are still to dry then add a little more. Just try not to get to much in there.

Another tip I read is you can get one of those lids that seal a cat food can and place it on the tuna can for carrying these to the range. :)
 
straight-shooter,

That guy is selling two more on gunbroker. He is using the same picture, which he claims is a stock photo. When you get it, let me know if the grips are rosewood or walnut. Most are rosewood, but there's a different seller on gunbroker selling one with walnut grips.
 
Pancho,

The ROA grip frame is very Colt-ish. It it slightly fatter than the original Colt grip frame but approximately the same length. The ROA is a rough mix of the Remington Old Army (the frame), the Colt Navy (the grip), and the Whitney Revolver (the loading lever). The loading lever also looks a bit like the Rogers & Spencer lever.
 
SS, Track down candy in tins. Most of the tins are round and the lid is raised a little. Health stores sometimes have a :"film" type tin 8mm movie style I guess.

If you find any oval tins with raised lids and a steel bottom, well those are mine, err I wish they were....

I use these for many things and end up giving a good many away. I make flint and steel sets and like to include charr, jute, flint, and a little hunk of touch wood. So the tins are a part.

These tins with a hunk of charred shelf fungas can be used to save lives as a body warmer. I have given many away in that use too. Places like Lac du St. Sacrement, known to you guys as Lake George in NY is one of my mid Oct play grounds, and we tend to get ice in the bucket weatha' there then.

Might be a good idea to run that burn test too... Just to be sure. Some clerks don't know squat about what they are selling. Just try to get air plane dope!

All that really is is a alcohol base laquer, but to ask for any gets more unwanted attention that you might believe!
 
Macmac, I know exactly the tins your speaking of. Great idea, I'll pick up a few next time I'm at the store. This way I could just dedicate the can I'm using for lubing.

Riot Earp, I received the gun yesterday and the grips are rosewood. Perfect transaction from that dealer on GunBroker.

I had planned on taking this Ruger out today to the range but alas we received 8" of snow with another addition of 5" coming today and another 4 to 6 tonight. UGH, guess this quest will have to wait. Not to mention I'm a truck driver and I have a severely busy day tomorrow at work because of everyone wanting their freight after the holidays. I'm starting to understand why when people retire they move south!
 
Okay, thank you. I'm corresponding with that seller right now regarding an identical gun.
 
Well, I took the Ruger Old Army out to the range today for it's intial firing. I used a paper cartridge containing 25gr FFFg & 5gr of filler topped with one of my homemade lubed wads and a .457 Hornady round ball. I used the No. 11 CCI magnum primers.

The reason for using paper cartridges today was because my powder flask has not arrived in the mail yet. I didn't have to poke a hole through the bottom of the paper catridge which was nice. Loading the paper cartridges was fast and seemless then topped with the wad and pressed in the ball.

At 25 yards freehand my first shot hit the bull dead center but from there on out I was hitting about 2" low and 1 1/2" right. All remaining shots grouped in this fashion but kept about a 2" group. I may try a hotter load next time to see if that will bring up the shot a tad higher.

No mis-fires at all and everything went as planned. Certainly a very fun gun to shoot.

Monday my powder flask measure will arrive in the mail so I may skip making the paper cartridges or I may not. I'll try loading with the flask at the range and see how I like that. It will require a tad bit more time I'm sure but I won't be picking paper out of the cylinders from time to time. The only draw back I found to paper cartridges.

Anyone care to comment about loading slightly hotter to bring the shot up about 2" ?
 
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