The RUGER OLD ARMY Club

[Tallbald]

OK. A happy story of an Old Army coming back home. Will try to keep it shorter than I posted on another fine forum. Back in early spring , my loving wife and I found ourselves in need of a little extra money to buy her insulin and pay car insurance. We live on retirement and a little savings, and she is in the "doughnut hole" on medicare paying toward her medicines. Despite her protests, I put up one of my three stainless ROA's. This one was a pre-billboard 1978ish beauty I had given a high polish to remove years of tiny scratches. It sold quickly on consignment at a LGS, and the $500 it brought helped a lot.
Monday of this week my wife and I visited the LGS again to browse and say hello. In the case was a beautifully polished ROA stainless that I asked to see, and sure enough it was my old gun. The tag was $515 plus tax, and although my loving wife said "Don buy it back!" I declined, even though we have since payed off a hospital bill and built up some savings. She urged me again at home, so I caved in and called to offer $500 out the door and it was accepted. The beautiful thing is that the fella who bought my ROA, enjoyed it and traded it back in, had fitted the gun with a beautiful set of Altamont imitation ivory grips that some wonderfully talented artist had scrimshaw ornamented in a period motif. The "S" on the grip is also my initial. The gun also has its original walnut Ruger grips from 78 I sold it with and with the gun came a rather basic hand made made holster.
So happy to have the ROA back. My wife says the "S" on the scrimshaw grips means this whole situation was meant to happen. Thanks for looking. Don

 

[Tallbald]

Anyone here have a photo of a bead front sighted ROA?

I may have asked a similar question long ago, but am not sure. I wish the front sight on my ROA's was a drilled and tapped ramp like on Single Sixes. I could adapt any number of bead front sights from other guns to my ROA's. I guess I just need to keep brain storming. Thank you. Don

 

[Patocazador]

You came out ahead on that deal. Very odd that a dealer takes a "beating" on a gun. Extra grips, same amount of $$ but inflation has made the original $500 worth more in buying power. Big thumbs up!

 

[jannas1258]

Ruger old army club

My ruger old army with african wild olive wood grips and holster I made.

 

[Tallbald]

Patocazodor I think the difference is that I sold on consignment giving him 10 percent of my selling price, but he took it back in on trade probably at some less than 90 percent of his selling price. Just my guess, but I doubt he simply traded money because the shop is a fair but strong business. Either way, I'm quite happy to have Larry back. I had named my three ROA's Moe, Larry and Curly. Don

 

[Patocazador]

How come Larry was curly-headed and Curly was bald? One of life's mysteries.

 

[Tallbald]

I suppose for the same reason we park on the driveway and drive on the parkway. And have "Jumbo shrimp".

 

[toolslinger]

Jannas nice rig and grips. Tallbald congrats on getting your lost piece back.

 

[whughett]

OK. A happy story of an Old Army coming back home. Will try to keep it shorter than I posted on another fine forum. Back in early spring , my loving wife and I found ourselves in need of a little extra money to buy her insulin and pay car insurance. We live on retirement and a little savings, and she is in the "doughnut hole" on medicare paying toward her medicines. Despite her protests, I put up one of my three stainless ROA's. This one was a pre-billboard 1978ish beauty I had given a high polish to remove years of tiny scratches. It sold quickly on consignment at a LGS, and the $500 it brought helped a lot.
Monday of this week my wife and I visited the LGS again to browse and say hello. In the case was a beautifully polished ROA stainless that I asked to see, and sure enough it was my old gun. The tag was $515 plus tax, and although my loving wife said "Don buy it back!" I declined, even though we have since payed off a hospital bill and built up some savings. She urged me again at home, so I caved in and called to offer $500 out the door and it was accepted. The beautiful thing is that the fella who bought my ROA, enjoyed it and traded it back in, had fitted the gun with a beautiful set of Altamont imitation ivory grips that some wonderfully talented artist had scrimshaw ornamented in a period motif. The "S" on the grip is also my initial. The gun also has its original walnut Ruger grips from 78 I sold it with and with the gun came a rather basic hand made made holster.
So happy to have the ROA back. My wife says the "S" on the scrimshaw grips means this whole situation was meant to happen. Thanks for looking. Don

Proof that the lord does smile on the righteous.

 

[jannas1258]

old army club

Thanx toolslinger, would really like some stag grips but completely unavailable over here. I did manage to buy a very nice full flap holster from a gentleman in Ohio. Does anyone know of a source that would ship a 45LC converter cylinder to South Africa?

 

[jannas1258]

Ruger Old Army conversion 45LC cylinder

Hi,
Does anyone know of a source that would ship a stainless 45LC conversion cylinder to South Africa???

 

[Patocazador]

www.midwayusa.com sells them. I don't know if they will ship to So. Africa.

Stag grips should be available from India (sambar). There's a large Indian population in Durban and you may be able to score the raw material there. I know it's not around the corner but placing some inquiries won't hurt.

 

[ClemBert]

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

Welcome BullSlinger and jannas1258!

 

[wkfg]

My guess is that I would qualify, Purchased around 1989.

 

[rockdc]

My 7 1/2" 1977 ROA inherited from my uncle Pete 15 years ago. Got it filthy again today, and shot some decent holes in some paper plate targets with RBs. Last plate is 6 balls into 5 holes. I've got the loading thing down; now it's time to streamline the cleaning process.

I'll get pics up of my 2 more recent, unfired (for now) 5 1/2" fixed sight beauties.





Amazing thread by the way; lots of info and quite a bunch of knowledgeable folks here! Oh and some great ROA pics too!

rockdc

 

[rockdc]

Thankfully I'm a better shooter than a photographer.

rockdc

 

[BullSlinger]

rockdc, very nice guns. I too suffer from lack of photo-ability.

 

[Patocazador]

The "Cisco Kid" there looks like he could be in trouble.

 

[ClemBert]

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

Welcome wkfg and rockdc!

 

[jannas1258]

rockdc very nice guns, nothing wrong with the picture!!! Like the grip on the blue Ruger, is it factory or aftermarket and what wood is that?? Got some new cocobolo grips for my ROA today from a guy in Costa Rica that trades on ebay, very nice with a super gloss finish that he puts on them and for $20 I think it's a steal.

 

[rockdc]

Jannas,

Thanks! I don't know what wood that is, but those are the nicest of my 3 sets of grips.

Now I'm off to ebay to find he guy you mentioned.

 

[rockdc]

what size Lubrisizer die?

abitnutz; I pulled up this old post of yours (#767), and I'm looking at casting some of those hollow point and flat point DD-ROA FLAT Big Lube LLC 210 grain bullets. There are plenty of options in dies from RCBS; which is right for the ROA? And, is it the same size for "in the cylinder" loading as well as for in a 45 LC cartridge, since a Kirst Konverter is also next on my list? Thanks, by the way, for all of your super informative posts!

I never really looked for conical bullets at the big box gun stores. They never jumped out of me so they really may not have them. I bought some "buffalo" brand bullets on line but I think they may be gone now. Even so, they were crazy expensive but were really nicely made and quite accurate

I always cast my own now but when I first got my ROA I wasn't sure how much I would shoot it, so I bought them on line.
Track of the Wolf has some. And if you got to BigLube.com, he lists several casters of his bullets http://www.biglube.com/Links.aspx

Now, my all time favorite load is a "DD-ROA FLAT Big Lube®LLC 210 grain six cavity mold for ROA" that I had half the cavities converted to Hollow Point by HP Mold service. Eric from HP Mold Service, he sends along some nose punches that lets you use an RCBS type lubrisizer.

So, just mail order them from the list.....

But all of that plus the lead pot requires true commitment.

One last word of advice, if you haven't found this out yet...you'll need a loader. Loading conical bullets with a ram on the gun isn't pracical

 

[rockdc]

grip switch time on the 2 safe queens ( not for long)

 

[AbitNutz]

So here's an interesting thing about the ROA when you use a cylinder conversion like the Kirst. (I like the Kirst best..just my preference).

The ROA barrel is at .452. The ROA cylinder is .4525+or-.005. The Kirst cylinder is the same, .4525+or-.005.

However, in the ROA cylinder, you size your soft lead bullet to .454-5 (I size to .455). It will swage down to the exact cylinder size and work peachy. If you cast too hard an alloy, you have fits forcing it in the cylinder, put strain on the ram and generally mangle the bullet trying to get it in.

Using the Kirst cylinder, you size to .452 with harder lead. You don't need to swage it into the cylinder as it's going in a cartridge case. In revolver cartridges it's best to size the bullet to the cylinder throat diameter or some say, .001 over. Thank god the ROA and Kirst cylinders are sized to the barrel ID!

You can come to grief on revolvers that have mismatched barrel ID's and throat diameters. I have an 8-3/8" S&W 25-5 in 45LC. The barrel ID is .452 and the cylinder throats are .458! If you size to .452 it will shoot just about anywhere except where you aim it. If you size to .458 it will lead the barrel from back to front almost immediately and accuracy quickly falls to horseshoe pitching levels. The half-a$$ed thing that sorta works is sizing to .455 with super hard, pure linotype, water quenched bullets. I finally found another cylinder that was at .452 and wonder of wonders...it shoots very nicely.

I hope this helps...your mileage may vary...

 

[rockdc]

so...., I really need a .452 and a .454 lubri-sizer die from RCBS? I don't see anything at .455.

https://shop.rcbs.com/WebConnect/Ma...CategoryDisplay&categoryId=C12J060&route=.C12