What to do with Old Army with bad barrel

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Psycho

Psycho

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I've got a Ruger Old Army I bought off Gunbroker about a year ago that I'm not sure what to do with. I've had plenty of good transactions on various gunsites with Old Armies but this was my first and only purchase off Gunbroker. As it turned out, what was listed as a gun with a "strong bore" had a very dark beginning and end to the barrel that a good scrubbing found was completely corroded. I didn't discover this for weeks after receiving it (my son was in the hospital and I was only able to glance at it when it first arrived). I contacted the seller but received no reply (until I finally left negative feedback to which he quickly returned the favor).
Ignoring the longer story associated with the purchase, this gun is currently one of seven Old Armies I have on hand at this time. It's a mildly polished stainless steel 7.5" barrel. Knowing I could never get what I paid for it, I'm struggling to decide what to do with it. Keep it for spare parts for the other guns I have? Use it to fire blanks on New Years? Disassemble and sell the parts separately?
Curious as to thoughts from everyone here.
 
The first thing that popped in my head was getting the barrel relined but I've only ever seen that on a beater .22 not sure if it's an option on larger bore let alone bp

Someone smarter then me will be able to answer this cause I feel like I'm talking out of my hat
 
It would be helpful to know what you paid and what the market value is...

If it was cheap, use it for a wall hanger or even take it to a gun buy back which generally nets about $100.

If it's more expensive part it out or consider having it rebarreled or otherwise fixed.

Or just sell it with full disclaimer to a new buyer to minimize your losses. I've found you maximize your value in a trade for something... heck even non-gun stuff. Maybe a set of new tires, a new appliance like a refrigerator, whatever...

Look on Craigslist... there are always people wanting to barter for guns and gun stuff. Somebody would give that a good home and you could score some great loot in trade.
 
If it's otherwise O.K. I would check with Ruger and see if they would replace the barrel. If the corrosion can't be polished out and is at the muzzle end I'd look into cutting the barrel, replacing the front sight and adjust associated parts for the new length.
 
The real question is... "How does it shoot?"

It might (and probobly does) shoot just fine. Many ugly barrels do.

If so... load it and shoot it and enjoy it.


Willie

.
 
Have you shot it? Some barrels look terrible but give acceptable accuracy. You should prove to yourself whether or not it is functional.

If accuracy is not acceptable, you could replace the barrel. Or you could chop it and make a shopkeeper out of it. The thumbnail is not mine; I copied the photo from another forum just as an example.

Finally, you could probably part it out and make most of your investment back if you need to.

Since you already have other ROAs, I have to ask why you bought this one...were you simply hoping to add a safe queen to the collection, or going to use it in competition?

Edit: Old Fuff and Willie Sutton type faster than I do. I feel like I am in good company!!
 

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Psycho said:
I've got a Ruger Old Army I bought off Gunbroker about a year ago that I'm not sure what to do with. I've had plenty of good transactions on various gunsites with Old Armies but this was my first and only purchase off Gunbroker. As it turned out, what was listed as a gun with a "strong bore" had a very dark beginning and end to the barrel that a good scrubbing found was completely corroded. I didn't discover this for weeks after receiving it (my son was in the hospital and I was only able to glance at it when it first arrived). I contacted the seller but received no reply (until I finally left negative feedback to which he quickly returned the favor).
Ignoring the longer story associated with the purchase, this gun is currently one of seven Old Armies I have on hand at this time. It's a mildly polished stainless steel 7.5" barrel. Knowing I could never get what I paid for it, I'm struggling to decide what to do with it. Keep it for spare parts for the other guns I have? Use it to fire blanks on New Years? Disassemble and sell the parts separately?
Curious as to thoughts from everyone here.
Click to expand...
Have you shot the gun? You might be surprised, just that sick feeling in your stomach of what could be. I've lapped barrels with valve grinding compound and that helps on some occasion.

Aloha....
 
Agreed, it is quite possible that it's more cosmetic than anything.

How far does the corrosion extend at the end of the barrel? If the ugly barrel is as disheartening as it sounds, another idea could be to bore out the end of the barrel to effectively create a false muzzle. Then you won't have to look at an ugly barrel.

Then you can proclaim all kinds of custom barrel performance enhancements at the range ans even scoff at your buds with those less desirable "stock" barrels. ;)
 
Scrub it out and see how it shoots. I usually offer cheap prices for guns like that because of bad resale, but it shoots great.
 
An oddball option would be to have it reamed smooth and use it like a .410 revolver. A forum member did this with a Remington 1858 and liked it.

Were it me I'd look at the other options given (replace barrel, line barrel, or cut barrel).
 
I bought a safe queen from a buddy for cheap cheap because a previous owner had left a cleaning patch in the barrel for years maybe. it left a big dark corrosion ring halfway down the barrel. my buddy was so mad when he discovered the ring that the gun sat in his safe for 5 years. 45 minutes after purchasing it for an embarrassingly small amount of money, a quick scrub with a 45 cal brush, and an oiled patch down the bore, that Old Army printed 6 shots into a ragged single hole at 25 yards, offhand. You won't know how the gun shoots without actually shooting it.
 
I would send it to Ruger in a heartbeat. Their customer service has always been outstanding. You are already in past what you would have done so instead of a dead loss put another ~?$ in at the factory and get back a refreshed ready to play gun.
 
I would send it to Ruger in a heartbeat. Their customer service has always been outstanding. You are already in past what you would have done so instead of a dead loss put another ~?$ in at the factory and get back a refreshed ready to play gun.

The last time I contacted Ruger they told me they had sold all spare parts and
did not work on the Old Army pistol anymore. Unless somebody has new
knowledge sending them to Ruger is not an option. A friend tried to get a new
base pin from Ruger but had to buy an aftermarket pin. If you can prove
Ruger will still work on them let us know.
 
I'd shoot it! Iv'e fired guns that were so pitted, the rifling was almost non existent that shot pretty darn good for a sewer pipe for a barrel. I'm sure it'll shoot just fine. And as others have said, run some JB bore paste through it to get it as smooth as possible first
 
I've read of someone else sending their ROA and getting work done. I don't recall what the problem was, but it was fixed. This was maybe 18 months ago.
 
Great replies everyone. I'll try to answer some of the questions in no particular order. Having several of these guns, this was purchased as part of a collection kick I was on at the time and no specific reason beyond that. The bad area is about the last 3/4" - 1" of the barrel as well as the forcing cone. It's so bad at the end of the barrel that as I scrubbed it with a brush, the metal disappeared and took the rifling with it. All that is left is very large pitting. I have to admit I have not shot the gun to see what it will do. It seemed so destroyed to me I was just didn't have the urge to do any more with it. This is a gun that cost me over $500. I did send it to Ruger but they don't have any replacement barrels left and of course, aren't making any more. Despite all the good things I've heard about them, my experience was less than impressive with them. They did offer to keep the gun and take $100 off any other gun I wanted to purchase directly from them at an inflated price. I also considered sending to David Clements to have the barrel cut down to 5.5" but the horrible forcing cone kind of threw that option out. Perhaps parting it out to recoup what I can might be the thing to do. I won't rule out loading it up and shooting just to see what happens but to give a better idea of it's condition, I'll try to post pictures in the next day or so.
Thanks for all the feedback. I've see requests on here from time to time for a specific part that I could pull off this gun but have just been way to undecided on what i'm going to do with it. It at least looks good on the outside ;)
 
Can you buy a .45 colt Black Hawk barrel (maybe a super long one [my quirk] if they make it ?) and have it fitted to your Old Army. I have heard they used the same barrel. Of course there would be a little extra work to fit parts that accomidate the loading lever.
 
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