Double ball loads in a Ruger Old Army
by Paul 
, Tuesday, June 20, 2023, 08:49 (521 days ago)
Have any of y'all played with double ball loads in a Ruger Old Army or other cap and ball revolver? I was just cogitating on this and trying to remember 30 year+ old memories of when I DID play with it briefly. That got me to wondering if anyone else from this forum has tried it. If you HAVE tried it, what kind of results did you get?
Double ball loads in a Ruger Old Army
by Slow Hand 
, Indiana, Tuesday, June 20, 2023, 10:02 (521 days ago) @ Paul
If I have it’s been years but I do remember loading them in .45 Colt. Something I read in a Venturino article back in the late 90’s and had to try out. I remember them doing ok, hitting 2-3” apart at fairly close range. I think I put a lubed Winder Was between the two of them. You could also roll them in liquid alox and let them dry before loading. The good thing about the Colt brass is you can crimp the front ball at the case mouth. They really delivered a 1-2 punch to bowling pins but weren’t ‘technically’ legal for our local CAS matches where we often shot bowling pins so I didn’t load many of them up and haven’t since.
Double ball loads in a Ruger Old Army
Yes.....and there is no quicker way to get kicked-off/out of a percussion pistol/revolver social media group than either mentioning that you had done it or asking if anybody else had done it. The moderators and "experts" there like to cite the walker's colts high rate of burst cylinder catastrophic failures. But, like already mentioned, if a double ball is safe from a revolver cartridge then it should be safe from a front-loading revolver.
The following should be safe with true black and perhaps pyrodex but most certainly would amount to too much compression for safety with H 777.
There is room in a belt "army" colt (guappo facsimile) for a .440" under a preflattened .451" over a standard navy charge. There is room in a dragoons colt for two .451" over a normal "army" charge without too much rammer effort. The walker is the most double-ball co-operative allowing room for wadding.
As for suitable chargers think spent cases....38 special in the first instance, .44 special in the second and .44 mag. worked-up to .45 colt in the third. Since the excellent r.o.a. is betwixt the belt and dragoon in terms of cylinder length and capacity then I would start with the .44 special first with hopes of the volume from a magnum case being possible.
B.T.W., mentioning using spent cartridges as blackpowder chargers will get you castigated/censured/banned from social networking as well. Dunno exactly why.....
P.S.
My first try at a double-ball percussion revolver load was a .38 s&w (not spl.) case full of fff under two .440" balls bare of cloth or paper windage fattening and topped with a .460" card to hold everything back. Three closely spaced holes near the center of a pizza box at twenty paces. Obviously the wad made one of the holes. Question is, did it stay perched on top of foremost ball a!l of the way or did it come-in a distant third ?
Ray, You won't have any issues here writing about your -
by Rob Leahy , Prescott, Arizona, Friday, June 23, 2023, 09:40 (518 days ago) @ RayLee
experiences. That sounds interesting. The Ruger Old Army is plenty strong and roomy for that. Double Tap Ammo loads .357, 10mm, 44 mag double ball loads.
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