Double ball loads in a Ruger Old Army

by RayLee, Tuesday, June 20, 2023, 17:02 (521 days ago) @ Paul

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.....