Ruger Old Army ????

[older than dirt]

I have a ROA BP revolver, & it miss fires some of the caps sometimes & I have to cycle around & hit them again to fire them. I`m using Remington #10`s. I think the problem is from the way Ruger desined the hammer fall not to hit the nipples. Does anyone else have this problem, or is my gun , or should I be using differant caps? By the way, I use these #10`s on my other BP 44`s & never have any problems with them. Thanks in advance.

[Johnny P]

I fired one for many years and never had a problem as long as I used No. 11 caps. The cap needs to fully seat on the nipple for proper ignition.

[Doug Rammel]

You may need new nipples.

[older than dirt]

Gun is new-old 1973 never fired until I got it just recently. I went out & bought a tin of #11 caps today. Going to the range tomar & will find out if the #10 caps were my problems. Thanks for the imput.

[Johnny P]

The Ruger Old Army doesn't damage the nipples, as the hammer likes a few thousandths touching the nipple. It can be safely dry fired without damaging the nipples.

[dogtag]

Maybe a weak spring ? I use 11s on all my guns including the ROA
I tried 10s [only on the Ruger] but found they didn't seat well.

[oscars]

I got a set of both 26 and 28 lb springs from Wolf - seemed to cure the problem of misfires on my ROA. Also seat each cap with the erase end of a pencil.

[mousegun]

The Ruger Old Army doesn't damage the nipples, as the hammer likes a few thousandths touching the nipple. It can be safely dry fired without damaging the nipples.
I've got one that does touch the nipples. I checked it after reading that it's supposed to clear the nipple ends by .005" or so. I have two cylinders and the hammer touches both, but not by very much and I doubt there will be any serious damage from dry firing. My ROA and extra cylinder was purchased in 2005-2006 time frame, so I think it may be a case of "drifting specs".

And no, this revolver has no problem with misfires.

[Johnny P]

Yours indeed has a problem.

DRY-FIRING: Going through the actions of cocking, aiming, and pulling the trigger of an unloaded gun is known as “Dry Firing.” It can be useful to learn the “feel” of your revolver. Be certain the revolver is unloaded and that the gun is pointing in a safe direction even when practicing by dry-firing. The Ruger Old Army can be dry-fired without damage to the firing components.

[musketshooter]

Even number 11 caps need to be firmly seated on the nipples or they will misfire. Number 10s are not the correct size for a
ruger.

[imarelic]

I've got a ROA that was made right around the same time period as yours. Prior to me acquiring it last fall, it had sat in a drawer since it was new. The hammer was very stiff to cock and was very slow to fall. There's no way it could've fired a cap. I disassembled (Same as a Ruger Blackhawk BTW) and found that everything including the mainspring, was packed with a redish amber, Ruger factory grease, that had mostly solidified! It took a lot of soaking and cleaning to get that stuff removed. Now with new lubricants, it works perfectly. Might be worth a look inside of yours. It's hard to believe that these are old as they are now.

[older than dirt]

Thanks everyone for the info feed on my problem. I only use Remington #11 caps now & have no more misfires.