While I love looking at and studying old guns, my interest in “antique” firearms is almost purely from the shooter’s perspective.
I don’t own any firearm I can’t shoot – no high dollar collectible wall hangers for me!
When I started working on The Handbook of Modern Percussion Revolvers (from Krause Publications, due out in the fall, Christmas at the latest! – Noah), I decided to focus on replica revolvers of modern manufacture and to write a book for people who enjoy shooting their guns rather than a book for collectors of antique weaponry. With that goal in mind I assembled a collection of pistols that included two specimens of the Ruger Old Army revolver.
The Old Army produced by Sturm, Ruger & Co. is not a copy of any historical revolver. It is a completely modern percussion revolver based on their Blackhawk single action revolver originally introduced in the 1950s. The Old Army is a robust pistol that captured a significant share of the market for black powder target shooters, but it never really achieved much popularity among the general shooting community.
The usual retail price for an Old Army hovered around $350 depending mostly on whether the finish was blued steel or stainless.
The growth of the sport of Cowboy Action Shooting created a new demand for the Old Army. This lead to Ruger offering an expended selection of features and barrel lengths. These new models further depressed the prices of the “standard” models. I picked up a brand new blued Old Army for $250 in 2008, and a used stainless pistol with “Made in the 200th Year of American Liberty” factory stamped on the barrel for $310 in 2010.
In 2012 events altered my fortunes.
Strum Ruger & Co. announced they were ceasing production of all models of the Old Army, and shortly after that my home was burglarized.
Losses included the two Old Army revolvers that I had been photographing for my book.
Suddenly I was faced with the necessity of acquiring an Old Army before I could complete my book.
Thinking I could just hop online and snap up a replacement, I was stunned because the standard model Old Army was suddenly going for $500+!
Almost overnight a common everyday item that had never commanded much respect or interest had become a “collectible” and doubled in value.
Now that I have another Old Army, I don’t know if I want to shoot it because shooting a gun lowers its collector value, but I don’t own guns I can’t shoot, but it’s a collectible…
Decisions, decisions.
By Michael Morgan
You’re so awesome! I do not suppose I have read through something like that before.
So nice to find somebody with a few genuine thoughts on this issue.
Seriously.. many thanks for starting this up. This site is one thing that’s needed on the web, someone with a little originality!
It’s hard to come by knowledgeable people in this particular topic, but you seem like you know what you’re talking about! Thanks
Thanks for the vote of confidence.
I have found that a lot of people don’t take up the black powder hobby simply due to a lack of readily available information that the layman can digest.
When I go to the range, I routinely have parents bring their kids to my lane to see how the old guns work.
When “Last of the Mohicans” with Daniel Day Lewis hit the theaters, I was swamped.
The question everyone asked was “Can you really reload one of those guns on the run like that?”
Even my mom called me up to ask if silk would really let the guns shoot further.
Its all great fun.
The take away from the post above is I made a critical mistake that cost me dearly, and I want folks to learn from it.
I didn’t put the guns back in the safe because it was after midnight and I was tired.
I was living alone at the time, so nobody else would have had access to the guns…except the burglar.
Taking 2 minutes to lock up the guns would have saved me over $1,000, and weeks of stress obtaining the replacements so I could complete my book.
The good news is one of my stolen Ruger Old Army revolvers has been recovered thanks to the Arlington Tx, Police.
To answer the most popular questions:
Q: Load on the run?
A: ME!? Not a chance. I’d trip and score a 10.0 on my faceplant.
Q: Extra range using silk patches?
A: Maybe. A patch works best when the cloth is tightly woven because it doesn’t fall apart under the stress of moving up the barrel.
The primary function of a patch is to keep the bullet centered in the bore of the weapon and to keep the bullet down on top of the powder charge until the gun is fired.
A secondary purpose is to force the bullet to spin with the rifling. the spin stabilizes the bullet like a gyro scope.
Since some shooters used thin pieces of wet rawhide as patches, I doubt the material makes much difference as long as the material is tough enough to hold together when the gun is fired.