Ruger old army .45 Muzzleloader

A very good Ruger old army .45 muzzle loading percussion revolver.

Since 1972, Sturm, Ruger, & Co. has been producing what has become known as the finest percussion revolver ever made: The Old Army.

Taking many styling details from the old Remington cap and ball sixguns, Ruger totally modernized the design with better materials and manufacturing techniques into a strong, accurate, and reliable percussion sixgun. Ruger combined their wonderful three-screw revolver action with a cap and ball cylinder to create a modern percussion sixgun that is still manufactured today.

Interestingly, when Ruger changed their single action revolver design to the New Model lockwork in 1973, they left the Old Army with the original three-screw lockwork that many sixgunners prefer. The Old Army has notches between each chamber of the cylinder to allow for safely resting the hammer out of contact with the percussion caps.

After thirty years of production, the Old Army has become the cap and ball sixgun to beat at Cowboy Action Shooting events, and is tops in both accuracy and reliability. The original Old Army revolvers were made of blue steel and wore Ruger’s excellent adjustable rear sight. In 1975 Ruger began offering the Old Army in stainless steel, and in 1994 they introduced the sixgun with their Vaquero style fixed sights, in both blued steel and stainless.

In its various model configurations, the Old Army had only been produced with a 7-½ inch barrel length, until now. Ruger has just introduced the Old Army with a shorter, handier, 5-½ inch barrel; which is the subject of this article.

The gun received here for testing is the stainless version with fixed sights and simulated ivory grip panels. Ruger’s fixed sight stainless single action revolvers are finished in a mirror-bright style that resembles a fine nickel finish for an authentic nineteenth century look, but with all of the advantages of modern stainless steel. With the Old Army, the bright stainless finish cleans up much easier than the satin stainless finish of the adjustable sight model, which is a real advantage after a day of shooting black powder or Pyrodex.

While I have always liked the Old Army revolvers, the fixed sight versions just seem to look better to me, and the test gun pictured here with the fixed sights and stainless finish is indeed one great looking sixgun. The balance and handling qualities of the 5-½ inch barreled Old Army are excellent. It carries well on the hip and clears leather quickly, with the hammer falling naturally under the thumb for repeat shots, and the trigger pull on the test gun released at a comfortable four and one-half pounds.