Colt Walker- SHOCK & AWE!

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Wow- Thanks for all of the info and feedback folks!

Just wanted to show everyone what "Mr. Walker" looks like now; I spent my day-off yesterday slathering it in Birchwood-Casey Plum Brown.

Enjoy!
John

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re: chain firing in a bp revolver

this is my first ever post, guys (and girls); please be kind.

after having read this thread, i felt quite compelled to register, i needing to leave my comments.

CHAIN FIRE IN A BLACKPOWDER REVOLVER IS A VERY REAL THING.

i once "enjoyed" the pleasure of having all six chambers in a replica 1860 Army revolver discharge as one...

i am a handloader and a bullet caster. i shoot cast bullets in each and every of my firearms, including centerfire rifle. in fact, i ONLY shoot cast bullets.

i have a large supply of bullet metal, it being mixed with tin and formed into ingots.

prior to my chain fire experience, i cast .457" round balls for my 1860. i know the 1860 typically uses .451" but i decided upon .457" so that one mould would serve for a Ruger Old Army as well.

rather than casting those .457" round balls out of pure lead, i cast them out of my bullet metal. i do not cast often (the wife doesn't approve of the odor), so when i do cast, i cast in quantity, and in every bullet required.

.457" round balls cast of bullet metal would indeed work in my 1860 Army, and actually fired rather well. HOWEVER, using them rather than .451" pure lead caused the barrel wedge to bend forward over time. bend in the shape of a banana. this bending caused the barrel/ cylinder gap to widen. when this gap became large enough, i would replace the damaged wedge. i have probably gone through eight or ten barrel wedges over the years.

well, one fine day, i was at the range (outdoors). i was on the last of my stock of barrel wedges and had figured to get "one more" range session out of it before ordering replacement pieces.

now here is where things got touchy...

due to the widening barrel/cylinder gap, there was app. .060" inch forward play in the cylinder. to ensure against misfires, i had backed the nipples out a full turn. after cleaning and reloading, i prepared to fire rounds 13-18.

the charges were: 28gr fffg; lubricated felt over-powder wad; .457" hard cast rb; crisco smeared over round balls. the cylinder base pin was likewise lubricated with crisco.

i cocked back and let fly. there was a tremendous discharge. what i recall best is the position of the weapon in recoil: pointed straight up. as one might expect, there was a great deal of smoke. i knew in the moment what had occurred.

i set the now-unloaded piece down on the bench and examined it.

all six chambers had fired. i concluded four of the balls had gone wide, never making contact with the gun. the ball under the hammer passed normally through the barrel. the ball at six o'clock caused all resulting damage. my 1860 has a steel frame, so the frame itself was undamaged. the ball rammer had been flared, so much so that it was beyond repair and had to be pounded from the barrel assembly. the rammer arm retainer, dovetailed into the underside of the barrel had been forcibly removed. the screw retaining the rammer assembly was made useless; though the rammer assembly itself was
undamaged. i never found a single piece of that "six o'clock" ball.

what had occurred? in short, the fall of the hammer drove the cylinder forward, firing the piece; then the recoil of the first charge drove the cylinder rearward, causing the turned-out capped nipples to smack hard against the frame's recoil shield, discharging the remaining chambers as well.

i repaired my 1860 and use it still. no permanent harm done. i no longer fire hardcast balls through it though; i now use off the shelf .490" pure lead round balls run through a "mauser" case sizing die, to .452".

hope this helps to enlighten those of you made curious.

great forum by the way
 
Welcome & thanks for posting.
That's the first time that I recall hearing about a "gang of 6" chainfire!
I'm glad that you escaped injury and are here to tell us about it. :)
 
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As soon as I read that you backed out the nipples I had a bit of a laugh cause I knew that would be the cause. Bet that was a handful with the 6 going off at once! I had a two chamber chainfire go off, and it sounded loud and had more recoil than normal.

EDIT: Think about it: 168 grs. Black P. (6x28) with 6 138 gr. round balls (roughly) for a grand total of 828 grs. of lead going down range.
 
howdy, dwave:
the rear of my 1860s cylinder was poorly machined at one nipple face, and for that i always had to turn that one nipple out a quarter turn. as the barrel wedge became more and more bent, a little more turn. that day when all six popped, i had turned all the nipples out due to misfires (rounds 1-12).
 
Normbal,

You know that Juneteenth is about slaves finally learning of their emancipation right? I'm not sure that you can make portray that as a "socialist/leftist" holiday.

BAck to guns: Having only shot blackpowder once, I think that shooting this gun you all are talking about seems like it would be a hoot!

Josh
 
dwave: i think i was more surprised than anything else. i do know i wouldn't care to have it happen a second time.
 
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