Hello, first thread and issue with Uberti Walker

[arcticap]

I recall seeing a keeper that was made out a thin but wide piece of brass or brass plated steel that resembled a spring clip.
I supposed that it could be made out of a number of different materials but it would still function as a removable spring clip.
I don't know if that's what they sell on eBay or not.
However I thought that I saw it on this or another forum, but after searching here I can't find a photo of it.

 

[LaneP]

Well this isn't an original idea by any means but I'll try this when I get a chance to shoot it. It's a piece of leather glove. Since taking the pic I rubbed in some neetsfoot oil to soften it. After repeated holstering and unholstering (Possibles Shop open top Walker holster), it consistently sits about an inch forward of the where the lever spring is located. And it's thin enough I can easily see the front sight.

Left to question is whether the stitching will hold up or stress from the lever will break it over time. I plan to start by shooting the Walker with about 40-45 grains 3F and a 200 grain Lee conical. I'm going to speculate the lever will hold up through a few shots then start dropping, but I hope to be proven wrong. I won't use the keeper unless lever dropping really gets bad.

I'd rather use one of the other clip type solutions but this may do for now. Thanks everyone for the great suggestions, and here's hoping the range god's are favorable for this Friday morning

 

[skeeterfogger]

Well this isn't an original idea by any means but I'll try this when I get a chance to shoot it. It's a piece of leather glove. Since taking the pic I rubbed in some neetsfoot oil to soften it. After repeated holstering and unholstering (Possibles Shop open top Walker holster), it consistently sits about an inch forward of the where the lever spring is located. And it's thin enough I can easily see the front sight.

Left to question is whether the stitching will hold up or stress from the lever will break it over time. I plan to start by shooting the Walker with about 40-45 grains 3F and a 200 grain Lee conical. I'm going to speculate the lever will hold up through a few shots then start dropping, but I hope to be proven wrong. I won't use the keeper unless lever dropping really gets bad.

I'd rather use one of the other clip type solutions but this may do for now. Thanks everyone for the great suggestions, and here's hoping the range god's are favorable for this Friday morning

View attachment 853908

Basically how people solved the issue with the originals.

 

[LonesomePigeon]

I wonder if one could drill and tap a small hole in the bottom of the barrel lug and have a small screw that would protrude in front of the loading plunger. It would be sort of like the screw that retains the cylinder pin on the early Colt Single Action Army.

 

[skeeterfogger]

I wonder if one could drill and tap a small hole in the bottom of the barrel lug and have a small screw that would protrude in front of the loading plunger. It would be sort of like the screw that retains the cylinder pin on the early Colt Single Action Army.

Some modified to use a latch as on 1858s or dragoon.

 

[LaneP]

Maiden voyage of my Uberti Walker this morning. Just 24 shots, 18 of which were the Lee 200 grain conical and 6 were Speer .454 RB. Powder charge for all was 45 grains 3F Goex and CCI #11 caps.

I had preemptively flattened the upper portion of the lever spring and I'm happy to report the lever never dropped once. I had my handy leather lever keeper with me but never needed it. Some observations:

The Uberti Walker liked the Lee 200 grain conical, accuracy-wise. I shot everything benched at 25 yards. It threw the conicals high, up near the top of the target, with a 6 o'clock hold on the black. In contrast, the Speer RB's were right near the top of the sights but the group was pretty large. I believe the RB grouping may be improved by experimenting with different diameter and powder charge. I was getting a lead ring with the .454's, but normally for the large horse revolvers I use .457's.





Prior to this trip I had polished and deburred the hammer face and hammer safety pin notch. I had no caps try to pull off the nipples (hardened steel #11 from Track of the Wolf). If cocked with authority, the caps tended to eject properly to the right. About once a cylinder I would have a cap hang up between the cylinder and recoil shield, reminding my why Colt would later make a channel there to reduce that tendency. I experienced the usual difficult cylinder rotation into about the second cylinder, despite having greased the arbor with Bore Butter prior. Next outing I'm going to experiment with using a thinner oil there, as I have done in the past. My Uberti Dragoon using nothing more than Break Free on the arbor could easily go 24 shots with no cylinder binding.

Believe I will tweak the hammer sight height and notch width just a bit to try to move the grouping with the Lee 200 grain bullets. Did the same with my 3rd Dragoon and got satisfactory results.

24 shots and no lever dropping, no caps in the lock and pretty darn decent (by my requirements) grouping with conicals at 25 yards...I'm a happy camper Thanks to everyone for your tips and advice.

 

[skeeterfogger]

High at 25 and even 50 is normal for walker. It's a 75-100 gun. Use lithium on arbor.

 

[LaneP]

I wonder if one could drill and tap a small hole in the bottom of the barrel lug and have a small screw that would protrude in front of the loading plunger. It would be sort of like the screw that retains the cylinder pin on the early Colt Single Action Army.

Believe you and I were thinking of the same concept. It would be impossible for me to engineer but I envision a spring loaded, traverse latch that is dovetailed into the barrel at the spot the lever spring currently sits. This would be a spring loaded button and as you mention, similar to the cylinder pin retainer of the SAA which would engage a cut in the lever.

Colt never pursued this style retention catch but instead used a fore-and-aft latch. Recoil can induce these to drop, as I've had to deal with on my 1st and 3rd model Uberti Dragoons. I believe a traverse catch if properly engineered and not obtrusive to the width of the barrel, would be impervious to recoil induced dismounting.

 

[skeeterfogger]

Believe you and I were thinking of the same concept. It would be impossible for me to engineer but I envision a spring loaded, traverse latch that is dovetailed into the barrel at the spot the lever spring currently sits. This would be a spring loaded button and as you mention, similar to the cylinder pin retainer of the SAA which would engage a cut in the lever.

Colt never pursued this style retention catch but instead used a fore-and-aft latch. Recoil can induce these to drop, as I've had to deal with on my 1st and 3rd model Uberti Dragoons. I believe a traverse catch if properly engineered and not obtrusive to the width of the barrel, would be impervious to recoil induced dismounting.

Even my new Uberti 2nd model Dragoon lever would fall. I put a spacer under the latch spring so it utilized the full pressure of the spring.

 

[LaneP]

Back to the range this morning. The work on the hammer notch improved the 25 yard point of impact somewhat. I'll probably adjust a bit more then stop there. There were no lever drops through the entire session of 36 shots

I tried Remington #11 caps this time (used CCI previously) and the Rem's performed very well. Each cap splayed in a flower petal shape on firing and tended to stay on the cone as I cocked, ejecting to the right. There were substantially fewer instances of a cap jamming between recoil shield and cylinder using the Rem's compared to the CCI #11 caps. In fact I had only one instance this time, compared to once a cylinder with CCI's.

What I did have a bit of a problem with was fouling binding. I didn't get a chance to grab any lithium grease before this outing as suggested by @skeeterfogger but will by next range trip. Starting out, there was just Break Free on the arbor. After 3 shots the cylinder needed an assist from my left hand to rotate over, and by the sixth shot it was a bear to get it to rotate and lock into firing position.

Next, I tried Bore Butter. This gave me a little better result than Break Free, but not much. Still tightened up substantially by the fifth and sixth shot requiring two handed cocking. Finally I ended up with a slurry of Bore Butter and Ballistol (diluted one part Ballistol to two parts water), and that let me get to the sixth shot but still fairly tight. I made sure my wedge was not over tightened, just tapping it in enough to barely protrude from the other side of the barrel. The open top Colt's tend to bind rapidly but I wouldn't want to take my copy of the Walker into battle until I had gotten a lube formula that would assure me of six shots without resorting to two handed cocking



I was able to set up my Competition Electronics chrono and measured the velocity of the two loads I was shooting. First load tested was 45 grains Goex 3F black powder and a pure lead Lee 200 grain RN. At 12 feet, 6 shots from the 9" Walker barrel averaged 938 fps. Second load tested was 50 grains Goex 3F and a 140 grain Speer .454 round ball. 6 shots averaged 1075 fps. I was really stoked the lever stayed up every shot firing both benched and offhand!



So now it's off to clean...hope everyone is having a great BP day