I’ve decided on my third black powder gun

[Russell13]

Wow I love this pistol. So fun to shoot. But needs to be shimmed more.
I also noticed the caps don’t fall off the nipples like they do on my Remington. I did polish the face of the hammer and didn’t get any caps sticking to it.

 

[arcticap]

Wow I love this pistol. So fun to shoot. But needs to be shimmed more.
I also noticed the caps don’t fall off the nipples like they do on my Remington. I did polish the face of the hammer and didn’t get any caps sticking to it.

It's unfortunate that you didn't know about the pitfalls of buying an ASM Remington.
There's a reason why they went out of business.
ASM made some real museum quality pieces, but also made some real lemons over the years.
I guess it depends on when during the company's history that a gun was made.
The post-2000 Piettas generally don't have that kind of problem at all.
But it's good to hear that your new Walker is making up for some of the aggravation that the ASM has caused you.

 

[Mike 56]

Russell, Here is a down and dirty quick way to get your arbor shimmed up. Take a soda can and punch and cut a bunch of shims with a hole punch made for paper. Add enough shims so the barrel lines up with the frame. Later on, you can do a more permanent job with a set screw or a steel shim.

 

[Russell13]

It's unfortunate that you didn't know about the pitfalls of buying an ASM Remington.
There's a reason why they went out of business.
ASM made some real museum quality pieces, but also made some real lemons over the years.
I guess it depends on when during the company's history that a gun was made.
The post-2000 Piettas generally don't have that kind of problem at all.
But it's good to hear that your new Walker is making up for some of the aggravation that the ASM has caused you.

The ASM worked fine. The two Uberti’s I got have both been a pain. These Italian guns just aren’t made very well.

 

[Russell13]

Russell, Here is a down and dirty quick way to get your arbor shimmed up. Take a soda can and punch and cut a bunch of shims with a hole punch made for paper. Add enough shims so the barrel lines up with the frame. Later on, you can do a more permanent job with a set screw or a steel shim.

I’m gonna try this when I get home. Doesn’t seem to hard to do

 

[Mn Fats]

Even if shimmed to the correct barrel/cylinder gap, the Uberti Walkers seem to have timing issues. The Uberti Walker's I've owned peen the bolt notches on the cylinder. So if you correct the Uberti's short arbor length, with the Walker you still have to deal with timing. Not to mention the loading lever, which fortunately is a very easy correction.

 

[Mn Fats]

These Italian guns just aren’t made very well.

They are made of decent steel and are very accurate reproductions. But anyone buying them should understand they need help. For the price, and for what you get, I believe them to be a bargain. A quick Google search and you'll know what your getting into. For instance, Uberti is the only manufacturer of a Walker that I'm aware of. I got mine for under $400. I'm sending it to Goon's for the outlaw treatment. So about $650 all done. Still way cheap imo for a piece of history.

 

[TheOutlawKid]

Russell, Here is a down and dirty quick way to get your arbor shimmed up. Take a soda can and punch and cut a bunch of shims with a hole punch made for paper. Add enough shims so the barrel lines up with the frame. Later on, you can do a more permanent job with a set screw or a steel shim.

Lol mike i gave him the same info on page 2. Great minds think alike.

 

[Mike 56]

LOL, My wife says I repeat myself a lot. Now I am doing it to other people. Sorry about that.

 

[TheOutlawKid]

Lol no need to apologize, its a long thread and lots can be skipped when reading. Just complimenting your idea.

 

[Old Stumpy]

I couldn’t imagine someone wearing this in a holster all day.

In the book "Packing Iron" by Richard Rattenbury, there are a few tin-types showing Walkers and Dragoons being carried in belt holsters. These would date to around 1849 - 1850 I would guess, before the arrival of the 1851 Navy revolver.
When you look carefully at photos of cowboys of the 1870s posed with 1873 SA revolvers, you can't help but notice that these revolvers seem larger than they are today. In fact, the people are smaller in stature, with
5'-4" not being uncommon at all. Presumably this is where the old description back then of a big hog leg Colt came from, since they don't seem that large today.
So, consider these same 5'-4" pistoleros packing around a Walker or Dragoon on their belt.

 

[TheOutlawKid]

Mr.old stumpy...im sure you are correct..i too notice that in old civil war pictures etc that the soldiers seem to have smaller frames...smaller shoulders etc and sometimes the guns look huge compared to them. Im guessing the nutrition and lean winters mixed with genetics would have played a large role. You also hear about how the soldiers with supplies on horse could only weigh about 200 pounds total...and most topped off at 125-130 pounds. I also read that todays horses are a little bigger due to having to carry larger heavier people. Not sure about the horse part, but the rest i have read about in a few places.

 

[Russell13]

I love old tintype photos. It’s so great to get a glimpse into the past

 

[TheOutlawKid]

I also know there was a club for "large" rich men at the time called "the fat man club" and you had to weigh 200 pounds to be in it which was considered very rare at the time and usually only rich people got that big since they didnt do much labor and ate well. (the average person did a lot of physical manual labor just to keep a household together, way more than the average person of today). Today its very common for people to weigh 200+ pounds, but back then it was a rarity.

 

[Malachi Leviticus Blue]

another reason folks look small is that back in the day was that by the time a man reached 18 years he had already been a "Man" for several of them.
Unlike today where most kids aren't considered grown up until well into their 20s and often are still dependent on their parents health insurance until 26.
In years past boys were living the life of men before they were even done growing.
Similar for girls and women, but girls are fully grown much earlier than boys, but we all know that women are generally smaller than men anyway.

 

[Jackrabbit1957]

If you really want to see the sizes of folks during that time take a tour of Tombstone, Az. Lots of free museums with period clothing. Those folks were tiny compared to us today, especially the women. Most likely lots of museums have this type of exhibits, Tombstone seems to have more than average places. I can imagine one of those smaller men holding a Walker by his side and having the barrel dragging the ground.

 

[Malachi Leviticus Blue]

I've also read somewhere (and it makes at least some sense to me) that smaller size clothes were the most likely to last and show up in museums since as folks outgrew too small clothes they would usually be handed down to someone smaller and eventually wouldn't fit anyone in the family whereas if the clothes still fit they were often worn until they fell apart. This meant that clothes that didn't fit anyone were the most likely to survive. Also, mending or altering clothing to a smaller size was easier to do than making it larger.

 

[Russell13]

Was gonna go to a gun store. Ended up at a moonshine store.