Lonesome Dove

[whughett]

Have started watching Lonesome Dove on Netflix for the third time or so. So far ex Texas Ranger Gus McCrae has used his Walker, pulled from a cross draw holster, to pistol whip a surly bartender and kill six bad guys with six shots. No lever drops no misfires and no flying wedges.

Not so My Walker

My less than year old Walker which, up until the last outing, was a joy to shoot, has suddenly and inexplicable started throwing the wedge. It has got to the point that the last few shots the wedge wound up on the bench, so for now, I have given up on the Walker. Loading lever dropping is one thing wedge flying another. The little leaf spring in the wedge has come loose, so hope that is the problem:banghead:

I'll order a new wedge and hope for the best.

 

[Leth]

Maybe his wedge doesn't drop *because* he's thumping it against surly bartenders.

Check the user manual; it might be a recommended SOP.

BTW - I love that miniseries.

 

[Patocazador]

But you're not Gus McCrae either.

 

[BSA1]

Gus didn't need the loading lever as his Walker was converted to shoot cartridges. You can see it when Gus holds his cocked Colt to the face of the bartender after Gus smashed the barkeeps nose on the counter.

 

[58limited]

Great movie. My dad recorded the original broadcast on VHS, I still have it and have watched it dozens of times.

Definitely try a new wedge, I've never had that problem with a cap and ball revolver. The loading lever issue was common with originals, the fact that reproductions do this too tells me they are accurate reproductions, flaws and all. I use a piece of rawhide to hold the loading lever.

 

[AbitNutz]

Meh...in the book, by Larry McMurtry, I think I recall Gus never having the benefit of cartridges.

McMurtry writes so well that I would read a healthcare reform bill if he wrote it. I mean, he wrote the best Western novels ever penned and also wrote 'Terms of endearment". A quintessential chick flick. Seriously? How can a guy switch gears like that?

 

[rcflint]

Gus used a cap & ball in the book, yes. Cap & ball is not very handy when making a movie, however. Even if a movie shows someone loading with a lever, they are most likely faking it, and using cartridge blanks.

The reason the loading lever didn't fall when he fired the gun is that blanks don't have enough recoil to shake the lever loose.

If you have damaged the wedge, it is probably due to too hot a load. The Walker will hold 60 grains of black powder, but that is too much for the strength of the arbor and wedge. Shoot 40 grains max, even 30-35 grains of powder for more reasonable recoil and longer life to the arbor and wedge. Too heavy a load can also loosen the arbor threads, check it with the barrel and cylinder removed and see if the arbor can be wiggled. If it's loose, you have to drill out the locking pin at the rear, unscrew the arbor, clean it up and locktite it back in place. I use a setscrew to replace the pin in the rear that locks the arbor rotation, by tapping out the hole for a set screw, which makes it easier to remove the arbor in the future if it becomes necessary..

 

[whughett]

I will admit to the occasional "hot load" of 60 grains but my usual load is 40 of 3f. Other than the aforementioned loose leaf spring on the wedge, I think the pin is under sized and loosened, there is no visible damage. IE no hammered edges on wedge or slot and the arbor is not loose either.

BTW Just ordered the book via Amazon Kindle.

 

[PRM]

Look at the scene where he attacks Blue Duck's camp on the river - Gus is shooting a 1860 Army and not the Walker...OOPS.

 

[elhombreconnonombre]

Check out the Internet Firearms Database for all the other cool arms used in the show.

 

[Patocazador]

McMurtry writes so well that I would read a healthcare reform bill if he wrote it. I mean, he wrote the best Western novels ever penned and also wrote 'Terms of endearment". A quintessential chick flick. Seriously? How can a guy switch gears like that?

You must not have read some of his drivel. One about Billy the Kid that was as bad as anything I ever read. He has a terrible habit of using historical characters in situations that never happened and the situations are sometimes ridiculous.
Remember John Wesley Hardin in "Streets of Laredo"? or Buffalo Bill, Calamity Jane, etc. in "Buffalo Girls"?

 

[Willie Sutton]

^^ Judge Roy Bean wasn't shot by a Comanche with a scoped rifle either...

It's all fiction, not history. Entertainment, not education.

I ended up with the entire Lonesome Dove book series on my Kindle, and it read by me as one continuous story, as the compilation had no real breaks between where one book ended and other began. I confess I was saddened when I reached the end.

For entertainment, read McMurtry.

For education, as I posted earlier, read Empire of the Summer Moon. You'll never think about Comancheria the same way again.

Another very good book is Brules, written by Harry Combs. That's the same Harry Combs that owned Combes Learjet and a chain of excellent executive jet terminals (AMR Combs) across the country. He was an amateur historian and his novel is accurate in it's representation of Comancheria and the savagry that both sides were capable of during the mid to late 1800's.


Willie

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[whughett]

In the process of reading both. Although l will be listening to Summer Moon rather than reading it. It is on my smart phone 14 hours of narration. Not a historian so don' t let small things like literary license get in the way of, in the case of Lonesome Dove, a good yarn. Just finished the series on Netflix. Think there was a sequel but won't be the same without Duvall .

 

[JRH6856]

After Summer Moon, you might want to take a look at The Comanche Empire by Pekka Hamalainen. It has a much more in depth look at the earlier history of Comancheria.

 

[BullfrogKen]

I'm a total fan of good books, and of history.


I can't contribute to the thread. I'm simply posting for no other reason than to tag the thread to remind me of some books to order, and for any other posts for some good reading.


Carry on.

 

[45 Dragoon]

The wedge prob could be from a misaligned chamber/ bore, wear on the front contact point (arbor point in the wedge key way. This is fixed with a set screw in the end of the arbor.) Or, a large barrel/ cyl. gap. All of these things will "squirt" the wedge like a melon seed between your fingers. How big is the bbl/cyl gap? Has it stayed the same since new? Once things are fixed, you can make a " captured" wedge which wont allow this to happen again.

45 Dragoon

 

[J-Bar]

Hat Creek Gun Rack

Gus's door sign was the inspiration for the gun rack in my den. Planks from an oak pallet braced to make a miniature door, then cleated to the wall:

 

[brushhippie]

That is waaay cool! J

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

In the movie, Gus's Walker was an Italian replica that had been modified to shoot 38 Special blanks. Not a whole lot of recoil with 38 blanks to shake anything loose.

 

[swathdiver]

So far ex Texas Ranger Gus McCrae has used his Walker, pulled from a cross draw holster, to pistol whip a surly bartender and kill six bad guys with six shots. No lever drops no misfires and no flying wedges.

Not so My Walker

They musta been using an Armi San Marco and not Uberti!

 

[AJumbo]

In a couple of scenes, Gus is carrying the 1860 in a pommel holster, with the Walker on his belt. Seemed backward to me.........

Even the book was hazy on the details of who-carried-which-version-of-what; McMurtry is a fiction author, not a gun enthusiast. If you want both, start reading Larry Correia.

 

[elhombreconnonombre]

If you read some of the histories of the Comanches people it interesting to note they were as shrewd as they were violent. Some of their chiefs spoke some English, Spanish, other Indian languages like Kiowa and Lipan Apache for trading purposes. Per my gggpaws memoirs and confirmed by his last living daughter in an interview with a Dallas area newspaper after the turn of the 20th century, the Comanche raided his ranch in the late 1840s for horses. One time he was hosting a wedding party for a Ranger who was mustering out at the request of his fiance. There was a company of Rangers in attendance so it was not a murder raid. The Comanche would have come out on the wrong side of the odds. However as his daughter reported they returned on another full Comanche Moon to steal horses but did not attack the heavily fortified main ranch house. Finding steel hobbles on some horses in s corral outside of the ranch house defensive perimeter, they simply cut the horses tendons crippling them and one time killed one of gggpaws breeding bulls out on the range for retribution. Gggpaw and his brother in law and neighbors learned to be very wary and vigilent every full moon.

 

[Willie Sutton]

They were bad folks, no doubt about that.

Wonderful stories from your family. Just what the country was founded on. Thanks for sharing.


Willie

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[elhombreconnonombre]

Glad to share. I thank gggpaw for putting his memoirs down on paper before he passed 140 years ago, my old maid aunt for finding it and doing the original research and typing it up, and my grannie for rescuing the typed manuscript from a fire, and hiding it for me to find it years later...like a magic window looking into the past.

 

[Willie Sutton]

^^

Any chance of scanning it and sharing it? It's worth preserving for others to see.

Willie

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