New to the Walker

[garyca]

Fell in love with a Walker (Uberti) 1847 - took her to the range & loaded her up - she shot fine but I'm new to this cap and ball thing so I wonder if some of you old pros out there have any suggestions for me on the following :
! - who sells a decent capper - the capper i bought at a chain store is a piece of junk.
2- the manufacturers data says 30 grains for a maximum load ??? With a cylinder that size ? What are you guys safely shooting in these modern replicas ?

And I will confess - got interested in black powder and started with modern inlines but am now fixed on traditional rifles and these cap and ball pistols. I've simply got to get more of these cap and ball revolvers - they are a hoot to shoot - so gentlemen I've come back from the dark side. Respectfully submitted, Gary

 

[wittzo]

!: Ted Cash
2: You "can" fill it to the brim and load it with 60 grains, but it will put a lot of stress on the arbor and wedge. From what I've read, you'll get best accuracy with 40 grains of 3F BP. You can use filler or a lubed wad if you want to.

You'll also want to wrap a piece of tape, string, or rawhide around the loading lever to keep it from falling down. When I load 2F, the load lever doesn't want to fall as much.

 

[Acorn Mush]

Welcome to the forum, Garyca.
+1 to what wittzo said. As far as the fillers he mentioned, most of the guys who use them (myself included) use plain ol' cornmeal or Cream of Wheat (COW). The cornmeal is a bit simpler to use however because it compresses more easily than COW. I've used both and found no appreciable difference between them, so now use only cornmeal.

...I've come back from the dark side.

I respectfully beg to differ sir. You have now come to the Dark Side!

 

[Hellgate]

My Walker load is 44 grs of FFg with a wad under the .454 ball and grease over it.

 

[mykeal]

I get the best groups with 45 gr/volume fffg, dry lubed overpowder wad, no filler or grease. However, 50 gr/volume fffg produces pretty good groups also. Groups go to hell at 60 gr/volume and that's abusing the gun, but it's great fun and will absolutely shut down the range for a few minutes.

And yes, the Ted Cash cappers are very good for everything except Remingtons (there are no off the shelf cappers that work for unmodified Remingtons).

 

[Beagle333]

Mine likes 40 grains and cornmeal filler. Surprisingly to me, I can make a much better group with the Walker than with my Army or Navy, even though I'm wavering a bit from the weight.
But you always have to run at least one cylinder through it at full power before the day is finished. That's why you have a Walker.

 

[Skinny 1950]

The Walker's are a lot of fun... I ran 12 shots through mine last weekend with full chambers and it turned a few heads. My gun will only shoot about 6 shots before the cylinder binds up with gunk on the arbor, I am going to shim up the cylinder to reduce the gap and see if this prevents crud from getting on the arbor. A reduced charge may also help.
Welcome to the dark side.

 

[Hellgate]

Skinny,
I use a .007" cylinder gap and my Walkers will shoot all day. You might have too tight of a gap and a little bit of fouling causes the cylinder face to drag against the back of the barrel. Check your gap with a folded piece of copy paper as a feeler guage which will give you a .007" gap. Most copy paper is .0035" thick so folded over and put between the cylinder and the barrel as you tap in the wedge will give .007 just when it bites the paper. I've had my guns gum up that quick when the gap was too tight. It takes a lot od arbor fouling to bind them up. Just wiping the cylinder face between loadings can help too. I don't think your problem is arbor fouling. Just mt 2 centc. ymmv

 

[JohnnyCremains]

I shot the arbor loose on an Uberti Walker many years ago by shooting 60 grain loads through it. It was a lot of fun though

 

[wittzo]

I've been using synthetic gear oil on the arbors of my Colts and the cylinder pins of my Remingtons and I get a lot more cylinders fired before they gum up.

 

[garyca]

Thanks for all the good advice. I will hunt down one of those Ted Cash cappers and get the loads straightened out. Had no problems with cylinder binding and it was accurate - had to hold low but took the middle right out of the target. I'm careful to make sure no petro chemicals are in the barrels or cylinders come firing time - learned that the hard way on inline rifles. Just made a batch of wonderlube and put togeather a new range box for cap and ball - now let's find more cap and ball pistols. Any of you ole boys get down my way - steaks on me gentlemen.

 

[Hellgate]

Garyca,
You might want to "lower" the rear sight a bit by merely cutting the notch a little deeper with a Dremel tool. I did that on both of mine and it brought them to POA. One of them shot a bit off windage wise and a little cutting off to one side of the notch brought it in nicely.

 

[garyca]

Thanks Hellgate , My shooting buddy is a wheelchair bound Army Vet who is a budding gunsmith - I have him handle that for me. Ole boy bought a Walker Dragoon and when I saw it .... well that afternoon I went and got an 1847. We had two Walkers going strong at the outdoor range and had a blast. Thinking about getting a Remington design now - I simply never realized that Cap and ball was so much fun. I do appreciate the good advice sir. You guys remember your disabled friends - they might want to shoot you just need to set the targets for them.

 

[loose noose]

Skinny: When I shot CAS I allways carried a small can of Pam and shot it right near the forcing cone, and carried a rag to wipe up the access on my Remington 1858's. BTW we would shoot anywhere from 30-60 rounds per match with the revolvers, and they just kept on firing. Note we shot 2 revolvers with 5 rounds loaded for safety.

 

[wittzo]

Duellist1954 put a good video up on youtube that shows how he tuned in the sights on an 1850 colt navy, it's the same procedure with all of the colts.