The THR Walker Club

[Tigermoth]

Question on 2nd gen Colt Walker or Dragoon

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[scrat]

ok whats the question. I believe your reffering to a Dragoon.

 

[Brett Dixon]

I know this is the walker site, but has anyone fired the armi sport spencer carbine in 45 schofield? I just purchased one and am waiting on its arrival. Thanks Brett.

 

[scrat]

WOOOOO not one post where is everybody today.

 

[JCT]

Got my Treso nipples in. 11-50-136 1/4x28. Perfect fit, Rem #10's and 11's fit perfectly. Very high quality nipples, I'll most likely put these on all the revolvers at some point.
I've been doing a little more work on my Walker and Dragoon. This inside of the hammer that sits in the hammer notch, is very rough on the factory guns and gets fouled up easily, I took a dremel polishing stone to them and they came out nice!

 

[Phantom Captain]

Excellent! Told ya you would be happy with them!

 

[razorback1010]

Hi, I greet you all from the other side of the big pond.
I've got one question : what do you think of shooting the originally shaped picket bullet from Pedersoli in a Walker ?
'til now, I only shot round balls and the accuracy at 30 yards is not what I'm awaiting. I'd love to pass the 95/100 with my Walker, as I'm regularly doing with my Remington (Pietta made) and I'm barely reaching 90/100 when in a good day.
Here are pictures of my babies.

 

[mykeal]

razorback1010 -

The picket bullet ('minie') will be less accurate from the Walker than a round ball.

The issue most people seem to have trouble with is seating it straight so the round is pointed along the chamber/barrel centerline. Very difficult to do.

Whether that actually causes inaccuracies or not I do not know - it seems reasonable, however. Regardless, of the cause, however, the range reports on many forums are unanimous in saying the 'minie' or conical or picket shape is not as accurate as the round ball from a revolver.

In my experience the route to success with the Walker or Dragoons is trigger management. It is difficult to obtain good trigger control with such a heavy pistol - much, in fact, almost all your energy is focused on holding the heavy gun on target, robbing the sensation necessary to fully control the trigger finger. It can be done but takes great concentration and much practice. Good luck.

 

[razorback1010]

The trigger didn't need a lot of work, just lightening a bit the pull. Now it breaks cleanly at around 3 lbs. In fact, I'm still in search of the right load to get the best out of this monster gun.
Here are two targets shot last month. First one is with the Remington, one handed, 25 m (27 yards), the second one is the Walker, two handed and resting on a sand bag, same distance. I'm sure I can tighten more the grouping and as I read a post about the picket bullet, I was wondering.

 

[razorback1010]

Here's the difference in "cutting" between the Remington with 20 grains and the Walker with 55 grains (both Swiss n°1). I was wondering also if it wouldn't be better to shoot with Swiss n°3 with the Walker. The typical load was in fact the same as the infantry rifle of the time and with a nine inches barrel it's nearly a small carbine. I must try it sometime.

Another family picture

 

[scrat]

I have been curious on the same thing. In fact i have been looking around trying to find a good picket mold to mold my own, If i cant find one i am going to give conicals a try.

 

[scrat]

THR WALKER Club

Member list

1 Scott
2 Gentleman of the Charcoal
3 Dixie Texian
4 Yankee John
5 Mykeal
6 [email protected]
7 Mukluk
8 BigBadGun
9 Mec
10Fineredmist
11HILDO
12Shanghai McCoy
13Tallship
14 A.WALKER
15 StrawHat
16 Mustanger1
17 Phantom Captain
18 Pulp
19 Snaggletooth
20 RugerBob
21 J.T.Gerrity
22 BDFT
23 Peter M Eick
24 JCT
25 Old Wornout Soldier
26 Brett Dixon
27. Razorback 1010 Welcome Aboard

 

[Phantom Captain]

Well the weather is finally on the upswing here and today was sunny, a bit chill but not too bad and not too breezy.

So I figured since the air was warming up it was time to take Mr. Walker out and warm him up too. Last year my first day out to the range was March 16 so got it beat by 4 days this year, bonus!

Along with the Walker we (my girlfriend and I) brought the two '61 Navies, my '61 Springfield Rifle, '62 Richmond Rifle (her favorite) and the Hawken .54 built by my late Father. Can't bring too much all at once or the cleaning gets overwhelming. Usually we bring one rifle and one pistol each to concentrate on just a thing or two at a time but this being the first day out after a looong winter we got a bit overexcited.

Had a great time and made a day of it. I did bring my camera and video camera but we got so involved we forgot to film any video or snap any pics. Lot's of people around asking questions about everything too but I do get that pretty much everytime I go.

Oh well, next time (and very soon) I'll try to get a picture or video or two! I'm a lucky guy, she loves the holy black as much as me! She even enjoys casting and we made a TON this winter. Over 120lbs. We should be set for a bit. I do love shooting balls that I cast myself. Just adds even more to it if you ask me.

 

[JCT]

I cast all my .457 balls too and punch felt wads, make lube for them and mill my own BP. Now if I only made my own percussion caps I'd be pretty self sufficient! It's definitely more enjoyable to work on on these other aspects in shooting. With it being cold here, I've spent more time with my guns apart than ever before, polishing and fine tuning them. I deepened the notch on all my colt replicas to improve the accuracy and I polished the inner arch of the hammers to keep fouling from stick so bad.
It's looking like I may have two Walkers...( I bought 2 but planned to sell one and it's not selling! ). If I end up with two, I may either antique one or just keep it as is and start shooting two at a time!

 

[razorback1010]

Well, with two Walkers, you can start shooting Josey-Wales style !
About videos, here is one shot last month :
http://http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=nDYJ9BpjkiY

 

[GENTLEMAN OF THE CHARCOAL]

Razorback1010..
Just got through watching the link you posted. Good little film. Do you mind if I ask how many grains per chamber you were firing?
Anyway, WELCOME ABOARD!!....

 

[Phantom Captain]

I cast all my .457 balls too and punch felt wads, make lube for them and mill my own BP. Now if I only made my own percussion caps I'd be pretty self sufficient! It's definitely more enjoyable to work on on these other aspects in shooting. With it being cold here, I've spent more time with my guns apart than ever before, polishing and fine tuning them. I deepened the notch on all my colt replicas to improve the accuracy and I polished the inner arch of the hammers to keep fouling from stick so bad.
It's looking like I may have two Walkers...( I bought 2 but planned to sell one and it's not selling! ). If I end up with two, I may either antique one or just keep it as is and start shooting two at a time!

Hiya JCT,

I cast .375, .454, .530, .575 Minie hollow base, .678 all Lyman molds.

And yep, I started making my own lubed wads too, didn't mention that above. Just a couple of hollow ground center punches and perfect felt from Durofelt. I lube them with a strainer and a pot of melted OX-Yoke lube. Easy!

Any of you guys want to start making your own it's very simple and very cost effective. I bought a 3' sheet of felt for $37 and it will make somewhere around 7000 wads (someone calculated it earlier on some lost thread here, lol). The owner of Durofelt, Asha, is great to do business with and is top notch in customer service. My order was a bit delayed as she was awaiting a resupply but she kept me informed the entire time. Once the order did come in she didn't charge me shipping. Can't beat that!

Here's a link to her site, she knows exactly what the black powder crowd needs too. Just send her an email and she will get you set right up!

http://www.durofelt.com/image_26.html

 

[razorback1010]

Any of you guys want to start making your own it's very simple and very cost effective. I bought a 3' sheet of felt for $37 and it will make somewhere around 7000 wads (someone calculated it earlier on some lost thread here, lol). The owner of Durofelt, Asha, is great to do business with and is top notch in customer service. My order was a bit delayed as she was awaiting a resupply but she kept me informed the entire time. Once the order did come in she didn't charge me shipping. Can't beat that!

Here's a link to her site, she knows exactly what the black powder crowd needs too. Just send her an email and she will get you set right up!

I paid $17 for two three yards long felt bands from her, a couple years back, and she didn't charge the shipping to France ! I lube the wads with the recipe most French shooters are using : beewax, olive oil and vegetable fat for French fries. Works well and smells good too. When I'm running out of it, I still have some "Snoseal", I mostly use it for my shoes, but I discovered it was a good lubricant for BP shooting as well.
In the video, I'm shooting .457 round balls over 55 grains of Swiss n°1. With 60 grains, I can't get the bullet fully in. Next video will be my SAA and then my Winch 1873.

 

[sundance44s]

I`ve got a Walker comming ...it`s due to arrive today ..I`m likeing the looks of the Walkers in the white ..Thinking I`ll deblue and defarb the writeing on the barrel ..The case colors look really nice on the one I bought , so I think I`ll leave the frame alone , and live with the Itilian marks there .

 

[scrat]

Cast my own. YEP. i cast for all my guns. I have about 150 lbs of lead. so that gives me a lot to cast from. I keep them seperate in two batches. Soft lead and hard lead.

As far as videos. This one has always been my favorite for the sound of course the quality of the actual video is a little poor. Anyway is this made from anyone here.

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=B2N6FoKB4a0&feature=related

 

[Rebel Dave]

Walker Ordered

Hello

Can I qualify as a member,???, as I just yesterday (3-12-08) ordered a w 1847 Walker from Taylors and Co. I hope it will arrive on friday, but maybe early next week.

I had one of these in the 70s and wish I had never sold it. Well now I'll add this one to my collection, again. That is---,51 Pietta Navy steelframe .44,
2 Pietta 58 Remingtons .44s, Uberti 1860 Army .44 (mfg in 1969).

I'll let everyone nkow when it arrives.

Thanks Rebel Dave (still unreconstructed)
P.S. I;ll have to learn how to post pics.

 

[razorback1010]

I'll give the Picket bullet a try, I've just ordered the mold from Dixie. It should arrive next week. For 35 bucks, it won't be a big loss if it's not up to my expectations. In France, they wanted to charge me 90 bucks for the same thing, with one month delay. I love the States...

 

[GENTLEMAN OF THE CHARCOAL]

Rebel Dave..WELCOME ABOARD Sir!!
I do so hope you're an unreconstructed rebel. The country need's a few more of that kind of people....

 

[scrat]

Is that the ss2163 mold. I was just looking at it. Not bad. Just dont get the Brass mold. I have one of those brass molds and they are just not that good. Takes a while to heat them up. Then With brass being a natural lubricant. You can never get a good cast out of them. I tried really hard. I first cleaned my mold with alcohal. then heated it up. Wiped dry the inside as it looked like it was all wet and lubed again. Then i tried to mold. It would not fill out for the life of me. Then even with the best gloves on. Ut just gets too hot to hold or work with. I cant see how anyone can cast with a mold like this.

 

[JCT]

Rebel Dave, was it $370 from Taylor's? I'd be interested to see if they charge the same for everyone. The site says $350, but when I called they told me $370. They did hand pick one for me, so maybe they charged me to do that.