Walker Accuracy

[Bullwinkle]

OK, so my son and I went to the range this week with my Uberti Walker. We loaded 35 gr 2f GOEX w/ Ox Yoke Wonder Wads and 457 Speer balls. We started with paper targets 5 to 7 yds away.

Of course, my son's groupings were way better than mine! Many close to or on center of target. Even better than some of the people shooting next to us w/ their 45 ACPs, 9MMs, etc.

Anyway, when we moved to steel targets at 25 yds things deteriorated quickly. Neither of us had any hits.... some low, some high, some left, some right.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is there a trick to it at this distance, or even farther out? Thanks in advance for your assistance.

 

[DoubleDeuce 1]

Are you shooting from a sand bag rest? That revolver can get pretty heavy after a little while. Holding it steady can be a chore. I would do a lot of shooting from a sand bag to start. See what loads the revolver likes over a certain distance... 20-25 yards for starters. Let the sand bag carry the weight of the revolver. Then all you'll have to worry about it sighting and trigger control.

 

[brushhippie]

Bull...yes I have, to the point I got to thinking they must just get higher and higher the farther you get from the target! I only got good results with mine shooting 35 grains or less, after 35 they started going all over.

 

[DurangoKid]

The Walkers were sighted to zero at 75 yards. These were to replace carbines not holster pistols. The Walker was also made to kill horses putting the Plains NDNs a foot in battle. This work great for the Texas Rangers. The loads were heavy using only conicals over 50 grs. of powder. The light loads and round ball loads you are using is very light for this handgun. The Texas Rangers were issued 2 Walkers with 2 extra cylinders this was a mighty weapon. Rangers would often put the conicals in backward blowing the cylinders. The problem you will find with heavy loads is the Walkers because of the short cylinder Boss will bind up after about 6 shots. The 1st and 2nd Mdle. Dragoons had some correction of this problem. I enjoyed your home powder post and test. I would like to see some more of those. Thx.

 

[rodinal220]

With my ASM Walker and 40gr of FFF and ball/Gatofeo #1 lube wads I can hit a clay(on the ground) at 25 yards.Just gets old holding that bad boy for very long!

 

[brushhippie]

Thanks Kid, yea I was shootin pretty light loads and I never looked down the barrel to see if all the cylinders lined up right the entire time I owned it, I recently had a 58 Remington I just couldnt figure out why I couldnt hit with it and it ended up that five of six were misaligned, this is fairly common unfortunately.

 

[scrat]

Did you clean it.

Seriously

You stated that you shot several loads then moved to steel where your accuracy started to suffer. You may have had to stop for a minute then cleaned the works as well the barrel. All of these guns will give you fantastic results however depending on conditions and what you are using the foulding will take a toll on your accuracy. Some of the best shooters will swab the barrel clean the arbor shaft as well as anything else then do a quick lube. After that accuracy will regain. Depending on the gun and how its loaded you may be able to get 12-24 rounds before things take a toll for he worse. Heck if you load an 1858 heavy with lots of grease and lubes then fire it. By the time you get to the sixth shot the cylinder will barely turn. they have a really thin arbor shaft that will bind quick.

 

[Bullwinkle]

All,

Thanks for the comments. a couple of clarifications
1. We were using 3f (not 2f) powder.
2. We shot off hand, not bench rest. Never thought about using a rest. I'll try it
next time.
3. We'd pull the wedge and check the barrel every so often and probably ended up cleaning bore and cylinder after about every 18-24 rounds.

Also, we used #10 CCI caps and the hammer really destroys them, sometimes the spent caps jam the cylinder. Are Remingtons any better?

 

[Smokin'Joe]

Remington cylinders bind up after 6 to 12 rounds due to the small diameter cylinder pin. I have shot originals and repos and they all bind up after just a few rounds.

 

[DurangoKid]

The Rogers & Spencer does not bind up. The Ruger Old Army designed from the R&S does not bind. The large cylinder Boss deflects the carbon residue. The large size of the base pin has nothing to do with binding. The Walker had a very large BP. Modern revolvers have a large Boss and small base pins.

 

[DurangoKid]

In case you are not familer with the Rogers & Spencer I will post my own R&S. The U.S. National Shooting teams use the R & S made by DPS. My R & S Target was made by Euroarms. This is a .457 Caliber large cylinder boss small base pin positive rammer latch. Ruger engineers used this design for the Ruger Old Army. You can see my R & S on the How Many Muzzle Loaders thread.

Bush Hippy I would like to see some more of your Home made Powder test. I really enjoyed those. The one where you make powder was great.

 

[FreddyKruger]

this is mine, 5 shots at 25m (27 yards) from a sandbag. and i was aiming at the bottom of the black circle too.



The walker is heavy, and your arms tire quicker. It could have simply been that holding it up for that long your were just starting to shake and jerk. i only shoot International Match with mine, 13 shots total (score best 10), and that does it for me with getting good accuracy. got a 82/100 today with it having not shot it for a couple of months.

Also the small sights dont help things...

30gr FFFg, 24gr (i think) filler and a .457 ball.

 

[Hellgate]

I always shot 44grs of FFg with a lube wad AND grease over the .454 ball. The gun would shoot all day. I used Remington #10 caps. Your CCI#10 are probably working because the heavy hammer fall on the Walker just smashes them down. The CCI#10 were all too small for any revolver I have owned. I'm gonna guess that your accuracy fall off was due mostly to fouling, the fact that most of them shoot high and maybe some fatigue. I found that the Walker was pretty resistant to problems related to jerking the trigger due to it's heavy weight (inertia) so once I was on target I could jerk it and still hit the steel. I took a Dremel cutting wheel and widened and slightly lowered the rear notch to bring the guns so they only shot a coule of inches high at 50 ft. On one I cut the notch a little more to one side to correct windage. Be careful with a Dremel, there are unlimited ways to destroy a gun with one of those. You can use a jeweler's file but the case hardening on the hammer notch wil ruin the file but files are cheaper than hammers.