What conical mold for Walker?

[hildo]

Want to give conicals a try in my Walker.
The chambers are rather large, use a .457 round ball.
Lee molds for conicals come in .450" (200 grains) and they offer a 456" (220 grain) for Ruger.
I suspect 456" bullets would probably be too large to ram down?

What should I order for the Walker?

 

[Tommygunn]

When I bought my Walker I bought a bullet mold for it, from Dixie Gun Works.
I haven't fired that titan for a long time...still have some conoid bullets; they've turned white with age....

 

[rifle]

hildo,what size are yer chambers? New gun? Old gun? Chambers .450? Anywhoooo....the Walkers have a slow twist (1-64 if I'm thunkin right) in the barrel and that shoots round balls better than conicals. Anywhooo....I've shot the Lees out of my old Walker Uberti. My chambers were on the low side of .450,like .449. The Lee mould .450 conicals stayed put under recoil. They didn't shoot too good since my barrel has a slow twist and rifling grooves that are .464 in. The newer Uberti's have .458 in. rifling grooves and that means that even if you get conicals to fit the chambers,since the chambers are under sized fer the barrels grooves, the conicals probably won't shoot well since they would be sized small fer the barrel.
Some people have said somewhere I read that the conicals shoot alright from their Walkers though. I would suggest you measure the chambers and the barrels rifling grooves to get an idea whether or not you think the gun is worth gettin conicals fer. I may be wrong but I think Mec had posted a pic of a good group on target shot with a Walker and some kind of picket bullets. Maybe you should address him specifically about it?

 

[hildo]

It's a 2005 Walker and the chamber size should be close to .450 since .450 cast roundballs fit a little loose. Sometimes you can even push them in with a finger, sometimes not.
The .457 balls I cast fit well and shave off a nice piece of lead too.
Your old Walker barrel grooves with .464".... that's really large. Since my gun is rather new the rifling should be smaller.
Have used a chocolate Easter Egg to measure the rifling grooves on my rolling block rifle so I could do that with the Walker as well... but already ate all of my Easter Eggs

I have seen Mec's post. That's what got me started on the conicals and I already know there seemes no real advantage to them from Mec's, very informative, post. The picket bullet mold is not so easy to get a hold of in Holland and to ram them down the ram should be modified so the bullet don't get deformed. Modifing ram's is not my cup of tea... have two left hands.

Guess I could go with the .450" Lee mold. They worked in Mec's Walker as well. If they are a bit small I guess but for a little tighter fit (if necessary) I could simply whack the bullet on top to make them just a bit wider?

 

[Burt Blade]

The ball should shave a bit, all the way around, when you load it. If the ones you have do not, buy the next larger size. I have a replica dragoon that accepts .454s. I have accidently used .457s. They are just harder to load, but do not require excessive force. You should not have to bear down on the loading ram. If you do, the bullet is too big.

If the ones you have are a little bit loose, and you are unwilling to toss them, you can single-load the gun until you expend the undersized ones. A flashover into the adjacent chambers can make life just a bit too exciting.

Of course if one is a true gun culture member, one buys a new gun to fit any odd rounds one might accquire....

 

[O.S.O.K.]

conical mould

I just got through casting some conicals in my Lee .450" mould using 30-1 alloy (lead to tin). They dropped out at .458". I haven't weighed them yet.

With my Uberti dragoon and 45 grians of Pyrodex P and a lubricated, felt wad (from Cabelas) they shot wonderfully.

Here's a pic of the target - 25 yards - left group from supported with point of aim directly below and right group (centered) from off-hand with point of aim at the lower edge, center of paper:

 

[hildo]

That looks like a pretty good result.
I will get my mold next week and start cast some a.s.a.p.
The .458 size seems rather large, hope I will be able to ram them down the chambers of the Walker without too much effort

 

[DixieTexian]

Just make sure you load them with the pointy end facing backwards...

 

[mec]

The Lee .452 works very well. as do any 454 and over commercial or cast balls.
200 Grain Lee Bullet
40 Goex FFFg 927 40
45 Swiss FFFg 1074 33
45Gr/Vol Pyrodex P 1087 47

The .457 Lee bullet is just enough larger in nose diameter that it will not fit under the rammer window on anything but a Ruger Old Army.
I haven't tried the 190 grain Buffalo bullet in the walker but it worked very well in a dragoon and should be a real performer. those picket bullets I shot are strange and I'm still amazed at how well they worked. By the time the second 500 of the Walkers were released after the Mexican war, round balls seemed to be gaining ground as the preferred bullet for them.

 

[Curator]

Try the Lee 45-200 R.E.A.L. bullet. I have used it in my San Marco Walker with SLOOOOOOOW twist barrel. It shoots better than round balls and closer to point of aim. Try 55 grains of FFFg, a lubed felt wad, and the REAL bullet made from pure lead and greased with 50/50 beeswax/lard.

The REAL bullet si made with three bands of increasing diameter. The first ring is just about chamber diameter. The second is about .002 oversize, and the third or top ring about .006 oversize. I get a good seal and bullets do not move forward under recoil.

 

[BigG]

Just make sure you load them with the pointy end facing backwards...

Please don't. I believe that was the reason the original Walkers got a reputation for blowing up. I think the rammer is recessed to fit the point.

 

[DixieTexian]

Please don't. I believe that was the reason the original Walkers got a reputation for blowing up. I think the rammer is recessed to fit the point.

You're no fun. That's just a theory anyhow. We need someone to test it outfor us.

 

[O.S.O.K.]

For the Walker

Hildo - the .458" went into my dragoon's cylinders with the same effort as a .454" round ball. Not hard at all.

And I used the 30-1 alloy because I had it on hand and because the tin helps to make properly formed bullets.

Here's a picture:

The bullets on the right are Lee 50 caliber modern target mini's. They shoot great too