Yeee ha.... finally got a Walker.

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Ferret

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Feb 27, 2006
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Molalla, OR
Well. Its mine when I go pick it up. A smidge over $200 out of the door and its Uberti.

I cant wait to stoke the fire on this one and let it rip. The neighbours already think I shoot 'hand cannons', wonder what they will think when I let it rip with DOUBLE my usual 30gr charge!!

Whats the max charge this will take, with wad and ball? and does anyone know what the average speed at say 5ft from muzzle will be with maximum charge? I dont want to get near the SASS pistol cut off (1000fps)
 
With a BP revolver, especially one like the Walker, the "maximum" charge is only limited by the amount of space in the cylinder.

If you can squeeze the ball in atop, and effectively seal the chamber, whatever you've got in there is the "maximum charge."

Boom!

hillbilly
 
it'll hold 60 grains under a ball.
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The lever will drop down but it doesn't matter. Tape or rubber band it in place.
 
Thanks Mec... a pic is worth 1000 words... especially when you put the load data on it... grin

Finally read your latest in Guns mag... excellent. Educating people that there were in fact some very good guns before auto loaders and half moon clips!
 
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They are a heck of a lot of fun to shoot also! Here is 60 grns of pyrodex. A lot more accurate then I would have expected and more of a push then recoil.
 
MEC

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The lever will drop down but it doesn't matter. Tape or rubber band it in place.

Why is that Mec? Seems to me like a flawed design in the original or was it supposed to do that and if so, why?

I always ask the questions others want the answers to :confused:
Duncan
 
Duncan, the originals did it too. It's a design flaw that has carried on. It shows that the modern guns are pretty close to the originals. Personally, I'd like to see a solution to it, but then again, it is historically accurate.
 
exactly. they used the same depending springy peg as on the Patersons. that set up works on the low recoil small bores but not on the walker. Ive read posts by one guy who cut a deeper notch to make it stick better but don't know how long such a fix would work. It also required extra manipulaton to unlatch the lever. The entire run of Walkers consisted of 1100 units made under time constraints. The "transition" or Whitneyville dragoons were the first post walker revolvers and they had front latches on the lever.
 
FWIW, we have them for $270 in the group buy. Don't know how you got one for $200, though!
 
More Walker Loads

Results will vary but seem consistent between our two Walkers. The traditional Picket bullet worked surprisingly well but I had to cone the loading stem and bevel the base of the bullet.
140 Grain Ball Charge Velocity Extreme Spread {5}
55 Goex FFFg 1001 fps 54
60 Goex FFFg 1115 fps 46
60 Gr./Vol. Pyrodex P 1221 44
60 Gr./Vol. A Pioneer 974 80
60 Gr/Vol Swiss FFF 1278 53
55 FFg 956 46
60 Gr./Vol. PyrodexRS 1045 35
37 Gr./Vol. H 777 1201 72

200 Grain Lee Bullet
40 FFFg 927 40
45 Swiss FFFg 1074 33
45Gr/Vol Pyrodex P 1087 47

170Grain Original Pattern Picket Bullet
40 Grains Swiss FFFg 1031 36
Energy 402 ft/lbs
45 Grains Goex FFFg 1026 84
45 Grains Swiss FFFg 1158 35
506 ft/lbs
45 Gr/vol. Pyrodex P 1035 57
attachment.php

Bullets include original form picket bullet from dixie mould and some Civil war surplus bullets in the 240-246 grain range. These were for the later dragoons.
 
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Here is a pic of how I slightly modified the latch spring on my ASM Walker to keep the lever from dropping (The latch spring is a Dixie Gunworks replacement for the ASM part that broke).

The lever now stays up with 50 gr. Pyrodex P loads!

Hope this helps,
 
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I agree. Neat solution. If I shot mine more often I would fix it up, but right now, I consider the lever drop to be part of the history of the gun.

By the way, does anyone know what the "style" of shooting was back then? IE: did folks one hand them or use 2 hand holds like I did in the shot above?
 
It absolutely is a piece of the history of the gun.

If you want to be authentic, but still not have to fool with the lever, then tie it in the up position with a piece of leather shoestring. Don't tie it too tight, then just slide it forward and backward on the barrel. Slide it forward when you are shooting, slide it back and the lever will drop.
 
Style:
It varied from something that looks like NRA bullseye. to the awful crooked elbow stance you see in the fredrick remington pictures. I've even heard some fairly recent loudmouths proclaim that the only way to shoot a pistol is to bend your elbow so as to bring the gun up about a foot from your face.
I call this one the "Poodle Taking a Dump" presentation. It looks a little like a dowager hoisting a martini at a coctail party and is about as steady.

Some representations of Hickock shooting Dave Tutt have him resting the revolver across his left wrist instead of holding it in two hands. People usually learned to shoot with one hand because the other hand was busy doing something with a horse or other 19th century bric a brac. John taffin made an educated guess that the Walker might have inspired some two handed shooting down around Matamoros and Mexico city.
 
I was thinking that shooting a Walker one handed you would have to be a lot stronger then I am. I guess life was a lot harder then, so you probably naturally developed a lot more muscle mass then we have today?

Thanks for the information. I loved the mental picture of your "poodle stance".
 
Yee Ha... Finally SHOT the Walker

OK... lets start at the beginning.
If you aint ever held a Walker... erm... let me warn you, they are BIG. This makes the 1860 Army look like a pocket pistol. Plus, its HEAVY...

I got it back home, dumped the baby on the wife, and went out to stoke up the chambers. 60Gr FFFg fills this baby right to the brim, so, I knocked it back 10gr to load 50g FFFg, over powder card, lube pill, 457 ball. Even though I was using a 457 ball, The loading rammer would lift a couple back out when i raised the lever. Solution? Set the balls a little deeper!
Threw a target up and shouted the wife. I have a nice little rule. If I get a new gun, wifey gets to shoot it first. This means that she knows what its like, and how loud it is... grin.
First 3 balls went down range from her hand, after an initial comment of "this is heavy".
Next three went down with my finger on the trigger.

10 yards, 2" group, 8" high of aim point.

Recoil... erm.. didnt really notice.
Bang... YES... most definate rolling boom from the Goex FFFg.
Dropped lever on 5/6 shots.

One thing that i noticed was that pushing the wedge in so that its more than a gnats widget out of the far side and the cylinder locks. Back it out a little and it frees the cylinder up enough to cock the hammer and rotate the cylinder. After 6 shots, I cant move the cylinder due to fouling. I am gonna have to take a little off the front of the cylinder, or play around some other way to fix this prob.

Keeper???? GOD YES!!!:neener: :neener: :neener: :neener: :neener:
 
mine tends to do t hat too. seems to respond to a bit more grease on the arbor than I generally use as well as the un tight wedge placement.
 
walker

the last cap and ball I had before switching to modern handguns was a walker, traded it for a washer and drier for my wife. Anyway, I used to drop the powder charge down enough to shoot 2 balls at a time, it was great for short range destruction on pumpkins.
 
Fixed the cylinder bind. There was a tiny little burr on the face of the cylinder which, when fouled, jammed the whole thing tight. Took this down and squirted Ballistol everywhere, no there is no fouling related seize.

This is a Uberti, but, there are a couple of things about the fit and finish that bother me.

I have noticed that the loading lever retaining 'spring' is dovetailed into the bottom of the barrel, but, its loose, and a quick wiggle can remove it. I also noticed that the front sight blade can be removed by just pushing it forward in its groove. OK.. this means that I can very easily replace the sight with one from an old penny, this fixing the 'shooting high', but, I dont like the fact that a Uberti revolver is in such a bad finish condition.

Anyone else had any probs with Uberti's?

One of the things that i really do LOVE is that the 'Black Powder only' markings are on the bottom of the barrel, hidden by the loading lever, and the proof markings are quite faint.


oh... and did i mention.. this thing is BIG.
 
Ubertis are seldom free of problems it's just that most of them can be repaired by the buyer. Minor problems- fix. Major ones, like misaligned frame/barrel/cylinder -send back to point of origin. I've had zero to few major problems with Uberti but minor ones or needs to polish and adjust with just about every one.
 
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