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joed
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| Posted: February 11 2009 at 5:12pm | IP Logged
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Anyone own a replica of one of these? I have a friend that has a friend selling one. I've heard about the Walker Colt but know nothing about them. In fact I know very little about BP shooting.
But I'm entertaining the idea of picking this gun up if it can be had for a resonable price.
Opinions?
JoeD
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Rigmarol
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| Posted: February 11 2009 at 7:40pm | IP Logged
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My opinion is, do a fast search online to get an idea what they are going for. If you can get a better deal, go for it.
I want a walker repro really bad! It's on my short list of "Momma buy me one o' those!"
I also want a Schofield (sp).
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scrat
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| Posted: February 27 2009 at 5:51pm | IP Logged
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Guilty as charged. Own one. i even have a R&D cylinder for it as well. It is really awesome. i have a Uberti Cimarron. Walker. accuracy is very good with 40 grains of goex. However increasing the charge up to around 55 grains and WOW the the loud low hum boooomm. Makes everyone stop what they are doing. Shooting 45 colt is awesome. too. only drawback is the loading lever falling and the weight.
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Lurker
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| Posted: February 27 2009 at 5:58pm | IP Logged
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scrat wrote:
<deleted>
only drawback is the loading lever falling and the weight. |
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The loading lever falling can be irritating.
If you want a heavy duty C&B revolver, get a Third Model Dragoon... The loading lever has a catch on it, that solves that problem.
Personally, I prefer the 1860 Army for a .44 caliber shooter.
Bill
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scrat
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| Posted: February 27 2009 at 8:10pm | IP Logged
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There are some fixes. you can file the catch a little more and then it stays up. Back in the old days the guys used to cut a piece of leather into a loop and put it around the barrel and loading lever. As for me i just remove the 1 screw and pull the loading lever out. it comes out in less than what 5 seconds. then i dont have to worry about it. the 1860 is a good shooter i have one too. However until you have fired a walker nothing beats the raw power of a 55 grain charge through a revolver. Just awesome. sets off car alarms and everything just sheer power. Oh did i mention i have 5 .44s. walker is #1 for power. 1858 is #2 for ease of use. most accurate longest lasting though is my 1851 navy pietta. it has out shot all of my guns everytime. the 1858 is usually the first to go. After so many rounds it needs to be taken apart as the arbor is really small gets fouled up and is very hard to turn the cylinder. The walker usually goes due to caps falling in the works. the 1860 arbor and accuracy problems my 2 1851s are the last remaining ones. all the time. my asm all steel will last a while but i usually end up with my 1851 pietta. I have done it a couple times just to see which ones last the longest. After you clean them back up they all work good just the pietta 1851 has always lasted the longest and is suprisingly the most accurate.
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2soon2old
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| Posted: November 18 2009 at 9:05am | IP Logged
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Newbie here. I have a Colt Walker. (New series, allegedly made by Colt, but it looks an awful lot like the one pictured by Uberti.) Manual states the max charge is 55 grains, which doesn't quite fill the chamber. Uberti Walker Web site states the max charge is 60. Does the Uberti have larger chambers? This is a curiosity question. I usually use 50 grains of Pyrodex P. (Apologies to the purists, but I was on a detail some 50 years ago to try to find pieces of the guy who was in the powder house when it blew. Explosion attributed to static on the BP, but it could have been crystallized dynamite.)
Thanks.
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lovesrugers
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| Posted: November 18 2009 at 9:45am | IP Logged
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2soon2old, first off welcome to Handloads.com
As to your Colt Walker. From doing some quick research on the net it appears Uberti made most of the castings for your gun. Colt or someone they hired did the final fitting and finishing. Apparently these guns are finished to a far better level than the regular Uberti import reproduction gun.
Of course saying all that really doesn't answer your question of does the Uberti have deeper chambers? To find that out the best way would be to actually compare an Uberti made gun to your Colt gun. Even with Uberti supplying the raw cylinders I would bet it is possible they may have different powder capacities. The reason for this is Uberti supplied the raw cylinder and Colt finished it. In doing this finishing maybe Colt choose not to ream the cylinder as deep as what Uberti does for its Walker version. Of course this is just conjecture on my part.
Have you ever tried to fit 60 grains of powder into your cylinder? If so was it possible to easily seat the ball?
Jerry
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2soon2old
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| Posted: November 24 2009 at 5:53pm | IP Logged
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lovesrugers wrote:
As to your Colt Walker. From doing some quick research on the net it appears Uberti made most of the castings for your gun. Colt or someone they hired did the final fitting and finishing. Apparently these guns are finished to a far better level than the regular Uberti import reproduction gun. Jerry |
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Jerry, many thanks for your efforts. I wasn't able to craft a useful search term. The Colt(Uberti) has some nice (cute?) gold(brass?)-filled engraving on the frame and backstrap.
If the device below measures from 20 to 60 grains(bpvol) in 5 gr(v) increments, then my Walker holds an estimated 58 grains brimful.
The ball could probably be seated at brimful. At 55 gr(v), I discovered that, with "moderate" compression, I was seating the ball a full diameter into the powder. Never really gave it much thought until I was investigating 777.
By way of some sort of introduction, below are my Walker, my Pietta 1858, and my Colt SAA, 1927 vintage. The Walker and Pietta were gifts from my wife about 10 years back. The SAA is an heirloom handed down through my wife's family. I have been loading the SAA with Pyrodex P using a Lyman 310 tool.
The Walker came with the case and powder flask. The delivery of the flask is surprisingly consistent.
Closeup of the Pietta engraved frame. It might have been a Cabela's special.
A gunsmith evaluated the SAA last month. All of its clearances are within specs. Not too bad, considering that its diet during the first 60 years was those 1160 fps Winchester loads. 
Thanks again. This is a great forum.
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lovesrugers
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| Posted: November 24 2009 at 7:10pm | IP Logged
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Very nice collection of guns there.
Your 1927 Colt SAA, what caliber is it. I am assuming 44-40 from your reference to the Winchester loads. I see you are loading it with Pyrodex, are you doing that for any reason in particular?
Jerry
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2soon2old
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| Posted: November 24 2009 at 10:08pm | IP Logged
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lovesrugers wrote:
Very nice collection of guns there.
Your 1927 Colt SAA, what caliber is it. I am assuming 44-40 from your reference to the Winchester loads. I see you are loading it with Pyrodex, are you doing that for any reason in particular?
Jerry |
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Oops! Forgot important data. It is 38-40. The muzzle velocity is probably out of a rifle, since that is section in which the cartridge data is found in my old COTW. One of these days I need to get a chronograph.
Pyrodex came about because I already was using it with the C&Bs. I had no reloading equipment, and got a Lyman 310 mostly for the nostalgia factor. Next step is to get a small scale for smokeless, maybe Trail Boss. And maybe not. Jacketed .401 bullets are much easier to find around here, and I'm currently too lazy to get into casting. Considered 777, but Hodgdon doesn't respond well to my questions.
Somewhere I read that the brimful case holds 40 grains BP, hence the '40' in 38-40. My little measure agreed, so some of my first loads were 40 gr(bpv) of Pyrodex P with 180 gr Hornaday XTPs. Very satisfying, but loading was somewhat messy. Settled on 35 gr(bpv), which gives some compression with the XTP. Accuracy was dependent on the aimer. javascript:AddSmileyIcon(' ')
Thanks for asking.
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lovesrugers
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| Posted: November 25 2009 at 12:17am | IP Logged
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Looks like I missed that one. I had a 50/50 chance between 44/40 and 38/40. Either one would be about right for the rifle velocity you stated.
Now most older cartridges used in the United States specify the caliber and then the charge of black powder, but this is not true with the 38-40 Winchester. For some reason the 38-40 is actually a .40 caliber bullet on top of 38 grains of black powder. From what I have read this happened because 38-40 sounded better than 40-38, but who knows after all this time?
As a side note to consider when loading black powder cartridge cases you need to take into account the change from balloon head cases to solid head cases. The solid head case is much stronger than the older balloon head case. In increasing the strength of the case the original case capacity was decreased. Thus cartridges specified by name to hold so many grains of black powder will no longer contain that many grains. What this means is your 38-40 will no longer hold 38 grains of powder nor will the 44-40 contain 40 grains of powder or most other black powder cartridges that are similar.
Now keep in mind this has no bearing on reloading current cases of these cartridges with smokeless powder. Most if not all smokeless data was developed using solid head cases. So no worries there.
Jerry
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2soon2old
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| Posted: December 08 2009 at 10:02am | IP Logged
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lovesrugers wrote:
| From what I have read this happened because 38-40 sounded better than 40-38, but who knows after all this time? |
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40-38 Thanks. I wonder what Winchester has to say.
My Christmas present to me is a chronograph so I can get some data from my Walker. The way I have been loading it with more that recommended compression results in more of a CRACK than a BOOM. I'll be using Pyrodex P at a couple of different loads, probably 50 and 55 gr(v) and compression at 3 or 4 percents of cylinder length.
It will be a while. The high here today is forecast to be 9F, and more cold down the road.
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25-06RT
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| Posted: December 08 2009 at 3:48pm | IP Logged
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Until the introduction of the 44 mag the Colt 44 Walker was the most powerfull revolver made. A friend of mine has one and with 50 gr FFFG and an original style conical bullet which is heaver than the round ball it is awesome.
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Handloads.Com Forum : Black powder and Muzzleloading
Topic: Walker Colt
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