A Walker question or two

[Steve Grentus]

A friend of mine has a Uberti Walker 1847 .44 cal black powder cap and ball revolver. I have seen it fired on YouTube with the ramrod dropping almost after every shot. His does the same! Is this an accepted occurance of this handgun and if so, why, and can one do something to offset this "dropping". My friend says it's all part of the experience of owning and firing a big Walker.
What are your thoughts. Thank you.

gh

 

[cynthialee]

Yep. It is a design flaw of the gun.

Use a leather thong or a rubber band to hold it in place.

 

[rafterob]

why

I think the 55 gr. powder charge has something to do with it :shocked2:

 

[bpd303]

That and the design of the replicas latch spring to lever fit. I cured mine by a little judicious filing of the engagement area of the loading lever to spring catch. There is a guy on eBay selling a good after market catch for the Walker.

 

[Zonie]

Yep. It is a design flaw of the gun.

Use a leather thong or a rubber band to hold it in place.

I agree.

This problem existed on the original gun and the design of the loading lever catch was the first thing that was changed when the first model Dragoon was designed.

As bpd303 says, with some careful use of a small metal cutting file, the edges of the spring and loading lever latch can be sharpened to keep them from slipping into disengagement but doing this often won't totally eliminate the problem.

A thin leather thong is probably a historically accurate way of solving the problem. (I haven't seen this described in any writing of the time but if I had lived then and been required to use a Walker, that's what I would have done.) :grin:

 

[cynthialee]

I have seen pictures of (reproduction) Walkers that have been retrofitted with the loading lever and latch style you see on later model Colts. Seems like an obvious fix if you have the spare cash for a smith or can do the work yourself.

 

[Wes/Tex]

Have owned two through the years. An old Replica Arms one from the 60's got the light file job on the spring which seemed to do the trick. The second was a charcoal blue Uberti that has never dropped the loading rod once in all the years with all the powder I can get in there...yes, I got lucky and I know it!! :wink: :haha:

 

[slippery50]

I have a A.S.M. Whitneyville 1847 Walker & have shot it numerous times with a load of 55g & the lever has never dropped either.

 

[nkbj]

Got no idea if the originals had a slightly different contour on the parts to keep the lever from dropping.
However, something I discovered on a Uberti was that a bullet weight approximating what the original load was had a longer recoil impulse that did not over come the hold that the spring had on the lever while the sharper recoil of a round ball load certainly did.
But, who knows what the thoughts were when the revolver was engineered?

 

[cynthialee]

Well I am pretty sure the original models had the lever dropping issue. Otherwise, why would they have upgraded the levers on the Dragoons?

 

[Wes/Tex]

Not sure about the original thoughts about the design. To my knowledge, the two Sams didn't leave a lot of written dialog. The spring itself has the notch that holds the reloading lever in place. Deepening it slightly will sometimes make a big difference. "R.I.P." Ford was the quartermaster of the 1st Volunteer Texas Mounted Rifles, who preferred to be called "The Texas Rangers" during the Mexican-American War. He recorded that 180 Walkers were issued to the Rangers, not the 500 usually quoted, since only 1,000 were made for the government contract to arm the U.S. Regiment of Mounted Rifles, the regiment who Sam Walker served with. It was his former service in the Texas Rangers that confuses the whole Walker Colt story. Ford never recorded any problem with the lever though he did record the burst cylinder problem...which he attributed to the unfamiliarity of the troopers with the elongated bullet that was cast from the ball/bullet mold issued with the guns. Ole RIP decided the guys were loading the bullet in backwards and causing the gun failures. Close examination of some originals has led modern collectors to conclude that when Eli Whitney was buying steel for the guns he made(for Colt for the Army, sub-sub contract)Eli took some shortcuts in the metal quality department. Oops!

 

[nkbj]

Does anyone have a reference about the number per pound of lead for the original bullet specs? Going off of memory I thought it was 32 per pound but haven't seen it in a while.

 

[Wes/Tex]

32 to the pound would figure out to about .53" diameter. Think the .45 was figured at 50 to the pound. Actual figure would depend on actual cast diameter but don't recall reading what the actual cast diameter of original Colt molds was. Sorry.

 

[CaptainKirk]

For the record, my Second Dragoon will drop the catch with any load over 40gr on a regular basis. It's part of the whole Walker/Dragoon experience.

 

[tenngun]

just thinking. .58 was a common size,ours and english militay rifles,or the ball sold for fusils. A ball that size is 260- 280 grains,1/2 of that is 120-140 grains,about 44-45. Half again is 60-70 grains about .36. Colt made .36,44,and 58s during the war, hmmm.

 

[nkbj]

32 to the pound would figure out to about .53" diameter. Think the .45 was figured at 50 to the pound. Actual figure would depend on actual cast diameter but don't recall reading what the actual cast diameter of original Colt molds was. Sorry.

The bullets (not addressing the round ball) were originally specified by the number of bullets to the pound. Been many years since I read about the designing of the Walker and I'm thinking it was 32 to the pound but do not remember for certain. What Samuel Walker wanted was the same basic formula that was later followed in the 45 Colt and 45ACP. Like my daddy always said, "They do what works."

 

[jaxenro]

50 to the pound which I think is about a 46 which the prototype was. The contract run was slightly smaller with a 454 ball

 

[nkbj]

50 to the pound which I think is about a 46 which the prototype was. The contract run was slightly smaller with a 454 ball

I was speaking to the 32 per pound bullets, not round ball.

 

[BowerR64]

Thats one reason i havnt got one, they forgot to finish it.

Ide rather get one that doesnt have this problem wich is a different model.

 

[jaxenro]

I know but from what I read the other day they original contract was a gun that shot balls at fifty to the pound