Ted W. Coombs
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Has anyone tried shot loads from a Walker? If so, can you give me an I'de how to load them, and how good does it work? Thanks Teton Ted
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Shot loads in a Walker
- Thread starter Ted W. Coombs
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Dave Rosenthal
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Never have I ever heard of anyone doing this. I have done it in centerfire though, both with .357 and .44 cal revolvers using CCI #12 and #9 shot.
Don't know how to tell you to stabilize the shot during the recoil of the other chambers in the cylinder.
Dave
Don't know how to tell you to stabilize the shot during the recoil of the other chambers in the cylinder.
Dave
madcratebuilder
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You can make a 'shot cup' out of paper. It well help hold the shot together. Use a wood dowel to form the paper cup. Don't expect much past four or five yards. OK for snakes.
paulvallandigham
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Terrible! I have not used them in a Walker, but in other revolvers. The rifling spins the shot, and you get a NON-pattern with the stuff. Out to 25 feet, maybe you get a majority of very small shot to hit a 2 ft. sq. target- maybe. Better to use it inside 12 feet.
Because the cylinder is so small, and you can't duplicate those shot cartridges with the plastic pills filled with shot that are made for the .44 cartridge guns, You have to use very small size shot, and usually less than 1/2 oz. You just don't get much of a pattern, and the individual pellets just don't carry much energy when you have to use #6 or smaller shot sizes.
At most its a snake gun load- hardly worth the bother, since you can move a snake out of your path with any stick, or simply choose another route. The loads may kill small rodents, and even small game, but that is about it. For anti personnel, the shot needs to be fired inside 10 feet, and then aimed at the face. But at that distance, just firing the gun is going to send out a long flame that can reach the assailant, or at least blind him with its flash, and then obscure you in the smoke so that you can evade your assailant before he can find you. The noise will deafen his ears, and cause him acute pain in both his ears. If he is hit by any of the shot, the stinging sensation will be like nothing he has every felt before. If he is high on drugs, or drunk, of course, he may not feel much of anything and just keep on coming at you. I would much prefer to recommend you use RB loads for social situation, if this were the only gun you have to protect yourself and other innocents.
I cannot balance the limited performance of such shot loads in a ML revolver, with the extremely heavy weight of these Walker guns. The gun is just too heavy for this kind of load, and is far more capable of sending a single RB or conical accurately out to 100 yds. and beyond, instead. Why would anyone want to load shot into a Walker Colt? It only sounds like a " neat " idea until you actually look at the problems you face getting such a load to hit anything. This is a revolver with the size, strength, and caliber to use to take Whitetail deer out to 100 yards. Why would you limit by loading it with shot that make it a 10 yd gun or less????
If you have never loaded shot loads in revolver, or pistols before, you need to use OP wads between the powder and the shot, and then either a .44 caliber gas check( for the bases of modern cast bullets) or another strong wad to hold the pellets in the chambers while surrounding chambers are fired. The wads will be pushed aside by the load as it leaves the muzzle, but they will affect how the shot patterns, since the wads will be spun by the grooves of the rifled barrel. The biggest danger of shot loads in a revolver is the thought that they might permanently blind an assailant. There are only a very few areas on the human body where a shot charge can hit and prove lethal. Unless at very close range, death will take its time coming.
Because the cylinder is so small, and you can't duplicate those shot cartridges with the plastic pills filled with shot that are made for the .44 cartridge guns, You have to use very small size shot, and usually less than 1/2 oz. You just don't get much of a pattern, and the individual pellets just don't carry much energy when you have to use #6 or smaller shot sizes.
At most its a snake gun load- hardly worth the bother, since you can move a snake out of your path with any stick, or simply choose another route. The loads may kill small rodents, and even small game, but that is about it. For anti personnel, the shot needs to be fired inside 10 feet, and then aimed at the face. But at that distance, just firing the gun is going to send out a long flame that can reach the assailant, or at least blind him with its flash, and then obscure you in the smoke so that you can evade your assailant before he can find you. The noise will deafen his ears, and cause him acute pain in both his ears. If he is hit by any of the shot, the stinging sensation will be like nothing he has every felt before. If he is high on drugs, or drunk, of course, he may not feel much of anything and just keep on coming at you. I would much prefer to recommend you use RB loads for social situation, if this were the only gun you have to protect yourself and other innocents.
I cannot balance the limited performance of such shot loads in a ML revolver, with the extremely heavy weight of these Walker guns. The gun is just too heavy for this kind of load, and is far more capable of sending a single RB or conical accurately out to 100 yds. and beyond, instead. Why would anyone want to load shot into a Walker Colt? It only sounds like a " neat " idea until you actually look at the problems you face getting such a load to hit anything. This is a revolver with the size, strength, and caliber to use to take Whitetail deer out to 100 yards. Why would you limit by loading it with shot that make it a 10 yd gun or less????
If you have never loaded shot loads in revolver, or pistols before, you need to use OP wads between the powder and the shot, and then either a .44 caliber gas check( for the bases of modern cast bullets) or another strong wad to hold the pellets in the chambers while surrounding chambers are fired. The wads will be pushed aside by the load as it leaves the muzzle, but they will affect how the shot patterns, since the wads will be spun by the grooves of the rifled barrel. The biggest danger of shot loads in a revolver is the thought that they might permanently blind an assailant. There are only a very few areas on the human body where a shot charge can hit and prove lethal. Unless at very close range, death will take its time coming.
Yeah, I've also loaded shot loads for center fire cartridges where you crimp the over shot wad or cup in place. I just don't see how you could accomplish that with shot loads in a C&B revolver. If someone knows how, I sure would like to know.smokin .50 said:
'How' is not nearly as difficult to answer as 'why'.
Simple overshot and overpowder cards of the right caliber are sufficient, like we use for a 12 ga bp shotgun. Making them is a bit difficult, but if you've gotten into making your own lubed wads then you probably already have a punch that will do the job.
I wouldn't bother with the cushion wad as well (by the time you get the powder, overpowder card, shot and overshot card in the chamber there isn't any room for a cushion wad); it won't do anything to keep the shot column together because the rifling in the bore will cause expansion anyway.
Actually, I wouldn't bother with any of this as it's pretty much an exercise in futility anyway.
Simple overshot and overpowder cards of the right caliber are sufficient, like we use for a 12 ga bp shotgun. Making them is a bit difficult, but if you've gotten into making your own lubed wads then you probably already have a punch that will do the job.
I wouldn't bother with the cushion wad as well (by the time you get the powder, overpowder card, shot and overshot card in the chamber there isn't any room for a cushion wad); it won't do anything to keep the shot column together because the rifling in the bore will cause expansion anyway.
Actually, I wouldn't bother with any of this as it's pretty much an exercise in futility anyway.
paulvallandigham
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As to the wads, you can buy .45 caliber wads that will work. But, I agree. The Why just doesn't make sense. I tried making my own shot cartridges for a .44 magnum casing, using #8 shot( .09" dia.) and gas check under and over the top. The most deadly component of the load was those two gas checks! And, they were the only part of the load that I could depend on hitting close to where I aimed.
I would not use the gas checks in a Walker, however. They are made of copper, and you would have to be very sure that you had the correct diameter of gas check to marry to both the chambers and the bore of the barrel for them to work. In my experience, the bore and chamber dimensions of replicas just are not that close to allow something made for modern cartridge guns to be used in these guns, safely.
I would not use the gas checks in a Walker, however. They are made of copper, and you would have to be very sure that you had the correct diameter of gas check to marry to both the chambers and the bore of the barrel for them to work. In my experience, the bore and chamber dimensions of replicas just are not that close to allow something made for modern cartridge guns to be used in these guns, safely.
Ted W. Coombs
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I agree with your answers. Think I'll stick with round ball to feed the Walker. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: Thanks Teton Ted
Ted W. Coombs
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Thanks Paul, Some good advice from experiance. Teton Ted
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Come on guys...this is about fun...does it really need a "WHY"??
A Walker has a huge chamber. I have done this and as stated pretty much good for noth'n but loads of Fun!
Use leather wads...you can get a punch and make them yourself or just check with a leathersmith or saddlemaker...he will probly cut some for you while you wait. Make them oversized.
Use skirting leather , this stuff takes oil very well and absorbs leaving the surface mostly dry.
These wads work real well for OP wads in any BP. Put a leather wad over your powder push it down with the rammer. fill the cylinder all the way up with shot and push another leather wad into the chamber.
With a light powder charge the lever won't push the 1st wad all the way to the powder so you have to push the shot column down prtty hard to get a proper set to the column.
Now go have FUNN!! :thumbsup: :haha:
Oh yeah the shot won't have enough penitration to stick in most things so don't shoot at anything flat like plywood or the shot will come back and get ya.
A Walker has a huge chamber. I have done this and as stated pretty much good for noth'n but loads of Fun!
Use leather wads...you can get a punch and make them yourself or just check with a leathersmith or saddlemaker...he will probly cut some for you while you wait. Make them oversized.
Use skirting leather , this stuff takes oil very well and absorbs leaving the surface mostly dry.
These wads work real well for OP wads in any BP. Put a leather wad over your powder push it down with the rammer. fill the cylinder all the way up with shot and push another leather wad into the chamber.
With a light powder charge the lever won't push the 1st wad all the way to the powder so you have to push the shot column down prtty hard to get a proper set to the column.
Now go have FUNN!! :thumbsup: :haha:
Oh yeah the shot won't have enough penitration to stick in most things so don't shoot at anything flat like plywood or the shot will come back and get ya.
Fun is a perfectly good answer for "Why?" Nothing wrong with that.
I have just as much fun with a round ball with much less effort, but not everyone does. I've heard a rumor that there are even people who put the powder in little brass cases and then stick the bullet in the end. They think that's fun, too. Oh, well. :shake:
I have just as much fun with a round ball with much less effort, but not everyone does. I've heard a rumor that there are even people who put the powder in little brass cases and then stick the bullet in the end. They think that's fun, too. Oh, well. :shake:
Russ T Frizzen
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mykeal said:
But isn't it hard to ram those things down the barrel?
Mykeal, not to belabor the point.....yeah, I understand about the OP and OS wads, but WHAT is keeping all those tiny lead balls from bouncing on the ground after the first or second shot recoil? Won't recoil back the remaining loads out of the cylinder? It's not like shooting round balls where they are a press fit in the cylinder.Even the second load in a double barrel shotgun will sometimes move forward a bit after the first barrel is shot. OK, now I'll let it rest.... Emery
The same thing that keeps the shot column intact in the left barrel of my sxs when I shoot the right barrel: good, well fitted cards/wads. Each layer, each card that is, is pressed into place with the ramrod; if the cards/wads fit the chamber, the whole thing will come together and stay put.
