Uberti Walker range report

[Bob. B.]

Took my new Uberti Walker to the range last Saturday and was impressed. I loaded it up with 40 grains of Goex FFFG, a felt wad with a little bore butter on it, a .454 round ball and #10 Remington caps. The balls went in easy, just a little ring of lead was shaved from them.
I set up a target about 15 yards away and commenced fire. All six shots went off, no misfires. There was almost no recoil or muzzle jump. But there was a most satisfying boom and a lot of smoke. It shot a 3 inch group about six inches high dead center. Repeated the same steps and got the same results.
I then moved down to where the steel plates were hanging 25 yards away. I was able to hit steel 5 out of six times, they are 12 inch plates and I was aiming at the bottom of the plates.
I switched to CCI # 11 caps and then started having problems. Most of the caps would not go off on the first strike. the second time around they did. Any suggestions ? I did not go back to the Remington caps as I don't have many left but have a lot of the CCI's. I'll say one thing the Walker does draw a crowd. I let some other people shoot it and most of the time they hit steel. I did load it up once with 50 grains of powder which definity resulted in more smoke a louder boom. I'll stick to 40 grain loads and save some wear and tear on the pistol. A great day at the range!

 

[azmntman]

Locate and stock up on the Remington caps! Also, though 3" is a great group, I suggest you start at 20 gr powder, some filler (corn meal or grits?) and play with loads till you know what yer lil treasure can do, you may be pleasantly surprised! Shoot 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 etc. When you have your best group then up and down a few grains at a time. Try with and w/o the felt wad, the filler, use different lubes on the wad. Change what ya eat for breakfast. All these lil things can make a difference. 3" on day one tells me you could be doing that regularly at 30 yds, or better :thumbsup:

 

[Kansas Jake]

Caps not going off on first strike is a classic symptom of the nipples being slightly too large and the caps not fully seating. You can do as Azmntman suggests and stock up on remington's or if you want to use CCIs, remove the nipples and turn them down slightly with some emery cloth until the CCIs fit.

 

[azmntman]

Or get new nipples?

 

[F.G. Ford]

IF, I say again IF you can get #11 RWS caps, your problems will go away.
Fresh Pyrodex lets you shoot all day without the gun seizing up.
I much prefer real black powder for shooting my black powder guns, but real black powder limits your number of reloads without cleaning the cylinder, cylinder pin and in some cases the inner parts.
Pyrodex lets you shoot until you run out of powder or balls.
Pyrodex degrades VERY rapidly. Resulting in terrible groups and many misfires.
Just an added note, if you insist on using real black powder, a spray can of PAM cooking oil helps a lot.
Spray the cylinder pin and center hole of the cylinder with the pam. Wipe it clean, and a little spray again, will let you shoot longer without seizing up.
Fred

 

[Grenadier1758]

I'm somewhat surprised that the #10 Remington caps were fine but the very slightly larger CCI caps often required two strikes. I would have thought that the CCI caps would be looser. Yes, the Remington caps have thinner copper skirts and can be driven down a bit better by the falling hammer. Remington caps can be hard to find.

Even if your Uberti Walker is new, it might be time to get new nipples for your pistol. Or, just remove a bit of the cone for better seating.

 

[William P Sepessy]

FWIW, the Remington #10 caps are actually longer and larger than the CCI #11s. A couple of years ago someone on another site posted a chart listing the dimensions of currently available caps where precision measuring instruments were used. Among Remington, CCI & RWS caps the Remington #10s were the longest and largest.

 

[Zonie]

A post on another forum by Mako gives the average internal sizes and the depth from the mouth of the cap to the priming compound of several different caps.

They are: (inside diameter X depth to priming)

Rem. 10 = .166" X .144"
Rem. 11 = .166" X .115"
CCI 10 = .161" X .112"
CCI 11 = .166" X .113"
RWS 1075 = .165" X .114"
RWS 1075 Plus = .165" X .112"
RWS #55 (1055) = .158" X .155"

Other dimensions of a nipple given by Mako show the angle of the cone calculates to be 8.53 degrees.

Using this angle of 8.53, a reduction of the diameter of the nipple cone of .003 (the thickness of an average human hair) will move the cap .010" lower on the nipple.

That .010 movement can make the difference between the cap firing on the first hammer fall or the cap not firing.

There has been a number of posts describing how to file or sand the nipple cone smaller by using an electric drill and a file or sandpaper.

The only thing I will say about them is I don't recommend locating the nipple with the drill chuck clamping directly on the threads. It can crush the threads on the nipple and these damaged threads will damage the threads in the guns cylinder or bolster (or drum).

 

[William P Sepessy]

Thanks, Zonie. That chart by Mako was the one I had in mind.

 

[SDSmlf]

The only thing I will say about them is I don't recommend locating the nipple with the drill chuck clamping directly on the threads. It can crush the threads on the nipple and these damaged threads will damage the threads in the guns cylinder or bolster (or drum).

I use a small length of round stock with the appropriate threaded hole through the center. With nipple installed snug in the threaded hole you can clamp it a drill or lathe collet/chuck and have at it without fear of damaging the nipple threads.