Walker .44 and Dragoon Revisions

[montanatim]

I have a 3rd model Dragoon from Uberti, the latch fell even with a 30 gr. charge. I searched for an answer. At first I was leaning in the direction Wulf has suggested, to put an 1860 style lever latch on it. In order to "make it nice" I would have to buy another lever for a Walker (thanks again Zonie) and then machine the end for the other parts also have to be bought.

Then I got to thinking, wouldn't Colt have done some testing to make sure this "fix" to the loading lever problem was a good one?

Other folks I read about put heavier springs in the lever. I didn't like that idea cause it's hard enough to thumb that stupid catch as it is for me. So I got out the high power magnification and studied that catch. I found the angles were very poor indeed to it's purpose. I then took out the needle files and went to work. I already had plan B ready (replacement with 1860 style)I changed the rather flat angles to very sharp angles. The idea is to force the lever catch to have to climb up under recoil to un-catch itself.

The barrel stud angle should be made as deep as needed for full engagement, mine was not. It should be a fairly steep angle going down in the direction of the muzzle. Same angle on the lever part.

Even with the supposedly weak factory spring this fixed my lever drop problem. This gun will now take 45gr loads and the lever stays put. I also had cylinder gap issues (.033) that I corrected. I sure thought that Uberti made an excellent product, I'm now rethinking.

I have also seen original and repro guns that already have the 1860 style latch installed. The part suppliers I searched all seem to show my style latch though. You may have better luck finding the lever with 1860 style installed then I did.

 

[M. De Land]

I figure on giving any reproduction a full over haul soon as I get it.
I want the good modern steel used in them and prefer to view the basic gun as a parts bed for a good shooter when gone through.
Most have fairly decent land and groove dimensions but usually can stand a hand lap job.
On two I have I had to make new triggers of tool steel to get them hard enough to hold a fine sear edge for a good trigger let off.
Almost all of the reproductions can be made into guns capable of holding better accuracy than most of us can take advantage of.

 

[M. De Land]

I read somewhere in my library that the main reason the Walkers tended to explode was that they were made from iron using the open hearth, pre-Bessemer smelting process, which could not make very good steel.
The balkyness of the Walkers was and attempt to enable them to handle the increased pressure of the large charges of black powder.
The Bessemer smelting process allowed revolvers to be made of steel instead of iron and thus could be smaller and still handle adequate pistol preformance pressure.

 

[Wes/Tex]

This is possibly true. You always have to remember that the 'Walker" was not built by Colt, but by Eli Whitney on contract, and old Eli was nothing if not noted for taking short cuts...in this case with the quality of iron/steel used in his shops. RIP Ford was the quartermaster adjutant for the "Texas Rangers" as they liked to call themselves and inventoried the guns issued the 1st Texas Mounted Volunteers, (180) with about 90 turned back in at the end of the war). His comments are noteworthy. He speculated the problems with the guns was the result of the troopers loading the conical bullet in backwards...hardly likely. Actual destruction of guns is almost beyond doubt failures due to shortcuts taken by Whitney.

In modern replicas, Colt's, Italian or Belgium copies, of the 4 I've had through the years, 2 never had a loading lever drop, one worked fine after deepening the notch on the spring and they other got deeper notch and slightly bent spring. All worked fine after that but they are called horse-pistols cause you can use them to anchor a horse by tying them to the reins! :wink: :rotf: