new walker replica

Cocked&Locked

Cocked&Locked

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So, the black powder handgun bug is biting hard, and I've just put money down on a uberti Walker replica to live with the new army and Harper's ferry flinty.

I'm wondering what to use as a load on the walker. I know the originals would take 60 gns...but other then for giggles, i can't see shooting it that way all the time, as it would burn thru powder at an alarming rate. With the remington i normally get great accuracy around 22-26 gn....but i'm wondering if that would fill enough of the chambers on the walker to let the rammer take effect?

any advice or thoughts welcome...or a source for conicals, just to try as all i've shot out of the remington is ball.
 
I once owned an Armi San Marcos Walker. I think I shot around 30 grains of 3F in it but more importantly, if I did not remove the cylinder and wash the center hole and the cylinder pin every 2 cylinders, it fouled so badly I could not remove or rotate the cylinder. When that happened, I had to put the gun muzzle down in a bucket of water for 5 minutes to soften the fouling. Water level up to about the trigger. It is the only revolver that I have had that problem with and I don't know what was unique about it to make it foul so badly

cheers mooncoon
 
You probably want to do some measuring to see what the minimum charge is that reaches the back of the ball when seated. If that's more than you want to use some filler like multiple felt wads, corn meal or cream of wheat can be used to take up the space and give the powder some compression when ramming the ball down.
 
The Walker is much like a 357 Magnum you can run full house loads or 38 Special, because the chamber is Magnum size if you want to reduce the load you need a filler.I like corn meal because it pours like black powder and there is no residue.
There was a bullet used with the Walker which caused more problems than it solved, if improperly installed the bullet would cause the chamber to explode.
I would recommend sticking to round balls.
Because of its size fouling around the cylinder will cause binding after a few shots, this is normal and annoying but it is all good fun.
 
Thanks all....i was going to use cream of wheat, but cornmeal is easy to find too, so i'll give that a whirl. I'll want to try some full charge, but for normal range work i was going to try to work up a 25-30 gn load, so i'll need filler. I will see how badly she fouls, i've read a number of comments on the net about that issue, with the cylinder binding up. If it's bad I may try cutting a grove in the pin like on the other open top colts. I have a lathe at work, and on midnight's no one checks up to much lol. I use a lube i made 60/40 crisco to beeswax that does a really good job of keeping the fouling soft on my 1858 so i'll be generous with it and see how it goes. Report next weekend, i should get it this friday!
 
I suggest you try using Canola oil on the arbor. A drop or two then spin to work it in at the front joint at each loading. I found that it keeps the cylinders on my 1860's running freely all day long during cowboy action shooting. With the Canola it spins as freely at the end of the day as it does before the first round.

I also tried things like lithium grease and bore butter but this left the cylinder with some serious viscous drag. It didn't lock up from the fouling. But it sort of "oozed" around when I was turning it to load. With the canola oil it's much more free even when goobered up with the fouling mixed in.

In a recent post on another black powder forum there was a discussion on conicals vs round ball for accuracy. Seems like it's much too easy to load the conicals badly and accuracy suffers when compared to round ball. I'd never have thought it but that was the finding. YMMV depending on what mold you use and other factors of course.

I haven't done any of the cap shard "fixes" yet. But I've learned to turn my wrist to lay the gun over right side down when cocking. Doing so seems to let the shards fall free and I've had good luck with not getting bits down into the action side I started that method on my 1860's.

On a gun as heavy as the Walker a 25gn load will feel like shooting a rimfire Single Six... :d If you're after a reduced but strong enough charge that you feel like you're shooting something serious I suspect you'll end up somewhere between 30 to 40 gns. If looking for ultimate accuracy then it could be anything from 6 to 60 of course.
 
BCRider said:
I suggest you try using Canola oil on the arbor. A drop or two then spin to work it in at the front joint at each loading. I found that it keeps the cylinders on my 1860's running freely all day long during cowboy action shooting. With the Canola it spins as freely at the end of the day as it does before the first round.

I also tried things like lithium grease and bore butter but this left the cylinder with some serious viscous drag. It didn't lock up from the fouling. But it sort of "oozed" around when I was turning it to load. With the canola oil it's much more free even when goobered up with the fouling mixed in.

In a recent post on another black powder forum there was a discussion on conicals vs round ball for accuracy. Seems like it's much too easy to load the conicals badly and accuracy suffers when compared to round ball. I'd never have thought it but that was the finding. YMMV depending on what mold you use and other factors of course.

I haven't done any of the cap shard "fixes" yet. But I've learned to turn my wrist to lay the gun over right side down when cocking. Doing so seems to let the shards fall free and I've had good luck with not getting bits down into the action side I started that method on my 1860's.

On a gun as heavy as the Walker a 25gn load will feel like shooting a rimfire Single Six... :d If you're after a reduced but strong enough charge that you feel like you're shooting something serious I suspect you'll end up somewhere between 30 to 40 gns. If looking for ultimate accuracy then it could be anything from 6 to 60 of course.
Click to expand...

I will definitely try the canola oil, and migrate that to my remington as well. I've been greasing the pin with the crisco/beesway, and it works, but your right about the drag on the cylinder.

The nice thing with the remington is that it never tries to eat cap fragments, like my friends navy colt replica did....on that, yeah, tip to the right and lift....i'll have to remember that with the walker. What are these cap shard fixes of which you speak?

I ussually run the remington at about 26 grn, and that will overlap 5 balls in a 1" or less cluster between 15-20 yards...then i ALWAYS pull the last round as a flyer .....you know how it works lol. I've shot it up to 35 gn, and it runs fine, just more accurate between 20 and 28....and i have a 26 gn spout. I'll have to find a larger spout for the walker, or a 21 gn i can pour twice.

I've never shot conical, as ball is easy to find, and local where i've never been able to find conical without ordering from somewhere unknown. I'd give em a try, but round balls shoot plenty straight, especially the hornady swaged ones.
 
The Remingtons I've got have had cap fragment issues but it's so rare that I don't tip them either.

On the open tops the hammers should have a notch in the hammer's face. I think this is done so there's more edges. Perhaps it's the edge to edge that provides enough pressure to ignite the cap? But the cap tends to come back into the notch and stick. So one fix is to install a pin as far forward as possible and just about in contact with the cap so it holds the petal left after the shot onto the nipple. The idea being to stop it being pulled back by the hammer notch. Another is to simply fill the notch with solder or JB Weld so it can't stick in the notch. The JBWeld being easy to do and easy to remove if it doesn't work will be the option I start with once I remember that it's a problem. Currently it usually comes to mind during the first round of a shoot while I'm powder and balling. You know how that goes?

I know that my open tops do well with an honest 30 grains. The Uberti Remingtons not so much. I'll try reducing the charge to the range you say. But that means filler over top of the powder because with 30 I'm only about 2 or 3 grains away from the ram not having enough travel unless I use some sort of wad or filler.
 
BCRider said:
The Remingtons I've got have had cap fragment issues but it's so rare that I don't tip them either.

On the open tops the hammers should have a notch in the hammer's face. I think this is done so there's more edges. Perhaps it's the edge to edge that provides enough pressure to ignite the cap? But the cap tends to come back into the notch and stick. So one fix is to install a pin as far forward as possible and just about in contact with the cap so it holds the petal left after the shot onto the nipple. The idea being to stop it being pulled back by the hammer notch. Another is to simply fill the notch with solder or JB Weld so it can't stick in the notch. The JBWeld being easy to do and easy to remove if it doesn't work will be the option I start with once I remember that it's a problem. Currently it usually comes to mind during the first round of a shoot while I'm powder and balling. You know how that goes?

I know that my open tops do well with an honest 30 grains. The Uberti Remingtons not so much. I'll try reducing the charge to the range you say. But that means filler over top of the powder because with 30 I'm only about 2 or 3 grains away from the ram not having enough travel unless I use some sort of wad or filler.
Click to expand...

I use a lubed wonder wad under the ball, so it will ram nicely with that powder charge. 35 is about max i can use with the wad.
 
one note about cream of wheat- I don't use it b/c it will weld itself to the sides of your cylinder and can be a b*tch to get out- I've seen some folks take after it with a steel brush and 1/4 inch drill on a cleaning rod section- not a good idea in my books
 
That's interesting. Do you have something else you've tried that did work?

So far the only filler of this sort that I've tried is wheat germ used in brass cases to fire form the casings using old and inconsistent burning smokeless.
 
as simplistic as it sounds, I just don't use "light " loads- I use the recommended charge and that's it- I found that using a light load sometimes results in an "incomplete" burn and actually fouls worse than the standard load-
 
So far no one has mentioned the loading lever dropping when stout charges are used, this even happens with a third model Dragoon that has the improved latch at the end.
 
Cocked&Locked said:
So, the black powder handgun bug is biting hard, and I've just put money down on a uberti Walker replica to live with the new army and Harper's ferry flinty.

I'm wondering what to use as a load on the walker. I know the originals would take 60 gns...but other then for giggles, i can't see shooting it that way all the time, as it would burn thru powder at an alarming rate. With the remington i normally get great accuracy around 22-26 gn....but i'm wondering if that would fill enough of the chambers on the walker to let the rammer take effect?

any advice or thoughts welcome...or a source for conicals, just to try as all i've shot out of the remington is ball.
Click to expand...
Nice !......40-50 gr will work fine. I personally never shoot light loads (to inconsistent).....Wish I had the Harper Ferry Flinter....lol
 
infidel29 said:
now, you know you need to get a second uberti walker and wield them akimbo like "Josey Wales" style, right? ;)
Click to expand...

ROFL, i think if i strapped two of them to my hips, two things would happen. 1) by chiropractor would get rich, and 2) i'd bevel the muzzles cause i'm not tall and they'd probably drag on the ground after about 10 steps
 
deckerhead said:
Nice !......40-50 gr will work fine. I personally never shoot light loads (to inconsistent).....Wish I had the Harper Ferry Flinter....lol
Click to expand...

Come to Kitchener and we can meet up and shoot it some time! I've found light loads consistent, if i can get consistent compression when i load...If i can't they shoot all over, you can hear and feel it.
 
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