Loading the Walker

[Lorna]

I like to use the Pyrodex pellets which are equvalent to 30gr of powder.

They function quite well in the 0.44 Remington and the 0.44 1860 Army Colt. The Walker one pellet "disappears" and the ball without a bunch of wading will not seat properly..

The Walker appears that it is made for a much larger charge of powder then the other small cylinder pistolds. What is the maximum loading data for this pistol?

Historically what references I could find is that the Walker took 50 to 60 gr of powder. Two of the Pyrodex pellets with a ball look perfect (I have not fired it this way).

Can the Walker handle this load?

[Gatofeo]

I do not own a Walker, but I recently read an interesting report on shooting it at another site.
The poster reported using up to 55 grains of FFFG, I believe. Perhaps it was 60. This was with a lead .457 inch ball and no greased felt wad under it. Grease was placed over the ball.
However, I do not think I would gamble using two 30 gr. Pyrodex pellets. Even a 60 gr. load of FFFG is at the maximum for this revolver.
The original Walker had a reputation --- deserved or not --- of its cylinders bursting when loaded to maximum. This is attributed to the iron cylinders then in use.
The following models, the Dragoons, had cylinders made of steel, reportedly for this reason.
However, many black powder shooters forget that even with today's steels, it is the design that is the weakness, not always the steel.
A case in point is the reproduction of the 1873 Springfield .45-70 rifle. Reproductions use modern steel, but the design still limits its pressure to 18,000 Copper Units of Pressure (CUP).
Were it me, I would not exceed 45 grains of FFFG black powder, or its equivalent, in that Walker when used with a lead ball.
The latest Lyman Black Powder Handbook (2nd ed.) tops out at 45 grains of FFFG under the ball. They're the folks with the pressure measuring devices; I'd heed a ballistic lab over anything posted on the net any day of the week.

[44.collector]

Originally posted by Lorna:
I like to use the Pyrodex pellets which are equvalent to 30gr of powder.

They function quite well in the 0.44 Remington and the 0.44 1860 Army Colt. The Walker one pellet "disappears" and the ball without a bunch of wading will not seat properly..

The Walker appears that it is made for a much larger charge of powder then the other small cylinder pistolds. What is the maximum loading data for this pistol?

Historically what references I could find is that the Walker took 50 to 60 gr of powder. Two of the Pyrodex pellets with a ball look perfect (I have not fired it this way).

Can the Walker handle this load?

[44.collector]

Originally posted by 44.collector:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Lorna:
I like to use the Pyrodex pellets which are equvalent to 30gr of powder.

They function quite well in the 0.44 Remington and the 0.44 1860 Army Colt. The Walker one pellet "disappears" and the ball without a bunch of wading will not seat properly..

The Walker appears that it is made for a much larger charge of powder then the other small cylinder pistolds. What is the maximum loading data for this pistol?

Historically what references I could find is that the Walker took 50 to 60 gr of powder. Two of the Pyrodex pellets with a ball look perfect (I have not fired it this way).

Can the Walker handle this load?

</font>[/QUOTE]

[44.collector]

Originally posted by Lorna:
I like to use the Pyrodex pellets which are equvalent to 30gr of powder.

They function quite well in the 0.44 Remington and the 0.44 1860 Army Colt. The Walker one pellet "disappears" and the ball without a bunch of wading will not seat properly..

The Walker appears that it is made for a much larger charge of powder then the other small cylinder pistolds. What is the maximum loading data for this pistol?

Historically what references I could find is that the Walker took 50 to 60 gr of powder. Two of the Pyrodex pellets with a ball look perfect (I have not fired it this way).

Can the Walker handle this load?

I'm about to purchase a Uberti Walker Colt and was wondering if this is a good choice ? I have heard alot of bad reports on the Dixie Walkers basically falling apart and would like to know if this Walker will hold up under the 40 to 50 grain loads (which are recommended in most books with 55 being the max) behind a .457 ball with a felt filler?

[Will]

I used to have a Uberti walker and wish I'd never sold it. The one I had got nothing but 60 grain 3f Goex and it was a blast to shoot. Only problems I had were the loading lever ocasionaly dropping from recoil and 60 charges are hard on the gun. Screws would shake loose and if your going to shoot full power loads get some extra wedges. A couple hundred shots is all I could get out of the barrel wedges before there was too much slack to reliably set off the caps. You could mill a new wedge out of harder steel, but then the wear would be on the cylinder pin and barrel slot.

I would stick to around 40 grains for normal shooting, but it is a lot of fun with full power loads.

I don't know anything about pyrodex, but black you'd be fine long as you can seat the ball and turn the cylinder, though the gun will wear out quiker.

The original walkers had iron cylinders and about a third of them blew up. My .02$ is that with an iron cylinder the 60 grain load was boarder line and with black powder differning and some of the older pretty hot like Swiss powder is hotter than others it couldn't stand it. Me I think there was no margin for error in the orginals. The first Dragoons still had iron cylinders, but they were a 1/4" shorter to solve the bursting problem.

Just to let you know how strong some of these old guns are I converted a pieta 51 navy to 38 long colt by milling a breach ring and turning down the cylinder and chambering it for 38. To proff it I mounted it in a vise and fired it from a distance with the equivelent of 357 magnum loads which is 1.5 times the normal load. It held the heavy loads fine, though I wouldn't sell this gun nor would I recomend continued shooting as the gun would probably wear out pretty quik.

[mec]

We have not exactly tortue tested the Uberti Walker but we have shot it quite a bit with Several load combinations. Here is a link to the results

http://www.gunpix.com/gallery/Muzzle...lkerloads2.jpg

It is significant that none of these loads were particularly ostreperous or likely to loosen the gun. the lever does drop with any load approaching the original intent of the revolver. This is why they added front lever detents to the later models. Once accepted, the dropping lever is not a problem- simply tie it up or replace after each shot.

We were able to load a full 60 grains of fffg into the chambers - even though it does not compress as far as pyrodex. Velocity became erratic as compared to the 55 grain charge and most of the shots were only 40 fps or so faster.