1st day with Uberiti Walker, initial impressions

C

Chowmif16

New member
I recently bought a Uberti Walker from another member of this forum, and had a short shooting session with it a few days ago. I have to say, after 20 years of BP shooting, that was indeed a memorable experience! The boom it makes is just priceless.
I did not have the time that day to work up an accurate load for it, so I just wanted to experience the joy of shooting a Walker. As such, I will not yet comment on it's accuracy (although it seemed to be quite decent in a small sample size), but thought I would post some notes on my lessons learned.
My plan was to shoot 50gr Goex FFFg with a .454 RB and my homemade durofelt wads with lube. 50gr FFFg, just because I could!
I think this gun needs .457 RB. When I loaded the .454 and then retracted the loading lever, the ball came back up with it. So, I reseated the ball with a dowel and shot it out without loading more chambers. I tried loading a different chamber, to account for variation in chamber size, and the same thing happened. Again, think it needs .457.
I then abandoned the lubed felt wad thinking that the lube had slicked up the chamber wall allowing the ball to slip back out with the loading lever. I was right. Now the ball seated fine, with a minimal lead ring and didn't come back with the loading lever. Shot that one, and then loaded 5 chambers without a wad. It was awesome to shoot it!
The next issue that came up was cylinder binding.
After about 15 shots, the cylinder began to bind against the forcing cone. In retrospect, not surprising at all.
I'm sure there are 2-3 factors involved in this.
This gun has the tightest cylinder to forcing cone gap of any of my percussion revolvers. Without any lube (I didn't use lube over the ball in the cylinder), it fouled the gap quickly. The second factor is that 50gr is a lot of powder, and creates a lot of potential fouling. Hadn't really thought of that when I loaded it. Kind of like shooting a .45 cal ML rifle with a bare ball and no lube. Fouls quickly.
If you shoot an 1860 with 20gr FFFg without any lube, you will get more shots before it binds because you are using less powder (I think).
As fully expected, the loading lever fell down on recoil of most of the shots. No big deal. Doc Hoy is thankfully sending me one of his ingenious clips.
It was a great experience to shoot this gun, and all of the issues are easy to solve. The gun functioned as it was designed, and was a joy to shoot.
Lessons learned:
Use .457 RB
Make sure there is enough lube via a felt wad to keep it functioning.
Now, find the most accurate load which is likely less than 50gr.

Lastly, still shoot it sometimes with 50gr just because I can....
 
mindreader

I was just wondering about this. Sent you a PM. And here you have answered my questions!

In your experimentation you might try lube under the ball with a wad just to see if that helps with fouling. Wouldn't hurt to try. That's one of those things that GeoJohn does and I started doing it too. Seems to work for me.
 
Remember, paragraphs are your friends.

Yours experience is similar to mine when I bought my first Walker a few months ago. No loading lever drop with 50 grains or less, but at 55 or more it drops. I too have one of Docs clips.

.454 seems to work well in mine, though I may try .457. The BOOM factor is worth it.
 
Fools,
PM sent..
I was using a felt wad under the ball, with a homemade lube of which I cannot remember the recipe (roughly beeswax, neatsfoot oil and maybe murphys oil soap) I found that the slight amount of lube that scraped onto the cylinder wall as I seated the ball provided enough lubricity for the ball to be retracted with the loading lever. This, combined with the minimal lead shave ring that occurred tells me that the .454 ball is too small.
I had found with all my other Uberti .44's that they like .454 balls and assumed that the Walker would do the same. I got rid of my .457 some time ago because I had loosened the arbor on an 1860 due to the force required to seat .457 balls in it.
Cheers,
 
lube

I was saying in another post, that the lube I made per instructions, was rather firm. But I think you are right and will need a larger diameter ball.
 
Fair Play, Bishop Creek!

You are right, I should have used paragraph indentation etc.
Problem is, I'm out of town and just noticed that the iPad does not have a Tabkey to create indents. I do attempt to preview my posts and correct grammar and spelling, and your comment hits home and is appreciated.

I'm glad that your gun likes .454, and I wish mine did too. I only shot about 20 rounds and it is worth more experimentation and data. My impression was that the .454 only shaved a slight ring that was not all the way around the circumference, hence my supposition that .457 are required.

Grammatically,
Chowmi
 
By the way,

Thanks to chickenmcnasty who sold me this gun for a good price and then included the Walker nipple wrench when he shipped it.
The joy of shooting it and anticipation of the next time is well worth the price.

(Edited 3 times for grammar).
 
Chowmif16,
The barrel/cylinder clearance isn't too small, it adjusts itself because the arbor is too short (or the hole is too deep!). The smaller the clearance, the less fouling can escape. You should be able to shoot all day without binding. (Even big loads!!)
The shock wave from shooting a full load in a Walker is an experience!! Next time, let someone else shoot it and stand just to the side of them . . . the wave goes around the shooter but the bystander feels it!! Awesome!!!

Congratulations on a fine revolver!

Mike
www.goonsgunworks.com
 
If you have a chronograph, how about chronographing the velocity of the 50 grain loads? I have seen numbers close to 1000 fps, which seem fantastic. I have read material that claims the Walker was the most powerful handgun till the 357 Magnum, which, if it pushes a 147 grain bullet above 1000 fps, it could be.
 
Two responses.....

Slamfire,

I get close to 1000 fps plus or minus and when it is plus it takes it above a thousand.

Chowmi,

I understood from your post that you have not yet received the clip. That concerns me. It went into the mail long enough ago that it seems like you should have it.
 
What Dragoon said. He knows his chit when it comes to Dragoons and Walkers and BTW they both require .457 balls.
 
Thanks fellas. I'm on the fence about a Dragoon, and one of the questions I have is the proper diameter ball. If and when I get one, it will be 457.

That Walker sounds like a blast! (snicker... snicker...)
 
Ha! Thanks Hawg, I appreciate that!! Been shooting yours latley?
Click to expand...

No, the way I've been working here lately when I do get a day off I don't even want to do anything. Heck I haven't even ordered a mold for it yet. Guess maybe I can work up enough energy to do that.:D
 
Dragoon,
Good point on the clearance. It's possible that I mis-diagnosed where it was binding. Could also have been that the arbor built up some fouling, adding to the problem. I wiped fouling off the face of the cylinder with a wet finger, and that allowed me to rotate the cylinder (with some effort) and fire the remaining shots I had loaded.
I failed to mention that when the gun is clean, the cylinder to forcing cone gap is not too tight as you sometimes find on the repros. I have some guns for which if you push the barrel key in too far, then the cylinder drags on the forcing cone. This is not the case with the walker. I know I need to work on those guns to fix the arbor length or hole depth.

Doc, don't worry yet. I am out of town now, so it may have arrived.

I should get some shooting in during this week and will post my results.
 
Tubular!

Good news. Hope it is there when you arrive.

One additional thought. Now you have to forgive me if my memory is playing tricks on me.

But there is a peculiarity in shooting Dragoons and Walkers. Because the arbor is huge in comparison to the 51 to 62 models, when crud builds up in the cylinder to arbor interface, it can really create problems. larger radius, more surface area for friction, increased moments of torque and all that physics crap.

I always take care to make sure the lube is good before I starts shooting. I also wipe the arbor down often (which is every six because I load with a press) and verify the lubricant is refreshed.

Don't know if there is time to mess with this in CASS or other sanctioned competition events.

I have even had a revolver that wouldn't cock because the cylinder wouldn't advance because of the crud. I douched it down with a squirt of Rem oil on the arbor and cylinder with the pistol still all put together. Problem cleared almost immediately, at least enough to clear the remaining rounds through the muzzle.
 
That's what I'm talking about Doc, there should be no difference in shooting your Walker (or any other open top) and a regular hand gun. The taking apart part should be done at home when you clean it!! The fouling shouldn't be enough to lock up the cylinder.

The face of the cylinder gets cleaned off every time you cycle the action as it contacts the barrel. The clearance at the barrel /cylinder should be small enough to keep most of the fouling going down the barrel.
I have a customer that fired 160+ shots each out of a pair of '61s without any disassembly over a 3 day period!!! He just wiped the outside of the revolvers down.

That's the way it should be!!

Mike
www.goonsgunworks.com
 
Dragoon...

Didn't mean to imply that I was disputing what you were saying.

Just my experience that I could not shoot more than about fifty or sixty rounds without taking pistol apart.

Some lapses in my comments are:

I remember this was true of Colts but don't recall (or never checked) if Remingtons acted differently.

I never did a side by side comparison of Pre-51 designs with 51 or later. It is just my recollection of my own shooting experience.

As I reread what I said, it implies that all Colts act the way I describe and that is obviously not the case. Only mine and only for me.

This has not happened to me recently because about three years ago I started loading with a press. So the cylinder comes off every six shots and the arbor gets wiped down so it doesn't happen at all now.
 
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