Walker and 1st Model Dragoon Conversions

R

rodent.22

New member
Hi everyone. I finished up my Walker conversion to .45 Colt cartridge this past week. It shoots great and I'm very pleased. I took comparison photos between the Walker and the Dragoon, some may not have seen actual differences. The Walker cylinder is 1/4'' longer, the barrel is 2 inches longer, and the arm weighs 5 oz more than the Dragoon. The Walker has curved top grips and a steel backstrap vs the square cut grips and frame and brass backstrap of the Dragoon. Both conversion cylinders are Kirst, ordered from their website. I only ordered one loading gate ring, as both guns use the same one. That saved me $175.00. Both guns are Uberti. The loading channels were rough cut with an inline die grinder, dowel sanded with #80, #180, #220, #1500, and then finger polished with #2000 grit wet or dry paper. Dry. A good cleaning and cold blue left a perfect match. The complete areas around the loading channel I taped with about 6 layers of masking tape to prevent accidental scratches during the mods. Thanks for looking!!!:D sorry about crappy pictures, my camera has too many pixels to get on here regular sized.
 
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nice guns you got there! i wonder, would a Walker converted to fire 45LC have a long enough cylinder to also fire 454 Casull? and if it could, would it be safe?
 
ClemBert posted about his custom Walker .450 BPM conversion cylinder which is a longer cartridge than the .454 Casull. However the .454 Casull does have a slightly larger rim.

Walker with a different twist --- .45 BPM (.45 Black Powder Magnum)

http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=426367&highlight=460+bpm


swopjan said:
if it could, would it be safe?
Click to expand...

These conversion guns are basically rated for shooting black powder loads only, or equivalent low pressure smokeless loads. Shooting any loads more powerful that is done at your own risk and in consultation with the gunsmith who builds the custom conversion.
The comparative dimensions for the .450 BPM & .454 Casull cartridges can be found in the right hand column of the following pages:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.45_Black_Powder_Magnum_(.45_BPM)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.454_Casull
 
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The Walker conversion cylinders *without the gate* are long enough to be reamed to accept .460 &W brass, and if you do this you can load those with BP to "Walker Capacity" which is nominally 60 grains... but better with 50 for wedge-life.

If you load anything even close to factory Casull loads (or heavens forbid factory .460 loads) you WILL blow the thing up... first shot. This game is for getting full-charge Black Powder loads into the Walker.

Bear in mind that the .45-70 rifle cartridge means .45 caliber and 70 grains of BP. By that measure a Walker using longer brass cases loaded to the equal of the Walker's cap and ball powder load capacity is a .45-60 :eek:

I "think" that the swing-gate conversions will end up with a cylinder that is too short to be reamed to accept full length .460 brass loads... but that can be cured by trimming the cases. In which case you likely are just making the equal of Casull brass out of .460 brass.

The conversions above are VERY nice. I've not yet had the guts to take a grinder to my Walker... but perhaps I shall. Excellent job!


Willie

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Thanks for the comments guys, yes I only shoot lower power reloads. These guns do collect '' volunteers'' to shoot them. LOL The fun factor is off the scale...:D
 
rodent, nice job on those conversions. Lookin' good. :)

Willie Sutton said:
I "think" that the swing-gate conversions will end up with a cylinder that is too short to be reamed to accept full length .460 brass loads... but that can be cured by trimming the cases. In which case you likely are just making the equal of Casull brass out of .460 brass.
Click to expand...

I use unmodified .460 S&W Magnum casings for the .45 BPM. You need every bit of that casing to fit 60 grains of FFFg in there. You can see a video of the inaugural test firing of the .45 BPM in my converted Walker. Notice that I didn't feel like using my hand to test fire it until I gathered some data. :D
 
Thanks for the clarification. I had not remembered that you used a swing gate conversion rather than a "remove the cylinder" type. I did watch the videos long ago. Especially enjoyed the machine rest.

Willie

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rodent, what do your low power reloads look like? I think a fully loaded .45 Colt with 40 grains of FFFg and a 250 grain lead bullet are easily handled by the Walker (and probably the Dragoon) because it weighs so daggum much.
 
Clembert- My reloads are Unique smokeless powder with Proofmark .452 200 Gr. RNFP bullets. I reloaded this batch (500) about 3 years ago with used Ultramax (starline)brass. I have shot factory load Ultramax rounds, no problem. I think you could pack the blackpowder and have no problems. The pistols are so heavy that recoil doesn't enter into it.:D
 
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