While waiting for my Walker

[Hawg]

That ain't bad.

[ssb73q]

Hi, the brass arbor button has been JB Weld to the arbor, see:



The epoxy securely holds the button to the arbor even with heavily beating on the wedge. The JB Weld did make the button longer by ~0.002". I can now file the button thickness to produce an ideal barrel/cylinder gap. However, I'm in a quandary on what gap to set. The conversion cylinder is 0.005" shorter than the C&B cylinder. I guess that the ideal solution is to shorten the C&B cylinder by 0.005"? The downside is that C&B cylinder face bluing is destroyed.

What would you do and what gap would you set?

Regards,
Richard 

[Hawg]

If it was mine I'd set the cylinder gap for the C&B at .003 and try it. That will mean you have an .008 gap with the conversion but IMO that's not too bad. Used to be everybody said .006-.008 was the optimum gap for a C&B. I doubt that you're going to see much difference.

[ssb73q]

Hi Hawg, I set the C&B cylinder gap to 0.002". That leaves me with an ~0.007" gap with the conversion cylinder. I think that Howell purposely makes their conversion cylinders short so the cylinder will drop in for most all revolvers.

I think that shortening the C&B cylinder is in my only option for producing an optimal gap with my conversion cylinder for use with smokeless powder loads. I will wait awhile before doing this since it's impossible to reverse removing metal from the C&B cylinder.

Thanks for your suggestion.

Regards,
Richard

[ssb73q]

Hi, I shortened the Walker C&B cylinder so that is exactly the same length as the Howell conversion cylinder. The brass button on the end of the arbor was then shortened to produce a 0.003" gap with either cylinder. I will wait until I use the Walker a bit before reducing the gap any more to see if the brass button decreases in thickness with use.

The C&B cylinder was reduced in size by sanding with successive finer grit until the face is highly polished. I will cold blue the cylinder end tomorrow.

I must admit to not preferring to modify the C&B cylinder, but it was the only way to have a small gap with both cylinders.

BTW, cylinder/barrel gap is very important to muzzle velocity, see:
http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/gaptests.html

Regards,
Richard

[ssb73q]

Hi, the shortened C&B cylinder face is now blue again.

There is something about the Walker that owners should be aware. Compared to most of the other models of Colt, the head of  many of the screws is more rounded that the flatter screw heads in other Colt models. Even with the best hollowground firearm screw drivers, there is a slight distortion of the screw head at the top of the crown. I can see those screw heads looking like crap in short order. A correct screw driver for these screws must have parallel faces and fit the slot within thousands to avoid distortion. IMO that's an impossible to find or use screwdriver. The next order to VTI will include new high crown screws, maybe buy a whole box of screws cheaper from McMaster-Carr?

The new hammer spring has been received. I will grind down that spring to produce a lighter hammer pull.

Regards,
Richard

[Mad Dog Stafford]

Richard, the screws are rounded on my Colt Walker too.

[ssb73q]

Hi Sam, I ordered another set of Uberti Walker screws from Dixie Gun Works to have on hand for the future.

Regards,
Richard

[Mad Dog Stafford]

Richard, will those be rounded or flat screws?

[ssb73q]

Hi Sam, they are the Uberti Walker stock rounded screw head. If and when I bugger up the screw heads of the Walker, I will have replacements. I like to keep all my firearms pristine.

Regards,
Richard

[Mad Dog Stafford]

That's one thing that I'm picky about...those screws can cut your hands or fingers when they are buggered up.

[ssb73q]

Hi, well she's no virgin anymore. While probably the lightest loading my Walker will ever see, I fired six shots from 12yds using a two hand hold with wax bullets. Not bad for a wax bullet load?:



The only propulsion for the wax bullets is the primer. I load the primer in .45 Colt Blank brass. What's nice is that hearing protection isn't needed just popping the primer, but safety glasses are a must.

The brass arbor length adjusting button did fall out of the barrel on barrel removal. I will epoxy the button on to the arbor end with JB Weld.

I can't wait until the snow melts and I can put some stout loads on my steel targets.

Regards,
Richard

Hi, today was the proof of the pudding. The snow at my steel target range was down to ~6" and the temperature 40F. While I don't like shooting in the cold, I loaded up six .45 Colt (250gr laser cast with 4.8gr TrailBoss) and went out to my range. Shooting from 25yds using a two hand hold produced a group ~3", 9" high. Windage was right on. That heavy Walker is a real pussycat shooting mild.45 Colt loads, it barely moved in recoil. I would have liked to see a smaller group, but maybe it can be improved with some load tuning. The long distance the bullets must move before engaging the rifling may be hurting accuracy, will need to do more testing. Hitting high shows that some Dremel work on the hammer sight will be in my Walker's future.

All in all, I'm pretty happy having tested this Walker with all the adjustments made to it.

Regards,
Richard

[ssb73q]

Hi, just one more day of waiting until I can affect the earths magnetic field around my house. While waiting, research shows that Sam Colt documented his correspondence with Walker in a book that's out of print, but available. I bought a copy like this one on eBay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sam-Colts-Own-Record-1847-Paperback-Reprint-June-1992-/331646129628?hash=item4d37a655dc:g:3VgAAOSwHnFV6b7g

This should provide some good background on the Walker and be an interesting read.

Regards,
Richard

Hi, I received my copy of Sam Colt's Own Record 1847 a few days ago and finished reading it last night. It is an amazing piece of documentation on the development and manufacture of the Colt Walker. It is a must read for anyone that owns a Walker or Dragoon.

There is a lot of horseshit spouted in the other books and the internet that simply isn't true based on this book's documented facts. Cylinders were not iron, but cast of the finest cold forged steel available in the day. So much so that 20% was rejected because it was too hard on the tooling. The initial Walker design didn't include an attached loading lever. The various interesting details go on and on. This book is one great piece of firearm history, a must read.

Regards,
Richard

[Hawg]

That's interesting. I know steel has been around since before Jesus was born but didn't think it was economical enough to make on a commercial basis until the Bessemer process in the late 1850's, which is what the 1860's barrels and cylinders are made of. Even so if you took a forged steel ingot and melted it down for casting it wouldn't be forged anymore but it would still be stronger than iron. Forging is forcing metal into a mold under intense pressure so why would anybody make forged ingots in the first place? It doesn't make sense.

[ssb73q]

Hi Hawg, forging aligns the grains and moves impurities into the grain boundaries. The steel is also work hardened and toughened in the forging process. Colt took great pains to buy high quality forged steel for both barrels and cylinders.

Regards,
Richard