Uberti Walker, Diameter & load?

Soon to be getting a Uberti copy of the Colt Walker.

What diameter bore are they .427?

Reccomended load?


Should I use FFG or FFFG?

I use a Walker in competitions with two different black powder clubs. I use a 52 grain charge of 3Fg Goex, a pre-lubed wonder-wad, and a .454 Hornady ball. Remington #10 caps on the Uberti nipples that came with the gun. Shaves just enough lead to say it's a shave on the balls. This load is extremely accurate and I have shot torso-sized gongs with it out to 135 yards.

Enjoy yours! One thing that you'll notice with the Walker is that the balls are going so fast that they cut clean round holes through the paper targets, unlike almost every other bp revolver out there except for the big Dragoons! Nice tight groups too! Just remember to practice holding the thing up so your groups don't look like a shotgun pattern :thumbsup:

Dave

My set up is the same as Smokin with the exception that I use an even 55grains. The walker is simply an awsome gun!

Rikeman said:

My set up is the same as Smokin with the exception that I use an even 55grains. The walker is simply an awsome gun!

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Hey Rikeman :thumbsup: Happy New Year to You & Yours! Enjoy the Walker! You've had yours for a while now, right? Do you have a loading stand for yours? I have (3) stands so far for me and the son.

Dave

My favorite in the Walker is a conical to duplicate the orginal service load. It's an excellent combination of diameter, weight and energy.

GoodCheer said:

My favorite in the Walker is a conical to duplicate the orginal service load. It's an excellent combination of diameter, weight and energy.

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Is it commercially available or do you make your own? I'd be interested to try some. Let me know please, and THANKS!

Dave

There's bound to be some commercially available somewhere. But...
Most folks shoot round ball because it is a self aligning shape and for that reason gives them better accuracy. To get decent accuracy you will probably have to go through the steps to fit the projectile to your revolver. Think of the way a maxiball works. Pretty much the same thing.
My way of accomplishing this is to measure the chamber diameter and choose an appropriate diameter/length mold. Then, size soft lead bullets to just fit in the chambers after being they're fouled, the front of the bullet left large to be sheared at loading.
However, there are molds available that are made to let you do this without going through the sizing step. NEI in El Paso, TX has some really nice ones. I just have to hinky up my own 'cause there's so many things to tinker with.
By the way, Lymans old 45266 mold has a big bevel base, adequate lube grooves and a nose that's a perfect fit for most loading lever rams. It doesn't need sizing to use. We've been using it in 44's for twenty years with excellent results. It's only down falling is on revolvers with a small clearance for rotating through the cut-out and getting under the ram. For this reason it will not work in most 1851's, like my Sheriff's Model (heavy sigh). But, on most of the larger revolvers it's good because the original big cut-out design has been duplicated. And, like with round ball, because of the big bevel base it doesn't seem to care much about fouling from previous shots.
Well, now I "talked your ear off". Do you have a lead pot? That 45266 would probably just be the thing for you and better than what you might buy pre-made. And, better than the cap & ball design sold by Lee.

My 2007 Uberti Walker has .449 diameter chamber mouths with .438 lands and .453 grooves. This is not, of course, ideal, but it's close.

It shoots a .457 round ball very well with 50 gr of fffg real black and a lubed felt overpowder wad; this is my normal load. However, a .454 ball works just as well, and I can't shoot well enough to tell the difference between 50 and 52 grains of powder, so Dave's load is probably a bit better.

Thanks for the info! I don't cast, but friends of mine do, so maybe I'll try to find the mold and we can both have fun!

Dave

Never miked my guns...I'll have to get around "toit" some day, but I bet mine is like yours (Walker).

The extra couple of grains put me into the 90's scoring-wise (on that tough B-19 Target yet). I've tried up to 60 (without the wonder-wad--no room for it!) and the accuracy fell-off considerably. Then I tried 55, and the results were about the same as 50, but with slight improvement (both with the wad). Now I was "on" to something I thought, so I merely split the difference and found the "Sweet Spot" for my revolver. It works-out to about 13% under the max charge of 60 grains, and it gets the balls just a little closer to the chamber mouths. No difference in fouling, but the groups are tighter at 25 yards, so I guess it must work? And I saved the step of using a filler under the balls! I'm not shooting at a big registered match, so a 91 average does the trick locally.

Have a great New Year and make smoke when ever you can bear the COLD!

All the best!

Dave

Nothing really new to add, but I figure I'll throw my tuppence in anyway... my standard load is 55gr of Graf's 3F, .454 Hornady ball seated directly on the powder, Crisco over the ball and a CCI #11 magnum cap. I didn't notice much difference between 2F and 3F accuracy wise, but the 3F doesn't foul as bad.

50 yard target shooting two-handed with this load:

My 2nd gen Walker likes a 50grs load with a grease cookie and a .457 rb. I may try some .454's and see what I get.

mukluk said:

Nothing really new to add, but I figure I'll throw my tuppence in anyway... my standard load is 55gr of Graf's 3F, .454 Hornady ball seated directly on the powder, Crisco over the ball and a CCI #11 magnum cap. I didn't notice much difference between 2F and 3F accuracy wise, but the 3F doesn't foul as bad.

50 yard target shooting two-handed with this load:

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That's the infamous B-19 Target, is it not?

Did you use a rest to do this at 50 yards? If not, you must have young eyes, LOL!

Dave

smokin .50 said:

That's the infamous B-19 Target, is it not?

Did you use a rest to do this at 50 yards? If not, you must have young eyes, LOL!

Dave

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It's a B-17 Target, picked up a slew of them a few years back... honestly don't know the difference between the two.

As for my shooting, it was done standing, no support but my two hands... a nice sunny and windless day did help. Another thing that hepled is the fact I opened up the notch in the hammer a tad so I can actually see&use the sights :grin:

My eyes are only 32 years old, but without spectacles I can't see anything clearly past my elbows :shocked2:

The B-17 is the ISSF 50 meter target, and the B-19 is the 50 yard target. They use them for free pistol, CF/Sport, and Standard Pistol. There are other uses, but these are the main purpose for them.

We use the B-19 for NRA Muzzle Loader Qualification Matches: 25 yards pistol, 25-50-100 yards rifle! The 10-X ring is about the size of a half-dollar, and the outside scoring ring yields you a single point instead of 5 points!

It ain't easy for sure!

Dave

smokin .50 said:

Rikeman said:

My set up is the same as Smokin with the exception that I use an even 55grains. The walker is simply an awsome gun!

Click to expand...

Hey Rikeman :thumbsup: Happy New Year to You & Yours! Enjoy the Walker! You've had yours for a while now, right? Do you have a loading stand for yours? I have (3) stands so far for me and the son.

Dave

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Happy new years to you and yours as well! I made my own stand for my Walker. It makes for a much easier loading experience! I own quite a few modern guns and a few other black powder weapons.....nothing is as much fun as my walker! :thumbsup:

Do I just seat the ball on top of powder or should I use a small card/wad?

And do I have to patch the bullets whether round ball or conical?

I use Bees Wax will this be OK?

Cap and Ball revolvers do not use patches on their bullets or balls.
The ball/bullet is larger than the chamber diameter before it is rammed into the chamber.

Ramming it into the chamber cuts off a thin ring of lead, sizing the outside to fit tightly in the chamber.

Because the ball/bullet is sheared to size by the chamber mouth, long bullets are very difficult to load. A roundball on the other hand will have very little material removed in the loading process so it is much easier to do with much less wear and tear on the loading lever.

Round balls usually shoot more accurately than bullets.

You can use fiber wads between the powder and the ball/bullet and they often seem to improve accuracy but they are another cost to be added to each load so, if you are just plinking you would be money ahead by just loading without the card wad.

I use this stand for everything but my Walker, if I would trim the piece the barrel is resting against on the bottom it would work with my Walker, I use my proto-type for it. I haven't had my Walker that long but after reading the 50 gr plus load data I feel like a chicken, type to up the annie.
Oh the piece of the stand next to the loading lever is removable, I do have plans for free if intersted, just drop me a PM with you email address.