For a long time, the only versions of these were the colt reproductions and an example from Armi San Marco (defunct)
Now, Uberti USA has the Walker, First Second and Third Draggon and even a version of the Whitneyville and spare parts are available through Cimarron and VTI Gunparts.
Mine is a far cry from the ASM a friend has. He had to do a great deal of work on it to get it to shoot- including major action tuning and reaming the chambers out to a consistent diameter.
The Uberti was made this year and has the same .450 chamber mouths- barrel measurements as on their Walker, Colt Army and 1858 Remington. My first ever six shots from it were a product of blind luck and grouped 2" "duelist" at 62 feet.
It produces repeatably good accuracy at 25 yards and hits fairly high.
One somewhat off-putting feature is that the vertically mounted loading lever catch is prone to bounce out of register and drop down. I have learned that this happens with the higher velocities from pyrodex P loads but not with Goex FFFG or Pyrodex RS (Rifle Shotgun.) Interestingly, the Pyrodex RS is closer to duplicating the fffg load than Pyrodex P.
Load Velocity Spread (5)
.454 Ball 45 Grains FFFG 881 19
45 Gr/Vol Pyrodex P 1157 55
45 Gr/Vol Pyrodes RS 869 85
200 Grain Lee Conical Bullet
Goex FFFG 35 Grains 967 26
Pyrodes RS 35 Gr/Vol 1066 57
The Pedersoli Flask is adjustable and reported to hold between 30 and 50 grains of black powder. The actual maximum charge is 36 grains and provides full chambers when these bullets are used. Bullets were popular with military users of the Colt Revolvers and a lot of the bullet designs closely resembled the Lee.
The Dragoons evolved from the Walker Colt beginning in 1848 and rapidly advanced to the third model which was Colt's large bore revolver until replaced by the 1860 Army. R.L. Wilson "Colt, An American Legend" gives the production years of the Third Model as 1851-1861. There were 22,000 made in the United States of which all but abut 9,300 from government contracts were sold to civilians. About 700 came out of the London Armory. During the Civil War, a Texas concern made a near-exact copy of the Dragoon.
"Dragoon" is the name given to the revolver by collectors as it was an issue item of the United States Mounted Rifles - known as Cavalry or Dragoons. The standard issue was two of these revolvers riding in closed holsters on either side of the saddle. More than likely, a lot of civilian users regarded them as belt revolvers. They were popular among frontiersmen and Buffalo hunters who proved them capable of dropping Bison at close range.
When the smaller, lower capacity 1860 Army- known as "Belt Pistol of enlarged Caliber" came out, Colt said that it would produce as much velocity as the Dragoon. This might have been accurate as this example gets about the same velocity as a Uberti Army using less powder. It is impossible to know what the velocities actually looked like with the mid 19th century powder and components.
With the large calibers, I am finding that the slight velocity advantage of Pyrodex P over Goex FFFG that is usually seen with revolvers and pistols of smaller chamber size is quite a bit larger. Pyrodex RS seems to be a closer proxy.
Now, Uberti USA has the Walker, First Second and Third Draggon and even a version of the Whitneyville and spare parts are available through Cimarron and VTI Gunparts.
Mine is a far cry from the ASM a friend has. He had to do a great deal of work on it to get it to shoot- including major action tuning and reaming the chambers out to a consistent diameter.
The Uberti was made this year and has the same .450 chamber mouths- barrel measurements as on their Walker, Colt Army and 1858 Remington. My first ever six shots from it were a product of blind luck and grouped 2" "duelist" at 62 feet.
It produces repeatably good accuracy at 25 yards and hits fairly high.
One somewhat off-putting feature is that the vertically mounted loading lever catch is prone to bounce out of register and drop down. I have learned that this happens with the higher velocities from pyrodex P loads but not with Goex FFFG or Pyrodex RS (Rifle Shotgun.) Interestingly, the Pyrodex RS is closer to duplicating the fffg load than Pyrodex P.
Load Velocity Spread (5)
.454 Ball 45 Grains FFFG 881 19
45 Gr/Vol Pyrodex P 1157 55
45 Gr/Vol Pyrodes RS 869 85
200 Grain Lee Conical Bullet
Goex FFFG 35 Grains 967 26
Pyrodes RS 35 Gr/Vol 1066 57
The Pedersoli Flask is adjustable and reported to hold between 30 and 50 grains of black powder. The actual maximum charge is 36 grains and provides full chambers when these bullets are used. Bullets were popular with military users of the Colt Revolvers and a lot of the bullet designs closely resembled the Lee.
The Dragoons evolved from the Walker Colt beginning in 1848 and rapidly advanced to the third model which was Colt's large bore revolver until replaced by the 1860 Army. R.L. Wilson "Colt, An American Legend" gives the production years of the Third Model as 1851-1861. There were 22,000 made in the United States of which all but abut 9,300 from government contracts were sold to civilians. About 700 came out of the London Armory. During the Civil War, a Texas concern made a near-exact copy of the Dragoon.
"Dragoon" is the name given to the revolver by collectors as it was an issue item of the United States Mounted Rifles - known as Cavalry or Dragoons. The standard issue was two of these revolvers riding in closed holsters on either side of the saddle. More than likely, a lot of civilian users regarded them as belt revolvers. They were popular among frontiersmen and Buffalo hunters who proved them capable of dropping Bison at close range.
When the smaller, lower capacity 1860 Army- known as "Belt Pistol of enlarged Caliber" came out, Colt said that it would produce as much velocity as the Dragoon. This might have been accurate as this example gets about the same velocity as a Uberti Army using less powder. It is impossible to know what the velocities actually looked like with the mid 19th century powder and components.
With the large calibers, I am finding that the slight velocity advantage of Pyrodex P over Goex FFFG that is usually seen with revolvers and pistols of smaller chamber size is quite a bit larger. Pyrodex RS seems to be a closer proxy.
