Success: Colt Walker at 100 Yards
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- Опубликовано: 8 фев 2025
- I now feel comfortable saying the Colt Walker is effective to 100 yards (and maybe beyond). While not perfect, I did hit a steal plate at 100 yards three out of six times with the Picket Ball projectile issued to U.S. troops in 1847. The round ball actually performed better and I am very confident with it at 100 yards. With a little work trying different powders, charges, and caps, I am sure a tighter group is possible. Because of ease of loading, and if given the choice as a U.S. soldier, I would have stuck to the good old round ball and done away with trying to load the frustrating Picket Ball. Let me know what you think.
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I used to own a Remington 1858 Navy replica with target sights. The front sight was too short and had to be altered but with that the gun proved to be very accurate. I arrived at the range early one Saturday morning expecting it to be deserted. Instead, it was a hive of activity. They were hosting a Practical Police match. Finally, I was approached by one of the officials who said, "No part of the course requires more that six shots. So, if you wish to shoot your black power gun you may. I paid my entry fee and shot the course. Then I found a seat where I could enjoy watching the others shoot. Finally, someone inquired, "Who has high score." The answer, "The guy with the black power gun."
That's great! Thanks for sharing this story. Thanks for watching, Todd
Cool!
Great demonstration of the revolver at a distance.👍
Personally, I abandoned conical bullets in percussion revolvers years ago. In 63 years of busting caps on them, I'm convinced that roundball is the most accurate and reliable in this particular weapon. Just an observation over the years.😏
Completely agree based on my experience as well.
What most people dont think about is that the roundball gets cut in the perimeter by the rifling of the barrel. That makes similar type of dimples as golf balls.
The dimples on golf balls really improves the trajectory of them going through the air.
I've had success with conicals and much prefer them to round ball. For me the trick is getting a mold that works well with my gun. Heavier loading lever helps a lot too. Sizing them correctly is important. Modern repos can have crappy forcing cones too. I prefer to ream them with the proper 11 degree tool.
I've seen people with an AR-15 that can't get that tight at 100. That is good shootin'.
Oh I worked as an armed guard at a nuclear power plant. We had AR-s. Had to qualify quarterly. We used full silhouettes. Lots of em had to work on getting a qualifying score shooting center of mass at 100 yards.
Excellent!!
That comment about only seeing a real Walker behind glass…. Yup….it’s why I say THANKS to all those companies that have made affordable reproductions - even if they aren’t perfect !
funny thing is if you took a modern preproduction back in time it would be nicer then anything you could buy new lol.
Hello and thank you for your videos. I too have a few decades under my belt with black powder weapons these are a very good gun with modern-day material and are capable of achieving your goal. May I make a couple of suggestions to you, cut back on your powder charge, start with 30 grains of 3F black and a 454 ball, and work your way up by five grains at a time.if you wish to shoot bullets, I would recommend Hunter brand out of New Mexico, makes a fine black powder bullet line. A good rule of thumb to help prevent your misfires, make sure you're using the correct size of caps!. And make sure you press them all the way on with your thumbnail. Lastly I would suggest that after shooting your first round, when you go to cock your revolver, this applies to any and all, raise the muzzle of your weapon or tilt your weapon 90° left or right whichever is comfortable for you. This way when the cap fires and explodes you shake it off backwards and not let it fall down into the workings of the gun therefore jamming it up, understand. These particular weapons have a geometry and a particular way to operate them once you get that figured out you'll have a much more enjoyable time, meanwhile keep up the good work and enjoy, be safe! Thank you.
bonjour magnifique vidéos de walker. les résultats sont plus précis avec des balles rondes de la seconde sessions de tir. magnifiques vos lunettes connectées. merci de m'avoir permis de vos ce teste de ce walker a bien bonne fin de journée cordialement
One heck of a job! Thanks👍
Nice shooting!! I'd be lucky to see the target at that range.
That's gotta be the most awesome thumbnail picture I've ever seen on RUclips.
Thanks, It's amazing what you can catch at 30 frames per second. Todd
Good Work on a nice day at the Range making those balls fly. Regards from NZ
We like to shoot full 2 liter sodas at a bit past 100 yards. What we found is that no matter what handgun we shoot if it is sighted in at 25 yards that all the various calibers shoot between 8-14 inches low at 100 we haven't tried the BP revolvers yet at that range but my buddy shoots some nice groups with his remington repo at 250-30 so It seems doable. We set em in the dirt so we can at least see the low hits. Both my .357 and 44 mag guns shoot almost the same at that distance. If I aim at the cap (or where I think the cap is) even with a 9" drop I hit something.... The onluy BP guns we have shot at the 100 at sodas is our Hawken 50's that we made from kits. I am shocked at how accurate both our guns are.
Had no troubles with Remington #11 caps with my Walker. You could fan it if you wanted to. Put that gun to rest on the bag then shoot. Not your hands on top holding the gun.
That is some nice shooting. Might try Swiss black powder, or maybe even Pyrodex P, if not Triple 7 but if you shoot the last two powders drop the load down a touch as Pyrodex and Triple 7 are not the same stuff as Swiss, Goex or any other real black powder. You might want to try that Johnson and Dow bullet again, with a 50 grain load of black powder or a 40 grain load of Pyrodex P, just to see if you can do it with that bullet if you can do it with the round balls. And I know you tried the Johnson and Dow before, but it would still be worth the effort now that you have done it with the Picket and round ball.
Nice series Doc. I too, have to switch to reading glasses when sighting a new cap n ball. It's either the front sight blurry or the target blurry...oh well.
With respect to the bluetooth camera issue, sounds like interference. Could be the raid road control system is putting our RF noise.
Boy that was some good shooting Todd I knew with practice you get her nailed I wonder what the sight picture would have been on a original Walker hammer
I think I can do this with my 1860 Army and will try. Love this stuff!!!
When the paratroopers joined the commandos and the misfire happened I spit my drink across the bar. 🤠 Great Video sir. I have the Shutzen 3f and the Uberti Walker, though only .451 and .454 roundball. Going to the range this week for a test. Love the channel and learn a good deal from your content.
Glad you made it back for round 2, was wondering about the 100 yard shot.😊
Good shooting! Good video
Thanks for the great video! Interesting content as always. Looks like the early reports are correct, and you proved it.
Great shootin, love black powder cap & ball, I'll have to try that with my San Marco walker.
Man that is some damn nice shooting 👍👍👍👍
ne thing to remember about that 100 yard effectivenes, was volley fire. This was a military weapon, you had two, for dismounted cavalry to use.
Twelve Volleys at a UNIT of massed infantry closing from 100 yards on your position and that thing would be devastating.
Yeah it could hit a single target at that range, but it really wasn't made for that.
Fantastic video!
Good video
I knew you would get here in the end! I never have much luck with conicals at long range, so much depends on getting it started square, but with round ball there is not so much chance of misalignment, but to get that many hits on the plate with a pistol is outstanding, I have always used fff in my Walkers, but I am sure it does not all burn in that barrel length, your flinch control was exceptional on those misfires, I think the EG Dragoon bullet would give more chance of accurate alignment in the chamber as it has a starting spigot, but I still think the round ball is hard to beat! Many thanks for posting this experiment! Chris B.
Another great video Todd. I’ve often wondered if they were going for minute of horse at 100 yards.
Love that pistol. I had to have a gunsmith work on the pistol to fix all the problems that made it unusable out of the box but after the front sight was replaced to fix shooting 10’ over the target at 100 yards, the wedge slots recut and aligned and a new wedge put in to fix the barrel alignment so it was not shooting the next persons target to my left, and the cylinder gap was fixed, and the loading lever catch strengthened to stop it dropping down after each shot, it was beautiful. The only problem that occurred after the work done on it was misfiring when I had to use a different brand or maybe a different size caps and the recoil would shake the caps half off so the hammer hitting the next shot didn't seat the cap properly and the cap wouldn't go off, however using the right caps there was no problem. Club rules were black powder, ball, offhand, and one-handed for competition. Even with the restriction of holding it one-handed offhand you still put holes in the target at 100 yards although not many could handle the weight of firing it one-handed without severe shakes.
Damn. Sounds like you got a lemon.
Nicely done! You’re really inspiring me to give it a try.👍🏻
Nice shooting there considering the miserable sights .
Good stuff. I watched all your videos on this particular experiment, makes me want to try mine out to those ranges. Good old random misfires too!
Grate shooting
👍Great job!
Impressive work!
Great job. Now I fixed my uberti by fixing the short arbor . It was a more accurate after that.
Excellent
Hey any chance you’ll try out the “.45 black powder magnum”??? I can’t find a single video online or really much of anything beyond Wikipedia info?
The idea seems absolutely awesome!! I never understood why you would shoot .45 LC out of a walker??? Your losing 20 grains of powder at least!!!
I’m curious what’s possible with smokeless loads (within the Uberti’s capacity)?
Anyways it seems like a niche subject? I can’t speak to wether “the juice will be worth the squeeze”???
Just be very careful if you have .460 magnum rounds with shorter overall length (they may chamber the walker).
Some years ago Russian Olympic shooters determined that if someone took longer than 6 seconds to break a shot there was a chance of a miss, even if the sights seemed crisp & clear.
All Civil War revolvers were sighted in at factory at 75 yards but I don't know where earlier revolvers were sighted.
Oh for got to say if you use triple 777 select drop your powder charge back a little because it is a little bit hotter I think it says reduce by 10 percent and it is a very good shooting powder and easy clean up and no rust meaning you want have to combat against rust corrosion your gun will stay nice and shiny in cylinder and barrel . All my black powder guns look new and shine like chrome in the barrels . If you have black fouling just swab it some and keep shooting. I've even been guilty of seasoning my barrel with bore butter and slick 50 once that slick 50 impregnate metal it want wear out or rust easy either. Maybe lube grooves when storeing with Lucas that's some slick stuff kind of like slick 50 that impregnates metal
👍👍!!!
Very good shooting. Especially without doing any work on the gun first.
Good shooting that is good hits for having poor sights and having to use Kentucky windage
👍👍👌👌
Well I believe you did a little bit better this time. When I got my first black powder pistol 36 caliber the old man that I bought it from a gun store told me if I put just a little dab of gun butter, or he actually said Grease, on the nipple that the cap would not fall off. Of course you don't get it over the hole but once I did that I've never had a cap to fall off. It can't hurt for you to try it. It worked for me
The picket was a nuisance. Its amazing how hard that roundball loading was hitting
I'm thinking of making a flip up rear sight on the rest of the barrel of my Walker.
Do it and post pics I'm sure I speak for all of us when we say we wanna see what you do with it.
EDIT: UNLESS ITS ORIGINAL
I have conical bullets for all my 44cal revolvers but I have better luck with round ball. I make Paper cartridges with round ball for both my 36cal and 44cal guns. I've made the Dave Tutt shot out if my 1851 Navy with round ball.
Can you hit a horse at 100 yards with it ?
have you tried the Wild Bill hold?
resting the grip butt on the crook
of your left elbow to hold steady
Kinda hard to find no.10 precusion caps that fit snug on nipples. Maybe track of the Wolf will have those. But I have been using no.11 CCI caps and I changed my nipples that are just a little bit bigger to hold caps on very snug. Please don't try fanning your walker it's bad on the cylinder stop and will usually break the cylinder stop. It takes some up grade parts that are of better metal that's not brittle plus the notches in the cylinder will get braided and get the alignment of cylinder hole and barrel out of line after a while. Ask me how I know? I been there and done that before. So I just use my newer one like I should and I have sights tuned in very precise. I have the 1847 colt walker with latch under barrel for loading level and that's a must have to keep loading lever from jamming the cylinder. I use 200 gr .lee conical bullet's and 40 gr triple 777 powder and never have had rust problems because it has no sulfur and doesn't have bad odor. I also have 45 long conversion cylinder and I load my cartridges with hogdon 777 select 40gr. 200gr. Swaged lead hollow point recess based bullets with lube grooves that I make my self. I made my press dies just so I could have hollow point bullets with concave base or heel of bullet. Made my own knurling tool for lube grooves and use beewax and lalox for lube. I get my lead from tire store where they have plenty of soft wheel lead weights . I usually make up 200 to 300 rounds and store them away not that I shoot that much it's just fun to do . And they fit my uberti saddle gun and my 1861 colt navy 44 cal. Well I have to say I love my black powder guns like my Kentucky long rifle in 40.cal with 42 inch barrel .and my saint Louis hawken 50 cal. . And love my 32 cal. Squirrel rifle cap lock it is a fine accurate shooter and doesn't take much powder to bag small game. When I get out I the back woods I free at peace and feel like one of the frontersmen . What a great life and feeling! Makes me think of Daniel Boone and Crockett. Oh my 40 cal long rifle is named tick licker no.3 and it has a sweet double set trigger and lock plate all fine German quility and I forget to mention my barrel is a green mountain barrel and in 1/16 across flat's and weighs 8 pounds just the barrel and holds a very tight group at 100 yards. It has a 1in 48 inch twist rate. I'm trying to get a faster twist rate to shoot conical bullet's in 40cal . Like 1in 28. Twist rate for longer range shooting and put aperture front sights and veneer rear sights like a sharp's. And make sabot rounds for it for 35.cal copper jacket bullets. Just a hope and dream to try. I just have to get the barrel made and order my rifleing button ordered and blank barrel and make it to go on my same stock of my Kentucky long rifle and swap them out when I need to. And maybe later get another curly maple stock from track of the Wolf and all the other parts. Hope you enjoyed my ideas of wanting to have a one of the kind rifles no other has !
Any of the ball and cap revolvers gave you an advantage
Great Video Doc. Wonder if a .454 round ball.would have worked as well?
Uberti .44 chambers run 0.449 to 0.450 diameter so the 0.454 round ball, at 4/1000's larger, would safely work to seal the chamber, stay firmly seated under recoil, and grab the rifling. For round balls in a revolver, I personally like to use the largest diameter that will not require too much force on the loading lever. because a 0.457 ball seated in a 0.450 chamber will have a larger bearing surface than a 0.454 ball. My first C&B revolver was a Ruger Old Army in 1973, so I already had a Lee 2-cavity round ball mold in 0.457" diameter when I acquired my first Uberti Remington Army. The 0.457 loaded easy in the Uberti, and shot very accurately so I never bothered to get a 0.454 mold!
Serious Question: What is a correct sight picture using a semi Buckhorn sight ? I have tried to as they say "look it up", and I can't find anything. You seem to have many variables with that sight. What is your take on it. I have a Winchester rifle with semi buckhorn sights, and I am stumped, especially striving for accuracy.
I always suggest the instinctive method get very close to the target with a bucket of bullets draw the Titus group you can step back pace reproduce that nice titegroup soon you'll be at 100 yards but you will not be using this site I use the hatchet method
Todd, I’m really curious, what was your doctoral thesis on? Did it have anything to do with arms, artillery or western history? Thanks, Tom KC3QAC
I will reveal that in the next video.
I'm wondering if the reason that I had a chain fire was because .454 was used, instead of .457. Any thoughts on that?
BTW, Thanks for all the shared information that You do.
I always look for a thin but complete ring of lead off the bullet when loading - tells me it should be fine, and I use .454 ball.
Alan, I can't add much more to what the guys said below. Some chambers are a little out of round and a bigger ball would fill even a slightly oval chamber. But also watch the cap fit. That can be a big reason - as noted below. Thanks for watching, Todd
The volume of powder has little to do with choosing the grain size. Maybe if the volume is huge. If you sum the energy released over the full time of travel in the barrel, it's the same. However, if you could measure in milliseconds you'd find that faster powders produce their max pressure sooner. So if the bullet is heavy, it needs to over come more inertia.
That's my 2 cents, not an expert.
Nice guitar intro. Does it have a title?
Riding Solo by Dave Fesliyan. I stumbled onto it and glad that I did. Todd
i think i would stick with the round ball
Two years ago I sold my Armi San Marco Walker. Big & stupid idea!!
Good job, it's too bad Colt didn't do a better job with sights on their pistols , took them til 1872 to get the right idea
Just a pat on the back. That low flyer would still have hit a MAN at 100, just instead of center of mass it would have hit groin. You got that 6 for 6.
2 gut shots on the misses... they be getting a belly full
Im curious why you would think 2f would ever perform better than 3f in that peice. I know the old timers have been repeating since the 70s and have alot of inexperienced bp shooters thinking that anything above .45 or .50 should shoot 2f. But the only people that really do are people that learned from the internet or listened to the peanut gallery. Alot of folks have chronographs now n 3f just gets better velocity is more consistant, burns cleaner, and is more efficient than 2f. I think 2f is best reserved for shotguns n big muskets, but still is a gun by gun thing n should be tested to see. It will still work but its filthy, slow, and you just are not helping yourself.