Walker 36

[jaxenro]

Got my Walker back. Now has an action stop, bolt block, coil springs in place of the flat ones, 3 pound trigger pull, a cap post (to keep spent caps from gumming up the action), the arbor length fixed, and a 0025" barrel/cylinder gap clearance. Timing is spot on and it is safe to dry fire. The trigger pull is smooth and even and with the extra weight from the barrel and cylinder liners (not that the Walker is a lightweight to begin with) recoil is about non existent even with over sized loads. It is about as close to a magnum 36 black powder as you can get. Barrel and cylinder are optimized to take a .380 round ball

[FilipT]

Does it suffer from problem original Walker used to have? A ramrod getting into the chamber because of recoil.

[jaxenro]

No you can "tweak" the ramrod spring to take care of that plus it is only a 36 caliber and weighs about 5 pounds so recoil isn't bad. Yes it holds a boatload of powder but a percentage of it comes shooting out the end of that 9" barrel

[Hawkdancer]

Jax,
If you are blowing unburnt powder out the muzzle, you are overloaded.  I would cut the charge back a bit, as the powder that doesn't burn in the cylinder/barrel is wasted.  I bet that puppy makes a huge flame in the dark, though !  Fun at a candle shoot!  With the weight of a Walker, it probably feels like a .22 even with the heavy charge.  Have fun!
Hawkdancer

[mullet]

Yea, like Hawkdancer said, cut it back or load part of it with Grits. Cool looking pistol.

[jaxenro]

Yes I do some partial loads but it is fun when dusk comes to blow a cylinder full of the full ones off. Probably wastes some powder but a heck of a show

[mullet]

  I used to load my .45 rifle with extra powder and stuff with shredded Newspaper on July 4th and New Years.

[jaxenro]

Trying imugr

[gifford]

Fascinating conversion. Well done, and with the tuning and action work, that is fine looking revolver.

[jaxenro]

Thank you. I sent it to a friend with a chronograph to test and he will post a youtube video of it. We want to try a few different powders and some bullet and round balls both. For starters he is getting about 1180 fps using Swiss powder and I think he said a bullet but I forget what weight. I usually use T777 and a round ball so I will be interested to see what that does

[jaxenro]

140 grain bullet @1180 fps using Swiss powder. Technically that works up to about 430 ft lbs of muzzle energy not the best metric but interesting for comparison

A 9mm pushes a 140 grain bullet at about 1000 fps for 311 ft lbs of muzzle energy and a 38 special at about 900 for 250 ft lbs of muzzle energy

So its not a magnum with 1400 fps and 600 ft lbs of muzzle energy but its not too shabby either probably somewhere between the 38 special and the 357 in power

I had only shot with a round ball and was getting about 15% more powder, using T7, under the ball so it will be interesting to see what it does with that combo

[mullet]

There has been a lot of humans and animals punctured with black powder round balls and bullets over the years. I don't think speed and weight has anymore to to do with it then knowing what the minimum  distance is when you try to shoot something. Thus, knowing your bullet and proper powder load. But, there is nothing shabby how your pistol is shooting.

[jaxenro]

There has been a lot of humans and animals punctured with black powder round balls and bullets over the years. I don't think speed and weight has anymore to to do with it then knowing what the minimum  distance is when you try to shoot something. Thus, knowing your bullet and proper powder load. But, there is nothing shabby how your pistol is shooting.

I agree I think we get too hung up on numbers like muzzle energy and fps but they sort of work as a comparison. Accuracy, bullet design, etc. all come into plan

[jaxenro]

Brushes language can be a little colorful for the youngsters

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq-5ggQri38