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Walker- Finally!

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Yankee John

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Sep 4, 2005
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Minnesota USA
After drooling for one of these for a LONG time, I finally one at a local BP show today- For a bargain price!

An Armi san Marcos kit gun from 1982 (AI date stamp), it is still quite rough around the edges. After a little work on the metal, re-contouring the grips, and antiquing with plum brown, It will surely be my new favorite!

I can't wait to load up 60Gr and shoot this cannon off!!!

John

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My goodness, even now in the 21st century, that's still a monster!

I see you had to do a little draw-filing on the frame forward of the cylinder, was it corroded or garfed up?

Somewhere I read an article to the effect that the Colt Walker .44 carried the title of most powerful handgun until the S&W .357 Magnum came about in 1935. That's nothing to sneeze at!

I keep looking through the Dixie Gun Works catalogue, and will eventually knuckle under and just get one. :D
 
I like the grips. My brother has some dull brown walnut grips on his that looked like pine soaked in old motor oil and are as ugly as they sound.

It is also unusual to see a pistol like this with the color case hardening burnished off and matte black to me.

The only thing to know is that you will get a free monopod to shoot from when you use 60 grains of powder, sometimes called a loading lever. You may want to get a rubber band or piece of string to tie the loading lever to the barrel when shooting. The heavy recoil has been known to knock the lever loose.

I've been drooling over getting a Dragoon pistol myself. They're supposed to be improved Walker Colts, but the thing is one of the "improvements" was to make the pistol chamber shorter to only hold 50 grains. That was because some Walkers blew up (you won't have that problem with modern steel, so don't worry). That sort of ruins the mystique of having the hugest pistol from that era, but I live with it because I want the other improvements.
 
Great advice folks! As a newbie to Walkers- I need all that I can get!

The swirl marks that you see in the pic are the rough factory grinding marks on the barrel/frame. VERY rough- I'll have to do much block-sanding to get this area smooth. They didn't do much finishing work on these kit versions- especially in 1982!

Since it is in shootable shape now, I think I'll put a few balls thru this pistol before I tear it down and re-finish it.

Thanks again,
John
 
Now thats a nice looking cannon!:) One of these day's I would like to get a kit like that. It's more fun to do it yourself anyway. Let us know how it shoots, Mike
 
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Here is what 55 to 60 grns of Pyrodex will do for you. I will probably head out this afternoon and blast some more of them. I find the gun just rides up during recoil but it is very accurate. Once I had gone past the stage of ok, lets follow the steps to just enjoying the gun, I was impressed at the power and accuracy. With one of these puppies, I am sure I could get myself in eats in the 1850's in the greater Houston area.

I love mine, but today it would be shorts and no jacket. Its like 85F out there and 90% humidity. Dang Houston weather......
 
Gary- The gun had this rough finish on the barrel when I got it. Very rough grinding marks, but nothing that a little bit of block sanding won't fix!

I wish I could say the same for my weather Peter- the snow is coming down HEAVY now and there is supposed to be 8" more on the ground by morning.

I might not be until June when I can try my baby out!

John
 
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