A couple of Walker questions.......

[Rum River]

I posted this on the SASS site, and got some good responses. Thought I'd put it here too.

Was out trying various size swaged ball in my Ruger and my Walker, trying to tighten up those groups and see just how high my Walker shoots.

It seems .457" Hornady works best in both revolvers out to 25 yards.

In the Ruger, either 30 or 35 grs. Goex FFFg prints exactly to point of aim, 2" to 2 1/2" groups the norm. A 40 gr charge prints a fraction smaller, but impacts about 2" low. (I'm not going to do anything about it, I just found it interesting.)

I tried 30 & 35 gr charges in the Walker, but 40 definitely improved things. A solid 2" group in spite of fading light, 7 degrees above zero, and a 15 mph wind. (The muzzle flash looked cool.) Point of impact needs work, 7 inches high and 3" right. Time to try out my dovetailing skills.

If you've bothered reading this far, time for my questions:

I fired 40 gr. charges out of both revolvers with identical components, the Walker made significantly more racket when fired. Am I just hearing more of the 'Boom' effect with the Colt-style because there's no top strap? I have not measured the cylinder gap, just eyeballed it, but it certainly did not appear sloppy or excessive.

When capping the Walker, there is no way I can get my in-line capper remotely close to the nipples. I have to putz around one cap at a time with bare fingers. (This was a tough chore in the cold today.) Has anyone out there removed metal from the right side of the frame to make room for their capper? There's all kinds of room around the nipple itself on the cylinder, I just can't get close to it because of the frame.

[Dalton Masterson]

Dont know about the sound issue. Have never fired a ROA. My Walker does let out quite a bellow tho, but I also use 45-50 gr and a .454 ball. As far as the capping, have you tried a snail capper, such as one from Ted Cash? Mine works alright on my Walker, but I still have to final seat it with a dowel.
Be careful that you dont load TOO large a ball, as I have snapped the loading lever off on mine doing that. DM

[mykeal]

The noise is probably enhanced with the Walker due to the significantly longer barrel. It's a lower frequency too - the "organ pipe" effect, probably. The lower frequency and longer duration would typically result in a louder percieved noise. I would predict, however, that without some pretty sophisticated equipment that you probably could not measure the difference. A recording sound level meter would likely show the same OASPL or A and C weighted decibel levels.

A Ted Cash capper will probably solve your capping problem, like Mr. Masterson suggested.

[Will Bison]

The capping thing can be a problem, I have opened up most of my CB revolvers with a Dremel. I also open up the front end so balls/bullets can be loaded better. My Ruger OA has never been a problem but the Italian clones always seem to have clearance problems. A friend just bought a nice 1860 Army and we had trouble getting a RB started. She was getting really frustrated with it and had me inspect it. It was obvious that the loading slot was not cut in properly. The old Dremel fixed that in short order.

Tedd Cash inline cappers work best (Tedd is with two D's). They come in steel or brass.

Now can you imagine loading one of these things in the heat of battle on a cold day? Add to that, you are probably in the prone position. Your fine motor skills are nonexistant, trembling with cold and fear. I've been in combat and getting a fresh magazine into an M16 is a real challenge. Getting a percussion cap on a nipple seems like an impossible task.

[Capt. Augustus]

I've always used a Ted Cash tear drop capper on my Walkers with no problems.  They are supposed to boom, otherwise folks would think you were shooting a small pistol.  The shock wave from them is what's really great.   I shoot 40 grains of 2f with a Wonder Wad and a .457 lead ball.  I once shot a cylinder full of conicals, everyone on the posse was worried.

[Rickk]

Read this forumn thread, particularly near the end.

I posted info on a modification that can be done to a Ted Cash inline to make it pretty much fit antying.

http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,1620.0.html

Rick