Quality sidearm companion for my Shiloh

[Todd Birch]

I'm comin' late into the discussion ....

I own every cap & ball from the .31 to the 3rd Model .44 Dragoon and three .44 Remies. Had a '47 Walker, but a buddy talked me out of it.
Got two .36 Texas Patersons with 9" barrels; haven't fired either as yet. They point like your finger.

For handling, I'd give the '51 Navy top rating. Got two - a 70's Colt and a 'spaghetti' Colt. Both shoot well, but jam up with cap fragments often enough to be a pain.
For sheer shootability and reliablity, the Remington's win hands down over any of open top Colts.
I have a small hand so the grip of the Remington doesn't punish me.

If 'Quigley' went Downunder armed with an era correct sidearm, it would have been a cap & baller like the baddy used. But, he also should have shown up with a percussion Sharps.

It would still have been a great movie.

Todd

[Chief Beck]

I too have a Colt 51 Navy .36 2nd generation from the 70's. Shot it allot til I wore away the hammer notches. I had find a new Colt hammer for it, took about 7 years, found it at a gun show $35.00. The 51 Navy is a great pistol but for me it lacked power even with a full load of 29 grains of 3f, power just wasn't there. Shortly after finding the hammer for my 51 I ran across a Colt 2nd Mdl .44 Dragoon 2nd generation. I am satisfied with the power that the Dragoon puts out, 52 grains of 3f and round ball topped off with T/C 1000 lube I put 50 rounds through that pistol with out cleaning and the cylinder just as freely as if I was still on my second cylinder full. The only reason I stopped at 50 was because I ran out of balls! Love to hear the "Booming" of that .44 Dragoon!

R,
Dennis Beckwith

[Johnny B. Good]

WOW!! 50 shots without cleaning I'm lucky to get 12-18 shots from my 51 Navy without stripping down and cleaning

My Uberti 1860 Army is slightly better

[Todd Birch]

My .44 Dragoon is a 3rd Model '70s Colt, and it is a joy to shoot! I too use 50 grs as a load.
This is a gun that inspires confidence as a sidearm. Wouldn't want to pack a pair of them on foot for long .....

I like the 'snap' of 25 grs in my Navy's, but it peens the arbor, making it difficult to remove the cylinder. A load of 15 grains shoots well, but is pretty anemic.
Had to get the Colt product worked on, as it over-rotated, going past top dead centre on a 'speed cocking'. The locking bolt was incorrectly shaped and too wide for the cylinder notches.
The 'spaghetti' Colt just keeps on blasting .....

Last .44 Remie I bought was a stainless model - shows the crud really well!

Todd

[Timberlake]

SAA 3rd Gen Colt, 7-1/2 barrel, .357 mag. Thin leather shoulder holster.

TL

[mountainman]

Personally, if I wanted to carry a sidearm with my Sharps, it would be one of my Colt SAA, then I would have the fun of using 2 pieces of American history.

[Horse Soldier]

I realize this is an old topic, but thought I would reply. I’ve got a Cimarron American with an 8” barrel in .45 Colt that goes quite well with my Sharps I think. Two fine weapons from that era.

[Kenny Wasserburger]

For the movie,

The correct pistol would have been a 1873 open top colt, or a Remington conversion to cartridge.

Kenny W.

[SFogler]

FYI: Check this out on Guns International

USFA Colt SAA 4.75" 45 LC $1200 less than half what the rest are being offered for

https://www.gunsinternational.com/guns- ... =102445785

[Castaway]

Johnny, change your lube. When I used olive oil, Crisco and something else, 12-18 shots were all I could get. Using Gato Feo #1 I can shoot all day without fouling out. On another note, is there a be particular reason no one’s mentioned a US Manufacturing SAA? Oversight or are there reasons?

[From Along The Trail]

I have a pair of Colt walkers.
One is cap and ball.

The other one was converted to 45 long colt.

Both are. Uberti. That could be miss spelled.


I did load a Colt 45, with black powder. Set a 500 grain ball on top of a wad. It would not fit the Colt walker. I am glade it did not.
Touched one off in a modern smokeless pistol. Willlll not do that again. The modern pistol is still like it is supposed to be.

Ya gotta learn somehow. Back in the 1870’s there probably was not much information available for what to load?

[powderburner]

Origionally the walkers held sixty gns. They split a lot of cylenders so settled on 50. The dragoons were a fix for this with their shorter cylender

[bohemianway]

I cut my teeth in the 1970's with a stainless Ruger Old Army. I shot the crap out of it until the hammer face got to cratered from loading to the max 4F powder under RBs and backwards Lee conicals. Felt like shooting a magnum and would sometime go to half cock. Thousands of rounds through it like that is a testament to their durability (and my continued stupidity). Sold it to a guy who thought it looked like new.

[Mike Johnson]

Not period correct, which seems to be an important part of matching to the sharps, but I spent years looking for a woods walking gun that fit my personality and likes. I finally settled on a ruger .44 mag redone by Gary Reeder as his “Night hunter” version. I hunt with Garret Cartridge .44 mag ammo which is a hard cast Keith style 255gr bullet that I haven’t recovered from any critter that I have used it on. It has a 5 1/2” , crowned barrel with gold bees front sight and v-type rear adjustable sight, action job, Reeder gun fighter grips, 5 shot beefy cylinder that is perfectly timed, and whole gun is black Teflon except for trigger and hammer, and has a beefed up cylinder pin. As I mentioned, when hunting, it’s full stoked .44 mag loads. When just carrying it for woods walking it’s garret heavy .44 special hammerheads around 1000 fps with a 255 grain bullet.