Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Josie Wales' Walker Colts ...

A very interesting article in the current American Rifleman magazine (Yeah, yeah, I know a bunch of people here hate the NRA) but it is a well written article about the reproduction Walker Colts used in the movie The Outlaw Josie Wales. I knew one of the managing employees of Stembridge and shot with him several times at an outdoor range north of San Fernando in Calif. We talked a lot about movie guns. Anyway, if you've not yet read the article, take a look.

L.W.

Link?

Good read.

I read the article. Wales guns were rubber replicas for the scene where he was presenting the two revolvers to the roadhouse guy, then spun them and shot the guy. Real Walkers Colts are heavy.

That article was a good read.

I enjoyed that article.

Leanwolf,
It is always interesting to hear about your Hollywood experiences, they are one of my favorite things about the 'fire.

I wonder how many folks know that the guy that wrote the novel that was adapted to the movie also wrote speeches for George Wallace. Asa Earl Carter was an interesting guy, to say the least.

This in spades.

Good article L.W.

I have to shoot my Walker.

Closest I have to a Walker is my 3rd Model Dragoon. The Dragoons, in fact, were all just successive improvements on the Walker.

Hawkeye;
Good afternoon to you sir, evening I see now down in your part of the world, I hope you're getting decent weather and you're well.

I recall that "ah hah" moment I had reflecting on how Josie Wales spun the Walkers when I bought this one back in the day.



It was an Italian copy, just who made it now escapes me sorry and the photo is from 2010 to the buyer so it's been gone that long now.

While I'm not sure it was an exact copy, that is to say some screws were metric threads, it was close enough that one got the flavor of a Walker or so I imagined.

It was nothing short of huge in all respects and I couldn't imagine one, much less two on my belt.

Also the loading lever would drop down if you looked at it the wrong way, which maybe again was a by product of being a replica, but the 1851 Colt Navy replica I had as my first handgun as a kid was much, much nicer in the hand.

All the best.

Dwayne

Yes, the lever dropping was a hallmark of the original Walkers. They gradually corrected that with better and better latches for it, to where on the Third Dragoon, it held up pretty well under recoil.

Somewhere along the way I recall reading that the Walker was also referred to as a 'horse pistol', because it was intended for mounted soldiers with holsters attached to their saddle, or something like that.

It's a formidable revolver, that's for sure.

TRH, the article is in the current American Rifleman magazine. If there is a link to the article on the Internet, I'm not familiar with it.

Gentlemen, thank you for the compliments on some of the brief stories I occasionally post regarding my career in show business. After 36 years in "the Business," and having written for a number of shows and a feature, I've picked up quite a few bits of information as to how things work in Hollywood and what goes on "behind the scenes." Glad to impart whatever I can when someone asks a question, if I know the answer. As I've mentioned before, Hollywood thrives on innuendo, gossip, and rumors. Some of them are actually true. It is a strange "business."

L.W.

Yes, neither the Walker, nor any of the Dragoons, were intended as belt guns. They were intended to be carried on holsters attached to your saddle via the pommel. The 1851 was introduced for those wishing to carry a sidearm revolver.

The Walker Colt was a design ahead of its metallurgy, IIRC most of them blew up or otherwise failed in use which is why originals command such a huge price.

By Josie Wale’s time, “silver steel” had arrived, strong enough that you could put a 6 shot .44 cylinder on a .36 ‘51 Navy frame and get the 1860 Army.

Not as heavy a powder charge as the Walkers or Dragoons but enough for handgun work.

At the very least, they worked well for whacking a surly bartender.

I read the article as soon as my American Rifleman magazine arrived in the mail. Great article. Clint Eastwood is such a large man that those Walkers look like much smaller revolvers in his hands. I thought it interesting that they made rubber replicas for some scenes.

Ron

The Texas State Library has the correspondence between Samuel Colt, Samuel Walker and Eli Whitney.