I was watching a show about ‘magnums’ last night. The narrator claimed the Colt Walker revolver was the most powerful handgun until the 1980s, more powerful than the .44 S&W Dirty Harry used. (In the photo the Walker is the one on top. These are mine, and I was comparing the sizes of the combustible loads I made.) The Wiki page says:
The TV show was on The History Channel, so I consider the statement as not well researched. Given the variables involved with black powder firearms, specifically the ability to make light or heavy loads on the spot, could the Walker be as powerful or more powerful than a .357 Magnum?
If I may tag along. I saw the same show. And I’m curious about the statement that the Walker is more powerful than a .44 mag.
And it was the most powerful handgun until the .357 came around.
That would suggest that a .357 is more powerful than a .44 mag.
It was the history channel though.
Wiki states that the muzzle velocity is between 1000-1200 feet per second for the Walker (that’s pretty stunning to me for a black powder revolver)
The .357 runs out at about 1200 fps.
The .44 magnum at about 1600 fps. And about twice the muzzle energy as the .357.
Considering that the Walker used a .44 ball (not sure how many grains a ball would weigh compared to say a 158gr in the .357) It looks to me that the Walker is pretty close to a .357 in overall energy. But not the .44 mag.
One of these days I need to get out and shoot the Walker (and most of the other BP Colts). Almost took one of the ‘shooter’ Navies out Friday, but didn’t.
They also mentioned howdah pistols. Modern repros use .50 balls and a recommended 25gr FFg charge. What would have been used originally? How does a howdah pistol compare?
You are quite right in your assessment that the History Channel does not have a good record of accuracy. I once saw them present a handgun they called a WWII .45 1911. It was a Mk IV series 70 Gold Cup target pistol. To answer your question, can the Walker generate as many foot/pounds of energy as a .44 S&W magnum? No way. Can it equal a .357 Magnum, I doubt it.
I would love to hear from **Martini Enfield ** on this, he is the resident expert on this sort of thing.
I found this. It’s a photo that shows velocities of an average of a little over 1,000 fps. The Wiki page linked earlier claims muzzle energy ‘in excess of 500 foot pounds’ but reading the short descriptions in google I saw mid-400 f/p range. This page talks about the Dragoon, which uses a smaller charge than the Walker, and cites The Gun Digest Black Powder Loading Manual (DBI Books, Inc. 1982) when it states ’ this load will push a roundball out the muzzle at about 1100 feet per second, for approximately 400 foot-pounds of energy. This is comparable to a hot .45 ACP load.’
So it looks like once again THC got it wrong. (One page I found said the writer for that episode, which may be four years old, probably doesn’t know a magnum from a marmot.)
If we take Johnny L.A.'s figure of 138 grains for the Walker Colt’s ball round, and Wiki’s 1000-1200 feet per second figure, and plus them into:
ME=(Bullet weight in grains * Muzzle Velocity squared) / 450437, we get
ME=(138 *1000000)/450437, which is
ME=306 ft-lbs.
For 1200 feet per second, we get
ME=(138*1440000)/450437, or
ME=441 ft-lbs.
The .357 magnum round has a wide variety of figures depending on bullet weight and muzzle velocity. If one handloads, the possible values are very many. Using a load of 125 grain bullet launched at 1450 fps, we get 584 ft-lbs of ME. With a 150 grain bullet at 1200 fps, we get 479.5
FWIW…I really just wanted to include the formula so you all could play with the figures yourselves. (I am excluding some posters in this thread—I know that several, probably all, of you know how to figure this and the formula is easily available via a search. just trying to be helpful is all)
My understanding is that the .44 Walker Colt was one of the most powerful handguns in the world prior to the introduction of the .357 Magnum cartridge in the mid '30s, but by the last quarter of the 19th century it was outclassed by most of the Large Calibre Cartridge handguns. Bear in mind that the fashion for handgun cartridges in the 19th Century was for “Man-Stoppers”; ie rounds capable of dropping a charging Zulu/Indian/Arab/Maori/Other “Native” Warrior dead in their tracks.
The Big Two in this regard were .45 Long Colt and .455 Webley, but there were .500 calibre revolvers produced in Europe and the British also had various .577 calibre Howdah Pistols (and .577 calibre revolvers), which were designed for use against tigers and other such Dangerous Jungle Beasts. (And on that note, anyone interested in antique handguns or British service handguns would be well advised to get a copy of Robert J. Maze’s book Howdah to High Power, which is the best general overview reference text for British military pistols that I’ve come across).
Where was I? Oh, yes, the Walker Colt. I don’t dispute that it was the most powerful Black Powder handgun ever produced, but the most powerful until the .357 Magnum? Not by a long shot, if you’ll excuse the pun.
