Tag: Colt Walker

A Tale of Two Old Army Black Powder Rugers

Good buddy Paul is a black powder enthusiast.  I am, too, except I’m completely inexperienced as a shooter in the blackpowder world.  I owned an 1858 Remington reproduction (it was a Pietta, I think, and it was beautiful).  Good buddy Duane wanted one and I sold mine, new in the box, to him without ever firing it.  I’ve seen it fired, as Duane is a range regular and he’s had it out a few times.  And I have a beautiful reproduction Colt Walker (made by Uberti; you can read that story here), but I haven’t fired that yet, either.

But I digress; this story is about the Ruger Old Army.  Two of them, in fact.  The name notwithstanding, the Ruger Old Army is a completely modern gun, with the exception of it’s being a cap and ball revolver.  Ruger made a few variations of this fine weapon, with the variations being barrel length (the ones Paul owns are both 7 1/2-inch barreled guns; Ruger also made 5 1/2-inch barreled versions), blue steel or stainless steel construction (the ones you see here are samples of each), satin or highly-polished stainless steel, and fixed or adjustable sights.  Ruger also offered a brass grip frame on the blue steel version (those are beautiful handguns).  Ruger also offered the Old Army with simulated ivory grips for a while.

Paul added custom grips to his Old Army revolvers, and in both cases, the grips add considerably to the revolvers’ appearance.

Big bore percussion revolvers have simultaneously been called either .44 caliber or .45 caliber.  They are not a .44, though.  They are all .45s, and you can fire either a .457 lead ball, or a .454 conical lead bullet.

Ruger introduced the Old Army in 1972 and discontinued it in 2008 as sales slowed.  From what I’ve read, Ruger Old Army revolvers can be extremely accurate.  I can’t tell you that from personal experience, however.  As I said above I have absolutely zero range time with the Old Army or any other black powder firearm.  Caps are difficult-to-impossible to find these days with the pandemic-induced components shortages (I haven’t fired my Walker yet for that reason).

Paul’s two Old Army Rugers are beautiful.  One of these days, when components are flowing freely again, we’ll have to get them and my yet-to-be fired Colt Walker on the range.

More Tales of the Gun!

Never miss an ExhaustNotes blog…get a free subcription here:

Those popup ads…give them a click or two!

Colt Walker: The Official Handgun of Texas

Governor Greg Abbott of the great state of Texas is a leader who gets it…he understands what “common sense” gun laws should be.  Need proof?

Good buddy Paul alerted me to Governor Abbott’s proclamation, and I like it.  I used to live in Texas, you know.  Sometimes I wonder why I moved.

In case you were wondering, here’s what the Resolution for such an act looks like:

SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The original 1847 Colt Walker pistol was
historically crucial to the early survival of the great State of Texas; and
WHEREAS, The original 1847 Colt Walker pistol was an essential tool in the defeat of the Mexican army during the Mexican-American War to reclaim Texas, the 28th state of the Union; and
WHEREAS, The co-inventor of the original 1847 Colt Walker pistol, Samuel Walker, was a captain in the Texas Rangers, the first state police agency in the country; and
WHEREAS, The original 1847 Colt Walker pistol was America’s first pistol to hold six rounds, otherwise known as a “six-shooter”; and
WHEREAS, The original 1847 Colt Walker pistol is still the most powerful black powder pistol in existence; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the 87th Legislature of the State of Texas hereby recognize the original 1847 Colt Walker pistol as the official handgun of the State of Texas.

That’s pretty cool.

We’ve written about the Walker Colt, its history, and the Uberti replica of that great gun before.  I haven’t shot mine yet, but that’s a character flaw I aim to correct in the near future.  When I do you’ll read about it here on the ExNotes blog.  At the risk of being redundant, here are a few excerpts from our previous Colt Walker blogs:

And one more…a photo I like a lot. It’s my Uberti duo…the Colt Walker and a Single Action Army.

There’s more good gun stuff here, folks.

Never miss an ExNotes blog…guns, motorcycles, bicycles, reloading, Baja, the Compleat Concreat comrade, and more!

Lonesome Dove

The greatest story ever told:  That’s Larry McMurtry’s blockbuster work, Lonesome Dove.  We’ve touched on it before with our book review on Revolver – Sam Colt and the Six Shooter that Changed America.  This is another book review, and a movie review, too, as Lonesome Dove was also made into a four-part TV special three decades ago.

McMurtry wrote Lonesome Dove in 1985.  It was loosely based on the true story of Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving, and their third cattle drive north.  I have a copy of Lonesome Dove that I bought when it first came out, and I’ve probably read it a half dozen times.  Sometimes a few years will go by before I see it tucked away in the bookshelf, and I’ll pull it down and take a few days to read it again   Even though I know what’s coming next (I almost have it memorized), I still enjoy reading it.  It’s that good.

Motown Productions did the Lonesome Dove four-part television mini-series in 1989.  Most of the time a movie based on a book gives up a lot, but this one did not.  When it pops up as a re-run, I’m in.  I’ve probably watched it no fewer than five times.

The scenes in both the book and the TV series (which stayed faithful to the novel) are well crafted and memorable.  Several stood out, including the river crossing water moccasin attack, McCrae’s taking out a group of renegades while rescuing Lorena, Call’s horse-collision-takedown of an arrogant and abusive cavalry officer, and the bar room scene in which McCrae puts his Colt Walker to good use teaching a surly bartender western etiquette (that one is my favorite).

If you’ve read the book or seen the TV series, you know what I’m talking about.  If you haven’t, you need to. Trust me on this one one, folks.  The next time Lonesome Dove is on TV you’ll want to see it, and if you have a chance to grab a copy of Lonesome Dove, you should do so.

More ExNotes reviews are here.