Colt Walker - Legacy

Legacy

The Whitneyville-Hartford Dragoon is known as the first transitional model from the Walker to the Dragoon series, as it was largely built from leftover Walker parts. Subsequent contracts beginning in 1848 followed, for what is today known among collectors as the First, Second and Third Dragoon Models that were all based on the Walker Colt, enabling a rapid evolution of the basic revolver design. These improvements included 7+1⁄₂-inch (190 mm) barrels, shorter chambers, typically loaded only to 50 grains instead of 60 grains, thereby reducing the occurrence of ruptured cylinders, and the addition of a positive catch at the end of the loading lever to prevent the dropping of the loading lever under recoil.

The Colt Walker was quite powerful, with modern replicas firing modern FFFg black powder producing energy levels in excess of 500 foot pounds with both picket bullets and 0.454-inch-diameter (11.5 mm), 141-grain (9.1 g) round ball bullets. The black powder Colt Walker is often regarded as the most powerful commercially manufactured repeating handgun from 1847 until the introduction of the .357 Magnum in 1935, having a muzzle energy nearly exactly the same as a 4-inch-barreled handgun firing a .357 Magnum. The Colt Walker has long maintained a unique position and mystique among handgun users, and its name is often used as a common expression of any overly large generic handgun example.

A cartridge-converted Colt Walker instead of the Colt Dragoon in the book was used in the 1969 film True Grit, as the weapon carried by 14-year-old Mattie. Possibly due the Walker's bigger size. The Colt Dragoon was used in the 2010 Cohen Bros movie as in the original book.

Modern replicas have been offered by the Colt Blackpowder shop and Uberti Firearms.