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Often regarded as The Most Powerful Revolver, The Colt Walker! was a revolutionary step in firearms history… but also a relative failure…

Uberti reproduction of a Colt Walker 1847 – .44 caliber.
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The Colt Walker, is a single-action firearm with a revolving cylinder holding six charges of black powder behind six bullets.
Dessigned in 1846 in a collaboration between Texas Ranger Captain Samuel Hamilton Walker (1817–1847) and American firearms inventor Samuel Colt (1814–1862), building upon the earlier Colt Paterson design.

Painting of Samuel Colt, circa 1849-1859
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Walker wanted a handgun that was extremely powerful at close range, and could also knock out horses with a single shot, replacing the Model 1842 Percussion Pistols as the Cavalry’s Sidearms.

US M1842 Dragoon’s pistol – .54 caliber
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It weighs 2 kg unloaded, has a 9-inch barrel, fires a .44 caliber conical and round ball, and holds a powder charge of 60 grains in each chamber, for comparison, The Springfield Model 1812 Flintlock Rifle (The service weapon of the U.S Infantry in 1847.) was a .69 caliber smoothbore musket, with a total length of 145 cm).

Springfield Model 1812 Flintlock Rifle – 69. Caliber
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The initial contract called for 1,000 of the revolvers and accoutrements. Colt commissioned Eli Whitney to fill the contract and produced an extra 100 revolvers for private sales and promotional gifts, notoriously Samuel Walker carried two of his namesake revolvers in the Mexican–American War during his service with the Mounted Rifles. He was killed in battle the same year his famous handgun was invented, 1847, shortly after he had received them. Only 1,100 of these guns were originally made, 1,000 as part of a military contract and an additional 100 for the civilian market, however, only around 500 of them made it back home after the war, since 300 were supposedly broken or lost (although the number may have been inflated by soldiers who lied about their loss to keep the revolvers.) And another 200 were lost at sea on their way back to Paterson, New York.

Captain Samuel Walker, 1846
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The Republic of Texas had been the major purchaser of the early Paterson Holster Pistol (No. 5 model), a five shot .36 Caliber revolver that saw use by the Texas Rangers, alongside the Walker.

Colt Paterson 5th Model – .36 caliber.
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However… the Walker had quite a few problems under it’s sleeve.
In addition to its large size and weight, problems with the Walker included ruptured cylinders when firing. This has been attributed to primitive metallurgy, soldiers allowing powder to spill across the mouths of the chambers, and even loading the original conical bullets backwards into the chambers.
Ultimately, the Walker was phased out, and replaced with the much more succesful Colt Dragoon Revolver, with the first models using spare Walker parts, ending up as the sidearm of the cavalry, and ultimately catapulted Samuel Colt and the revolver to success.

Original Colt Dragoon 1st Model – .44 Cal.

If you’re well versed in firearm history, then you might be familiar with what is often called ” The first assault rifle! , the infamous Henry Repeating Rifle!

Brass-Framed Henry 1860 – .44 Rimfire.
Although the rifle was patented in 1860, and started production until 1862, the concept of a repeating firearm was along MUCH before that, the pioneer of the idea being The Volcanic Repeater.

Volcanic Repeater Rifle & Pistol – .41 Volcanic
These were a short-lived series of American repeating firearms produced from 1855 to 1856 by the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company. The direct ancestor to the Henry rifle, the Volcanic guns were an attempt to solve the problems with needle rifles; while a sound concept, the guns were not commercially successful and led the Volcanic company to bankrupcy.
Based on the Volition repeatier designed by Walter Hunt in 1848, the Volcanic guns were designed and patented in 1854 as an attempt to solve the problems with needle guns, along with allowing Hunt to develop his rocket ball ammunition further.
When in production, the weapon was one of the most innovative weapons for its time; it had a very high rate of fire, a higher capacity compared to its contemporaries and its waterproof ammunition. However, the weapon had some shortcomings: the weapon was prone to gas leakage around the breech, multiple misfires and malfunctions and most notably, its rocket ball ammunition being grossly underpowered when compared to its contemporaries, with muzzle energy at a rather unimpressive 56 foot-pounds (76 joules)
Even if it was originally a failure, the design was very much the inspiration for the 1860 Henry.
Now, you may be asking yourself: “Well, Why didnt the Union adopt the rifle? They could easily mass produce it!”
And the answer is… very complex…
First off, the rifle was MASSIVELY underpowered, it’s 44. RF round not being able to kill a man with a single shot, let alone a horse.
Secondly, The fact that it had NO barrel guard meant that you had to wear a thick glove on your left hand if you wanted to fire it without it burning you (because yes, it WILL burn the shit out of you.)
And third, The Spencer Repeater was not only much more powerful, but also much more accurate, and reliable, leading to it’s adoption by The Union Army, making it the first mass issued repeater ever adopted by an army.
Even IF it ended up being a total success in the civilian market, in the end it was rapidly replaced by the 1866 Yellowboy Winchester, marking the end of the Henry Rifle.

Winchester 1866 “Yellow Boy” Rifle – .44 RF.