Well I thought it was neat! Archives - Page 54 of 90

I recently stumbled across an old image of an atomic age soldier with a messy caption describing the image as “Future G.I. Concepts, 1959.” Although I can’t seem to find the exact origin of this specific image, there are several color photos from Life magazine from way back when that show some of the gear it contained in living color. Literally. Their take on the equipment of the Future G.I. is quite fascinating, and well worth exploring through 2021’s lens.

There is an atomic age character to the gear and setup. I mean that literally. The Future G.I. would fight on an atomic battleground radiated by nuclear destruction! Or so they thought. That idea drives a lot of the gear chosen, and we’ll explore why

Helmet Radio Antennae and Microphone

While I don’t think transistor helmets ever came to be, there are certainly way more comms within a squad today than ever before. Communication can be the key to victory, and the better a team or platoon can communicate, the better they can execute a plan. Modern squad comms allow for easy inter-squad and platoon communication, and offer more powerful radios for communication with higher.

Beyond radios, we’ve seen the development and use of tablets to send pictures, maps, and more to Marines with the Marine common tablet. The Future G.I. program knew comms were critical but likely couldn’t conceive how advanced they would become.

Infra-Red binoculars

I’ve never seen Infrared spelled infra-red, but SIC and all that. The Infrared goggles or binoculars are night vision! In 1959, night vision had existed for quite some time, but the problem was the size, clarity, and power sources required for them to function. Despite all that, the Future G.I. concept really nailed what future night vision would look like.

It’s helmet-mounted, portable, lightweight, and would give the average infantryman the ability to own the night. Those pesky Russians would never see it coming!

Face Mask And Goggles

The face mask makes the soldier look a bit terrifying but was reportedly a heat-resistant mask. The heat of a nuclear explosion might be a bit much for even this piece of kit, but I imagine this wasn’t a constant piece of worn PPE. I do appreciate the goggles. These days, eye protection isn’t just a must-have but a necessity when you step outside the wire.

Goggles were issued when I was in, but the most common eye protection were simple ballistic glasses. The goggles were quite handy in dust storms, and a nuclear desert would present some sand you surely didn’t want in your eyes.

Layered Nylon Vest…and Diaper

The layered nylon armor didn’t necessarily predict the rigid, rifle-proof ceramic plates we’d have today but wasn’t too far off from traditional soft body armor we’ve seen in service for years. The Future G.I. and his armor would be frag and shrapnel resistant and potentially capable of stopping handgun fire. Layered nylon works a lot like Kevlar, but Kevlar proved to be the most resistant to perpendicular pressure, and therefore better for the future of warfare.

But layered nylon offered the soldier ballistic protection as well as radiation resistance. That’s not to say that Kevlar doesn’t offer the same radiation resistance. It just wasn’t developed until 1965, which would have been little if a nuclear war kicked off in 1961. The vest also included what appears to be some kind of crotch protection as well. I have a kevlar crotch protector on my issued plate carrier, so I guess it’s not all that off, at least until circa 2013ish.

Image Metascope

An Image metascope is a non-IR, passive form of night vision that was somewhat revolutionary for the time. These little systems are fascinating, and shrunk night vision down to a much more portable form than the infrared systems of the day. They had very limited range and very low visibility, but they were better than nothing. The metascopes served in Vietnam, but not too much longer after that.

Molded Plastic Gloves

Like goggles, gloves have also become a necessary piece of PPE for the deployed G.I. The Future G.I. clearly knew the value of protecting one’s hands. Plastic doesn’t seem like the best choice since it tends to melt, but I’m betting it was meant to resist radiation, rather than fire and explosions.

M14 Rifle

Nope, the M14 was the shortest-serving service rifle for a reason: it mostly sucked. This pic would have been much more appropriate with a AR 10 or even the earliest of AR 15 models, which had just hit the market in 1959.

“Welded “Combat Boots

When they say welded, they don’t mean welded in the way you think. What they mean is molded combat boots. Directly molded soles were much stronger than stitched soles and much stronger than glued soles. This was relatively new and fancy at the time and made for super tough boots. We’d begin to see molded boots become the standard in Vietnam, so I guess this prediction was dead on.

The AR-10 makes more sense in this world

Jump Belt

I did some digging and assumed this was some form of airborne thing my Marine self just didn’t understand. Boy, was I wrong! No, you see, this belt would attach to a jump pack… or what’s essentially a jet pack! Oh man, the defense engineers in the 1950s ruled. Sadly, we don’t have jump packs or jet packs of any type quite yet, though the British Royal Marines have been experimenting with them for things like ship interdiction. That doesn’t mean the Future G.I. concept was wrong. We just haven’t gotten that far yet.

Explosive Fox-Hole Diggers

My favorite piece of this getup is the explosive fox-hole diggers. I don’t know how they work and assume they would be heavy, and also loud… oh and super dangerous. But dang, I hate digging fighting holes.

If I could just plant a bomb and blow up my own, I would happily do so. Maybe weirdest of all… I remember an SOI instructor saying these were coming out soon when I went through training. I guess they’ve been in development since 1959!

The Future G.I. Meets the Modern G.I.

While the Future G.I. wasn’t entirely accurate, the themes were there. Troops would be armored, carry radios, see in the dark, and wear both modern eye and hand protection as well as super-tough boots. It’s fascinating to see what they envisioned in 1959 and how it aligned with 2021. I wonder what we’ll see in 2051. Maybe I’ll get my jet pack.

This is my original Colt Walker. I removed the blueing on the cylinder because that was the way the original first order of Walkers was shipped from the factory.

Eras Gone Dragoon bullet mold – currently available
Eras Gone Johnson & Dow mold – currently available
44 Walker Paper Cartridge Forming Kit – currently available at Star & Bullock Hardware

America has always had an affinity for big guns in large calibers, and biggest and most famous of the all is probably the Colt Walker. When horses were a thing, the Colt Walker was a “horse pistol.” Weighing in at about four and a half pounds, and fifteen and a half inches long, you will be hard pressed to find a larger pistol throughout the history of repeating firearms.

Designed in 1840s as a collaboration between Texas Ranger Captain Samuel Hamilton Walker and Sam Colt, the gun eventually hit the shelves in 1847, the same year that Colonel Walker actually died in the Mexican-American War. He was carrying two Colt Walkers at the time, in saddle holsters as they were designed to be carried. Movie characters such as Clint Eastwood in “The Outlaw Josey Wales” have carried the guns in belt holsters, but that was uncommon back in the day. Surprisingly, the Wikipedia is pretty sparse on the gun. I have said for many years that the Walker really was not a significant firearm in history. But in firearms development it was pivotal.

At 4 1/2 pounds, the Walker is not the most practical gun to carry, even in a drop leg holster. The weight makes the recoil very manageable, even with those bit 260 grain Dragoon bullets. But it was designed and carried originally as a horse pistol.

At that time, America was not obsessed with large calibers. A hundred years prior, American gunmakers had scaled down the Jeager rifle, which had come over with German and Dutch immigrants into what we now call the American Longrifle. The Jeagers had been as large as 75 caliber, and the Longrifles were more often in 40 or 45. And in pistols it was no different.

The Walker emerged as “too much gun” for most shooters. Horse soldiers didn’t take longer shots with a pistol than infantry did, so they didn’t need such a big heavy pistol. All the way up through the Civil War, 36 caliber revolver dominated sales of the Colts, both military and civilian. All of the Colt copies made in the south, as well as the Whitney were all in 36 caliber, which is really a .375.

The Walker is called a “44 caliber” like most big bore cap and ball pistols, but like the rest it actually takes a .454 ball. The bore diameter is more like .451 or so. I personally use .457 balls, because I feel like if you shave more lead from the ball it increases the bearing surface on the rifling.

My focus in this Black Powder Project has been to examine these guns in the light of a practical and useful firearm. A lot of people are stuck in cities where there is nary a gun dealer, and to get a handgun takes a crazy amount of paperwork. For some people, even owning a pistol is impossible, even though in a red state they would be able to legally walk into any gunshop and buy one. In most of those states you can still buy a black powder pistol and have it shipped to your door. In the others you may have to ship it to an FFL dealer, but from what I have seen, no permit or 4473 is every required. There are no federal laws governing these guns at all.

With paper cartridges designed for the guns, all Civil War era cap & ball pistols are formidable weapons for people who can’t own cartridge handguns. The Walker is just the monster of them all, and it does have it’s own paper cartridge system at cartridgekits.com.

The Walker is a formidable handgun. You will see in the video that it fired a standard 141 grain lead roundball at over 1,200 feet per second. That is 500 or so foot pounds of muzzle energy. Compare that to a heavy 9mm round the 147 grain, that even in a 12″ barrel, does not reach 1,100 fps. Even a 44 Magnum fires a 240 grain bullet at only about 1,300 fps. in a 6″ “Dirty Harry” sized barrel, so we are approaching magnum velocities, even without loading the gun up to snot.

I did not load any of these bullets to the top of they cylinder with compressed Triple Se7en. Over about 1,100 fps pure lead bullets tend to lead the barrel, and it is a bitch to get out when you can’t just fire a jacketed bullet to scrape it out. So these loads were pretty tame.

I don’t load the Walker as heavy as it will go, because I know that with pure lead, once you get supersonic, over about 1,100 fps, you start to really get barrel leading. If we were making bullets for a cartridge gun we could just add some antimony and the bullet will get harder and more resistant to leading, but in a cap & ball revolver you can’t do that. Ideally the ball or bullet will “shave” as you compress it into the cylinder with the loading lever, so you are left with a lead ring. This insures a consistent jump to the forcing cone, and usually prevents the bullets in subsequent cylinders from moving forward with recoil from that which is currently being fired.

Most people are going to shoot a .454 lead roundball in their 44 cap & ball revolvers. It is easy to make a paper cartridge with balls, and at the very least will give you more range time for shooting instead of loading. They compress right into the cylinders and fire 100% reliably with this method.

I also tried the Eras Gone Dragoon bullet. Some molds are currently available as I write this, but they are more often than not sold out. That page at Eras Gone says that they do not fit the Walker without modification, but the bullets scoot past the loading cutout on all three of my guns just fine. I don’t think the information on that website has been updated in some time. He is still linking to a really bad paper cartridge making system that most people have moved on from as well.

As of this writing there are some Colt Dragoon bullet molds available at Eras Gone, and Star & Bullock Hardware sell them at cartridgekits.com as well. They are a whopping 260 grains, heavier than a standard 44 Magnum handgun bullet.

Paper cartridges are great for the Walker. I use the system that everyone uses now, from Star & Bullock Hardware at cartridgekits.com. The powder dipper that comes with the kit, with the dipper edges showing, loads to about where you see here with the conicals, and loaded to overflowing, where you see with the balls. More powder than this will most likely lead your bore, but if you want more, all you have to do is cut the paper longer. i will include a video on how to make paper cartridges here as well.

For a 260 grain bullet, the Walker screamed that sucker at over 1,000 fps. And again, not loaded all the way up. Consider what I said before that the 6″ 44 Mag is clocking only about 1,300 fps on a 240 grainer, this is a not a gun and a load to be trifled with, or that you need to increase at all. Lesser loads have killed many a buffalo and grizzly.

I use Hodgdon Triple Se7en in the FFFG granulation for all of my black powder handguns now. It isn’t that I don’t have or can’t readily get FFFG black powder. I have a ton of it. It’s that I don’t necessarily get to cleaning my guns the same day, and it is safe to leave them for a few days because it is a modern powder that does not contain sulfur, and does not not readily rust your guns. It also increases performance quite a bit, and does not crap up your cylinder gap. With real black powder you have to clean your cylinder face regularly with a wet cloth or it will begin to bind. And if you force it, you can bend your internal parts.

I use this stuff almost exclusively in my BP guns these days. It does not rust your guns or crap them up as readily as real black powder or pyrodex, and the performance is superior.

In the video you will see that I also tried the roughly 220 grain Johnson & Dow bullet from the same Civil War ordnance era, and I also saw in excess of 1,000 fps. That mold has not been available for a while, but it just so happened when I went to collect up links for this article that it is. They also do sell the finished bullets, however, at cartridgekits.com.

Overall my speeds were from over 1,000 fps to over 1,200 fps with the 141 grain roundballs.

The Walker is a fairly accurate pistol, even with these fairly heavy loads. A roundball will generally be the most accurate bullet for cap & ball guns. I have 1911s that don’t shoot as well as the Walker with .457 roundballs. The conicals hit harder, but they would take some tuning to see where they like to be loaded, and the most accurate loads are never going to be full power, with any gun really. At normal gunfight distances the Walker is plenty accurate, and it’s long sight radius lends itself to taking longer shots. Just remember that when you rest a revolver, and especially a BP revolver, on a bag or something, it will burn it if too close. A lot of heat and pressure escape that cylinder gap.

You will see in the video that in casual shooting from a table, I was able to keep some groups into 3″ or so. Roundballs are always the most accurate in these guns, but you can see here that even the heavy 260 grainer, loaded to over 1,000 feet per second, kept well into center mass size at ten yards.

When I was shooting the Walker, I did not intend to fire my at that time unfired Colt 3rd Generation. But it is identical to the current Uberti Walker, and I picked it up by mistake, loaded it and shot it. So my groups went from roughly point of aim on the Uberti to about 8″ high on the Colt. Until about five years ago, the Italian gunmakers couldn’t have cared less if your guns shot to point of aim or a foot high, so most of them shot a foot high, and that was the case on my real Colt. This also confirms my suspicion that the 3rd Gen guns were all made completely in Italy and perhaps screwed together in New York. Don’t waste your money on a “real” Colt. The modern Uberti is better for actual shooting.

I should mention that a standard cap & ball holster will not fit the 9″ barreled Walker. i do have a holster from a seller on Ebay that is nice, and reasonably priced. If you are one of those Americans who just want the biggest, the Walker is probably for you. RINO and perennial POS career politician Texas Governor Greg Abbot (who you jackasses in Texas just blew your chance to get rid of) named the historically irrelevant Colt Walker the official handgun of Texas last year. It was designed by a Texas Ranger, but the Colt Paterson was also made famous by Texas Ranger Jack Hayes, so BFD.

As a self defense gun, the Walker is probably overpowered and cumbersome to be practical. There are better choices for sure in a cap & ball pistol. But if you have tiny feet, and you just want the biggest, it might just be the gun for you.