[3] As reported in America's 1st Freedom magazine in July 2018, a Model 1847 Colt Walker pistol – the only known surviving example complete with its original case – was sold by Rock Island Auction for a record price of $1.84 million.

5 model), a five shot cal .36 revolver, and Samuel Walker became familiar with it during his service as a Texas Ranger.

He approached Colt, requesting a large revolver to replace the single-shot Model 1842 Percussion Pistols then in use.

Colt commissioned Eli Whitney to fill the contract and produced an extra 100 revolvers for private sales and promotional gifts.

[6] Colt commissioned New York engraver Waterman Ormsby to etch a scene on the cylinder that was based on Walker's description of the 1844 battle.

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 Colt Walker, enabling a rapid evolution of the basic revolver design.

[9] Taking into account its muzzle velocity and energy produced, it currently still holds the record for the most powerful handgun ever issued by the US military.

Iver Johnson also made the frames, center pins, nipples, springs, and screws, and built the final gun.

During this period, at least 4300 Walker replicas were produced by the “Colt Blackpowder Arms Company,” and marketed as part of the Colt third-generation “Signature Series.”[12] All the parts for the guns were made by Uberti or Armi San Marco, with Iver Johsnon handling quality control, final inspection, and sales.

[citation needed] In the 1992 film Unforgiven, Sherriff Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman), recounting a gunfight between prisoner English Bob (Richard Harris) and Corky Corcoran (unseen) at the Blue Bottle saloon some years before, describes how Corky's Walker Colt "blew up in his hand, which was a failing common to that model.

"[citation needed] In the 2020 film Fatman, Santa (Mel Gibson), has a gun fight with a hit man (Walton Goggins) who is hired to kill him.

[citation needed] In the novel Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, the scalp hunters led by Glanton acquire these revolvers as part of their armaments - they are regarded as the ultimate side arm.