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Ramblin's of an Old Ranger #3 THE GUNS OF THE EARLY YEARS by PistolsOne of the most seen revolvers was the Colts, the real ones. You could see any of the generations from first to “fourth.” There were some of the original Bisleys. Butch Balcomb had a set of these from the early 1900’s. Bill Williams shot a pair of Colt commemorative models. If my memory serves they were West Virginia Commemoratives. Nice firearms on both accounts. The condition of these Colts ranged from absolutely beautiful to some of dubious condition. Screws shaking loose was such a problem many Cowhands carried screwdrivers in their pockets to tighten screws in between the stages. That is until we figured out a little drop of Elmers glue in the right place would keep them in right handily. Grips ran the gamut from raggy & beat up, a condition I favor, to pristine. Wear & tear on grips shows the gun was probably used for the purpose intended. This put a history in the gun that really could not be disputed. There were even more than a few exotic grips around. I have seen more than a few elephant ivory grips in those early years. Horn & bone from various animals as well were always. Barrel lengths ran from the shorter versions to a few long barrels. I don’t remember who it was but I seem to remember a “Buntline” special. My recollections are that is was owned by a shooter from the Dallas area. Up till about 1994 you stood a good chance of seeing any option that was ever available on a Colt over a years shooting time. The other prevalent shooter around was the Ruger Blackhawk. A fav of mine and more than a few others were the old Rugers known as a “3 screw.” This was especially true of the early 3 screws with the old Colt shaped grip frame. Jim Wilson always was preaching the virtues of the 4&5/8” barrel .357 & .45 long Colt models. He had tales of converting these to shoot .45 ACP. I also remember he had a fav load of this round that was “jacked up” somewhat cause of the inherent strength of the Rugers. An old Ruger shooter & resident expert, Bob Baer, said there was no handgun that was built any stronger. Plus he was an early advocate & designer of the “Bird Head” type grips for these revolvers. He also had a saying that went: “A Ruger was a 250,000 round gun!” His meaning that with cowboy loads you could reliably shoot a Ruger 250,000 rounds before any trouble was expected. After a bunch of years I think I agree. Also remember that this was WAY before the intro of the Vaquero. There was some of the early Uberti & Armi San Marcos Colt clones around but not a great deal until after the 1992, 1993 time frame, when Mike Harvey of Cimarron got up & really going. By the way, Mike was one of the early founders of The Texas Historical Shootist Society. Other Colt type clones were the German made Hawes & the Great Westerns. These were extremely well made examples of Colt clones. The frames & corresponding actions were more robust than the Colts & other Colt clones. In my time around these guns I find that it seems these Hawes & Great Westerns were the first “Colts” made to shoot the .44 Mag round. That says a lot for these revolvers. But unfortunately they had the same problems that plagued the Colts: the breaking of internal springs. A real pain as a reliable parts source in the early years was non-existent. Plus you never knew just what generation of Colt part was the closest fit to replace the broken part. Plus these parts always seemed to require more than a bit of smithing to get them to fit. Thanks to Nick Nixon the Smith & Wesson revolvers were well represented as Nick had a way with these revolvers. He always seemed to have a source for these grand old pieces of shooting history. Over the years it seemed that just about every model & caliber of these early Smiths went thru his hands. It was a true honor to have had the opportunity to shoot the early Smith’s with the spur trigger. Now how many of you can say the same. He also went through a .44 Russian I had the chance to shoot. Now for those that don’t know, the .44 Russian is the grandpa to the .44 Mag. There aren’t many that can say they have had the chance to shoot the complete line of the .44 calibres from Great Grand Daddy .44 Russian to the big boy .44 Mag. And it is probably getting real hard to be able to accomplish that feat. There were also more than a few shooters shooting the “Holy Black.” Now I want to clarify that statement. These shooters really didn’t shoot the black in cartridges. They were mostly cap & ball shooters. We had a shooter with the alias of Woodrow Call. He carried a brace of Walker Colts. He obviously had a real love of these pistols as it took a lot of fortitude to carry 2 Walker Colts around all day at a shoot. Rarely today can it be seen anyone with the backbone needed to carry off such a feat. But I can tell you it brings a chill to the spine to watch a shooter engage a stage with a couple of Walker Colts loaded with 45 grains of Black Powder. Now that is a sight to behold. For An idea of what it was like, shoot on a posse with Capt. George Baylor. He is one of the old hands using Black Powder & he uses a couple of cap & ball Rugers to do this. Not quite the same as a Walker, but it is getting real close! This is part 1 of the ongoing history of The Texas Historical Shootist Society thru my eyes. The BOD of THSS has permission to put this as a part of the history line on the internet. My purpose is to give a perspective on the history of this great & early Western Action Shooting Club. I hope all can get a kick out of the early years & the hoot it was to shoot before all the rules & race guns hit this sport. |
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