Something we often dont think of with regards to some of the gunmen of the past, many may not have been particularly good as we think of it, like above average gun handlers or shooters, but besides having the ability to flip the switch so to speak without hesitation, many were simply cruel, sadistic, and/or sociopaths that had little problem killing anything or anyone if they felt like it. Giving anyone a chance to shoot back or not having an advantage up front was not likely part of the plan. I believe its the ones that could and did do face to face actions against others that were truly good both with arms and people management are the ones we know of the most.
Bought this book by @Mas in 2013.
Combat Shooting with Massad Ayoob https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006HARE3I..._5EOdDb3G7BNB0
The chapters on ‘Three Gunfighters’ is very informative, in which Mas discusses Wyatt Earp, Charles Atkins Jr and Jim Cirillo.
Great read.
Last edited by RJ; 06-22-2019 at 02:59 PM.
I have gleefully imagined it...
The reality is that having dealt with urban gangsters most of my adult life, most of them are more immune than most to the realities of being shot or shot at by handguns. What they have never seen before is what a hot load of black powder looks like going off.
Just a Hairy Special Snowflake supply clerk with no field experience, shooting an Asymetric carbine as a Try Hard. Snarky and easily butt hurt. Favorite animal is the Cape Buffalo....likely indicative of a personality disorder.
"If I had a grandpa, he would look like Delbert Belton".
If we have to march off into the next world, let us walk there on the bodies of our enemies.
Weird. I’ll say in a decade of kindle reading, I’ve never lost paid content. I also use my kindle to read kindle unlimited and library books, the latter of which are on my device during the loan period, and return automatically at the conclusion of it (unless I return them early, as I often to). One doesn’t own either of those sorts of books, of course.
If you read the Kindle terms of service, it probably gives them the right to do exactly that.
In practice, I've never heard of it happening either. I do know that if the author un-publishes the book on Kindle Direct Publishing, people who already bought the book will still have access to it in their Kindle library unless they specifically manually delete it.
I was into 10mm Auto before it sold out and went mainstream, but these days I'm here for the revolver and epidemiology information.
A few short items I recall:
A contemporary account in the Sacramento Bee of the 1880s called mining town Bodie, Cal. "Bad Shot Gulch" because of the number of shootouts with few casualties. One reason might be: "An Army or Navy revolver in belt scabbard is seldom seen, the usual weapon is a Bulldog revolver in a leather or canvas lined coat pocket."
Powder quality: A gunzine writer tested the concept that .32 Winchester Special factory loads were smokeless but its bore, groove, and twist were the same as .32-40 making it suitable for reloading with black in an era when smokeless was not well developed. Fresh Goex powder was slow, dirty, and inaccurate. He found an old can of DuPont powder, likely pre-WWI, and did much better, with 100 fps higher velocity, better accuracy, and less fouling.
You can pay more and do better; I shot Swiss powder in BPCR with good accuracy and have heard good reviews of Goex's premium brand Olde Eynsford.
An old article said the mountain men were to be glad to pay "the hellish price of a dollar a pound" for English 'Diamond Grain' powder to load their Hawkens.
Curtiss and Harvey No 6 made the Express rifle famous. A.C. Gould said his 330 gr hollowpoint, when loaded in .45-70 with Hazard's Ducking Powder would "shoot practically as flat as a .45-90 and with better accuracy." I can testify to the latter, a couple of friends use that bullet and it shoots very well.
You can read a lot more by Mr Gould, his book 'Modern American Pistols and Revolvers' is available online. With descriptions of military training.
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?...ew=1up&seq=218
Billy Dixon: As I recall his famous shot at Adobe Walls was at a GROUP of Indians, of which he hit one. Nothing against Mr Dixon, he was a fine shot, and received the Medal of Honor for the later Buffalo Wallow Fight.
On the other hand, Jack Bean picked his man and shot him at a range of about 1200 yards. Maybe he cheated, he had a scope sighted Sharps, so he was shooting his own rifle with optic. (By the time the Sharps Rifle Co. folded in 1881 they were shipping 25% of their rifles with factory installed scopes.)
Urine: Really, pee on your gun? Well, yes. As late as the 1930s, John "Pondoro" Taylor said that you must wet clean your rifle after shooting chlorate primed ammunition. A cup of hot water was enough and if you were in a "dry camp" leftover coffee would do. And if necessary, "you always have with you something that is mostly water."
Gun quality: Ray Ordorica once did a sidebar to a gunzine article on reproduction revolvers. The repros needed a bit of tinkering and management. His original Just Worked.
Last edited by Jim Watson; 06-23-2019 at 10:43 AM.
Code Name: JET STREAM