It was Thanksgiving day when I first asked the Gun Tales community to share photos of their favorite revolvers. I imagined we all shared the same purpose that at that moment—sit around and wait for the pie. I thought it would simply be a fun, short-lived moment on Facebook where a few loyal readers would share ten or fifteen photos.

My guess is that when most of us imagine the old-time gun toters of the frontier we unconsciously assume that they were packing Colt single actions. And, while that might have been true for a slim majority, the Smith & Wesson Model 3 single action was always running a close second to the venerable Colt.

If you play the handgunning game long enough, sooner or later you are bound to delve into the realm of the powerful big bore revolver. For many it’s a gun that is worked up to over time. Some shooters will go a lifetime shooting the “normal” cartridges, and that’s fine.

One of my favorite authors in Shooting Times was a Texan by the name of Charles A. “Skeeter” Skelton. He was the Handgun Editor with a monthly column, and he also did feature articles for the magazine. I went to college in 1972, studying for a degree in Criminal Justice, and as Skeeter was a lawman, his articles led me into centerfire sixguns.

Our fishing tackle wasn’t state of the art, but it worked just fine. Zebco spinning reels were the norm. I can still hear the “click—ziiiing” cadence of pushing the release and slinging a lure across the water. The thrill of a bass striking a top water bait is something I miss. Most of the time we released what we caught but occasionally we took something home to fry.

Tom Threepersons was a lawman/gunfighter in the El Paso area during the 1920s. Whether you know it or not, just about everything else that you know or have read about him is untrue or undocumented. So, let’s start with the facts that can be proven.

Sometimes the wind blows like hell there. It blows the hardest when it comes from the west, across Devil’s Hole and the top of the South Branch Mountain, and then down the steep eastern slope into the bowels of Pot Lick Cove.

It’s no secret that my Huntress loves big bull elk. Her first bull fell to my 7mm Remington Magnum several years ago on a private ranch near Angel Fire, New Mexico. That was a great hunt, and the bulls were bugling and herding cows in a chaotic melee of swarming elk numbering over eighty in one bunch.

It would be a disgrace to cover the subject matter of long range sixgunning without mentioning The Grand Old Man, Elmer Keith. Keith was the pioneer of the sport. Without his contributions to bullet and cartridge design, the world of sixguns would have surely progressed, but the pace and quality of said progression would have been undoubtedly crippled.

You don’t have to be a subscriber to get this one—just someone who still loves a good story. If you’re new here, give us a try. There’s nothing to lose.

This past weekend I spent time with a great group of friends. We did some deer hunting, a lot of visiting, and some really serious gun trading. What more could you ask? So, what I’m about to tell you may sound like bragging. Okay...it is bragging. But what I will tell you later ought to make up for it just a little bit.

There are times when packing a full-size handgun just isn’t feasible. This is where the convenience of the pocket gun comes into play. A gun small enough to be carried discreetly in a pocket holster, yet large enough to shoot accurately. We’ll talk a bit about real-world accuracy with these guns in a minute.

Pretty quick, Hayes hit a high trail that headed towards Chinati Peak. I figured he was planning to get lost in that broken canyon country north of the peak. He made quite a race of it but my old dun gelding was desert raised and we held our own. Just about the time we were going to catch up to him, Devil pulled his horse to a sliding stop and spun uphill, off the trail. As he did, I snapped a shot at him with my carbine and knocked him out of the saddle.

It was a package of modifications, with the cutaway feature already being somewhat commonplace. The cutaway remains, however, the most notable and controversial of the alterations, and has inspired a safer—and surprisingly durable—version of the speed-oriented modification. It may have another name, but I’ve always called it the “Half Fitz.” 

Over sixty years ago a cowboy from Idaho began writing about his use of heavy bullets in single action revolvers. It has taken nearly that long for the idea to become generally accepted among the shooting public and the ammunition manufacturers. And truth be told, there are many who still have not gotten the message. At least now there are some ammunition companies who regularly produce heavy bullet loads for the big-bore sixguns. 

Some years ago, Ed Martin, cow boss for the Shannon Estate Ranches, and I were taking a bit of a noon rest in the ranch’s Elk Horn pasture. My attention was drawn to a pretty good sized rock over on the side of a hill, about 175 to 200 yards away. Naturally, that got me to thinking about long-range shooting with a handgun.

I have some scoped handguns chambered in rifle cartridges that are occasionally hauled to the field, and I suspect any notoriety I might have in the writing world, albeit minor, is associated with revolvers. I don’t mind this, as it is largely true that I do like and use them. However, in my beating heart rests a soft spot for fine rifles of blued steel and figured walnut, as well as a deep interest for the iconic lever action rifle. One of my all-time favorite rifles is the

When it comes to shooting, nothing fits the hand, or points more perfectly than single action sixguns. Single actions are safe too, so long as you heed the age-old adage of load one, skip one, load four, cock the hammer, then slowly let it down so the hammer rests on an empty chamber. If your single action has a transfer bar safety, like Ruger New Model Blackhawks, you’re good to go with six rounds. 

The mornings are turning cooler out here in the Big Bend country. This time of year, everything starts to take on a golden hue as we slowly edge our way into fall. The fluttering green leaves of the cottonwood trees will soon transform to brilliant gold before they are scattered by the wild west Texas winds as the northers blow in. The mule deer bucks will shed the velvet covering of their forked antlers and the elk and aoudad hunting are currently in full swing. Ah yes, it’s

As a group, outdoorsmen in general and hunters in specific tend to be decorative in their remembrances of how much fun they had. A hunter’s home decor typically involves pictures, sculptures and especially taxidermy that celebrate past experiences. However, occasionally a well executed shoulder mount of a game animal is no more effective at stimulating a memory than a relatively anonymous artifact such as a rock, or in my case, a spearhead.