Search this site

by Fermin Garza Everyone has their own take on the big 44. For me, it is my favorite of the big bores. Some dear friends I love and respect are fans as well. We often enjoy exchanging our adventures with our sixguns. We hunt together, sip good whiskey, and engage in some ruthless gun trading. Why, on one hunt in the recent past, Matt Peake was there with his special 44, a fine 7.5-inch Super Blackhawk. Our good Sheriff Wilson was there with his 44 Flattop he calls “Old Faithful.” Jim took a sizable hog with a most perfect shot between the left ear and eye. No words were exchanged, but anyone could clearly see the work of a sixgun master. Of course, I had the 44 Magnum I call “The Hammer” with me. Doc clobbered a fantastic buck at 104 yards with it. Doc Barranti and Nick Rukavina did have 44 Specials. Shane Jahn was carrying a 41. I know...I will do my best to help him. At least it was a very beautiful 41…

Whenever Jim, Shane, and I get together for evening coffee, the conversation often meanders back to how we can make Gun Tales a better place. How can we put our great Gun Tales family members first? How do we make newcomers feel more welcome? How can we get to know everyone better? How can we deliver that same anticipation that you used to have while waiting for the next issue of your favorite gun magazine? At some point, we realized that we have something that none of our beloved magazines could offer—a two-way conversation. So the idea of collecting questions from readers, followers, and family led us to our first video where Jim and Shane answer your questions at the kitchen table, surrounded by our favorite revolvers. We sure are grateful to have you here with us, and we're looking forward to hearing your thoughts below in the comments. While you're there, leave a question for these career Texas lawmen—I'm sure they'll have an answer waiting. You're going to love this. —Matt

by Shane Jahn Proper shooting practice is important before we take to the field on hunting adventures. No matter what we hunt with, rifle, handgun, or bow, quality practice sessions help ensure we are ready when the stars align and the animal we are pursuing steps out to offer the shot. Our armaments of choice can dictate the levels of proficiency required to accomplish our mission. Hunting from box blinds with a scoped rifle might require less range time if shooting distances are not extreme and a solid rest is available. This hunting method may remove some of the variables that play into making the all-important accurate shot. That doesn’t mean he shouldn’t spend time at the bench to ensure the rifle, optic, and ammunition are dialed in. Practicing field positions is another important piece of the hunter’s puzzle.

By Steve Ostrem We're pleased to welcome Steve Ostrem to Gun Tales. Steve brings the kind of varied, hands-on experience we all value. He served in the U.S. Army Military Police in West Germany before earning degrees in French and German from the University of Wisconsin and studying abroad at the University of Trier. He later became a professional gunsmith and Class A machinist before joining Brownells in 2004, where he spent years as a Gun Tech and eventually moved into full-time video production (watch Steve on Brownell's YouTube). Steve’s first firearm was a Browning High Power, but somewhere along the way he developed a real appreciation for revolvers—which, of course, makes him right at home with us. —Matt It may seem laughable to call the venerable 45 ACP a forgotten cartridge, yet in the realm of single action revolvers it remains almost totally eclipsed by the mighty 45 Colt. Tradition and nostalgia play a large part in this, to be sure, and there’s simply no denying that the larger case is capable of much greater performance, especially in the larger-framed guns like the Ruger Blackhawk. Still, from a practical standpoint, the relatively diminutive ACP case has a lot to offer.

by Shane Jahn From the time in high school when I discovered Skeeter Skelton’s articles and his admiration for the Smith & Wesson Model 27, I wanted one. The big N-frame chambered in 357 Magnum made sense to me. I think it’s one of the best-looking double action revolvers ever made. Of course, Skeeter’s editorials infused a need for a five-inch gun that still eludes me to this day. I stumbled onto one at a gun show many years ago. The proprietor of the table conveyed an attitude of arrogance that did not sit well with me, and I walked on. Subsequent reflection on the brief interaction revealed I probably should have swallowed my pride and bought it. At least the revolver would have been mine. On second thought, nah, I likely would have associated the gun with the conceited geezer. I’ll find another one, one of these days.

by Jim Wilson “Beware the man with one gun...he probably knows how to use it.” We’ve all seen and heard that quote all of our lives. And I’d be willing to bet good money that there’s not a single member of the GUN TALES family that falls into that category. But I’ve known a few of those and some of them actually lived up to the supposition. I’ll tell you about three of them. Larry was a middle-aged rancher who ran his cows and sheep on some rough old country right near the Mexican border. It was the kind of country that, for various reasons, reminded a fellow that he ought to keep a firearm near at hand. It was the kind of country where there were all kinds of critters that could hurt you, some with four legs, some with two, and some with no legs at all.

by Jim Wilson There was a time, back in the olden days, when point shooting was taught in just about every police firearms academy. The only reason that it wasn’t taught in citizen defensive schools was because there were no defensive schools for citizens. All of that changed when Jeff Cooper founded the American Pistol Institute, that we now call Gunsite, in 1976—the main thrust of which was the use of two hands on the gun and bringing it to eye level to fire shots. He called it the Modern Technique of the Pistol. This is excellent defensive training, but the implication was that point shooting no longer had a place in personal defense. In real life, outside the square range, however, we find that there may be times in a fight that we can’t get two hands on the gun. Or it may be too dark to see the sights. Or we may simply not have time to bring the gun to eye level; in the real world a person might be lucky to just have time to clear his holster and fire a shot. It is the close-range attacks that are the deadliest and require the quickest responses to survive. I have witnessed one of these, and it was point shooting that solved the problem.

by Shane Jahn Visiting with my old friend Ross Hrncir over the past few days, our conversations largely revolved around custom handguns. Discussions involved cartridges, bullets, guns, gunsmiths, stocks, trigger pull weight, sights—we covered it all. Our tastes in firearms are very similar, and our mutual love of hunting and outdoor adventure has been the center of our friendship for close to 40 years. In the late evening, when the temperatures cooled from a sweltering and humid 100 degrees to more tolerable 90s, we broke out a few sixguns to pass the time with a little plinking. We launched some heavy Buffalo Bore loads through a scoped Freedom Arms in 475 Linebaugh. This gun was Mag-Na-Ported, which makes it much less punishing off the bag rest. As with any Freedom Arms, it is inherently accurate and the mighty four-seven-five will settle the hash of the surliest critters on this planet.

by Guy Minor Guy Minor has been a Gun Tales family member since the beginning. And, as it turns out, has plenty of stories to share. It never fails—getting to know the great men in our community continues to be one of my favorite things about Gun Tales. Guy came to law enforcement after serving in the United States Marine Corps, bringing with him an existing familiarity with the 1911 and the serious responsibilities that accompany it. You can follow Guy's writing on his Substack and Instagram. —Matt One night on patrol I was the second officer to respond to a strong-arm robbery at a convenience store. The suspect was a large, angry guy waving a baseball bat at a thoroughly intimidated clerk—it was all clearly visible through the glass front of the store. The first officer to arrive was kneeling by her patrol car, stainless Colt 45 1911 out and ready. We’d worked together often, and I knew she was a gutsy cop. I moved up, and baseball-bat-boy dropped his bat and surrendered.

by Jim Wilson Not too long ago, Jim, Shane, and I were sitting around drinking Gun Tales Coffee (see what I did there?) and I had a brainwave. We've always known that a surprising number of GT family members are current or prior law enforcement officers, and it seems like we all have several stories that fall into the you-just-can't-make-that-up category. Up to this point, we haven't explored the personal lawman story archives from our vaults of experience. And while we don't care to focus on stories where we had to deliver the news forcefully, there are plenty of can't-make-that-up tales that will remind us how perfectly unpredictable the life of a lawman can be. If you like these tales, please let us know. There are more. —Matt I was assigned to evening-shift detectives, but had this particular evening off. I needed to see the Patrol Shift Sergeant about something or another. At the department, the dispatcher told me that the sergeant and most of his shift were down in the rough part of town raiding a dice game. I knew the location and headed that way in my personal vehicle.

by Fermin Garza Do you have a sixgun that leaves leading in your barrel? If you get on the internet and ask about it, you are going to get a library. You will get so much information you may never sort through it all. It’s not that all the information is bad, it’s just that it is simply not in the correct order. The purpose of this piece is to streamline the process to get you shooting accurately as quickly and efficiently as possible—to define the linear path to sixgun accuracy with cast bullets. Every serious sixgunner prefers accurate sixguns. I expect sub 2-3 inch groups at 50 yards, handheld. But sometimes a sixgun barrel does not perform its best due to tight spots in the barrel rifling. Sometimes I turn to a custom barrel for best results. However, even custom barrels will sometimes have restrictions in the bore and require firelapping. It should be noted that our custom sixgunsmiths do not manufacture custom barrels, they install them. Even the best barrels can have restrictions that will lead to leading. I firelap my sixguns to remove restrictions or tight spots in my sixgun barrels. This process has the added benefit of smoothing and polishing the bore. Here is how I tackle and remedy barrel restrictions in my sixguns.

Jim Wilson Some of you may remember back to the days when one or two different western series were on the television each night. And they were all good and entertaining, though some were more gooder and more entertaining than others. The common element in just about every show was that, sooner or later, the good guy was going to face the bad guy to see who was the fastest with his sixgun. Fast-draw was a Hollywood thing, and they rode it for all it was worth. One of the things that facilitated this whole concept was the invention of the Hollywood fast-draw holster. I truly don’t know who first came up with the idea, but it appears to me that Arvo Ojala was right there when it happened. The main feature of the concept was that the holster had metal in the area that held the gun’s cylinder. Sandwiched between two pieces of leather, this metal lining held the gun very loosely and allowed it to be cocked and the cylinder to begin turning while the gun was still in the holster.