I’ve always been intrigued by the classic look of these stocks and remember seeing the Bear Hug Grips advertisements in the magazines years ago. John Taffin often wrote about them, and many of his good revolver photos depicted fine sixguns wearing these stocks.

My friend John Taffin wrote quite a few books and I have every one of them. The last time I spoke to his wife Dot, she related that there was yet another book on the horizon. I even have a guest chapter in John’s “Book of the Smallbore.” I learned a lot from that writing experience. If you are not careful this “gunwriter” thing can turn into a lot of work.

There were those who preferred the Smith & Wesson Model 3 and others who sang the praises of the Remington sixguns, or the Merwin & Hulbert guns, to name just a few. Another revolver that probably doesn’t get its share of the credit is the Colt Bisley single action.

Dual cylinder revolvers are nothing new. Ruger currently catalogs a couple of Blackhawks with 45 Colt/45 ACP and 357 Magnum/9mm cylinders, as well as the Single-Six in 22 LR/22 WMR. Nighthawk Custom’s top shelf Korth Mongoose sports a 357 Magnum and 9mm cylinder that is easily exchanged to make a two-for-one gun. If we account that 38 Specials can be fired in the 357 cylinders, we can call it a three-in-one gun, which further justifies the upper-investment price of such a fin

Folks like you rarely pass up the chance to look at an old Colt single action, whether at a gun show or at your local gun store. Do you realize that you might well have actually held the gun that Wyatt Earp used at the OK Corral fight? And that could likely be true because no one bothered to make a record of the actual gun that he used.

Bill Ruger’s original Blackhawk we now know as the “Flattop,” is one of the undisputed classic single-action revolvers. The XR-3 grip frame nestles in the hand like that of the famous Colt Single Action Army. Aesthetically the Ruger resembled the Colt somewhat, but it demonstrated a good adjustable rear sight and a ramped front, something Colt didn’t do until 1961 with the New Frontier.

The guys at Dodson Guns in Alpine, Texas are aware of my wheelgun affliction, especially when it comes to Ruger single actions. Occasionally they will notify me when a used hogleg wearing the famed Phoenix bird brand shows up.

Below my eloquently written primer you will find Fermin Garza's introductory email to Matt Covert. Matt wears many hats, two of which are editor and mastermind behind all the digital happenings that make Gun Tales what it is. Without Matt, Jim and I would be posting screenshots of articles written on our Big Chief tablets.

You see, I had already discovered Bill Jordan and his great book, “No Second Place Winner.” At that point in my life I didn’t know anything about gunfighting but something told me that Mr. Jordan did. If the Smith & Wesson Model 19 was his choice I figured it might be a good choice for me, too. Consequently, as soon as I got a couple of paychecks under my belt I sprang for a Model 19, 4-inch, blued.

Hunt long enough, and you’re eventually going to mess up. If you’ve never lost an animal, count your blessings and you might want to go out and buy a lottery ticket because you are extremely fortunate and very lucky. You are also probably one day closer to having an agonizing day in the field! As I approach 40 years of hunting I must admit I’ve experienced some mishaps along the way. What follows are a few that stand out. By sharing these episodes, I hope to accomplish two th

It has often been said by many experts that the diminutive Sparrowhawk is only capable of taking on prey no larger than the common field mouse. But let it be known that the field of ornithology is filled with cheats, scallywags, swindlers, and liars. A more dishonest profession likely does not exist. Furthermore, I would surmise that ornithologists and attorneys likely attend the same family reunions. But what is all this talk of birds? This is a gun rag, ain’t it?!

A fellow once told me that, regarding feral hogs, there are two kinds of places...them that’s got ‘em and them that’s gonna get ‘em. Feral hogs, if they are anything, are adaptive. We even have them out here in this high, dry desert country of the Texas Big Bend. They are tough, prolific, and destructive...oh, and they’re really fun to hunt.

To some folks Claude Dallas was like a throwback to the days of old-time cowboys and mountain men, the ones who took care of their own business. Others just saw him as trouble looking for a place to happen. Regardless, he has become a part of the latter-day western legend.

I’d found a cozy little place on a Texas hillside. Sitting with my back against a cedar, with an agarita bush in front of me to break up my silhouette. I hadn’t been there all that long when a nice eight-point buck came out of the brush to get a drink at the stock tank that was about thirty-five to forty yards in front of me.

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.

In the past few days, we’ve seen that the 44 Remington Magnum has been around for seven decades. That fact alone tells us how important this fine cartridge is to the handgunning world. The sheer power of the 44 Magnum is one reason; another is its versatility. Nostalgia plays a role too. Cinema detective Harry Callahan once labeled it as the most powerful handgun in the world, and it was at that time.

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.

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.