Bob Wright

Oh, yeah, my first .44 Special: I bought this gun in September of 1954, a .45 Colt New Service, for $32.95. Advertised price was $24.95, but "select" grade and shipping got it to the higher price. It was a Canadian Mounted Police revolver, originally .455 Caliber, but reamed to .45 Colt. I was a lot younger then, in 1954, and reading a lot of Elmer Keith, so wanted a .44 Special. I took the gun to York Arms here in Memphis for conversion to .44 Special. A machine shop here in Memphis mounted the S&W rear sight for me, and a "around the corner" gun shop mounted the Micro front sight and ramp and reblued it. Lettering was filled in with gold, and I made the walnut stocks. Before I got it finished, the .44 Magnum had been introduced, but I was too heavily invested in this project to get a Magnum. It was not until 1971 or so that I got my first Magnum, a Ruger Super Blackhawk. Bob Wright

I, too, share your love for the .44 Special, though I prefer mine to be of the Single Action variety: The two on the left are Colt New Frontiers, the upper right is a Ruger Blackhawk ex-.357 Magnum Three Screw, and an Uberti Cattleman. More recently I added this Flat Top Ruger Blackhawk: But I'm doing my best to remain impartial and do pick up a .44 Magnum or .45 Colt at times, just to keep up appearances. Incidentally, while I did use a lot of Hercules Unique for many years, I've been wooed over to HS-6, finding 8.0 grs. HS-6 to be my pet oald so far for the .44 Special. Bob Wright

I believe most of you here know that my tastes run to the Single Action revolver. Seems I've stated something to that effect here. My preferences run to Single Actions with fine adjustable sights, case hardened frames and eye-catching grips. Here are two such revolvers, both in .45 Colt, one a Blackhawk and one a New Frontier: Both of these have the 4 x/8" barrels, 4 5/8" for the Ruger , and 4 3/4" for the Colt. In my opinion, the Colt Accro sight is better of the two, having a flat face and all steel construction, though Ruger does now offer all steel. The Ruger rear sight has a radiused surface that does catch light at times, not as precise as the Colt. As to Colt's Eliason as on current New Frontiers, it overhangs the hammer a trifle too much to suit me, and can catch the thumb when cocking. The wide trigger on the Ruger is much more pleasant to me, as opposed to the narrow trigger of Colts. And (bite my tongue here) I prefer the XR-3RED grip profile of the Ruger to the Colt's plowhandle grip profile. I know, I know, the Colt grip is the grip "to fit every hand" but the Ruger just handles recoil a mite better, and is less likely for the cocked hammer spur to dig into the flesh of the shooting hand. Now here is the same Colt with a .44 Special Ruger Flat Top, even closer to the Colt in size and proportion. This gun is one of the finest Rugers to come out yet, but it incorporates the Colt grip profile. While I do like the smaller frame, I wish they'd have put the XR-3RED grip on it! Bob Wright

At our church recently, East Side Baptist Church in Memphis, we held a Sportsmans Banquet. The basis of the banquet was for all who wished, to contribute game meat for the banquet. I had venison stew, venison chili, bacon wrapped duck breasts, tossed salad and pecan pie with strawberry cake. A feature of the event was a "pistol match." This utilized a 9mm pistol of some plastic design. A laser device was placed in place of a live round in the chamber. Shooting was at a projected target and firing from three, six, and nine yards back, two rounds each distance. The target projected the target image on the wall, and each "shot" resounded with the sound (sort of) of a shot, and a bullet hole appeared on the projected target for bystanders to see. The pistol had to be racked after each shot. The "prize" was a tin sign of an old S&W advertising sign. I won the pistol match, and took a lot of ribbing the next Sunday morning. Bob Wright

Ruger Blackhawk .45 Colt. Bob Wright

Have both, prefer the Super Blackhawk. Only objection I have to the Super Blackhawk is that beavertail hammer. Much prefer the Blackhawk hammer. More like God intended! Bob Wright

I know what you're saying, but to me, aluminum just doesn't belong on a Single Action revolver. It just my thing, of course, but I won't have aluminum alloy, ZAMAK, or plastic on my guns. Brass is O.K But steel, stag, ivory, exotic woods, or even mother of pearl are traditional. As to hurting the gun, I have no fear of that. But hurting the Collector's value is what I was wanting to avoid. And, yes, I've put many rounds through my Rugers without a hitch. Bob Wright

The reason I passed it up is simply the fact that I am not a collector. My use for such a revolver is strictly for shootin'. And I wouldn't tolerate having aluminum alloy parts on such a fine revolver. Immediately would have begun a search for a steel grip frame and ejector rod housing. And some better looking grips. The gun, to me, is a project gun from day of purchase. So in my most magnanimous character, left it to the collector's. Bob Wright

They had the box, and, I believe the papers, too. Bob Wright

I got word in church yesterday that a pawn shop had an exquisite Ruger Blackhawk, 7 1/2" .45 Colt, Three Screw. I went to check on it this morning, and it is indeed a beauty! The gun looks as if it had never been fired. There are no handling marks to be seen, and NO CONVERSION PARTS! I examined the gun fairly closely. Asking price was $600 + Tennessee sales tax and background check, bringing the price to $655. I had to walk away. For $550 or $600 out the door, maybe, but $655 is firm price. Any collector interested, the shop is AA Pawn Shop on Austin Peay in Memphis. Bob Wright

I only bought two revolvers in 2017, one being this Uberti Open Top Navy in .38 Special: And in August I bought the .45 Colt New Frontier: I bought the Uberti to be my "centerfire .22" for very casual shooting, have put just 900 rounds through it since buying the gun. Its fun, mild recoil, pleasant shooting up close, no good for any distance beyond fifteen yards or so. The New Frontier I bought it because nobody else out bid me. New Frontiers are what I consider to be the ultimate Colt Single Action. Right up there, almost, with the Ruger Super Blackhawk. Bob Wright

I mentioned Keith without regard to such excellent 'smith as Hamilton Bowen and Dave Clements, as it is my understanding they only take in work that is their "cataloged" scope of work. Sure don't mean to slight any gunsmiths. Bob Wright

Keith Warner in Memphis is my 'smith of choice. He has done (is doing) some work for me on my Single Actions, both Ruger and Colt. He does excellent work, but don't be in a hurry for it! Bob Wright

I stopped by my gunsmith's shop today to visit my Colt when I saw a goodly array of handguns. None for my taste, but did see a pristine Colt Officers Model Match .38 with a beautiful (not Colt) walnut case. Also a fine looking (didn't examine) Colt .38 Detective Special nickeled. In the back room was a table full ow Walthers, PPK, PPK/S, P-1 and what not. This Keith Warner Gunsmiths on Kirby Parkway in the Fare Four Center, Germantown. Just thought someone might be interested. Bob Wright

Today being Pearl Harbor Day, there have been some WW II stories. Here's one of mine: There was a War Bond Drive going on in Memphis, this around 1942 or so. Set up in Court Square Park in Memphis, were displays, including a German ME-109 and a Japanese Zero fighter. Along the sidewalk on Main Street was a long olive drab tent, with exhibits inside showing items and the number of $25 bonds it took to purchase them. Distinctly remember an M-1911A1 pistol (Army pistol, to me then.) and its price was three $25.00 bonds. Hot dog! I thought, I had four twenty-five dollar bonds! More than enough to buy me a .45! When the soldier told me it was not for sale, I cried. But not to where he could see me. (I was only about four or five at the time.) Bob Wright

With all due respect, I'm hardheaded, just ask my wife. I want the .32-20! Bob Wright

This is a Colt New Frontier, in .45 Colt: It, to me, is the ultimate Colt Single Action. Medium frame, good adjustable sights, and 7 1/2" barrel. I've seen them in .357 Magnum, but they are rare. And here is a Ruger Three Screw Blackhawk in .357 Magnum: Actually I like Ruger's XR-3RED grip frame better (bite my tongue!) than the Colt grip. This gun is made on the medium frame and is about the same size as the Colt. This is a fine gun but there are still "wants" in my craw. I've long envisioned a 7 1/2" barreled, adjustable sighted .32-20 Single Action revolver, either one of these would do. But for, say groundhogs out to maybe 100 yards or so, wouldn't something like this be dandy? Maybe even coyotes? Bob Wright

I went to the range yesterday morning for the first time since my surgery. It has been over seven weeks since I fired a shot. I took this old Super Blackhawk: I've been shooting close up, duelist style; that is standing, one handed, as ranges not over ten yards, and using a six inch stick-on Shoot -N-See target. I had figured a pretty bad outing, for lack of practice for so long. Much to my surprise, I didn't do too badly. Shooting at eight yards, twenty-five rounds went through the black, and left a large jagged hole. Why did I do so well? Well, I did spend considerable time dry firing. This helped keep my muscle tone and my concentration up to par, and I'm sure that dry firing practice did keep me in shape. Bob Wright

To the best of my knowledge, I have never even shot a .32-20, more's the pity. But I have always thought an ideal set-up would be either a mid-frame Three Screw Ruger, or a Colt New Frontier, with 7 1/2" barrel in .32-20. Just seems to me to be the ideal small game/varmint sixgun. Just a tad lighter bullets than the .357 Magnum and at pretty fair velocities. As a matter of interest, the .32-20 revolver at one time was on the verge of being the standard police caliber instead of the .38 Special. Bob Wright

If that were the only choice I had I'd probably go into a monastery! And I'm not even Catholic! Bob Wright

Thank you. The doctor told me I'd been through a lot. I said, "Yeah, but I kept my looks." He said, "Your sense of humor, too." Bob Wright

I went to the range yesterday morning for the first time since my surgery. It has been over seven weeks since I fired a shot. I took this old Super Blackhawk: I've been shooting close up, duelist style; that is standing, one handed, as ranges not over ten yards, and using a six inch stick-on Shoot -N-See target. I had figured a pretty bad outing, for lack of practice for so long. Much to my surprise, I didn't do too badly. Shooting at eight yards, twenty-five rounds went through the black, and left a large jagged hole. Why did I do so well? Well, I did spend considerable time dry firing. This helped keep my muscle tone and my concentration up to par, and I'm sure that dry firing practice did keep me in shape. Bob Wright

This Ruger Super Blackhawk belonged to my son-in-law, Mike Vick. His dad had bought the gun while he was in the Marine Corps. When Mike got old enough, his Dad gave him the gun. Mike read an article in a gun magazine featuring a 5" Super Blackhawk, written by Lee Jurras. Mike had the barrel cut back to 5" but did not have the gun ported. In July of 1979, Mike was killed in a car wreck, and a couple of weeks after the funeral, my daughter gave the gun to me. For awhile I dressed up the gun with some stag grips from Eagle Grips: But, after a number of years, it needed some improvements, so I sent the gun off to Dave Clements who did considerable work on the gun, and I replaced those stags with rosewood, from Lett Grips: This remains one of my favorite guns, and its round count is just over 17,000 rounds fired through it. Bob Wright

For starters, a mild target load: Another factory duplication load: An attention getter: I no longer load the .45 to heavy loads, having a .44 Magnum for that. But of powders, I've found Hodgdon's HP-38 for moderate loads, HS-6 for warmish loads, and H4227 for the heavier loads. All of these have given me good performance in both velocity and accuracy. Bob Wright

I was musing the recently about some handgun bullets from the past, from my recollection. I remember reading much of Elmer Keith's opinions, and that he totally condemned jacketed handgun bullets, preferring cast bullets, mostly of his design. And cast, or as far as factory ammunition was concerned, swaged lead bullets, remained the stand-by for a long time, up until the introduction of the .44 Magnum cartridge in 1955. The .44 ushered in a new era in revolver bullets. Jacketed bullets, full metal jacketed, soft point, and hollow point jacketed bullets had been around for a long time, mostly in the European auto pistol cartridges, such as the .30 Mauser and 7.65mm Luger. And the .38-40 and .44-40 were offered in hollow point bullets, but these actually intended for use in rifles. There was a company that originated about the time the .44 was introduced that offered a line of bullets cast of a zinc based alloy. This company, the Cladaloy Bullet Co. sold bullets by mail through magazine advertising. Their bullets were cast of Zinc, and copper coated. Zinc being roughly half the density of lead were very light in weight. A bullet cast from a mold throwing a.44 caliber bullet of lead weighed 246 grs. while the same mold yielded a 128 gr. zinc based bullet. Those who tested those bullet claimed velocities in a .44 Special hit 1100 ~ 1200 fps. The advantage was high velocities with minimum recoil. So far as I can determine, the company lasted from about 1955 through maybe 1958. The late Jim Harvey developed his Pro-Tex-Bore bullets which were swaged of pure lead but had a zinc washer riveted to the base of the bullet. These bullets ran toward the nominal lead bullet weights. His claim was that the zinc washer prevented any leading of the bore when pushed to high velocities, as his loading data pushed .44 Magnum bullets above the 1400 fps level. Harvey also became a proponent of the half jacketed bullet, using a pure lead core swaged into a copper cup, really sort of an elongated gas check. Speer made and marketed these bullets for many years, still offering one style, I believe, a 225 gr. Half Jacketed bullet. One drawback to these is that if the velocity level falls below a certain point there is the possibility the lead core will separate and leave the jacket stuck in the bore. With the coming of new powders that easily develop 1300 fps or higher, the jacketed bullets having an ogive have become commonplace and now good hunting bullets from Speer, Hornady, Sierra and factory fodder from Remington, Winchester and Federal are available, all of which give good performance in the field. Bob Wright