SIXGUNS BY KEITH
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This is a parsial version of the classic book, written by Elmer in 1955. Enjoy, and learn from the Master. I hope more is on its way someday. It would be nice to have all his books here for people to learn from
Sixguns By
Keith
Preface
I am prejudiced in favor of
Elmer Keith. We have been friends for more than a Quarter of a century. We have
traveled rough trails together. We share a postdated, old West type of tough
mindedness. As a friend and as gun expert no one knows him as well as I
do.
Keith has exceptional mental
equipment. He would have been outstanding in any science or profession upon
which he had cared to focus it. It happened that he had no choice. He brought
the idea of guns into the world with him when he was born. Guns have been his
obsession since he could toddle.
His life began in the heart of the Civil War guerrilla
country. His father and uncles knew the notorious characters personally. He
listened to tales of the old gun battles in his cradle. During his sixth year
the family moved to western Montana. His boyhood mentors were the Indian
fighters, Vigilantes, lawmen and gunfighters of the passing
frontier.
Keith’s old-time teachers are dust. Their deeds are history
and legend. Their philosophies and Draconian codes live in him today. He uses a
typewriter, drives a car and prefers to travel by air, but he is,
anachronistically, in his innermost being, a part of the decade Charley Russell
painted.
On the background of gun lore given him by his early
associates, who survived because they did not make mistakes, Keith has grafted
the knowledge, the improved techniques and advancements in gun know-how of the
last thirty years. Out of all this a great pistol book has been born. It is a
unique book. No one but Keith could have written it. Each passing day makes it
more impossible for anything like it to be written. The old professors of
“gunology” as much a part of yesterday as are the knights who rode in the
crusades.
John Slaughter or Pat Garrett would have traded a hundred
steers for a book like this and called it a bargain. What John Wesley Hardin or
Doc Holliday might have been willing to do for a copy is best left to the
imagination.
But this is not a book just for gunfighters. It is an
all-around pistol book for target shooters, hunters, sportsmen, for everyone who
loves a good hand gun. It just happens to be scented with the pungence of sage
brush campfires, cold for more than half a century.
Don Martin
Salmon, Idaho
Circa 1955
FOR OVER THIRTY YEARS I wore a sixgun as regularly as I did my trousers. Without it I did not feel fully dressed. It was a tool, and a mighty useful one at that. I still like to have a good gun in easy reach at all times.
During those years I tried out, on both stock and game, every make and caliber available everything from the 36 Navy Colt,"44 caliber Dragoon, and Single Action Army Colt down through modern revolvers and semi-automatics. During that time I killed three elk, seven mule deer, one whitetail, three black bear, one record cougar, and one mountain goat with a sixgun, not to mention coyotes, bobcats, eagles, and a Mexican javelina.
Over the years the small game ran into the thousands, but the only record kept was on blue grouse when I killed from 41 to 43 of the big birds for three successive years with a sixgun. I remember killing 125 jack rabbits on the Pahsimeroi in three days when testing one of the first 357 S & W Magnums. In over twenty years of big-game guiding, I also trailed and finished with a sixgun many animals of all species that my parties had wounded.
On two occasions I had to stop mad cows I had roped. They wound me up and threw my bronc and came for me with sharp horns. On another occasion I had to get out of bed, saddle up a bronc, and go to the rescue of a local butcher who had tried to kill a big Durham ball with a Colt by planting the slugs in the forehead. The beast had put the butcher up a tree and, as it was cold weather, he was fast freezing when the neighbor called. When I rode up close to the tree, the bull charged. A single 265 grain 45-cal. Ideal slug, backed by 40 grains of black powder, in the forehead from my old 5 1/2 Single Action Colt did the trick. The bull stuck his nose in the ground and turned over on his back with all four legs stiff in the air, his tail stretched out toward my bronc, then he relaxed in death.
On another occasion, a mean outlaw bronc I was riding stuck his foot in a badger hole and turned somersault over me. He knocked most of the wind from me and came up running, kicking me with his hooks because one spur had caught around the stirrup leather and held my boot in the stirrup during the roll. Three 45 colt slugs angling upwards from where I bounced along the frozen ground did the trick. The third one reached the spine and put his hind quarters down, and I simply planted the fourth in his brain – and had a long hike home packing heavy saddle. But for that Colt Single Action, I would have been dragged and kicked into doll rags.
On one trip out to Ovando, my sixgun kept my partner and me in meager food supply for six days while we traveled with a pack string of twenty-three horses. The grub horse had busted a yellow-jackets’ nest and bucked off down the mountain and across a river. When we found her, there was no food left in the pack. We lived by that sixgun alone for those six days.
Far more often the sixgun was needed to kill a rattler, collect a mess of grouse or sage hens, or rabbit for the cow dogs dinner. Whether I had to climb out of the blanket to kill a porcupine that was eating the pack outfit, or clean the pack rats out of some cabin wished to sleep in during a rainy night, or simply heave a slug in front of a band of running horses to burn them toward the corral, the old sixgun was always hear and handy. It was a tool of the trade.
On other occasion the old gun was packed for social purposes – when serving on sheriffs posses, hunting cow thieves, or to back our honor and judgment. I still remember seeing one cow thief squirm when I watched him and his three riders while my partner cut four of my steers from two cars of beef that he was preparing to load on the train. Those steers had my brand, badly blotched, and the wattle cut off their noses, but I would have known their hides in a tan yard; so I took them by force. Suffice to say, I would have been pushing up daisies over twenty years ago instead of writing this article now, had I not carried and known how to use a good, heavy sixgun.
Guns were usually carried in a shoulder holster or, more often, in an open-top, quick-draw belt holster that left both hammer and trigger fully exposed. The bottom of the belt holster was tied to the leg or to the chaps so that the gun would not fly up and hit the elbow when riding a pitching bronc. Holsters were just large enough to accommodate the gun, and the belts were more often than not a combination of money and cartridge belts of double-soft chap leather. We never did see any of those huge buscadero Hollywood corsets in use on the range, nor did any of the old gun fighters I knew in my younger days use such an outfit.
Helena, Mont., was settled in the late sixties, largely by Confederate Civil War veterans. I knew, lived, and hunted with several of these men, most of whom owned or carried a good sixgun, either an old cap and ball Colt or a more modern single action. Now they are all dead and gone, and the modern trend seems more to small-caliber target guns. Colt has even stopped manufacture of the best gun they ever built the Single Action Army.
I witnessed three gun fights when a kid in Helena and was not much impressed by the results from the 38 Special. In one, one man proved the quicker on the draw and a couple of 38 Specials through the heart stopped his opponent even though the opponent did draw and fire two shots that hit the pavement short of his executioner. In another, a cop planted five 38 Specials in a gunmans chest, about center, yet that gunman emptied his break-top 32 at the cop. One bullet, I thought the first, hit the cop right over the heart but went through a notebook and lodged in the bottom of his blouse pocket. One more went through a kids leg as he was peacefully engaged in eating noodles in his booth, and the rest came through the front window over my head and flattened against a building across the street.
The gunman then threw his gun at the cop, and it also went through the window and across the street. He died as he was carried up the hospital steps. Another time my friend Bill O Connel, the night cop around the N.P. Depot, killed two holdup men who had stuck up a saloon, with one shot each from his 45 Colt Single Action. Their bullets went though the transom above Bills head
Small-Caliber Pistols
The 22-caliber sixguns and semi-auto pistols are useful for just one thing – target practice and competition. They may also be used effectively on very small game with high-speed hollow points occasionally. The 32-20 and 38 Special factory loads are far better small-game loads as a whole, but both lack power for any serious social purposes, for shooting game of any size, or for use against mean stock.
I have killed three mule deer with the 32-20 low-velocity smokeless soft-point load, and the cartridge proved entirely inadequate. I have also killed a couple of muleys with a K-22 S & W at close range, working on the backs of their heads double action. I had walked out on the edge of a small cliff and a big buck and a doe appeared just under me at about six yards range. A quick shot, double action, to the back of each head put both of them down, but each got up on its feet almost instantly. Two more shots were taken at each, and then the gun was empty. Both were down and kicking, but I had hardly reloaded when both were up again.
Then I started shooting at the back of the neck, just to the rear of the skull. When the gun was again empty, both were dead, but I will never try that stunt again. Another time, I had put two 172-grain 30-06 slugs in a big mule buck and he went down. Not wanting to shoot him up any more, I borrowed Jim Robbin’s Colt Woodsman and proceeded to empty the gun in him. I hit the deer between the eyes with the first shot and heard the tiny slug whine as it ricocheted away. As the buck ran past, I put the rest of the magazine in close behind the shoulder. The buck went a couple hundred yards and again lay down. I approached to within 30 yards as he lay in the sagebrush watching me. I bounced most of another magazine off his skull before one bullet went through the tiny nerve hole over the left eye and killed him. No more 22′s for me on anything bigger than bullfrogs, squirrels, or cottontails.
Contrary to popular opinion, the 32-20, 38-40, and 44-40 factory soft-point low-velocity loads will expand very well on deer and, if bones are struck, turn wrong side out. Yet the bullets will not expand in pine wood, simply smearing off the soft point and leaving the jacket intact. I wore out completely one 32-20 barrel with both factory loads and handloads in game shooting. I have also shot a 38-40 and a 44-40 a great deal. All three cartridges are bottlenecked and the chambers are much too long for the body of the case. When fired, the cases expand nearly to the mouth, leaving only about half of the original neck and requiring considerable resizing to reload them. I used to use No. 80 powder and the 260-grain 40-82 Winchester bullet sized down to fit in the 38-40.
The combination was superbly accurate from a 5 1/2-inch Single Action Colt, and a real killer on anything, but constant resizing made for short case life and I finally gave it up. The 44-40 is by far the best of these three rifle cartridges, and it was old-timer Ashley Haines’ favorite sixgun load, but the 44-40 does its best work from a long 7 1/2-inch barrel owing to being loaded with rifle powder. I never could get much penetration with factory 38-40 or 44-40 loads from a sixgun, and soon came to prefer longer, heavier bullets that would give better penetration on stock or big game when the necessity for such use arose. A factory 38-40 load almost cost me my life while monkeying with a wounded bull elk. The bullet simply splattered on the elk’s skull, and did not penetrate. Had the cylinder not been loaded alternately with heavy black powder loads, that bull would have ended my hunting. With both cartridges, the case body is large and the neck short for short bullets. The charge must be held down religiously to safe pressures or it will bulge the bolt cuts in the cylinder.
My Preferences
I much prefer the 44 Special and the 45 Colt cartridges for sixgun use. For the handloader, the 44 Special is by far the best of all sixgun cartridges for serious work, either target, defense, or game killing. The cylinder walls are thicker over the case body than in the 45, and the cartridge is superbly accurate. The old black powder loads with 250-, 255-, and 260-grain government bullets and 40 grains of FFG black powder gave 900 feet in the 45 Colt and would surely penetrate. I planted a 250-grain Remington black powder load in the seat of a goat’s pants and it penetrated through to the left shoulder, which it broke. On broadside shots on both elk and goats, it went clean through unless heavy shoulder bones were hit. The 38-40 and 44-40 factory loads stopped under the skin on the off side on lung shots on elk. With the heavy 260-grain 38-40 handload, penetration was excellent.
Another 45 Colt load that gave excellent accuracy and penetration was the Winchester 300-grain 45-90 lead bullet sized down to .454 inch and backed by 35 grain of FFG. It killed mule deer and wounded elk well and was very accurate. I once had a case head separate with this load, blowing the loading gate out of the gun and cutting through the side of my trigger finger. That case had been reloaded many times, however, and the load was safe enough in good cases.
The factory 45 Colt pointed bullet punched a rather small hole through game and would not expand unless it hit a heavy bone. With that bullet I shot a great many grouse with little damage to the meat. In search of the best sixgun bullet, I designed a blunt-nosed bullet (No. 454260) for Belding & Mull but found that it or the same design worked out for the 44 Special in 260- and 280-grain was not accurate at any great range, so we dropped them and designed another bullet for Lyman. First in 44 Special, 250-grain solid and 235-grain hollow base or hollow point, then in 45 Colt 250-grain, later in 45 semi-auto rim 240-grain, and still later in 173-grain solid and 160-grain hollow base or hollow point 38 Special, these Keith bullets have proven ideal, for me at least, for all sixgun work in twenty years of continuous use. They cut full caliber holes in anything and penetrate almost as well as the old pointed 45 Colt black powder load in solid persuasion. In hollow-point design, they will expand at velocities of 1,000 feet or more, and at 1,200 feet are very destructive to all game and ruinous to small game.
The Keith 160-grain 38 Special hollow point, backed by 13.5 grains of 2400, from the Colt Single Action or Shooting Master, or the S & W Heavy Duty or Outdoorsman will simply blow a grouse to bits and wings. The legs and neck will fly off at all angles when the bird is centered. The Keith 235-grain 44 Special hollow point, backed by 18.5 grains of 2400, is even worse in its destruction of living tissue. It’s certain death on either elk or deer if placed in the lungs broadside at close range, but it will not penetrate quite as well as the 250-grain solid in bone or when meaty portions of an animal are struck. Bob Hagel killed eight treed cougar last winter with a 44 Special 4 1/2-inch barrel Single Action Colt using these loads. He said the hollow point was much the best for a chest or lung shot and the solid bullet best for shoulder shots to break the big cats down so that they would not fall out of the tree full of fight.
I have tried both the Super 38′s and the 9 mm Lugers on game, also the 45 semi-auto, for many years and they are one and all far inferior in actual knockdown power to the heavy revolver loads. A friend emptied a Super 38 Colt into a cougar’s chest at close range in a tree, but the big cat jumped out and ran a short distance. One heavy 44 Special or 357 Magnum or 45 Colt in the same place would have done the business. Metal-patched bullets from the semi-auto pistols are simply not as good stoppers as are the soft lead bullets of the revolver, but the 45 Colt semi-auto has more actual shock on game than either the Luger or the Super 38. I have shot enough game with all three to prove the point, to my own satisfaction at least.
Sixguns for Self Defense
For a defense gun against man, the 1917 S & W semi-auto rim is a fine, fast gun, and one can carry a couple of the three-shot clips loaded with 45 auto ammo, preferably of the new Remington and Peters 185-grain wadcutter type, and have a very quick reload.
The late Frank Waterman carried a nickel-plated 7 1/2-inch Single Action Colt 45 all his life. His dad had given it to him new when Frank was a kid in Wyoming. Frank was past seventy when he died last year. That old Peacemaker had killed all species of game in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho except buffalo. When on a Wyoming elk hunt, a sportsman had downed a big bull elk and the guide borrowed Frank’s 45 Colt to go back and pack out the elk as he did not want to bother with a rifle that day. They were working up a brushy creek bed to the kill, and the sportsman was some one hundred yards to the rear as usual, when the guide turned around a big willow bush and found the elk. A big grizzly was eating on the carcass. The bear instantly rose to its full height, and the guide drew Frank’s old Peacemaker. Aiming just under the chin of the big grizzly, he squeezed the trigger. The heavy 260-grain bullet backed by Frank’s 40-grain black powder load went in under the chin and broke the grizzly’s neck, and the bear went down like a sack of beans.
I once loaded some 44 Specials with the Keith 250-grain solid and 12 grains of No. 80 for Charley Stauffenberg. He carried a New Service Colt for that cartridge. One fall, when in need of his winter’s meat, Charley ran onto a bull moose standing broadside. Holding his gun with both hands, he aimed for the heart and shot once. The bull lurched away but went only one hundred yards and lay down and was soon ready for the knife. The flat-point Keith bullet went through the middle of the heart and bled him out nicely.
Some nineteen years ago I loaded a large quantity of the very same load for James T. Maxwell, of Omaha, Neb., for use in Africa in a 6 1/2 inch S & W. Maxwell later reported that he had no trouble at all supplying twelve men with all the antelope meat they could eat by using that gun and load alone. He said it killed the small and medium antelope about as well as a rifle during a six-week period of African hunting in Kenya and Tanganyika. Recently I had another letter from the good doctor saying he had just tested some of these same loads after all these years and they still shot as well as ever.
With the advent of Hercules 2400 powder I dropped the use of No. 80 entirely, as 2400 proved a much better propellant, giving far less pressure than No. 80 and even higher velocity.
Throughout the West and North, many men – prospectors, surveyors, cowpunchers, trappers, and woods’ loafers – who must make long trips into the back country, often by back pack only, and who cannot carry a rifle handily, need a good dependable heavy sixgun. The best guns for the purpose today are the Colt Single Action and the S & W 357 Magnum and 1926 44 Special target models. [1] The guns should have accurate target sights which suit individual preference as to width of blade or bead and general type, but the sights should be adjustable so that they may be correctly zeroed for any desired load. If the Colt Single Action is preferred, then it should be target sighted by King Gunsight Co., Pachmayr, or some other reliable gunsmith. The best rear sight is the S & W click adjustment target rear, with a suitable band or ramp front sight base and blade sight. The S & W target guns, both the Magnums and the 1926, come equipped with perfect sights, and front beads or blades to suit individual preference can be had to order.
For loads, I believe the 357′s & W Magnum and 45 Colt to be the best in factory loads, and the 44-40 is not so far behind, some shooters preferring it to the others. If the shooter is also a handloader, or wishes to purchase heavy handloads from Moody’s Custom Loads, Helena, Mont., or another custom loader, the best caliber is the 44 Special. The factory 44 Special makes a fine grouse and small-game load and is also an ideal target load. The Keith 250-grain solid bullet or the 235-grain hollow base or hollow point can be loaded with 18.5 grains of Hercules 2400 and bullets sized to .001 inch larger than groove diameter and cast 1 part tin to 16 parts lead for solids, and 1 to 20 for hollow points, and you have the most powerful handgun loads in existence.
The factory 357 Magnum is very good but it is not nearly as good a killer as the above-mentioned 44 Special hand-loads. Col. Doug Wesson killed elk, antelope, moose, and grizzly with the 357 Magnum, but the fact remains that the heavy Keith 44 Special loads are a lot more powerful. The factory 38 Special can also be used in the Magnum as a grouse or small-game load; wadcutters in full charge are particularly good small-game loads.
If you want to reload for the Magnum, use 13.5 grains of 2400 behind the Keith 173-grain solid bullet or the 160-grain Keith hollow point in 38 Special cases. For the longer Magnum case, use 14 grains of 2400 with the 160-grain hollow point or 13.5 grains with the 173-grain Keith solid and barely crimp the case over the front band of the bullet. The fact remains, however, that the 38 Special case, with Keith bullet and 13.5 grains of 2400, is a more accurate load at any range, even to 600 yards, than is the factory 357 Magnum or the Keith bullet from the Magnum case when the case is crimped over the forward band. Bullets should be of same temper as above for the 44 Special and should be sized to not over .001 inch above groove diameter.
In the 45 Colt, the standard factory smokeless load is a good one though at only about 800 feet velocity. It is accurate and will penetrate well. The old Remington 40-grain black powder load was much more powerful, and handloads can be made up with the Keith 250-grain Ideal bullet and 18 to 20 grains of Hercules 2400, always keeping bullets sized to not over .001 inch above groove diameter and crimping in the beveled crimp groove. In the 45 Colt, we have much thinner cylinder walls than in the 44 Special and for that reason the 44 Special has a much greater margin of safety.
The bullet, being the same weight as for the 45, also has more sectional density and will penetrate better, so for the handloader the 44 Special is absolutely tops. The factory 44 Special 146-grain bullet is loaded to only 750 feet velocity, and both the 357 Magnum and the 45 Colt, as well as the 44-40, beat it badly for killing power in factory loads. But carefully handloaded, the 44 Special comes to life. For all social purposes, when a gun is needed in self defense against man targets, the 357 Magnum is the smallest cartridge I would consider. The heavy Keith hand-loads described above are, however, much better stoppers, and a man hit anywhere between the top of the skull and the pelvic bone with one of them in 44 Special or 45 Colt will not shoot back.
Automatics are totally dependent on perfect ammunition for certain functioning and are, for that reason, a second choice for a defense gun. If a jam or a misfire occurs, then two hands are needed to clear the jam and get the gun in action again. For that reason, they are never as reliable as a good cylinder gun when one’s life is at stake→
Everything he writes about in this is absolute fact. He learned it from the old Buffalo Hunters while a young boy recovering from terrible burns. Enjoy. This is from a rare Elmer book, Rifles and Loads for Big Game. 1948 I beleive.
This is from Elmer Keith's Keith's Rifles for Large Game written in
1946.
Page 284 "The paper-patch slugs of the old Sharps Creedmoor and
buffalo rifles were the most accurate long range projectiles of that era. Even
today, those Sharps rifles will make a modern metal-patch smokeless rifle hump
itself for accuracy; but temper and diameter of the bullet, thickness and
hardness of the patch paper and weight of powder charge must each be correct to
balance the load against the chambering, throating and twist of the barrel. In
attaining maximum velocity, it was found that far less bullet-stripping occurred
on the rifling if two layers of patch paper were applied wet to the bullet and
allowed to dry......Most of the paper-patched Sharps bullets were bore-diameter
and could often be pushed through the bore with a wooden cleaning rod. They
depended upon the heavy powder charge to upset them to fill the grooves of the
barrel. "
Page 373-374 "Good Sharps rifles were very closely
chambered. The fired cases expanded practically not at all at the mouth and
would take the next patch bullet friction tight. Low pressures and correct
chambering made case-resizing, as we know it today, unnecessary and the case
could be reloaded many times....."
"Sharps bullets should be under groove
diameter, but must also be a very tight fit in the mouth of the fired case. In a
properly chambered Sharps having shallow grooves, the bullet is often small
enough to be shoved through the rifle bore entirely by hand, the lands marking
only the paper patch. Even with a deep-groove rifle, the bullet can be seated in
the lands, to allow daylight in the botom of each groove. The best patch rifles
were throated for the patch bullet and, when properly loaded, will equal almost
any modern rifle in accuracy."
"Sharps rifles which were made for use
with grooved lead bullets were chambered larger in the neck and the cast grooved
lubricated bullets were larger than the paper patched variety. When a rifle of
this kind is encountered, one should use grooved lubricated bullets; otherwise,
he will have to neck the cases down to properly hold the paper patch bullet, or
use a thicker grade of hard bond paper for the patches."
"I consider the
old Model 74 Sharps side hammer set trigger rifle the longest ranged and most
accurate of all our early long range rifles. It is still the best killer, within
its effective range, of any American-made rifle and load, and it is a lot of fun
to play with, even today."
__________________
Double Barreled
Rifles.
In England and on
much of the continent of Europe, double barreled rifles are considered as all
around rifles by a great many sportsmen. To my notion, they are primarily brush
and timber rifles, although when chambered for a suitable long range cartridge
they may be used for about all hunting. It is in the brush and timber, under the
stress of quick snap shooting at running big game, that
they really come into
their own. For such use, I prefer them to any other type of rifle. They are
short for the length of the barrels, balance perfectly, and for those two shots
are just as fast as the automatic. I prefer the two quick shots from the double
rifle, to a whole magazine full from the repeater for such hunting. Such double
rifles have the fastest of all safeties, just like a fine double shotgun, and
placed exactly where it is the handiest--on the top of the grip. Such rifles
should always be ejectors, to facilitate reloading as quickly as possible. When
suitable calibers are used, those two quick shots are enough for most all
American game. double barreled rifles seem to me to come up to the shoulder and
swing onto moving game faster and smoother than any other type of arm, probably
because I have also used double shotguns for all my shooting with the scatter
gun since a small boy and am accustomed to such hammers double barreled guns. I
do not consider a hammer double rifle as good as almost any single shot or
repeater, be-cause it takes too long to cock two separate hammers, and in the
following pages I am going to deal with only hammers, double barreled
rifles.
Many British and
Continental makers of double barrel rifles, build them for rim-less as well as
rimmed cartridges. I consider
this a mistake as several of my friends have written me that they have
occasionally had misfires from such rifles due to headspace variation from
different makes of cartridge cases. The ejectors have to be regulated exactly
right for the rimless case also, and I, for one, consider the double rifle
chambered for a rimless case as impractical.
When
chambered for any of the good rimmed cases, it is about the most reliable of
all rifles. Several times in my life, I have seen something or other go wrong
with the main spring, or lock, of single shot and repeating rifles; and
sometimes a striker or ejector broke in bolt action rifles and often put them
completely out of business for the time being. many times, I have had misfires
and some of these were when shooting at game. With the single shot, or repeating
rifle, when one has a miss fire it is well to leave that rifle closed for some
seconds before ejecting the snapped cartridge, for safety's sake and I remember
the last year I shot on the Idaho National Guard Team at Camp Perry, we had
orders to leave the bolt closed, keep the rifle pointed to-ward the targets and
wait for five seconds before opening the bolt. This for the sake of safety and a
s a precaution against hang fires, which are liable to ignite after being
ejected from the rifle chamber.
One
time, when shooting at a running coyote in Montana, with a service Spring-field
using some of the first, tinned primer, Remington, umbrella point 150 grain
spitzers, i had a snap and worked the bolt quickly and just as I was letting off
the next shot, that darned snapped cartridge exploded in the snow behind me.
Another time, with the same ammunition, i was shooting at a coyote running in
the hay meadow and had a snap; as I was shooting
off hand, I lowered the butt of the rifle slightly and grasped the bolt to
reload, when the rifle went off, shooting through the roof of the porch. I was
standing on the porch of our house at the time and have killed several coyotes
from there on different occasions. Such experiences leave much food for thought
and are very disconcerting to say the least.
With
a snapped dud cartridge, and automatic, single shot or repeating rifle, either
lever, trombone or bolt action must be reloaded before you can attempt to shoot
again after a miss or hang fire, and it is apt to be a long time; while with the
double rifle you can shift to the other trigger and go right on with the next
shot as thought nothing happened; and as your sights again find your game and
you shoot, what matter if both barrels, do go off then, the hang fire and the
second barrel, you will get results anyway. It is very seldom any such
occurrence hap-pens in hunting, but it has happened with me and with others, Any
automatic is to-tally dependent on perfect ammunition.
If
a main spring or striker breaks in the double rifle while on a long trip, you
still have the other barrel, with its separate action, and f this occurs while
shooting at game you can still get in the shot with the other barrel. All told,
I consider the double barreled the most reliable of all rifles. It is very, very
hard to put both of its barrels and their locks out of commission at the same
time.
Another
feature of the double rifle that most real hunters will appreciate, is the fact
that you have two shots without re-loading and those just as fast as you wish to
shoot. Many times, while hunting big game, I have seen the need of those two
shots without having to reload. Two years ago
Bud Leek and I were hunting elk on the Lochas. I had killed a fine elk and did
nto wish to shoot again unless absolutely necessary to fill our licenses. Bud
was in the lead and we were following an old elk trail along the top of a long
ridge, when a big seven point bull with a royal head jumped and ran quartering
across in front of us, not fifty yards away. Quite a few small fir trees and
plenty of Salalle or snow brush intervened. Bud waited wunil the bull was going
through a thick clump of small firs before shooting, and when he did shoot, his
225 grain Peters belted .30-06 load struck a glancing blow on a fir tree and
missed the bull. The old boy stopped dead still and stuck his big antlered head
and neck around the tree and looked at us, but bud had to work the bolt of his
rifle, of course the noise scared the old boy, and he whirled away from us and
soon got behind some heavy timber. I asked Bud if he had hit him and he said
yes. At the same time I had moved the safety off the old Howe .400 Whelen and
had a bead o his fast disappearing rump, but when Bud said he had hit him I of
course, refrained from shooting, though Bud was very disappointed that I did so.
He was uable to get in a second shot, owing to the timber from where he stood.
Bud and I both know, that had he been armed with a double rifle he would habe
killed that fine bull the instant he stopped, but as he was using a bolt action
he failed.
I
have many times missed running game with the fist shot in dense timber and then,
just as I threw another cartridge into the chamber, saw the game go through a
nice open space where it would have been ease. Maybe when I did get another
shell in the chamber, I took an-other shot in too dense a timber and struck
another tree, then saw the game again
in the open as I reloaded. This is a case that has happened to me many times and
I know if I had been using a double rifle I could have killed those animals
easily.
The
on a trip into Northern British Columbia in `27, I was hunting caribou in
partly open, partly timbered muskeg country. On coming through a thin strip of
small stunted firs, I came to a big log come four feet high. Placing my left
hand on the log, I started to vault over it when a flash of hair just where I
would have landed caught my eye. I do not know yet how I did it, but suspect the
subconscious part of my brain took care of my actions. Anyway, I landed back on
my side of the log, as a very startled cow caribou scrambled out from the other
side. I do not know which was the most startled, she or I, but I have often
wondered just what would have happened had it been a big and ornery tempered
grizzly, with my .300 Magnum Mauser, with its slow safety. I was in very good
grizzly country at the time and the party killed five in that
season.
Another
time when hunting elk in the Lochsa, two friends and I were spread out some
fifty yards apart and working around the side of a steep, very heavily timbered
mountain on the left side of Brushy Creek. I was the furthest up the mountain.
Elk tracks were crisscrossing everywhere in the damp earth. The logs were so
thick and so high it was very slow work still hunting in such country. I came to
a very large log some five feet from the ground and had managed to climb on top
of it for a general look around me, when a fine bull elk jumped out from his bed
against the other side of the log. I could not get the safety off my .400 Whelen
in time for a shot before he
whipped
around a big tree in full flight. Had I been using a double rifle I know I would
have gotten a bullet into him before he got out of sight. I killed him after he
again showed up further up the mountain with just his horns showing over the
tops of the alders, shooting through all that heavy brush. Which shows the value
of long heavy slugs at moderate velocity for such timber shooting. No very high
velocity bullet could ever have penetrated through so much alders as those 350
grain .400 Whelen slugs did on that occasion, as I had to guess where his body
was as I saw nothing but the tops of his horns.
While
hunting in that country, where it usually rains only 24 hours each day in the
late season, I have had the action of my .400 Whelen become so soaked with
water, that when I did shoot, I was nearly blinded from the water coming back in
my eye. this rifle has a Springfield action. Have also seen many different bolt
and lever actions get thoroughly soaked with rain, when freeze up when it
suddenly turned very cold. A double rifle has the tightest action of any type
and offers less chance of dirt, water or snow fouling that action than any I
know of.
I
firmly believe the double barrel rifle to be the most reliable of all types from
the standpoint of safety to the hunter, when facing dangerous or wounded game.
Its smooth breech offers nothing to catch on limbs or brush in timber hunting
and it carries in one hand at the balance perfectly. Almost any repeating rifle
is liable to jam, or fail to throw another cartridge in the chamber during
stress of excitement, through the hunter failing to bring the bolt back far
enough to the rear to catch the head of the next shell, wither bolt or lever
action; this, in the case of
wounded
or dangerous game might very easily prove fatal, as it has so many times in the
past. While our game is non-dangerous, do not forget that it will fight when
wounded or cornered, I have had three bull elk turn and come for me and they
each meant business, with their hair all standing up on end. Have also seen what
a mad grizzly looks like when wounded and it decides to square ac-counts. Have
seen wounded buck deer turn on the hunter and only last fall one turned on my
hunting partner. So the chance of a hunter getting hurt, with even our timid
American game, is not too re-mote, if he does not attend to business in a tight
place. For most circumstances such as these, a double rifle will be better
insurance than any repeater. Double rifles, like good single shots, can be
re-loaded with much less noise than most any lever of bolt action, and where
more than one specimen is wanted from a band of game the double will come nearer
getting it in many cases that a repeater. Game will often stop dead still at the
first shot, offering a fine chance for a second shot, but if a bolt has to be
rattled back and forth they will be gone be-fore the hunter gets that second
shot.
Double
rifles are not the best thing for extreme long range shooting, although some of
them are very accurate even at long range; especially with one barrel or the
other. I would much prefer one of our fine, modern bolt actions for any long
range work. The better quality double barreled rifles show better long range
ac-curacy than many of our repeating rifles, especially our lever action arms.
One of my doubles rifles, a .375 Nitro Express, a best quality, side lock
ejector by Lancaster has simply cut out clover leaves at fifty yards with a
reload of mine that exactly suited its oval bores. This beautiful
little
unless
the top lever be held over, they close like a rat trap.
Editor's
note: The chapters that follow, Keith writes of sights (ch.5), scopes (ch.6),
and stocks (ch.7) for double rifles.
Let
us first cover sights for timber hunting and snap shooting. Prior to my
experience in the last two years, with some fine English double rifles, I have
always preferred peep or aperture sights for all iron sight shooting, using them
even for funning shooting at close range and honestly believing them the best
and I have so written of them. However, on one occasion a mule deer ran
quartering toward
me, jumped by my hunting partner
in rather thick timber. the buck was less than fifty yards away and to save my
nick I could not catch him through that Lyman 48 on the Krag carbine I was
using. I doubt if I could have done any better with our American open sights, at
least not with the usual buckhorn, which is by all odds the poorest of all, for
my eyes at least.
Since
that experience, I began to experiment on different kinds of sights for fast
snap shooting at close range, particularly in the timber. I found that in the
open, at reasonable or long range, the aperture rear sight mounted as close to
the eye as the action of the rifle would permit, or the recoil allow, left
nothing to be desires. I also found it very fast for most timber shooting,
especially when the animal ran away from me. Remembering what old Charlie
Cottar had written about the vary wide shallow V rear sight for dangerous game,
or running shooting in the brush at close ranges, and knowing that this type was
the preference of al-most all British hunters for such fast snap shootng at
close range I decided to give it
a
try at least. The first two double rifles that fell into m hands had what I
sup-posed to be the best English V type back sights and I did not like them; the
V was rather deeply cut and sloped away from the eye at the top and one side or
the other always seemed to blur slightly and it was hard work centering the bead
front sight in that narrow deep V. I still sup-posed I was right and that the
aperture sight was the best of all, until my friend, Frantz Rosenberg, sent me
one of the finer quality, hand made, George Gibbs Express
rear sights. This sight was a third
wider
than those on my two double rifles.
The V was so shallow as to be almost no V
at all, merely a dip starting at each side
of the sight and extending deeper at the middle.
In the middle was a fine platinum
line, extending from the bottom of the sight up to the bottom of the very wide
shallow V. This sight was also fitted with four folding leaves, exactly like the
100 yard standard, each with its fine vertical platinum line and very wide
shallow V. I tried the sight under all manner of lights, in the open an din the
timber, practicing picking up small moving game as well as catching sight on
deer wintering near the hose. I tried it in connection with an against all other
types of rear sight and finally came to the conclusion that for my eyes at
least, it was the best rear sight I had ever seen, for really fast moving game
at close quarters in the timber. I also tried this sight for fairly long range
and found that I could see it clearer and plainer than any other type of rear
open sight I had ever used. The V notch was even wider and shallower than the
one in Mr. Ellingers' .600 bore Jeffery Double rifle
and I had found that that Jeffery rear
sight seemed superior to any other open rear sight I had then
seen.
This
sight suited my eyes so perfectly that I decided against mounting my Noske
hunting scope on my .375 lancaster double rifle and sent the rifle, together
with the Gibbs rear sight, to Paul Dodge of Yreka, California, to have him
properly fit this excellent sight on that double. I tried throwing rocks high in
the air and trying
to catch sight on them with both the
regular type open sights, the various peep sights, scuh as the Howe Whelen,
Lyman 48 and the various other receiver and tang peep sights and also with this
Gibbs rear sight attached to the top of my double rifle by some rubber bands.
Found that I could pick up the flying rocks easier with
the Gibbs sight and quicker than with
any of the other types. Owing to the extreme width of this sight, which
projects will out over each barrel of my double rifle, and its very shallow and
wide V cut, it did not seem to blur in the least and did not grow whiskers as
other open sights did. It seemed much easier to catch than any of the peep
sights, owing to the fact that
the field of view was unrestricted with
this Gibbs sight, while it was more or less blocked out with the aperture
wights, except when back almost against the eye, as on some 22 caliber rifles.
On big game rifles of heavy recoil it is impossible to have a peep sight too
close to the eye, without endangering the eyesight during recoil,
so I decided that for my own use at
least
this Gibbs rear sight, with its shallow
and wide V with the platinum lines was the very best bet for snap shooting at
moving objects at close range.
To
my notion, Chas. Cottar and the English are right, and I was all wet in
recommending the aperture or peep sight over any other sight for very close
snap shooting. We live and learn and what may seem the best to us today, may not
seem the best a couple or three years
hence.
All men make mistakes but darn few of them will admit it.
On
double barreled rifles,. the ideal combination would be a set of these Gibbs
Express sights, with all leaves folding down flat, and a folding peep sight back
on the rear of the rib, or on the tang with rifles of light recoil or long
stocks...
...The
English also so calibrate all their rifle sights, their express sight being
al-ways graduated in 100 yard steps. This is the proper thing on all hunting
rifles and very much more satisfactory than any minute of angle business, which
few sportsmen ever take the time to really learn.
...I
do not like ivory beads, having found that when it comes to shooting away from
the light, they are some of the worst offenders I have tried. Have tried about
everything and still prefer the dull gold bead. Ivory, or even silver, will not
always show up at all on snow in some lights...
...For
night shooting the English use a folding jack, or large sized bead front sight.
This folds down on the barrel, out of the way in ordinary
light...
...Scope
sights for double barreled rifles should, I honestly believe, be mounted with
the British and German type mounts and in the low position, as near the iron
sight line as possible. These British and German mounts permit of al-most
instantaneous removal, so that there is no need whatever for getting the high
type mount pierced for iron sights at the same time...
...For
an off-hand double barreled rifle,
the stock can be a well made straight
grip,
as this type of rifle usually has a long stock like one's shotgun and a
straight
grip furthers the change from one
trigger to the other...
...All
rifle sticks should be carefully oil finished, varnish having no place on any
rifle stock, although it is nice enough on furniture, on fly rods, or hunting
bows. The London oil finish is the very best stock finish that can be had, and
one should
always carry a little linseed oil with
him on long trips to occasionally rub into the stock, along with some common cup
grease or vaseline for a waterproof finish...
...Ornamentation
of fine rifle is not limited to the metal work alone, but can be carried
further by the use of finely grained
and beautiful dense woods...checkering design can be made with finely cut,
floral outlines and in fancy patterns, this to my notion is about all the
embellishment the stick should have. Let beautifully figured wood do the
rest...fancy wood carving, to my notion, is best placed on furniture or violins,
or anything else but a rifle.
I own two copies of sixguns, just about wore out the first one reading it over and over as a kid!
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