Your Best Wheelgun Story

S

Sharpsdressed Man

Moderator
We need some stories; fact or fiction, doesn't matter. Mine goes back to 1974. I was in the Army Reserve as an MP, and ended up at Tooele Depot, west of Salt Lake City, UT, for annual training/duty. Organized as the Army is, was, and apparently always will be, we were SUPPOSED to augment the DOD guards and guard the post, but few of our troops had the required security clearance (top secret?), and many of us ended up doing "white hat" ride along with the Salt Lake City PD as observers. Oddly, my own downstairs neighbor, not in the ready reserve, but recently discharged from active duty in Panama, was REACTIVATED and sent via commercial flight to join us. There were more like him, guys that were supposed to be out, but got jerked and sent to a two week gig. Those guys didn't even have proper uniforms issued, and ended up riding with the DOD guards because the DID have the required clearances, and the Army wanted to "hide" them on base since they DIDN'T have the right uniforms. Well, back to the gun story. We had some great "off duty" time, and were able to kick around the foothills, exploring, and several of us (also civilian cops, etc), had brought guns for the occasion. I had a nice S&W Model 67 .38 Special Combat Masterpiece, and another friend had a S&W Model 17 .22LR with 8 3/8" barrel. Another MP managed to talk a local dealer into selling him a brand new S&W Model 58 .41 mag. THAT was a sweet gun, but he could only manage two boxes of ammo, so held back shooting it too much. The trek morphed into a jackrabbit shoot, and we got a LOT of shooting in, and really made the jackrabbits run FAST, but never hit a one. The high plains were warm, but not hot, clear skies, and no humidity. We were only a mile or two from the depot, but we could shoot in any direction. There were five of us, and all had handguns, but for the life of me, I cannot remember what the other two guys had. I do remember it being one of the best times of the six years in the Reserves, and one of the few times that personal weapons were brought along for fun. PS: I really don't remember it, but one of the guys says that I shot a bird on the wing during that trek, but if I did, it was probably pure luck. I don't remember it at all! Bring on the stories!
 
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I tried multiple times to fight off a true Gem and failed.

First handgun I bought was money earned by a paper route. I was 16 an ordered a 686-3 from a family friend/kitchen table FFL. The "beefy" L-frame was to be S&W's answer to K-frame Magnums that "may or may not" stand up to fullbore .357 abuse. :rolleyes: Not knowing then what I know now, this is quite exaggerated, but the point is simply that 3 years ago, a Model 19/K-frame .357 held -zero- interest to me. I figured since I owned a 686, why would I ever need or want a Model 19?!
:o (I know... silly kids, right?!)

Had a Model 19-3 Texas Rangers Commemorative offered to me with presentation box & knife for $650. It was a decent price, but I had no idea how the price looked... I had -ZERO- interest in it. "No thanks," I told the gent. He worked with my wife.

He sent a note home with her a month or two down the road, with updated prices, and that 19-3 with a lower price. "Why would I want a K-frame Magnum when I have a 686?" Pfffft. No thanks.

Got another note from him some time later.
"The gun appears unfired, but has a cylinder drag line. $400 and it's yours... pretty box, knife, revolver."

Called my buddy. "Hey, you want a .357?"
"I have a GP-100."
"Meh, I don't want it either, but price is cheap, $400."
"Wow! Yeah, I'll take that!"

So I arranged for that to happen.
Gun was immaculate and it was probably mere moments later when I started kicking myself. This revolver chased me down and I blew it off casually, multiple times.

My buddy rarely shot it.
"Hey man, bring that Model 19 next time, I'd like to shoot it!"
"It's really pretty in the box. I like my GP-100. I'm probably not going to shoot it."
"Really? Hows about I buy it from you?"
"No, no way. It's really pretty in the box!"

Forced myself to turn the page on it. :mad: I missed out, and worse--now I was pining for a Model 19. :( Found one, drove like 75 miles to get it and though I didn't get hosed, I wasn't entirely happy with it. I put 425rds through it over a year's time and then sold it to a guy who was looking for exactly that model, barrel, sights, and dash-number. He wanted to replace a gun his Dad was forced to sell decades back. I was able to get my money out of it and make a local guy really happy. :)

Then my buddy contacted me.
He wanted to buy a house. He didn't want to sell the one he had, so he was stretching himself a bit thin to make it happen. It was time to move some guns he rarely used.

"You always wished you had gotten this one. You still want it for $400? You can have it."

Well, I didn't blow it off this time. I'd love to punctuate the story and tell you that it's my favorite gun or favorite revolver, but I have a couple from my teenage years that hold those roles firmly. But you can bet it's one of my most favorite guns from the last decade or more. :D It's pretty much exactly...everything I didn't know that I really wanted. I'm about a thousand times more attached to it than I could have -ever- possibly considered just three short years ago.

The box & silly, gaudy knife? Those are squirreled away. The revolver rides in the safe, and make regular range trips. It's gorgeous. It's perfect. And it's a tiny bit different than all the other Model 19's out there.
 
I had been deer hunting in northern Mississippi with my late sone-in-law, his dad, and a friend of my son-in-laws. I was carrying my 7 1/2 Ruger Super Blackhawk, loaded with Remington 240 gr. SJHP and a healthy dose of Winchester 296, for about 1400 fps. We had had no luck and coming out of the woods did a little plinking.

My son-in-law wanted me to demonstrate the .44 Magnum to his friend. He found an empty Seven Up coke can and filled it with water and set it up in a creek bed. He asked me to "bust it" and told his friend to "watch this."

I was on a little high bank, about twenty yards away from the can, so I fired off a round. There was an explosion of water and sand, very impressive.

"Wasn't that awesome?" my son-in-law exclaimed, and his friend nodded.

Something didn't look right to me, I hadn't seen the ruptured can fly up. Curious, I went down to investigate. There, at the bottom of the crater was the Seven Up can, sitting still water filled and intact. I had missed the whole can!

Never told them the difference, though.

Bob Wright
 
Back in 1987 I was stationed at Holloman AFB New Mexico and some friends and I were out bumming around in the desert outside Alamogordo.

I was carring my 6 inch S&W model 629-1 in a Safariland belt holster with 6 240 grain JHPs loaded with about as much H110 as you could fit in the case.

We hadn't done any shooting, just hiking around the desert when we topped a small hill and sat for a spell.

We talked guns, girls and booze for a while and when we got up to leave one of the guys pointed at the cannon on my hip and asked "Can you hit anything with that?"

Off in the distance (later stepped off at 180 long paces) sat a washing machine and I said "you see that?" and he said "Yeah" and I snatched that model 629 out of that holster with one hand, eared the hammer back with my shooting thumb and let fly (one handed) with one of those magnum rounds and at the sound of the shot a gallon jug full of motor oil (that I couldn't have seen with binoculars) jumped in the air about about 6 feet off the top of that washer.

The hootin', hollering and backslapping on the backside of that shot lasted 10 minutes.

They stepped the distance off three times just to get it right and I was the talk of the unit for a week to foillow.

To this day those guys believe I hit that jug on purpose and like I said before, I had no idea a jug was sitting on it and if I knew it was there I couldn't fave seen it with binoculars.
 
It was 1978 and I was going through the local police academy training. It was during these classes that I met a pretty blonde who was doing the same thing and would later become my wife. At this point however, we'd only been dating for about 3 months.

Range day saw us in the hills at the academy range. We had 10 lanes and 26 students so we were divided into groups. I found myself in a different group than my future wife. We drilled a little bit so the instructors could gauge who needed coaching and who didn't.

At this time about half the students had semi-autos and half had revolvers. There were 4 women in the class. Two Hispanics, two Caucasians and the other Caucasian woman was already married. So, that left my girlfriend a prime target for the over-active testosterone that floats around in a group like this.

During one of the PPC sessions the guy in the lane next to my girlfriend kept trying to flirt during the cease-fires and he wasn't getting the hint. My girlfriend and I chatted about it while the 3rd group was evaluated. At the time, I was using a 6½" S&W Model 25 45ACP and she was using a 4" Colt Python (sweet!). When I returned to the line and fired at 7 yards, four shots went off then *Click*. What-the? Turned out to be a broken hammer nose (firing pin). Crap! That's a loss of macho-points right there.

I went to the car to fetch a back-up gun & ammo, quite disappointed. Mr. Flirt, while I was gone, joked about my "premature ejection" to my girlfriend. "Just wait." She said. I came back after missing a stage and the Rangemaster ok'd the replacement gun, raising his eyebrow a bit. At the 25 yard line it was 12 rounds in 40 seconds. Not difficult. Unless you're using nearly full-power .41 Magnum loads in a 4-inch Model 58. The whistle blew and in the midst of the first shots a loud B*O*O*M rang out from the M58. So did a bright orange snot-ball from the unburned Blue-Dot powder. The range went quiet for a second or two. I kept going. After 12 shots my hand stung but I wasn't saying anything. At the end of that string the instructor saw 1 hole in the 8 ring and the rest inside, 9's or better. He just shook his head and went to the next target.

Back at the benches where everyone else waited, my girlfriend had turned to Mr. Flirt and said, "See? He has no problem shooting big loads or hanging on." *wink*wink*. When we talked, she brought me up to date on the guy's comments and asked for suggestions. I gave her one, but only if he still hadn't gotten the hint. Finally, it was her group's turn again, the last they'd shoot for the day.

Now picture a bunch of guys on the line and among them is this lithe 5'6", 116-lb blonde with hair down to her mid back, carrying a Python on her hip. Picture one of the guys leaning over to say something to her at the 7 yard line, seeing her reply and a hand motion that says "Just worry about your own shooting". Repeat this at the 12 yard line and imagine a woman's frustration. The whistle blows and she rattles off 12 fast shots with a reload. Now imagine Mr. Flirt's expression when he realizes she's fired 6 shots in a neat 2-inch circle right in the crotch area of his B-27 silhouette target! (the rest went into the 10 ring on her target.) Further, you have to imagine the laughter of all the other guys who just saw him (almost literally) "blown out of the saddle" by a petite blonde. :p

To add insult to injury, the following weekend the M-25 was still down so I returned with the M-58 .41 Mag. At the end of the day, they scored the class and I ended up in the #4 slot (using a 210gr bullet at 1175 fps). If you haven't guessed, the #1 slot went to another revolver shooter and she was shooting a Python. :cool:

And now you know just one of the reasons I married her! :D
 
I was in the NG with a guy who grew up on a ranch in No Where New Mexico. A long place from anywhere. Growing up with out any neighbor kids to play with he had to entertain him self. He took up rope and gun tricks, twirling ropes and guns, and was pretty darn good.

He got me to twirling a revolver. Most people use SA's for such foolishness but being on the Anchorage PD we carried Model 28s. But no matter I got to twirling my Smith, and got pretty fair with it.

To do anything good you need practice, so every time I had the gun out I was twirling it. It got to be an un-conscience at.

One evening at work I got a call of a burglary in warehouse. Another office was close buy so he came over to help me do the building search.

We went through the building, guns and flashlights in hand. Turns out the bandit was gone, but when we get back to the patrol cars the other office tells me: "If I ever do a building search with him again and I'm twirling my gun, he's going to take it away from me and beat me to death with it".

I had no idea I was twirling the gun, as I said it was an un-conscience act. But it was also the last time I ever twirled a revolver.
 
I don't have a best wheel gun story but I have had lots of good times and good shooting in the same areas around Tooele, UT. There is a lot of BLM land around there for impromptu shooting. I've caused my share of jack rabbits to run FAST too.
 
The first time I took Maurice the New Vaquero FrankenRuger to the range after an exhausting marathon session at a community machine shop/hackspace was just...awesome.

Dropping five rounds in the cylinder, plugging in a 9rd magazine, getting off 14 rounds continuous fire from a sixgun, gas-operated ejector bouncing shells off the hammer-mounted shell deflector, sending 'em right back past my head, the distinctive "klunk" as the first empty cylinder chamber passed in front of the magazine and it auto-switched from cylinder feeding to mag feed...unbelievable.

I had put in a single marathon session getting the magazine well drilled. That was a total pain in the rear. I had one one shot to drill right through the back of the frame just left of the hammer, perfectly in line with the top-left cylinder bore position. I had to take measurements with calipers from dead center of the firing pin plus center off a second point, drill right where two lines intersect. I had to bolt a normal bench vice into a bridgeport mill to get everything steady enough...it was insane. To start the hole I needed a rotary burr because it was at such a steep angle on the rear of the frame a twist drill would just deflect. And then once I had the hole I reinstalled all the action parts and yikes, the pawl was partially in the way of the bullet feed.

I was able to cock it and work the action, watching the pawl spin the cylinder ratchet teeth from the rear - I doubt even Elmer Keith ever had quite that view.

So next step was to gently shave the outside edge of the pawl, making it slightly thinner and rounded to allow those 9mmPara rounds to slip past and into the back of that Bowen cylinder from the rear.

And it worked. It - frackin' - worked. Same as the friggin' Nazis figured out on that prototype 20mm cannon way back when.

Before setting up the mag well, the hardest bit was to get the barrel assembly built. Central "core" threaded barrel, threads into the frame at one end, then the shroud drops over it and gets compressed back into the frame by a nut on the end of the barrel. Barrel gets "stretched and tensioned" that way. Had the hardest time finding a good shroud tube, until I remembered that I had swapped handlebars on my 1980 Honda 900 - and those 7/8ths "chrome" handlebars turned out to be solid seamless stainless steel, absolutely perfect. Cut a 3" section of that, turned the ends on that 1953 Logan lathe we had, awesome.

Then there was the cylinder chambering. Gawd what a mess. Turns out a standard $70 9mmPara chamber reamer is only for use on semi-autos...not revolvers. Spent $70 on that Dave Manson finish reamer, couldn't use it. Got desperate, Emailed Dave, he told me how to use it: drill and then chucking ream the bores to .325", that way the 9mm reamer will follow the .325" hole, then when the 9mm reamer is done do the "long throat" (damn near an inch!) in either a .355" or .356" chucking reamer as a final step. I was able to split the difference, ordering a chucking reamer at .3555" :). That was $25 for that one chucking reamer but better that than buy a 9mm custom piloted reamer for $150+. And it worked great - Dave saved my butt there.

Maurice lives :). Sickest, most twisted, most radically modified revolver in existence.
 
My Dad newly Married to my Mom had been transferred to the Air Force Bombing and Gunnery Range at Matagorda Island Texas. While down there he decided to take hr out to the beach and teach her to shoot his S&W M&P 38 S&W ctg he carried in WWII. This man shot expert with every small arm he was give while in the army. Get the gun out sets up some cans steps back using one hand shoots and misses the can about half inch over the top. Mom says," Let me try" She takes the gun and keeps the can rolling with 5 shoots.

Three years later Dad had to shoot a rattlesnake by the back door. Took him 4 shots to kill it. One week later my Mom called him over at the island and said took her one shot to kill another rattler and request a transfer back to Fort Worth. He did.
 
Caught with my pants down.... A Redhawk story.

Sitting on a hill in the woods attempting to rattle in some whitetail. I set my model 700 LH 30-06 up against a tree so I could relieve myself of the early morning coffee. Not wanting to desacrate the hallowed ground near my sitting stump I ventured off about 10 yards into a small cluster of new growth lodge-pole pines. With my pants down I heard a rustle from about 40 yards away at the bottom of the hill. She looked at me and I looked at her and I knew a quick decision had to be made. knowing any sudden movement would frighten her away I had no choice but my trusty Redhawk still attached to my belt. (((BOOM))) she went down like a sack of potatoes (with a little help from a 300 gr. Hornady XTP). With my pants still down and a dead whitetail doe at the bottom of the hill I looked up with a grin and thanked the Lord. Not the way I expected the morning hunt to unfold, but thankful just the same. :)
 
I had been wanting and searching for a Smith and Wesson model 657-4 41 mag Mountain Gun, which are not all that plentiful, a couple of years ago. I had been on the lookout for quite some time, but to no avail. I was telling one of my co-workers my woes, about how I really wanted one, but could not find one. I told him that if he ever came across one, to be sure to let me know so I could get it. He said he would, and started to leave. I happened to have the classified section open on an internet gun forum as I told him. As he left the room, the door had not even closed, and the next post to pop up in the "for sale" section was exactly that - a model 657-4, like new, for a VERY good price. It was posted for less than 60 seconds when I hit the "buy" button. I immediately called my friend to let him know of my good fortune. What a coincidence! I was, and still am, thrilled to have been able to get it. jben
 
I'll relate a story about the famous shooter Ed McGivern (1874-1957) that I read in a biography of the man.

For those not familiar with Ed McGivern, he was an amazing shooter with a revolver. He set world records that remained unbroken for over 50 years, some still standing. He's best known for firing a 5-shot group with a S&W .38 M&P revolver at 15 feet that could be covered with a silver dollar -- in the astonishing time of just 9/20ths of a second! That's five accurate shots in 0.45 seconds! He also holds the record for speed, which still stands -- 5 shots on target in 2/5ths of a second. He could also fire a Colt Single Action Army revolver faster than you can empty a 1911 pistol. :eek:

Mr. McGivern lived in Montana in the 1930's and was not physically impressive. He looked more like a school teacher or your friendly grocer. Yet this mild looking man was faster than Jerry Miculek and could shoot with the precision of a laser guided missile.

It was 1936 and Ed McGivern was in Chicago to give demonstrations to the Chicago police department of what a revolver could do. One evening a newspaper reporter asked him out to dinner (and a story). The two men had just finished their meal and were walking back to the newspaper offices around 8 pm when an armed young man appeared from the darkness of an alley.

The bandit flourished his revolver and demanded wallets from the two gentlemen. At the time, McGivern was carrying a single action Colt Army revolver on his left side in a holster canted for a right hand draw. The reporter began reaching for his wallet when, as he put it, McGivern pulled back his coat with his left hand, revealing his Colt revolver while his right hand hovered, like a cobra ready to strike.

McGivern looked the man squarely in the eye and, with a voice of absolute confidence said, "Partner, I can draw and shoot you between the eyes before you can pull that trigger. Your choice. Put the gun away and live or die right here."

The reporter looked at the bandit's face and "fear drained the color from the man's face like watching water drain from a sink." The man slowly lowered the gun, his eyes fixed on McGivern as he backed into the alley and ran.

The reporter said after he regained his breath, he asked McGivern if he could have really done what he said. "Well, I fibbed a bit." said McGivern. "I didn't think he'd believe me if I told him I could shoot him twice before he could pull the trigger."

Could he have done it? Consider, McGivern could fire a double action revolver at a cyclical rate of 750 rounds per minute! I have no doubt that he could have easily fired twice (if not three times) in under 1/2 second.
 
Hunting from a 4 post stand 20 feet off the ground.
Anyone that has hunted from one of these knows you have all 4 corners tied down with wire to “T” posts driven in the ground.
The sun was just breaking the horizon when I felt the stand wiggle a bit.
Then suddenly the stand shook pretty hard.
I could see the wind was not blowing or at least not that hard.
Again the stand shook and the sound of a deer in distress range out from right behind the stand.
Now the bleating deer was going nuts and the stand is shaking like in a tornado.
This stand has a trap door in the bottom to gain access to the stand.
My rifle is already been knocked to the floor and I knew that what ever was going on was not good.
I open the trap door and there is a big 8 point buck I had never seen before with his antlers tangled in the left over wire that I had looped over the “T” post on the back corner of the stand.
He had managed to get his head intangible as well by then.
He is yanking pretty hard and the stand is swaying back and forth and I am just on the verge of panic because I sure don’t want to ride this stand to the ground.
I always carried my Ruger SBH 44 mag with me.
The only shot I had was a front chest shot
I leaned out the trap door and missed the 1st shot between the stand swaying and the deer moving.
So I took aim again and this time hit him.
Sadly I hit him in the top of the head.
Well you can imagine the mess that made and destroyed a beautiful mount.
When I got back to deer camp my hunting buddies didn’t believe my story till they went out to my stand and saw the earth all churned up from where the deer was standing.
Lesson learned – never, ever leave your left over staking wire looped over a “T” post.
 
Here is my wheelgun story:

I taught my wife to shoot my Ruger GP100 .357 Magnum. It is now her favorite weapon at the range.
 
Not my story, but one I read years ago.

Our hero was a Border Patrol officer years ago, he had been assigned a very remote, lonely stretch of border with miles of dirt roads to patrol. To entertain himself, he'd shoot jack rabbits with his Smith 357 revolver. One time he had just pulled the trigger on a jack when his radio came to life, informing him a couple guys had been spotted a couple miles from his current location. He took off, leaving the jack and rounded up the two guys without issue. As he was driving back, he pulled up on a hill, got out, looked very intently off into the distance, pulled his pistol and very carefully fired one shot, then got back in the car. The guys in the back had no idea what he was shooting at, they couldn't see anything. He drove down the road a half mile or so, got out and picked up the jack he'd shot earlier. The guys in the back of the car began talking very quickly and excitedly, they had never heard of a Border Patrolman that was such a miraculous shot with a pistol!
 
Malamute, I do like that story!

Sounds like something LawDog would right about. I go to his blog often. Still not sure if the Africa childhood stories or the Sheriff's Deputy stories are the best.

Bart Noir
 
I took my full lug GP-100 to the indoor range with a couple boxes of my favorite 158 grain max loads:D

I put a silhouette target at 10 yards, loaded up and rapidly put all 6 rounds at center mass in the target, the range went silent for several seconds and I heard "what the heck was that?" come from the next lane.

That particular load puts the "magnum" in .357 magnum.
 
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