What is the lure to YOU of the cowboy gun?

CraigC said:

Throw in Clint Walker as a brick wall in the paint.

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Clint, Robert Mitchum, Dan Blocker and George Kennedy

To bring us back on topic, I never felt the urge to collect every variation of automatic. I was initially not even attracted to the pre-1873 Colt single actions. Far as I can recall, that changed with Crossfire Trail and Tom Selleck's custom Open Top.

Seedy Character said:

Clint, Robert Mitchum, Dan Blocker and George Kennedy

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Back when actors were actually real men. Not pantywaists.

My dream has been to participate in cowboy action, but i live in newyork state and our pistol permitting is a mess .I was hopping things would have changed by now so i guess i will hire a lawyer to help me get my permit !

BobWright said:

Uh....."Flat Top Ruger Super Blackhawk?" I don't believe there ever was such a thing. It was the Super Blackhawk that introduced the rear sight ribs.

Bob Wright

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You may be correct, Mr. Wright. The receiver just says "Ruger Blackhawk (second line) .44 Magnum Cal". No 'super' mentioned.
But - and it is now on the desk top - it is a flat top, with adjustable sights and it's not so much fun to shoot these days. The lower (grip frame) has some serious wear, but it is most shootable and is a three screw (not updated) frame.

I was working from memory, haven't looked at it for a bit.

Archie said:

You may be correct, Mr. Wright. The receiver just says "Ruger Blackhawk (second line) .44 Magnum Cal". No 'super' mentioned.
But - and it is now on the desk top - it is a flat top, with adjustable sights and it's not so much fun to shoot these days. The lower (grip frame) has some serious wear, but it is most shootable and is a three screw (not updated) frame.

I was working from memory, haven't looked at it for a bit.

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Would that be the original .44 Blackhawk?

deadeye dick said:

I grew up with the likes of Tom Mix, Lash La Rue, Sunset Carson, Tex Ritter, Bob Steele, Johnny Mack Brown. Hoppy, Zorro, Cisco, Red Ryder, and the wannabes, Leonard Sly, Gene Autry. In those days the guns never needed reloading

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Guess you guys were to young to remember the above, sorry. Tom Mix ,when he was'nt making oaters, was out fighting wars and punching cows. Tex Ritter was John Ritters Dad. They may not have been tall in height but were so in the saddle.

deadeye dick said:

Guess you guys were to young to remember the above, sorry. Tom Mix ,when he was'nt making oaters, was out fighting wars and punching cows. Tex Ritter was John Ritters Dad. They may not have been tall in height but were so in the saddle.

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Young enough to know "Leonard Sly" was better known as Roy Rogers.

Lash la rue was the whip guy if I recall.

Pretty sure "Deadeye Dick" is a Red Skelton character LOL

He did a great skit with john Wayne as deadeye

TTv2 said:

What the definition of a "cowboy gun"? If it's a SAA, for me it's the low price of the .22's that Heritage and Ruger make, for the centerfires that Ruger makes it's the multiple cylinders for different chamberings.

Were it just straight up one cylinder and I had to choose a .45 Colt, no way would I get a SAA over a Uberti Schofield top break.

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There were a lot of Scofield's on the western frontier. Hollywood just never made them iconic. The truth is they were much more practical than a SAA in a tight spot.

The blued steel and hardwood remind me of when I was first shooting.
Particularly like .45 Colt, with Trailboss.
Moon

Kookla said:

Would that be the original .44 Blackhawk?

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Not being fully involved in Ruger history, I think so.
But it is a Ruger, having the name engraved on it and having the features. (I can pretty much spot a Ruger.) It is a flat top. It has been used well it it's time - probably prior to when it had collector value. Still works well as far as I know. Has what appears to be an 'unfiddled' barrel of seven and one-half inches from the front of the cylinder.

CoalTrain49 said:

There were a lot of Scofield's on the western frontier. Hollywood just never made them iconic. The truth is they were much more practical than a SAA in a tight spot.

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Not that many. Colt made way more single actions than S&W did. They quickly abandoned them in favor of double actions. I don't know how much more practical they were either. May be a little quicker to reload but the Colt SAA is the best fighting sixgun of the era.

Archie said:

Not being fully involved in Ruger history, I think so.
But it is a Ruger, having the name engraved on it and having the features. (I can pretty much spot a Ruger.) It is a flat top. It has been used well it it's time - probably prior to when it had collector value. Still works well as far as I know. Has what appears to be an 'unfiddled' barrel of seven and one-half inches from the front of the cylinder.

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Sounds like the original .44 Blackhawk. A 7.5" barrel would be a rare variation. Standard length was 6.5".

Corpral_Agarn said:

Young enough to know "Leonard Sly" was better known as Roy Rogers.

Lash la rue was the whip guy if I recall.

Pretty sure "Deadeye Dick" is a Red Skelton character LOL

He did a great skit with john Wayne as deadeye

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You got it Corpral

My first handgun was a single action, now, I do own a few...this one is the prettiest IMO and have even concealed carried it. Do I feel like Bat Masterson? no...but I look like him.

Bazoo said:

With as many people here love single actions, I wonder if any actual carry one? I carry one daily, my Blackhawk 44 special.

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I often carry one for backup when bowhunting, or just bumming around the woods. I've never done it for daily CCW, as I don't have one that's small enough for the task! I often have looked at the "birdshead" and "shopkeeper" models for the purpose, but it's hard to think of any way they would be as good as a DA gun - let alone a Glock - so I haven't (and probably won't) bother. For the man who prefers and is competent with them, of course, I have no argument.

I grew up admiring the 1911. The John Wayne movies I liked seeing, in the Sixties, on the old black-and-white TV, were WW2 movies. I was a WW2 history buff before I was a teen. The western TV series I liked as The Rifleman, and Lucas McCain did not use revolvers. So, I did not develop the fascination for “cowboy guns,” simply seeing them as the handguns of their time. There were no handguns in my parents’ house, and I saw no handguns in my grandparents’ households. When I reached age 21, I bought a 1911, in very late 1982, or very early 1983. I finally got around to admiring the superb case-hardened finish on a USFA Single Action, about 1997, and asked to handle it. It fit my hands, superbly. Then, something “clicked,” in my mind. So, the “cowboy” aspect has little or nothing to do with it.

I still liked the idea of launching large pieces of lead, downrange, but, had learned, the hard way, by about 1990, that shooting S&W N-Frame revolvers, in DA mode, was not a good idea, long-term, when one has K-/L-Frame-length fingers. The smaller SAA grip profile, with which I was completely unfamiliar until 1997, suited my hands better, and the recoil characteristics were much better for my hands. If I had to thumb-cock an N-Frame, to get the trigger within reach of my index finger, anyway, well, it seemed logical to simply use a single-action sixgun, which had the added benefit of looking so darned beautiful.

So, it is Single-Action Sixgun, not “cowboy” gun, in my case.

drk1 said:

If I was as tall as Matt Dillon, I wouldn't be overweight. A long barreled Colt SAA makes me look taller... I hope.

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James Arness also played a great big monster in the arctic thriller “The Thing” (1951), but his stature in the gun fight in the opening of “Gunsmoke” is iconic.

Tv westerns growing up, cowboy and old west stories, shooting wax bullets...

CraigC said:

Not that many. Colt made way more single actions than S&W did. They quickly abandoned them in favor of double actions. I don't know how much more practical they were either. May be a little quicker to reload but the Colt SAA is the best fighting sixgun of the era.

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About 4 times as many and about 5 seconds slower to reload. We all know about military contracts and how those affect what the general public buys. They knew about cost per unit even in 1870.

I would buy a SAA replica before buying a Schofield however because of the status of the SAA in todays market. I don't own either one so I'm not prejudice.

Not for me. I own multiples of both. The Colt is a better fighting sixgun and it has nothing to do with military contracts or popular perception.

Accurate and reliable is what does it for me. I have them in 38-40, 357, and 22; they all shoot well and have never jammed that I recall. What more could you want?

Mac

Watching Westerns on TV, like Maverick, Sugarfoot, Bronco Lane, Cheyenne, The Wild Wild West, and The Rifleman, along with quite a lot of John Wayne movies (The Angel and the Badman, Stagecoach, The Searchers, Red River, Rio Bravo, True Grit, and El Dorado to name a few), deeply instilled in me a great love for single action revolvers and lever action rifles, all from a bygone era out West. My first single action revolver was a Hawes Deputy Marshal, a full size .22LR/.22 Magnum made from Zamak with a steel sleeved barrel and cylinder. It had a black oxide like finish, white plastic grips, and a short 3" barrel like a Shopkeeper's Model.

And I was hooked!

Next I bought a Ruger Super Blackhawk and a Single Six. Later I would add several more Single Sixes, this time in .32 H&R Magnum and an EMF/ASM Hartford Model done to look like a U.S. Cavalry Colt SAA. Got an older Single Six from a friend of mine along with a Vaquero from another friend. Later I added an older Blackhawk in .357 and a Flattop Blackhawk .44 Special.

My last foray into the old West was picking up at the same gun show a Beretta Stampede and a Rossi Model 92, both in .45 Colt!

Hokkmike said:

Have a Taylor "Outlaw Legacy" 6 shooter in .45(LC). I don't use it much. Was going to do SASS but gave up on that idea. Still, I can't convince myself to get rid of this revolver. To me, it is classic Americana. Especially, in .45. Wife and I watch a lot of rerun cowboy shows. Our favorite is Gunsmoke. I also enjoy Wagon Train, Rawhide, and once in a while (it gets silly) Wild, Wild, West. Pure escapism and reversion to my younger days growing up with these shows.

I also have a Marlin JM .45(LC) Cowboy Ltd., which is part of the appeal to keep the pistol.

What id the attraction to these western style 6 shooters for you? Thanks for sharing...

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It's similar for me, only I didn't grow up watching cowboy TV shows. Now that you mention it, I should "catch up" on Rawhide and see young Clint Eastwood in action. I think he was allowed to smile occasionally in those days; I'd like to see that!

My only SA revolver is this "Man with No Name" version of the Cimarron P, which Eastwood's character carried in A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More:

↑ That gun got me hand-loading 45 Colt, which I've really come to love. It's the perfect middle ground between the somewhat-wimpy 44 Special and the overly-stout 44 Magnum. At least in factory loadings.

If I could do it again, I'd probably have bought my Redhawk and Marlin 1894 in 45 Colt instead of 44 Magnum.

I have an EMF 4 and 3/4-in single action army revolver in 45 Colt I also have a Rossi lever action rifle in 45 col and they make a terrific pair and then I added to it a 20 gauge ppl Coach gun, duble barrel shotgun that makes the whole thing complete. Now all I've got to do is go out and use it.

The SAA revolver is perfect in every way and it shoots exactly to the point of aim at 25 yards and it holds straight on at 50 yards. The only thing that's missing on it to identify it to a second generation Colt, is it's missing the rampant Colt stamp.