DOWN ON THE BORDER Draw!
Though I didn't actually see it, I've heard some rather sketchy stories about a television set being center-punched with a .45 Colt slug in the living room of our house.
By Bart Skelton Posted: 01-06-09 Categories: Down on the Border
Remember the opening scene of "Gunsmoke"? When Marshall Dillon shoots the bad guy in the street? Dillon's opponent was, of course, the famous trick shooter Arvo Ojala. In real life Ojala was a fast-draw artist, able to draw and fire a sixgun in just over a half-second.
My dad watched me carefully, and as I got a little older, he began warning me of the evils of the fast-draw, advising me to never mess around with it.
But I do know that Dad did mess around with it some, though, back when he was a young man. Though I didn't actually see it, I've heard some rather sketchy stories about a television set being center-punched with a .45 Colt slug in the living room of our house. More than likely, that's the reason Dad lectured me against any fanciful ideas I might have secretly had about strapping on one of his Colts in front of the mirror and taking on an imaginary bad guy.
I was fortunate enough to have known one of the greatest fast-draw men to have lived, Bill Jordan. Bill and my dad were compadres, and I had the good fortune of tagging along during some of their escapades.
Bill was a fascinating man. His career with the U.S. Border Patrol is still talked about today, though he retired in the mid-1960s. He'd been a Marine during World War II in the South Pacific and a tough, old-school gentleman throughout his life.
Bill's skills with a Smith & Wesson double-action revolver were tremendous. He loved the Model 19, and back in the 1960s my dad had a great one built for his own use as a federal investigator on the Mexican border. Bill showed up for a visit and took a liking to Dad's Model 19, fingering it during his entire stay.
When he left, Bill left his own Model 19 on the kitchen table and stuck Dad's in his waistband."Skeet, you can have yours back when mine's just as slick," Bill said in his low southern drawl.
A short time later, Dad was down on the Rio Grande working a case on a bad bunch of marijuana smugglers. It was after dark, and the smugglers were starting to cross the river with their load of weed when things went bad. Gunfire erupted, and things got a little confusing.
One of the smugglers was wearing a straw cowboy hat that was almost white in color. Dad was carrying Jordan's Model 19 but forgot that it shot high for him and he hadn't adjusted the sights. Estimating the point directly between the smuggler's eyes, Dad squeezed off a shot. The smuggler ran safely back into Mexico unhurt but more than a little shaken. Dad and his partners managed to get the shipment of weed, but not the smugglers—just the white hat. It had a .357 hole dead center through the crown, a shot that likely took a few of the smuggler's topknot hairs off but inflicted no more damage than that. (No fast-draw was involved, by the way.)
When the old man arrived home early the next morning from the caper, I was just headed off to school. Dad handed me the white hat with the bullet hole in it, and I wore it around for a while. "I can thank that damned Jordan for that ol' boy gettin' away," I later heard him comment.
I saw Bill demonstrate his lightning-fast draw technique firsthand a few times. The records he set have since been beaten, but it sure wasn't an easy feat. Jerry Miculek is pretty much recognized as the top revolver man around. Over the years, Jerry has managed to surpass Bill's incredible speed, but it was accomplished only with great effort .
Bill's classic book, No Second Place Winner, remains a must-read defensive-shooting book. And while it does make reference to fast-shooting techniques, it's not just about fast-draw.
One thing I know for sure about Bill, safety was always first in his eyes. He experienced a tragic incident while practicing his fast-draw technique while a Border Patrol Agent, and he vowed to never have such an accident occur again.
Bill's words of advice to me were clear: When you're dry-firing for practice and reload your sidearm, strap it down and think about what you're doing every time you plan to draw it again.
That turned out to be pretty good advice. While I readily admit I've experienced an embarrassing pistol discharge, thankfully it wasn't in the direction of the television.
