Ed McGivern's Book of Fast and Fancy Revolver Shooting

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Just wanted to let you know this is available now for $2.51 on amazon/kindle for download. (not selling anything, no connection)
It is one of the great classics on shooting revolvers, mainly oriented toward practical application of double action revolvers.

496 pages of very interesting reading, well written and amazing in many respects. It ranks up there with the Elmer Keith classics in my opinion.
It might just be the best $2.51 you will ever spend on learning how to shoot.
 
It's a great book and a must for any sixgun fancier. You can also get it in a wonderful leatherbound edition from Palladium Press for only $30.
 
Thanks for the info. Don't have a kindle. Like turning pages. Will put the Paladin copy on my "want for birthday" list.

Cheers,

ts
 
Thanks for the tip. My father saw Ed shoot the .38 paper centers out of tossed washers and my college roommate once went hunting with Ed . He told me that a mulie jumped up, he heard a shot, deer went down and he turned to Ed, whose revolver was back in its holster.

One of the hollywood gunslingers offered $5000 to anyone who could outdraw him. Ed said he'd do it provided they used live ammo.
Donald McCaig
 
One of my first, and favorite, books on handguns. Excellent price, if you have a Kindle.
 
Does the Kindle have the pictures? If it doesn't that is sad, as the pictures really make the book I think. Some of his shooting feats have to be seen to be believed.
 
I bought the print book maybe a year ago.

I absolutely could not get through it!!! I found the writing intolerable!

Somebody please beeyotch-slap me...Or, at least, point me to the pages to focus on so I can derive some value from the book!

(I did catch the part about just pulling the trigger repeatedly to get the feel of the handgun -- IIRC, McGivern noted that he never used a "tuned" revolver, and that he just got used to the trigger pull of whatever revolver he was using...).


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I absolutely could not get through it!!! I found the writing intolerable!
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McGivern was an exabition shooter and house painter by trade. He was not a polished writer, and the camera he used was an old Kodak box model with which he got many double-exposures. That said, if you pay attention you can still get a lot of valuable information, and the pictured targets tell they’re own story.

I have Col. Rex Applegate's personal copy in which he made voluminous notes in the margins. Clearly he had no trouble understanding Ed’s words, to which he added his own observations.
 
Regarding the revolvers used by McGivern. Not only untuned, but I believe many of them were the old "long" action type. I have a couple and the actions require quite a lenghty pull to cycle the hammer. For him, it boiled down to practice. Lots of it! Somewhere, I saw some film footage of him at a range. Simply incredible.
 
I absolutely could not get through it!!! I found the writing intolerable!
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Agreed. It's written in Victorian prose, so what's conveyed with a few sentences today took several pages then. T'was a different time (and why Hemmingway was so revolutionary). Still, it's an invaluable resource, and I've often thought a modern re-write would be a good companion to the original.
 
Regarding the revolvers used by McGivern. Not only untuned, but I believe many of them were the old "long" action type. I have a couple and the actions require quite a lenghty pull to cycle the hammer.
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All of the Smith & Wesson revolvers had "long actions," as the later (and current) "short action" design wasn't introduced until 1946, years after McGivern wrote his book.

The principal difference between the two actions is the location of the hammer stud on which that part rotates, and the hammer itself. However the trigger, and it location are the same. Consequently the trigger stroke or travel is the same, although in the earlier action the hammer is rotated through more degrees - hence the name "long action." They have a well-deserved reputation for offering an especially smooth double-action trigger pull.

While McGivern used out-of-the-box revolvers, they were hand fitted with the usual but extraordinary care given S&W products during the 1920's and 30's, and given the many thousands of rounds fired through them the parts became well burnished to the point where tuning or polishing would have added little or no improvement
 
Sorry Old Fuff, I could not recollect the timeframe between the book and the short action. An action job is merely judicious wear on the internal parts. But the old ones have a beauty all their own.
 
There is also a lot of good information hidden in the fine print of the photo captions. As you go along be sure to read it.
 
Old Fuff said:
There is also a lot of good information hidden in the fine print of the photo captions. As you go along be sure to read it.
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+1. Here's one of my favs. Who'da thunk there was a right & wrong way to hold targets in your hand when being shot? :confused: BTW, I'm changing my handle - what do you think of "Stumpy" or "Lefty"? ;)


McGivernDisc.jpg
 
Just another reminder that those were different times. It was common for exhibition shooters of the time to shoot various objects from the hands, mouth or even the heads of their "target holders".

There were many things done in those days that will never be done again.

Many of those shooters were pioneers in the true sense of the word.

At least the "target holders" were volunteers, which is more than I can say for the current situation.:D
 
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