Guns of the Old West Summer 2020

I’ve been beating the drum the last year or so about Colt 1851 Navy cartridge conversions, and I realized that I hadn’t shot a blackpowder cap-and-ball pistol in years! Collecting and shooting don’t always coincide. I had forgotten how much fun blackpowder pistols are to shoot, and how accurate they can be with a consistent load. So, it was with great interest that I went into testing the new EMF/ Pietta 1851 Navy London for this issue, and sure enough, the old loose-power, cap-and-ball pistol punched tight groups and ran flawlessly. I was reminded that, aside from some messy cleanup, blackpowder pistols are still superb firearms. with Buck Taylor joining the show in 1967. Taylor was left-handed, which made his gun rig, recreated here by Chisholm’s Trail, unique for the show. I…

It may not be a topic of general conversation outside of Texas, but the state’s legendary Rangers are the second-oldest state law enforcement agency in the nation, even though Texas was just a colony of settlers when Stephen Austin formed the Rangers in 1823. That means the Texas Rangers are just three years shy of their 200th anniversary! You can only imagine what kind of hand-engraved, special-edition Colt Model 1873 Single Action Army revolvers will be introduced for that celebration, not to mention older Colt models dating all the way back to the 1842 Texas Paterson, and those used in the early 20th century, such as the Models 1903, 1908 and 1911. However, according to Texas Rangers historian and author Robert D. Moser, “1935 was the official year that the interim…

If you’re an action pistol shooter, you should know of Ernie Hill. Ernie was a legend in the sport of Fast Draw some 20 years ago. He holds the record for the fastest single shot in standing reaction blanks (SRB) at 0.208 seconds using a digital timer. For SRBs, shooters hit balloons 8 feet away with .45 Colt blanks while standing still and only after a visual signal, so that reaction time is included. In this case, Ernie drew his custom Ruger and fired it faster than most people would even be able to react. Early in his Fast Draw career, Ernie wasn’t satisfied with commercially available holsters and belts and solved the problem by making his first rig, which placed his sixgun in the exact position he required. After winning…

Everyone has a Gunsmoke story. Almost every major actor today who started out playing small roles on TV from the 1950s to the 1970s has one. This includes doctors, lawyers, salespeople, business executives, writers, directors and the guy who owned the old corner grocery store or worked construction in the post-World-War-II housing boom. If you grew up or were an adult in the two decades when Gunsmoke was on the air, from 1955 to 1975, you had a Gunsmoke story. There were a lot of Westerns on TV in those days—some popular, and others fleeting but memorable. But none was as enduring as Gunsmoke and its stories of U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon and Dodge City, Kansas. The show first aired on September 10, 1955, and the 30-minute, black-and-white series was introduced…

While hardly anyone in a Western wore period-correct gun belts and holsters back in the 1950s, the look of Gunsmoke felt right, even though James Arness wore a fast-draw Buscadero rig designed and built by TV gun coach, holster-maker and sometimes-extra Arvo Ojala. Arness’ rig was for a 7½-inch-barreled Colt Peacemaker. The finish was dark brown with a half-inch buckle strap around the holster, and the belt used a 1½-inch nickel buckle. Arness also wore pants with belt loops, which didn’t exist back then, so he needed a waist belt. Ojala made a brown belt with an unusual heel-bar buckle. BIANCHI’S TAKE: Legendary holster-maker John Bianchi knew Ojala for most of his career, and said, “In the early 1950s, Arvo began working as a gun coach for TV actors. He could…

Last year, Alan Soellner set out to research and reproduce the Dillon, Festus and Newly rigs from the show, and he tracked down three different collectors who had acquired the original Gunsmoke guns and holsters (there was more than one of each) and was able to photograph and measure the originals. Mike Summers, a collector of Gunsmoke memorabilia with a direct tie to the show, owns one of the Dillon guns and holsters. When he was a teenager, he worked on the set as an assistant. He told Arness that if he ever got rid of the gun and holster, he’d like to have them. Arness never forgot this, and when the show ended in 1975, Summers got a call from the prop master, who said, “If you still want the…