Crafting an old west gunfighter image is not so easy. It is more about figuring out who you really are than anything else.
I don’t know. Maybe you don’t envision yourself as an old west gunfighter. But if you are reading this, perhaps you do. I’ve always felt that there was a closet gunfighter in most gun loving red blooded Americans.
You don’t have to actually shoot at Cowboy Action Shooting matches to build yourself a gunfighter image. Before I had six kids I used to shoot SASS, and I was there pretty early (#19811), but even though I haven’t shot a match in over a decade, I still love, and buy, cowboy guns.
At my early matches I actually used to shoot a pair of engraved Pietta Colt Patersons, which are 5 shot, but the safety nannies eventually made me give them up and move to ’58 Remingtons, which were also Piettas. Both of those guns are cap ‘n ball.
These days, Pietta is still making all of the percussion guns, and they have grown into the most prolific builder of the cowboy cartridge guns, based mostly on the 1873 Colt pattern. Unlike the early Colt clones, the Pietta guns are much more true to the actual feel of first gen Colts, and even come with the 4 clicks when you cock them. They do retain reliability and safety features of modern revolvers though, as the firing pin is not mounted on the hammer.
Are you a western movie gunfighter, like Rooster Cogburn from True Grit? Are you more of a Clint Eastwood type, or are you a history buff, and just love the stories of specific gunfighters like Wyatt Earp or Billy the Kid? My approach was to invent a fictional character, and I used that as my SASS alias.
Whatever your gunfighter image, at the center of it will probably be your guns. EMF Company, and their extensive line of Piettas, will probably have something for you. This year they have a few new guns, ranging from an aged looking True Grit movie gun to a heavily engraved Gamblers Royale, all at very good prices.
Unless you live in the west, or your local dealer is a SASS shooter, most likely you’ll have to order these in for transfer. Remember that these are old designs, and each gun is hand tuned, so buying from EMF directly is going to to be a good idea, rather than to expect a great gun from a distributor feed from an online only retailer.
So who are you?
https://www.emf-company.com/Buy and Sell on GunsAmerica! All Local Sales are FREE!
Safety nanny? hummm I guess you have never seen someone try shooting “gunfighter” in SASS, (actually 2Patersons which have no trigger guard) with any move toward speed, and see what happens……..
I’ve got an older and discontinued one in 44 mag. While I don’t trust it to handle hotter loads like my LAR Grizzly eats up, I do really like the gun. I’ve fed it a small amount of factory Hornady hollowpoints and it was fine. It puts a beating on your hand though with that small, smooth grip. I generally handload with lite charge of H110 or Trailboss and then it’s very pleasant to shoot. I had to take a file to my front sight to adjust the POA. No biggee, better to tall than too short. Just reblue and be happy. All in all a nice gun.
Safety nannies? I’m glad you’re not shooting SASS with that attitude!
Yea it’s always safer to have ten range officers per every ten shooters. Makes for a fun and pleasant match. And there were just so many accidents before! It was a virtual bloodbath of people getting shot by silly and unsafe shooters.