Those original great Westerns! Who better to wring out the revolvers gracing the cover of issue no. 1 of guns magazine than one of our first readers?

Guns Magazine, Jan, 2005 by John Taffin

1955, that wonderful year! Ike was in the White House and it was a time of prosperity as the Greatest Generation was working at raising families. Sandwiched in between World War II/Korea and Vietnam, it was a time of peace and growth, and yes, it really was a kinder, gentler time. Little did we know of the upheaval, terrible turmoil and destruction of lives to soon arrive in the 1960s. The 1950s really were the happy days we have seen on television.

A Real Gun Magazine!

I was a junior in high school in 1954 and had gone to town to see a movie, Western of course. As was my custom, I always stopped at the downtown newsstand hoping to find something about guns. There were no gun magazines in those days, however every once in awhile a paperback gun book selling for 75 cents such as those produced by Fawcett would appear. I remember, mainly because I still have them, books by such writers of the time as Larry Koller, Lucian Cary, Ted Trueblood, and before the decade ended, a young Jeff Cooper with Fighting Handoguns in 1958. As I was looking for one of these I spotted it! There on the rack was a magazine entitled GUNS!! Was I dreaming? A real gun magazine?

The first issue of GUNS dated January 1955 had appeared that winter day and would be the forerunner of other gun magazines and, is now, with this issue celebrating a Golden Anniversary as we begin our second 50 years. Little did I know as I lovingly held that first issue someday I would be listed as one of the staff members and actually be writing for the premier gun magazine. As I looked at the cover featuring a cased set of a pair of Great Western six-guns, not even in my wildest imagination could I ever conjure up a vision of someday not only handling but actually shooting these very same sixguns. That premier issue featured the Great Westerns on the cover but a feature article on Great Western, "A Six-Shooter For TV Cowboys," would not appear until the May issue.

That first issue of GUNS featured such articles as "Shootin' Irons of the Old West," "Hickok--He's Own Marshall," "Guns For Hunting," "Fire On Full Automatic" and "Restoring An Old Muzzle Loader." Most of the author's names were unfamiliar to me then and still are, so I suspect they were pen names for the Technical Editor, William B. Edwards. Over the years the legends of shooting would appear in GUNS. Elmer Keith, Skeeter Skelton, Col. Charles Askins, George Nonte, Kent Bellah, Bill Jordan, all were featured in those early issues. Bellah taught me much about handloading, Skeeter's first article was for GUNS, and some of the best stuff Keith ever did, including his African hunts, were also within those pages.

Magazine covers were quite different in the early days also. How often do we see people or the Colt Single Action on magazine covers today? Early covers of GUNS featured Theodore Roosevelt, Elmer Keith, Chuck "The Rifleman" Connors, John Wayne and even Dirty Harry himself, Clint Eastwood. Beautiful custom Colts showed up on July 1960, April 1962, September 1965, June 1971, and July 1975. That last issue also introduced Bill Jordan as Shooting Editor.

It doesn't take much imagination to say 1955 could probably be hailed as the greatest year of the 20th century for six-gunners. From Colt came the .357 Python soon to be followed by the resurrection of the Single Action Army. Smith & Wesson introduced the Combat Magnum, the 1955 Target, and the .44 Magnum, while that relatively new company, Sturm, Ruger, brought forth the .357 Blackhawk

Not So Great Great Westerns

But what of those sixguns on our first cover? Great Western had just begun production in 1954 of the Frontier Six-Shooter in Los Angeles, California. Bill Wilson, president and one of three founders, had contacted Colt in 1953 and was assured they had no plans to resurrect the Colt Single Action Army.

Television, with re-runs of old "B" Western movies, had spawned a desire among shooters for real Colts and they couldn't get them, so Great Western stepped into the void. The Great Western looked so much like a Colt Single Action Army that they actually used real Colts in the early advertising. In fact, some of the Great Western parts came from Colt. The Great Westerns pictured on the first cover of GUNS were chambered in .45 Colt with [4.sup.3] [[??].sub.4]" barrels. Unlike most Great Westerns with frame-mounted firing pins and no caliber markings on the barrels, these have Colt-style hammers with the firing pin on the hammer. Since they are very early production sixguns, their serial numbers are GW183 and GW184. They are not case-colored and their frames and ejector rod housings have the same plum-purple color found on many early Ruger loading gates.

Elmer Keith in the first chapter of his book, Sixguns by Keith (1955), said the Great Western Single Action he had received was " ... very poorly timed, fitted, and showed a total lack of final inspection. The hand was a trifle short, the bolt spring did not have enough bend to lock the bolt with any certainty, the mainspring was twice as strong as necessary and the trigger pull about three times as heavy as needed." Later in his book Elmer was able to report: "We are happy to report that Great Western has really gotten on the ball and is now cooking on all four burners. They overhauled their design and inspection departments, put in some gunsmiths who knew the score and are now turning out first-class single action copies. We have one in [4.sup.3] [[??].sub.4]" .44 Special and it is a very fine single action in every way, perfectly timed, sighted, and very accurate. It has performed perfectly with factory loads and our heavy handloads and is very accurate at extreme ranges, the real test of any sixgun."