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

Correcting Past Mistakes

The 50-year old Great Westerns were not as bad as the one described by Keith, but close! It was time to correct this situation and I received permission from GUNS to have these sixguns brought to perfection by long-time single action gunsmith, fastdraw expert, trick shooter, and instructor to movie cowboys, Jim Martin. Great Western not only offered completed sixguns, but kits as well. As a young man, Martin purchased kits, assembled them and sold them, using the money to buy more kits. You can bet his guns had much better actions than the originals.

Sixgun No. 184 was as it left the factory except nearly all the screw heads were buggered (as were those on the No. 183) and it simply needed the screws replaced and the touch of a master tune-smith. Companion No. 183 was an entirely different matter. Who knows how many people had handled this sixgun over the past half century? Those that did apparently knew nothing about how a single action works and No. 183 had paid the price. It would not cock. I dismantled it and to see what the problem was and found someone had filed through the full cock notch on the hammer resulting in the hole for the stud on the hand being filed through also. No wonder it wouldn't cock! Both Great Westerns were shipped off to Martin.

I quote from Martin: "Serial No. 183 is the one I had all the problems with. Most of the parts that were in it were wrong, and the top radius of the bolt was out of line with the approaches and the locking slot on both guns. That's why the scratches are where they are. The parts I used in No. 183 range from an AWA hand, Colt bolt and sear and bolt spring, the trigger is a Colt but had to be extended and a half cock notch was moved down to allow the bolt to clear the cylinder in the half cock position. The full cock notch was repaired, the hammer can was repaired so that the bolt would fall at the start of the approach instead of where it was falling before. Trying to get "all these modified parts to time together is where I ran into all the problems. The area in the front of frame under where the sear and bolt spring is screwed in had to be reduced so that the bolt side of the spring would have enough pressure to make the bolt fall. I tried every make of spring I had here and none of them would work without modification. Evidently it wasn't right from the beginning, which would explain some of the damage that was done to the gun. I used an AWA pre-lightened mainspring in No. 184 and a Wolff spring in No. 183. This was easier and less expensive than using two Colt springs plus the grinding and polishing on them to make them lighter. Anyway, they are a whole lot better than they were."

That was an understatement if there ever was one! Had Jim Martin been head gunsmith for Great Western back when perhaps they would still be in business. These two early sixguns are now tuned and slicked the way a single action should be. As the hammer is cocked the parts all work together instead of fighting one another. Jim went several extra miles to get these guns finished and back to me in time to meet my deadline. Thanks also go to Jim Cornwall of Kingman Arizona for turning the welded hammer around so quickly. If you are looking for someone to tune-up any Colt or Colt-style single action give Jim a call at (623) 581-2366. He is not only a master 'smith, he is also a walking reference book of great information.