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

Fifty years after I first saw those Great Western cover sixguns, I actually got to shoot them and shoot they do! Using Black Hills .45 Colt 250-grain RNFP loads at 775 fps resulted in No. 183 placing six shots into [1.sup.1][??] at 50 feet and No. 184 going [1.sup.3][??] at the same distance. With short-barreled sixguns having tiny little sights, V-notch rear and very slim blade front, I would settle for that anytime.

Alas And Farewell

Great Western sixguns are not to be confused with the Hawes Single Actions, which came later. Hy Hunter was an early distributor of Great Westerns, in fact the backstrap of both these Great Westerns are inscribed "George von Rosen from Hy Hunter." Von Rosen was the founder and publisher of GUNS. Great Westerns, which were totally American made, lasted less than 10 years and Hunter would later import German-made J.P. Sauer & Sohn Hawes versions. Great Westerns were made in three standard barrel lengths of [4.sup.3][??], [5.sup.1][??], and [7.sup.1][??] plus a [12.sup.1][??] Buntline Special. The standard model was a [5.sup.1][??] .45 Colt that sold for $99.50 in 1960 at a time when the resurrected Colt Single Action Army .45 had a price tag of $125. There was a slight additional charge for other calibers and barrel lengths. In addition to .45 Colt and .22, the Great Western was offered in .38 Special, .44 Special, .357 Magnum, .357 Atomic, and .44 Magnum. The "Atomic" was simply a heavily loaded .357 Magnum, and believe it or not, the .44 Magnum was on the standard Colt-sized frame. I have heard rumors of a .44-40 being offered and I know they made some examples in .22 Hornet.

Great Western made several mistakes. First, they believed Colt would never again produce the Single Action Army. When Colt did come back with the 2nd Generation run of Single Actions in 1956, Great Western's days were numbered. Secondly, as too often happens, they did not have the best-qualified people producing the product. Those early sixguns should have had the touch of a master single-action sixgun 'smith before they ever left the factory. That all-important first impression is very effective. They did fix the problems, but then had to overcome a reputation for poor quality. Finally, Great Western had a chance to really improve the single action. They even had a model with Ruger's .22 Single-Six arriving in 1953, however instead of using a nearly indestructible coil spring operated action as did Ruger, Great Western chose to basically duplicate the old Colt Single Action. Ruger capitalized one year later by bringing out the .357 Blackhawk, which not only had the vastly improved coil spring action, but a flat-topped frame with an adjustable rear sight. While Ruger looked to the future, Great Western was stuck in the past.

Ruger Sixguns Dominate

Fifty years is a longtime in the evolution of firearms and much has happened with single actions. However, it has not been a straight path to the future but one of much doubling back on the path mainly due to the great popularity of cowboy action shooting, which emphasizes traditional single actions. Today Great Western would probably be highly successful while competing with replicas of the Single Action Army imported from Italy. One has to wonder what would have been if Great Western had modernized the single action in 1954. Would they be where Ruger and Freedom Arms are today?