Who are you saving them for? Have some fun already

Guns Magazine, August, 2008 by John Taffin

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Ever meet someone who saves money, anxiously looking forward to buying a gun, and then never quite consummates a deal for whatever reason? Several months ago I really got to thinking about this when my friend Steve Nielsen was telling me about his rather expensive shotgun. He said he never took it out when the weather was bad and I immediately asked him who in the world he was saving it for since no one else in his family was all that interested in guns anyhow.

He had to admit I was right. Now there are times when the weather is so bad I will not take my guns out, but I'm not concerned about the guns, I'm concerned about me. My days of enjoying bad weather, really bad weather, are long gone and I prefer the temperature to be somewhat close to my age. When we are young bad weather can be enjoyed as there are so many great times we can spend hunting when the wind is blowing, the snow or rain is coming down, and it is such a good feeling at the end of such a day to get into dry clothes, warm up, and drink something hot.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

I do not like to clean guns and do not do it unless it is absolutely necessary. I don't change the oil in my Chevy 4x4 every time I drive it and I see no reason to clean a gun every time I shoot it. There are exceptions. Wet weather is one and shooting black powder is another. Some guns have such close tolerances they must be cleaned much more regularly than others. I am blessed to live in a climate that is relatively dry which has a big bearing on how often firearms need to be cleaned.

So guns should be taken care of but should they be totally protected? Quite often on many of the websites someone will say I just bought such and such a gun, should I shoot it? (At one time a few years ago Colt even advertised their Single Actions were for collecting not shooting.) Of course you should shoot it! Why buy a gun, unless you are a collector simply looking for pristine examples of old classics, if you aren't going to shoot it?

Firearms are not harmed by shooting with proper ammunition. They can be worn out by shooting thousands upon thousands upon thousands of rounds, but even rare guns are not going to be hurt by shooting sensibly. A few years back, on one of the history programs, they actually brought several historical firearms out of the museum and shot them with proper black powder loads. I recall one of them had belonged to Jesse James.

Now if the noted collector Greg Martin could shoot Jesse James's revolver how many guns could we possibly have we should not shoot? I have been privileged to shoot a pair of Elmer Keith's .44 Specials--one of the four custom sixguns Harold Croft took when he visited Keith in the 1920s. I even shot even the pair of Great Westerns sixguns which graced the cover of the very first issue--January 1955--of this magazine. All valuable but certainly not too valuable to shoot nor were they harmed in any way. (Actually, the Great Westerns were fixed properly--and worked properly--for the first time in 50 years!)

If pressed to the wall I'd have to say my favorite firearms are those chambered in .44 Special. The greatest of all .44 cartridges has been around since 1907 and I got my first one 50 years ago. I've been collecting shooting specimens ever since. The oldest one I have is a first-year production Triple-Lock. It's probably worth three times what I paid for it 10 years ago. I shoot it, I use it, but I don't abuse it.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Know Your Gun

Triple-Locks were not heat-treated, so I rarely ever shoot anything in a Triple-Lock above standard .44 Specials. I'm not going to hurt it shooting it. I have other .44 Special Smith & Wessons, 2nd Model Hand Ejectors, 1926 Models, and both 1950 Target and Military Models. For all of these most of my loads are around 900 fps with a 260-grain bullet and this load isn't going to hurt any of them.

I also shoot .44 Special Keith loads, however, I am very selective about which .44 Specials I use these in. They are mostly relegated to the .44 Special Models 24 and 624 Smith & Wesson made in the 1980s, the Colt New Frontier, the USFA Single Action, and the Freedom Arms Model 97. I also shoot them in a pair of Texas Longhorn Arms, one a Number Five Improved and the other a West Texas Flattop Target. None of these relatively valuable sixguns are going to be hurt with any of these loads.

Sixguns from the 19th century, any Smith & Wesson or Colt made before 1900, are relegated to black powder loads only. My friend Tony Kojis and I both have rare and relatively expensive .44 Smith & Wesson Model No. 3 Americans from 1870. We have to buy or make our own brass by trimming .41 Magnum cases to the proper length, mold pure lead hollowbase heel-type bullets, and load the cases with black powder. But we shoot them and enjoy them. When they leave our hands they will be in the same condition in which received. There is absolutely no harm in shooting them.

There are, of course, exceptions to every rule and there are sixguns which should not be shot. One of America's top gun designers and a friend of mine called me several years ago to ask me if I could find some ammunition for him. He needed 12 rounds of .44 Russian, the reason being that he had just acquired a cased and unfired Smith & Wesson Model No. 3 Russian.