Packin' Guns
by Jim Taylor
I heard the cows bawling from about a mile away. From the sounds they were making I could tell something was wrong. As the horse climbed the mountain I kept an eye on the ridge and in a while I could see the herd running - unusual for them - and I knew they were being chased. Working my way up over the ridge I rode down into a bunch of mesquite and got off, tying the mare to a tree. By the sounds the herd was coming right at me. Waiting in the edge of the trees I saw them coming, with a pack of dogs on their heels. I had the .45 ready and as the herd passed me I opened up on the dogs (wishing I had a shotgun with me) - and rolled the leader with the first shot. I hit several and missed at least 2. What was interesting to me was at the first shot the dogs instantly stopped chasing the cows and headed for cover, without looking around or making any noise. This pack had been shot at before.
The mountains in that part of Arizona have been home to dog packs for years. These are no house pets. Born and bred in the wild, these critters are hunting machines and will attack a cow or human. I have had them come for me while I was on horseback. At the first shot they usually turn and head for cover. My old hunting buddy Jim Mork had some of them jump him while he was on foot. He had his .270 in his hands and settled one dog. At the shot the others disappeared. It is country where you do not want to be without a firearm.
I grew up on a ranch and guns were a normal part of the tools around the place. They were used to dispatch furry raiders from the garden, fanged critters that preyed on the herd, winged thieves that came to steal the chickens, and for fun - shooting targets on a distant hillside or popping cans tossed up in the air. I have packed a gun most every day for more years than I can remember now. Often I have not needed it. I thank God that I had it when I did need it. In my experience I would much rather carry it and not need it, than not have it when I do need it.
In my youth I started with a .22 single-shot rifle. Dad gave me my own gun when I was 10 years old. By the time I was 11 I was hunting on my own. Rabbits were thick and we ate lots of them. From the single-shot I learned the value of making each shot count. I would have to go to Dad for my ammunition. Often he would give me only 3 shells. Within a few years I was regularly bringing 2 rabbits back from each outing. When I was a teenager I would often hunt with "city" friends who had semi-auto .22's, and while they could shoot mighty fast and make the dust fly, I usually collected more rabbits with my little single-shot.
At the age of 13 I received my first sixgun, a .22 H & R. Boy was I proud of that gun! By this time we had moved to Arizona and roamed the desert country far and wide packing that six-shooter. It helped me out of dangerous encounters with rattlers, ground squirrels and countless tin-cans. I carried it in a home-made holster most everyday and shot up a truckload of shells over a few years. My next sixgun came when I turned 15, a Ruger .357 Magnum. Boy was I excited! A real Magnum!! This was back in the days when Ruger made the small-frame .357, not the large thing they produce today. It was a real "packin' pistol" as Taffin calls them.
I carried that .357 for years. Over time it became more accurate. When I was 16 I found that the barrel was tight at the point where it screwed into the frame. I poured a lap and hand lapped the barrel until I had removed the tight spot. I worked on it several weeks in my spare time until the barrel was tighter at the muzzle than at the breech. And would it shoot? On the wall in my reloading room is a target I shot with it back around 1962. Five shots from a sitting position, resting the gun on my knees. Open sights. The load was the Keith 173 gr. semi-wadcutter cast of wheelweights over 13.5 gr. 2400. The group measures under 2 1/2" for the 5 shots, center to center at 50 yards. Ah....young eyes.....
My hunting and long-range load was the same bullets shoved by 14.5 gr. 2400 and fired by a Small Rifle Primer. This was back in the Dark Ages before personal computers and personal chronographs. I do not know how fast it was running, but it did OK. At 200 yards I could keep the shots on a car rim most of the time. And they hit hard enough to crack the rim, so I figured they were just fine for whatever I wanted. And they were! This was my deer, long-range target and general use loading. I don't think I loaded anything else in the Magnum cases.
I shot truckloads of .38 Specials in the gun. One summer Dad bought 400 pounds of lead. He and I cast it into bullets and shot most all of it up by Fall. Some days I fired 1000 rounds. I normally shot every day during that summer, sometimes for 4 or 5 hours a day. I did aerial shooting, quick-draw-and-shoot practice, running targets, running at or by the targets, shooting from a moving car both while driving and as a passenger. I tried everything I could think of. Man was it fun.
I also did lots of long-range shooting. We had a 400 yard range that Dad and I used to shoot on a lot. I grew up watching him plink targets with a 1917 S&W at 400 yards and thought it was normal. Later I found people started edging away from you when you spoke of it, looking at you kinda funny out of the corner of their eyes, and learned not talk about it unless in the right company.
In later years I graduated to the .45 Colt, first in a Colt SAA and then in Ruger Blackhawks. While I love the Colt, the Rugers were were (and are) much stronger and better built. With finer steel and more modern springs, the Ruger .45 Blackhawk soon became the gun I packed. Back in those days we were just beginning to experiment with bullets of 300 gr. or more and the Ruger was the gun to do it in.
I got started using the 300 gr. Lyman .45-90 rifle bullet.... Lyman #457191. I had been corresponding with Elmer Keith and he shared with me his experiments in the early days with this bullet in the Colt SAA. I took his top-end Colt loads and used that as a starting point for the Ruger. I tried hotter loads but settled on a standard charge. Most of the time I loaded it over 18.5 gr. 2400. I used this load to shoot long-range (up to a half mile) and to hunt big game. While the nose of the bullet is a bit small, and these days I prefer a larger nose flat, it worked OK if I put it in the right spot. I took deer, pigs, coyotes, foxes, rabbits, dogs, and cats with this load. It is still today one of the most accurate loads I have.
Some years back Taffin, Bob Baker, Paco and I along with a few others were doing some long-range shooting at an old cabin 600 yards or so away. When we went over to look at it we found those 300 gr. bullets... starting out around 1100- 1150 fps... were shooting in one side of the cabin and out the back! I found one of my bullets that had come in through the cabin wall, hit a steel angle iron on a bedframe, and then bounced back against the wall. It whacked the bedframe hard enough to deeply imprint the bullet shape. A little more and it would have gone through.
I usually carried the gun in a home-made belt holster. While it did not hang low, it was not quite up to waist level. One day as I was riding into the hills leading a pack burro I nearly had an accident that cured me of wearing the gun in a holster without a safety strap of some type. The old burro was cutting back and forth behind me and during one of the moves, the lead rope wiped the hammer of the .45 to full cock. I was not aware of it until I happened to look down and see the cocked pistol pointed directly at the calf of my leg! That old burro nearly shot me!
That incident cured me of carrying a sixgun in a holster that did not have a stampede strap of some kind. I have never lost a gun out of a holster while horseback, but the strap does more than hold the gun in the holster. I carried the 7 1/2" Blackhawk for years. If I was not riding hard I carried it in a Bianchi shoulder holster. This was especially useful during hunting season. If the weather was bad I was able to wear it under my coat and keep it out of the elements. If I had to lead the horse the shoulder holster kept the gun out of the brush. But on horseback it can sure beat your ribs sore if it does not fit tight.
When I wore my 4 3/4" SA Colt-clone I normally carried it in a home-made rig that used Captain A.H. Hardy's method of gun retention. This was designed for use with the Colt and Colt-type sixguns that have the firing pin in the hammer. There is a small flap of leather on the front of the holster which has a small hole in it. You let the hammer down on the leather flap. The firing pin goes through the hole and this holds the gun in the holster. It is very secure. And it is quick to draw from. You simply start to thumb the hammer as you pull the gun and it slips right out. I carried this rig for 5 or 6 years and it always worked quite well.
My normal carry load in the Colt SAA (and the copies) was the Keith #454424 cast hard and loaded over 18.5 gr. 2400. This load is useful in stopping everything from mice to moose. I shot several dogs with it over the years. I also shot deer, coyotes, foxes, Javelina, and burro with it.
One day I rode up over a small ridge and there stood a large jenny. I jerked the gun and fired (from the back of a moving horse at a moving burro) and hit her. Later I found it was through the jaw. She spun around and I shot again and this one missed. My horse was kind of agitated - not at me, at the burro. As my horse came around I shot again and put that one right in burro's forehead and dropped her. She was a good sized old girl. I cut the backstraps out, and the hindquarters, and packed them into the saddlebags and took it home.( I had to make 2 trips to get it all.) It made pretty good meat. We made steaks, roasts and later tamales with it.
I went back over several weeks and killed lots of coyotes off that carcass. All told the old jenny served more of a purpose in her death than she did fouling water holes and running cattle off.
I would guess that I have packed a gun more often than not. While on horseback I sometimes carried a rifle in the scabbard but I did not do it every day. It just was not needed and sometimes was more than I wanted tied on the nag. The sixgun hung on the belt however and was handy. It was always close at hand whether I was in the saddle or on the ground, fixing fence or talking to the neighbors. If the need for it arose it was there. And to me, that is what a handgun is about. Handy. Some handguns today are not handy but are specialized hunting or long-range target guns. I have no argument with them. It's just not what I want. The same goes for some of the mammoth-sized revolvers. They are fine. Just not for me.
I moved to Missouri in 1990 and have not been on a horse much since then. But I have cattle and still need to be out in the field a lot. And I still pack a sixgun. These days I am a bit more discreet about it and usually carry my little Ruger .357 Magnum. It sports a 4 1/2" barrel and will slip under my belt easily and can be tucked away out of sight so as not to offend the delicate eyes of some of the folk who live around here. My normal carry load is the Black Hills 125 gr. +P .357's and they work right well. This gun hits about 1" high at 25 yards with them and will put them all in the same hole if I do my part. So far I have taken a few dogs with it, though we do not have the dog problem here that we had in Arizona. I have also used it on coyotes and foxes. The other day I found a squirrel had eaten a hole in my house. As I walked out onto the porch the squirrel jumped up and ran past me. I jerked the .357 and hit him first shot. It impressed my 18 year-old daughter. "I didn't know you could get the gun out and shoot that fast Dad!" she said. I was just glad I hit it since she was watching.