New member saying "Howdy" with a bit of sixgun talk.

Thanks for posting. Welcome to the forum. We would really like to see this take off, but them dang computers...
I think we can all relate to that.
Ever need any help, let me know. Problems uploading photos? Email them to me and I'll be happy to insert them for you. We like photos. (I'm sure you have browsed the "Big Show") We have almost enough photos from users to add a 5th disk.
And if you are a good story teller, one or two might find their way to the "Branding Crew"
Enjoy--
Al

My first handgun, Colt Scout .22. My second, Colt Python. I have loved revolvers for a long, long time. Welcome. Chris

I see that several of your holsters look homegrown, I too, have made a few and altered a few along the way.


 The one in the middle of the first pic was larger and I cut it down but never finished trimming the edges or making it more astheticly pleasing, it serves it's purpose. Chris

Great to have you here. I am relatively new myself, but like you I am a wheel gunner from way back. Carried one for years on the Police Department. I certainly enjoyed all of your pictures of the various revolvers you have in your collection, I guess I suffer from wheel gun envy. Unfortunately through the years, I have had to let many of my guns go for finacial reasons, etc., but at this late stage in life, though money poor, am trying to start over again. I love to reload several calibers, and just recently started into .41 Mag. Seems to be a great caliber, and I am in the middle of creating my own .41 Special loads, having cut down cases to .44 special length..still in the beginning stages, but great fun for sure. Really glad to have you here and look forward to many more posts.

Thanks for the welcome.
I do make my own holsters many times to get "just what I want"
The one with the Beretta Stamped SA is a Ted Blocker Duke rig,  the next is a home made one for my S&W "N" frame 4 inchers(I got tired of holsters that twist and flop so I made that out of heavy saddle leather. It's a leathal weapon by itself ) The one with the Ruger .41 is an old George Lawrence carved that I bought when the company closed its doors years ago. Ted Blocker was a Lawrence employee and kept some of their designs and added a bunch of his own, The company is now run by his former apprentice. So it's kin of a third generation "Lawrence".
 
Watch out for the .41 mag, it's a "spooky" caliber to me. Weird things happen around it. I got into it (further than I expected) by a string of coincidences (I wanted a gun in  that caliber but what a tale ensued) I think it is, a great caliber for the handloader

countrygun: perhaps when you have time you could relate that tale about the 41 mag and you? We'd be interested in hearing it. Don't feel bad about sharing with us, we enjoy any and all comments and stories about guns. Chris

The urge for a .41 started in college. A very unusual pistol crossed my path three times in about a year. I saw it in the gunshop of a friend in the "big city" where I went to school. The gun had more "cool" than anything I'd ever seen. It was a S&W 58 that had been sent to Magna-Port for a full action job, hammer reshaped and bobbed a bit, round butted, barrel cut to 3" and of course ported. It had been given a deluxe blue and a beautiful set of rosewood grips. I wanted it and, while being a struggling student, I had stretched the budget before and survived. The thing that stopped me was the fact that I knew it was strictly a handloaders gun and that expense held me back. Apparently the last owner didn't know that because the dealer had a box of full throttle magnums, with 6 rounds fired, to throw in the deal.
 
A couple of months after it left that shop I spotted it in another shop. This time 18 rounds were gone from the box of ammo. Again I resisted. Months passed and I went to the "big" annual gun show. There was a rifle I was searching for and I found a fine example and bought it. (It is still in my rack today) on the way out my eyes flashed to a table of pistols. Yup, there "she" was again. Trying to be cool and not tip my hand I just noted the price on the tag. I was now sure seeing the gun for sale three times in a year was a sign. I tried to figure out how my budget could be stretched any thinner as I found the nearest branch of my bank. (That is why gunshows always opened on Fridays, and sometimes Thursdays, there were no cash machines back then). When I got back, the wonder gun was gone. I never saw her again. In a fit of jealous rage I purchased a refinished low-collector value, Colt 1917 .45 acp to use as a base for a "substitute" for the one that got away. That became it's own tale.
 
Fast forward to a couple of years ago. I am living in a location where the nearest "town" is about 12 miles away. There is a "Mom and Pop"  type Outdoor/sporting goods/fishing tackle shop, with a guncounter and a fe guns. The next "town" with a whole 2 shops is about 45 miles away. I found myself in the "other town" on business one day and, of course hit the shops. At the first one was a Marlin Lever gun in the .41 mag caliber. It brought back memories but I sighed as I put it back on the rack. It was an older ,"pre-lawyersafety" model. I told the dealer that if I ever found a model 58 I would buy a carbine, but lacking the pistol, it would have to wait.  I left,depressed.
 
I walked in to the next shop. I looked at the rifle rack, nothing to catch my fancy. Then I looked in the pistol case. It took me a few moments to realize what I saw. A small collection of S&W pistols had bee brought in. There lay a S&W 58. I had to see it. It bore the rather crude SAPD stamp on the left of the frame, a sign that it was one of the guns used by the San Antonio Police Department. The holster wear and over all condition matched the police guns in my collection. (I do not "collect" LE firearms, I just find deals on good guns that way) My wallet broke the sound barrier as I whipped out the cash to meet their more than reasonable price. Happy as could be I headed back to shop 1 to secure the carbine.  It was already gone. In a town that small what were the chances? I let a couple of bad word slip.
 
I bought all of the .41 magnum ammo in that town, yes I did, both boxes. On the way home I stopped at the shop in the town closer to home. The owner is also a neighbor and friend. I had the Smith with me and asked him it he had an ammo?  He looked at me and grinned, "Sure, one box, but I've got a bag of brass too. You know you really have to reload for that caliber?" I said I was aware of that. "Well good, because a set of dies just came in along with some bullets and stuff. I can make you a good deal on the package if you take what came with it,"  With that, he reached into the case on the small row of used Ruger single actions that had been there a while and pulled out a new member of the group that I hadn't noticed.  The upshot is that I came home that day with two unexpected .41s that day.( they are the ones in the photos) The good news was that my wife, who had endured me telling the story of the one that got away, had tried to find a model 58 for me the year before, for christmas, and about stroked out when she saw the prices, I paid well less for mine than the best "deal" she was able to find on the internet or  through the local dealer. Her only comment was "So you had to spend the money you saved on a second one?"
 
.41 magnums have an eerie mojo to them.

countrygun, that is a great story, thanks for sharing it. I would say that the quest for a 41 was worth it in the end. Chris

I wanted to say that there are some great pictures here, covering guns and leather that looks to my eye as having been employed as they should.
Also, I found myself nodding in recognition at the handgunner without wheelguns type of person. I know of at least three different people who fit into this category. One of them happens to own a wonderful S&W 25 in my favorite caliber-.45 Colt. It never leaves its box, he absolutely refuses to shoot it, and equally refuses to sell it. I guess I don't understand why a guy who only packs and shoots autos, and primarily expensive European autos at that, refuses to send that 25 along to someone who will use it at it was intended.
The second fella probably owns more guns than I can count, and while most of them are bolt action hunting rifles, the handguns are all pistols-auto loaders. Last time I talked to him, he was all fired up about the Springfield XD, and had 2 of them in his vest. He was nice enough to let me peruse them both, and I just couldn't get over how cheap they felt. I didn't tell him what I thought, mostly because I didn't want to burst his bubble, But I really was disappointed in their fit, finish, and quality. I could not understand why someone would gush all over about such pieces of crap.
Finally, the last guy has so many guns even he doesn't know how many he has. He owns a brace of Colt, S&W wheelguns-and wants to sell them all, for very big bucks. He is of a mind that in the realm of handguns, all he needs is a Glock of some type. He figures everything else is fluff. I don't think he knows how many Glocks he owns, but his favorite is the semi-compact 9mm. I tried to tell him why his Glock won't do much in our mountains, but he has already made up his mind. When he looks at a good revolver, he doesn't see the graceful lines, doesn't feel the natural balance, doesn't love that weight. Instead, he has spent years getting used to the  lousy grip design of the Glock.
So there you go, CG, three people who think I'm a fool for packin the Single Action! One thing is for sure, if you are a dinosaur, then I am even worse off!

Hey countrygun, I surely loved your story and search for that S&W model 58. I seem to have the same kind of luck. I find something I really want, but the funds will not allow the purchase. I work real hard to either sell a gun that I really do not want to part with, or ammo and parts in order to acquire funds, but by the time I get the money, the gun I wanted is gone. I guess we all go through this from time to time, but the great thing is, something else comes our way farther down the road. Great story and if you are still reloading for the .41 mag, maybe we can share some reloading data. And Mak, I agree with you totally..the revolver is the gun of choice for me for CCW and is what my wife chooses also. And thanks for your story too!!

On reloading for the .41 magnum, "I have a goal in mind that is pretty simple, like with most "+.40s" I want a bullet that is a bit heavier than the factory standard going aound 1050-1200 fps. Not full blown wristwrenching elephant rounds. It is pretty easy to build these kind of loads. I uses a 220 gn KSWC. and around 7 gns of Unique as a start.. I Dial the load for accuracy rather than to get more velocity once I have cracked the 1,000fps barier.
 
I  use the loads that Skeeter Skelton  wrote about as a start, and Brian Pearce's stuff in "Handloader" But I have to say, with all proper cautions in place, that there is little information on mid-range loads for the .41. However by doing a bit of juggling one can look at a loading manual and compare the loads for a .44 special and full .44 magnums and figure out what a "Mid level load" for that caliber would be. keeping to that midrange area only gives you a good place, with a dose of common sense, to begin searching for the "right' .41 load, using the same powder etc and similar bullet weights. The difference between the diameter of the .41 and .44 allows interchangability IN MID RANGE LOADS ONLY. Lower velocity "powder puff" loads make me nervous because of different levels fo friction between the two calibers and those loads aren't worth messing with anyway. The full house magnum data should be respected on general principles, but the mid range allows for a lot of flexibility safely. That is one of the big reasons I like big-bores, they don't require full throttle  loads to do what I want them to. I am never (With 99% of my loads) anywhere near a high,or low, danger line. I don't like running right up to withing a half grain of primers falling out, our worse, that just ain't my thing. 
I have a pic, that unfortunately got a little messsed up in editing, that shows what I got out of my second or third test load for my 58. It frankly shocked the heck out of me. by just changing 1/2 grain It went from an "I guess it will do" load to "WOW" I'm loading all my bullets and cases this afternoon with this load.

Going to try to post a photo form Photobucket using the "IMG" code.
The group was fired in double taps between wind gusts that were  shaking the target holder. I would fire a quick two and wait for the wind to subside for a moment then repeat.
 
http://i648.photobucket.com/albums/uu208/countrygun/IM002747.jpg

 

Close, but the easiest way is to paste the photobucket URL link like this, click the image button and paste it in the Image Address (URL) with out the image tags, position the cursor where you want it to show, and then "Insert image"

 

or any picture already on the web, even easier, right click on the picture, select "copy" then click in your post where you want the photo and right click, select "paste" (or shortcuts "Ctrl-C" for copy, "Ctrl-V" for paste)
Easy as pie
 

That story (Urge for a 41) would fit nicely in the "Branding Crew"  if you don't mind
Al

Sure thing. Put it in there if you like, just correct the, a least two spelling/typing errors (Dropped letters). If you toss in the pics. they are the Pachmeyer gripped with the homemade holster and the Ruger Blackhawk with the carved Lawrence holster.