Reeder's 'Trail Gun'
A Perfect Packin' Pistol — Personified!
Our own John Taffin invented the “Perfect Packin’ Pistol” concept and it got legs almost instantly. People loved the idea and, I think, had been looking for a way to describe what they already knew in their hearts. “I know it when I see it, but I can’t describe it …” may best explain things. If you carry a gun on a daily basis, I’ve no doubt you’ve put a good deal of thought into this very thing, too.
I’ve spent plenty of time in the field and over the decades have hung everything from a 6.5″ Model 29 to an NAA Pug on my belt trying to find that blend of “handy but comfy.” The vast majority of times, things were one or the other but rarely both. The Model 29 .44 Magnum was certainly handy in a few cases when I was toe-to-toe with pigs, but comfy is the wrong word to describe living with one all day.
The NAA PUG (a tiny .22 Magnum revolver you likely know about) was comfy in the extreme, but not always quite so handy. I love them dearly, but hitting something with one beyond about 10 feet can be, um … a challenge at times.
Reeder Bearcat Gear List
Ammo: Winchester .22 Mag JHP
Knife: Böker Solingen
Belt: Galco Casual
Holster: Gary Reeder Bearcat3
So Where’s The Balance?
I think the balance is achieved by looking at your particular situation. I don’t think John ever thought a single gun would meet all the demands and be “the” Perfect Packin’ Pistol. I think it’s situationally dependent. So while one pistol would be perfect for one job, another might be needed for a different challenge. So, it seems John, in his infinite wisdom, gave us a perfect reason to need a half-dozen or more “Perfect Packin’ Pistols.” Thanks, John!
The Reeder custom serrated front sight is installed on our test gun,
but being a full custom, there are other sight options available.
The Trail Gun has fixed sights, perhaps best for a trail gun
likely to be subjected to some abuse in the field. The hammer,
screws and other bits are highly polished.
One Idea
While all of this is great fun to ponder, the reality is most of us will do just fine with a small-bore revolver of one sort or another as a trail gun, work gun around the farm, hiking gun, trapping gun, fishing gun and all the other scenarios you can think of. Unless there is some chance of the need to really defend yourself from biggish critters or ne’re-do-well thugs, then a .22 or .22 Magnum is likely enough. Actually, even those thugs in question would learn they need to duck in those situations.
Gary Reeder, a longtime leader in the custom gun business, has not only developed a gaggle of custom cartridges, but his bench-made custom revolvers and long guns have also raised the bar and have traveled the world over on hunts. Gary and his team seem to have an unfailing eye for spotting what’s not just unusual, eye-catching and satisfying to the eye, but also useful in the extreme. This “Trail Gun” as he calls it, falls neatly, exactly into that “Perfect Packin’ Pistol” category and ramps up the game in several important areas at the same time.
Reeder supplied the unfluted .22 Magnum cylinder, fitting it to
the Ruger Bearcat by opening up the cylinder window and
assuring it all worked well with the existing action
John Taffin’s famous “Perfect Packin’ Pistol” is engraved on
he barrel of the Reeder Trail Gun. It’s certainly a good
candidate for the title!
The Trail Gun
Based on a Ruger Bearcat, Gary then pretty much re-invents most of it. The platform is already rightly famous for being a nearly perfect lightweight trail gun, but the Reeder team adds touches enhancing performance and general eye-appeal.
The basic Bearcat gets what Gary calls, “The full make-over.” Right off the bat, the Reeder Unfluted .22 Magnum cylinder is fitted. According to Gary, it takes a good deal of hand work to open the window, enlarging it to handle the magnum cylinder. “We can also chamber it in 9mm, .32 H&R Magnum and .38 Super,” explained Gary. The .38 Super really got me thinking, so we may need to visit it in the future. Even the 9mm is an excellent idea, if you ask me. Think about a hard cast full wadcutter as a field load!
Gary fits a slightly heavier barrel, replacing the lightweight stock barrel, and blends their serrated front sight into the picture too. The barrel gets their Deep Dish Crown and what they call a “Maxi Throat” is done to the forcing cone. The Bearcat is then graced with a complete action job. Between the better trigger pull, upgraded muzzle crown and re-cut forcing cone, Gary says, “We guarantee it will cut a customer’s groups in half.” Based on my own shooting, he’s right.
The stock Bearcat grip is rounded and stocked with Reeder’s Gunfighter Grip set-up. It’s much more comfortable than the already comfy stock Bearcat grip and really changes the feel of the little gun in your hand. This gun began life as a stainless steel model and the soft bead blast finish (Gary calls it “Vapor Hone”) is elegant and shows off the engraving. The Vapor Hone process is interesting in that it uses worn-out glass beads blasted at the surface at 90 PSI. According to Gary: “The finish is essentially just blasting the surface with vapor, hence the soft look. It’s available on blued or stainless guns, and we normally do the hammer and trigger and most small parts in a high polish for the stainless or fire blue on blued guns.” The gun is available in stainless or Reeder’s deluxe “Black Chromex” finish with a color cased frame.
An interesting side note is the fact Reeder’s shop can drum-up what he calls a “Miniature No. 5” looking a bit like the famous Keith No. 5 single action. It’s like a “Mini-Me” to the bigger gun and is simply marvelous! Keep it in mind if you’re thinking about doing something like this.
The .22 Magnum cylinder is unfluted for strength and good looks.
The “engraving” is optional and a customer can pretty much have
what they want. The Trail Gun is built on a customer’s base gun.
Reeder’s Gunfighter Grip in a blue laminate adorns the sample
gun but other grip options are offered. Note the grip profile
is slightly rounded for comfort.
Shooting
Gary supplied our sample gun with one of his limited-edition field holsters and I found it to be well-made, lightweight and perfect for a trail gun. The barrel on this one is 5.5″ long, but keep in mind these are true custom guns so you can have any length barrel you like. Decisions, decisions, eh? The trigger was a crisp 3 lbs., which is light enough to help accuracy, but not scary-light as some custom single action triggers tend to be.
I shot it with six different .22 Magnum loads. Most of the loads had the rifle-length velocities on the boxes and they seemed to hover in the 1,885 fps range. From the 5.5″ barrel of the Trail Gun, I got 1,1196 fps from the Armscor 40-grain JHP, 1,046 from Federal’s 40 FMJ, 1,068 from Norma’s 40-grain JHP, 1,135 from CCI’s Maxi Mag 40-grain JHP and 1,401 fps from Federal’s 30-grain Sierra JHP (a vintage box I had). The moral is you take a good velocity loss from a pistol-length barrel with the .22 Magnum and indeed, some .22 LR loads can manage these velocities from a shorter barrel. But bullet weights are usually lighter in the faster .22 LR loads so, score one for the .22 Magnum.
An interesting side note was the Speer Gold Dot 40-grain GDHP SB (Short Barrel) load. It’s specifically designed for short defensive handguns. I shot it out of a .22 Magnum rifle and it delivered a surprising 2,065 fps. The same load out of the Trail Gun managed 1,163 fps. I think a bullet specifically designed for defensive use, delivering 1,160+ fps is significant. Indeed, any of the 40-grain bullets, especially the FMJ ones, would penetrate deeply and offer some level of protection against critters and miscreants intent on doing harm.
I targeted the Trail Gun at 25 yards assuming that’d be about the range a gun like this would be used. A sitting rabbit or squirrel? Go for it. Groups averaged in the 1.75″ range with some a bit smaller and some a bit larger. But any would get the job done. I think if you found the right load your particular gun enjoyed and wore your really good shooting glasses, you could chase 1.25″ to 1.5″ or so. Time to experiment!
According to Gary Reeder, “We build them on the customer’s base gun. A gun similar to one you have is right at $1,995 and are all pretty much full custom guns. The customer picks the caliber, barrel length, grips, finish and any engraving they might want. Delivery time is about six months right now.”
If you’ve never journeyed down the path toward a custom gun, when entrusted to the right hands, it can be an exciting, enjoyable and satisfying trip. Exchanging ideas with a fellow like Gary allows you to create something uniquely yours. In the case of the Reeder Trail Gun, you can bring your own ideas of what a “Perfect Packin’ Pistol” needs to be, then have Reeder create it just for you.
I promise, once you have a custom gun, you’ll enjoy it each time you handle it, share it and shoot it. It’s always been money well-spent for me and I suspect it’d be the same for you.
