How I learned to
stop worrying and
love Semi-Autos

“The best laid plans of mice and men go oft awry,” said poet Bobby Burns. John Steinbeck took this as his theme for his novel Of Mice and Men. Unfortunately, it’s too often true.

I started my sixgunnin’ life with single-actions and expected to end it the same way. My very first handgun in 1956 was the Ruger .22 Single-Six. Just as so many other young fellows my age, I felt it was the best way to start. My second single-action, and first centerfire, was a circa-1900 Colt Single Action Army .38-40 with a 4¾” barrel. It was a typical example of “used but not abused” — the case hardening had faded on the frame and the checkering on the rubber grips was well-worn, however it was a beautiful example of a well-cared for Colt Single Action even though it was nearly 60 years old.

The collection starts

When the Colt “2nd Generation” Single Action Army sixguns arrived in my area in late 1956, I added a 7½” .45 Colt to my growing accumulation of single-actions. This was my first “concealed weapon.” It wasn’t chosen for such duty because it was the best choice but simply because it was the best choice of what I had. I had learned the old trick of placing it in the waist belt with the loading gate open to keep it from slipping down. Worked just fine!

I soon added two more Rugers as they became available, the .357 Magnum Blackhawk and the .44 Magnum Blackhawk. The latter was a real eye-opener! Earlier I had read reports of the new Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum by Elmer Keith and Maj. Hatcher. Keith said the recoil would not bother a “Seasoned Sixgun Man” and was not as bad as shooting a .38 Special Chiefs Special. Hatcher took the opposite extreme and said firing it was like getting hit in the palm of the hand with a baseball bat.

When I shot the .44 Magnum Smith & Wesson, in this case a 4″ version, I definitely swung more towards Hatcher’s assessment than Keith’s. Because of this when I purchased my first .44 Magnum; I went with the Ruger. If anything, it was worse than the 4″ S&W .44 Magnum. The Ruger Blackhawk went straight up under recoil moving backwards in my hand and the hammer dug a hole between the thumb and trigger finger. I hung the .44 Blackhawk on a peg in my bedroom and went back to happily shooting the Colt SAA and Ruger .357 Magnum Blackhawk.

Caught in the Act

When this law was passed no one really knew what the effect would be. It was much like the so-called Affordable Care Act in which it had to be “passed so we would know what’s in it.” Virtually every department store, grocery store and even drugstore had a gun department in those days. Since we had no idea what was really coming, I went to one of the local department stores to see what I should purchase before the law went into effect. The closest store had three Colt Commander semi-automatic pistols, one each in .45 ACP, 9 mm and .38 Super. I really couldn’t afford even one of them so, figuring three would not be any worse than one as far as my finances were concerned, I bought all three.

This was my first encounter with the .38 Super. However I had read Jeff Cooper who called it a perfect Trail Gun. The .38 Super first arrived around 1929/1930 and the early guns were described as flatter shooting and more accurate than the standard .45 ACP 1911. Something had obviously happened since then as this .38 Super would not stay on a piece of notebook paper at 25 yards.

The problem was the barrel. They had changed the barrel and for some reason Colt had gone from using the mouth of the case for headspacing to the very small rim at the back of the case. I sent it off to Bill Wilson and he installed a properly dimensioned barrel and groups shrunk immediately to 2″ or less. It began my love affair with the .38 Super which has yet to abate.

Today

I still shoot single-action and double action sixguns, however I am much more careful about the recoil level of my loads these days. In fact, for most uses I now load .45 Colt, .44 Magnum and .44 Special at the same level as .45 ACP Hard Ball, namely a 230-gr. bullet at about 800 fps. Heavy loads are shot very sparingly and in fact they are rarely ever needed.

Sixty-five years ago I recognized and acknowledged the semi-automatic pistol for what it was. Today I have a deep appreciation for semi-autos, and yes — if it is possible to love an inanimate object, semi-automatics have joined single- and double-action sixguns in my shooting love life.

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