Past Masters of the Double-Action Sixgun Part 5
Texas Ranger “Lone Wolf” Gonzaullas And Jim Harvey
Jim Harvey particularly liked the S&W .357 Magnum. Here he is pictured along
with his recommendations in this early Lyman Handbook of Cast Bullets.
There is no doubt we are living in the age of the semi-automatic pistol. However, this was not always the case and during the last century, especially from the 1920’s to the 1970’s, the double-action sixgun was definitely The King.
There were many men who raised the use of the double action to both a high art and science. These men need to be remembered for their contributions and with this in mind we go back in history when six shots were the norm and all that was needed. All of these men are now gone. As a kid never did I ever imagine I would actually know many of these sixgunners.
Lone Wolf Gonzaullas: Capt. M.T. “Lone Wolf” Gonzaullas served as a Texas Ranger from 1920 until his retirement in 1951. He was a firm believer in Fitz Specials in more ways than one as most of his guns were not only highly engraved and gold plated but also had cutaway triggerguards. There was his Colt New Service chambered in .45 ACP and a near dead-ringer for one of Fitz’s .45 Colts except the grip frame was even smaller and the entire gun was fully engraved. His .38 Colt Detective Special received the same treatment. An earlier .38 Colt New Service was stolen when Gonzaullas worked the oil fields in East Texas and was later recovered in the car of Bonnie and Clyde.
Lone Wolf did not stop with Colt double-action sixguns as he also had a pair of Smith & Wesson Model 1926 revolvers in .44 Special fully engraved with cutaway triggerguards and he even went so far as to have a pair of richly engraved Colt 1911’s altered with cutaway trigger guards. You might say Lone Wolf out-Fitzed Fitz when it came to speed guns.
Jerry Burke writing of Lone Wolf in the 1996 Gun Digest had this to say about a pair of his sixguns: “Two six-shooters favored by Capt. Gonzaullas during his lengthy career are a pair of Smith & Wesson double-action .44 Specials, also all but dripping with custom alterations. In addition to highly-tuned smooth-as-glass actions, the guns are almost fully engraved, with the Texas star appearing just below the cylinder latch of each gun. As has long been traditional, the letters T-E-X-A-S appear in the star’s spokes. The pair’s hammer spurs have also been offset, positioning them much closer to each shooting-hand’s thumb. The front of the trigger guards have been cutaway to expose the triggers for easy access under a variety of circumstances, but not so far as to submit them to damage or potential snagging on clothes or equipment. Sharply serrated trigger shoes have also been professionally installed.
“Red plastic beads have been installed at the back of the front sights. The rear sights, in the shape of the lower half of a circle, are bordered in white to highlight the front sights’ red inserts. Below the white border on the rear sights are additional half-circle rings of red, which provide incredibly good visibility even in reduced light and makes the sights appear much higher than they really are for easy target acquisition.
“Another unusual aspect of this beautifully matched pair of S&Ws is their finish. After being heavily engraved, the guns were bathed in dark bluing. As a follow-up, a gold wash was applied to the surface, but does not extend down into the engraving. The effect is most striking and highlights the delicate engraving very well. Grip panels are fashioned from sterling silver with a stippled surface for a sure grip. A heavy gold floral border is overlaid on the silver and the initials MTG appear on all four grip panels. The inside panels, those facing the wearer, also include the likeness of an Aztec warrior’s helmeted head; panels facing outward feature the Aztec calendar stone.”
The well-dressed and equipped Texas Ranger of the 1930’s was exemplified by Capt.
Lone Wolf Gonzaullas. He was a big fan of the S&W .44 Special, although his were
usually highly embellished.
The 1930’s were dangerous times with heavily armed criminals traveling around the country in fast-moving vehicles. Capt. Gonzaullas had a specially armored scout car. He followed the custom of what we normally expect of Rangers in his era. He carried two special sixguns in custom holsters made for a fast draw. Manuel Trazazas Gonzaullas was a Texas Ranger through and through.
Jim Harvey: In between the cast bullets used by Elmer Keith and other hard-core sixgunners and today’s high-quality jacketed bullets of every size and shape came the Jugular bullets of Jim Harvey. Harvey, of Lakeville Arms in Lakeville, Connecticut, was a sixgun lover and never satisfied with things as they were. One of his favorite sixguns (as so with many from his era) was the original Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum especially with the 3-1/2-inch barrel.
In 1951 Harvey introduced his Prot-X-Bore bullets. These were pure lead bullets with a zinc-base washer serving to keep the barrel lead free—specialty bullets to say the least—long before handloaders had a vast array of jacketed bullets to choose from. It was not just a matter of loading and shooting. Bullets had to be seated first and then crimped to prevent expanding the exposed shoulder of the bullet that would result in difficult chambering and lead deposits in the cylinder and barrel. The zinc washer on the base had to fit the brass case perfectly, or the expanding button had to be modified accordingly.
Cast bullets hard enough to not lead the barrel and soft enough to expand were attributes rarely achieved in the same bullet. Harvey’s better idea was bullets cast of pure lead with a zinc base. Pure lead would expand tremendously upon impact but would also result in disastrous leading of the barrel. This is where the zinc base comes in. It acts as both a buffer against the hot gases of the powder and also scrapes the bore clean with each shot. In the 1980’s I experimented with a version using lead slugs swaged to shape and with a zinc washer base. They worked as long as the zinc base fit the bore perfectly. Then the scraping was carried out quite efficiently.
Harvey’s Prot-X-Bore bullets were cast from Lyman molds and fitted with the zinc base in the mold. Bullets were loaded as cast with no sizing and no lube. They were seated first and then crimped to prevent any shaving of lead. The sizing die had to be the same size as the zinc base also. Using 2400 powder with his bullets, Harvey had some nearly unbelievable results. Using a 6-1/2-inch S&W .44 Magnum, he shot 158-grain bullets at 1,915 fps, 170’s at 1,855, and 220’s at 1,665 in .44 Magnum brass. His .38 bullets used in the .357 Magnum were lightweight at 106 and 125 grains and these hollowpoints reached speeds of 1,800 and 1,600 fps respectively in S&W sixguns.
Basically, Harvey’s Prot-X-Bore bullets died with him in the early 1960’s, however shooters soon had access to 1/2-jacketed and 3/4-jacketed swaged bullets. These did not totally protect the bore, however, Speer soon followed with their copper cupped bullets with lead cores that did not touch the bore and worked exceptionally well.
Harvey also experimented in the 1950’s with the Harvey Kay-Chuk, a cut down K-Hornet case chambered in the S&W K-22 converted to centerfire that gained popularity as a varmint pistol in the mid-20th Century. Harvey’s Kay-Chuk Smith & Wesson K-22 pre-dated the .22 Jet and .256 Winchester and his trimmed and fire-formed .22 Hornet cases resulted in the highest velocity possible in a revolver at the time. Had Smith & Wesson chambered their Model 53 .22 Jet sixguns for the K-Chuk instead of the ill-fated Jet, it might still be in production.
Harvey also worked with converting large-framed Smith & Wesson and Colt double-action sixguns to smoothbore shot revolvers for small-game hunting and they were quite popular until their production was ceased when the Treasury Department ruled them illegal sawed-off shotguns. (Never try to apply logic to anything the government does!) At the first Outstanding American Handgunner Awards Foundation Banquet in 1973, Jim Harvey was recognized posthumously for his outstanding contributions to handgunning.
