GunFighter Gulch

Growing up when western movies and TV shows of the 60s were at the height of their popularity playing cowboy was a popular activity on my block. Capgun shoot outs in the streets of our neighborhood were a daily occurrence as soon as school was out and all day on the weekends.

The year was 1968.  I was 14 years old when I saw my first Fast Draw demonstration. The club was the Valley Gunhawks of San Jose, California. I was amazed to find that an adult shooting sport had developed inspired by those Hollywood gunfighters in the westerns my friends and I loved. At that time my parents thought I was too young to shoot Fast Draw but I never forgot it.

In 1997 I found myself gearing up for CAS but wondering if the sport of Fast Draw was still alive. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was though the western gunfighters numbered in the hundreds compared to the thousands of competitors during the heyday of Fast Draw. Equally surprising was the fact that many people participating in the sport did not know the history of it. At that point I knew that finding that story would be as interesting to me as the shooting so with the encouragement of my friend Edward “Bud” Young www.gunfightergulch.com was created.

Edward “Bud” Young published the Gunsmoke Gazette, one of the first Fast Draw magazines, from his home near Chicago, Illinois during the sport’s golden years. He offered me access to his archive and spent hours on the phone, on email and in person sharing pictures of the big contests and stories of the founding fathers and mothers of Fast Draw. My initial research also lead me to two other sources of information, Bob Arganbright author of “Fastest Guns Alive – The Story of Western Fast Draw” and Tom Blasgen author of “Fast Draw… Yesterday, Today”. Since neither the Gunsmoke Gazette or the books were still in publication each of them graciously allowed me to use the content from their work to get GunFighter Gulch off the ground. In that same time frame I was befriended by veteran gunfighters Pat and Charlene McMahon. They surprised me when they offered a long term loan of their personal library of Fast Draw magazines and various Association newsletters that they had collected over the past 40+ years. Another significant contributor to my education is my gunfighter friend Den Robinson who I consider the father of Fast Draw in Canada and a Fast Draw historian in his own right. His library of Fast Draw reference documents is extensive. Last but certainly not least is my friend renowned single action gunsmith, firearms instructior, movie gun coach, competition shooter and western history buff, Jim Martin. Jim opened doors then and continues to do so now. With all that help I finally had enough content to launch the site but my friend and mentor Bud Young passed away before I was able to complete the initial design. Bud inspired me to create GunFighter Gulch and I am forever in his debt.

Since then many other veteran shooters have mentored me and offered support for my project in the form of stories, mementos, pictures, videos and more important… their friendship. With their help it is my goal is to document the rich history of this fascinating shooting sport and pass that information to the new shooters.

In addition we are actively working to establish the GunFighter Gulch Historical Society.  Our mission is to educate the public regarding firearms safety and the rich 50+ year history of the fastest single action shooting sport in the world, Western Fast Draw.  We also intend to promote Fast Draw by building a Fast Draw museum and organizing unique shooting events like the Jim Martin Invitational Fast Draw Championship which duplicates the way a competition shooting match was conducted in the 1960′s, the early years of our sport.

Fast Draw is practiced in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, Japan, Germany, Australia and Korea. I wonder how it got to all those places? I’m bound and determined to find out.