Archive for the ‘Fast Draw History - 1950 to 1979’ Category.
7th December 2009, 12:09 am
The First California State
Fast Draw Championship?
By Bob Crismon
The year was 1958 …. The fledging single action gun sport of Fast Draw (aka “Quick Draw”) was really booming! Most of the major TV shows were westerns. New clubs were springing up all over the USA. This phenomenal growth was remarkable when considering US mail was the primary method of communication. Even printing was expensive in relation to what a one page flyer costs today when printed on your home printer connected to your PC.
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15th November 2009, 04:38 pm
WINGO Indoor Rifle Range
Written by Bob Crismon
The year was 1960 ….. The war has been over for fifteen years, times are good. Folks had extra money and time to spend on elective things of interest. Many of us chose recreational shooting activities. Interest in the Single Action revolver and lever action rifle grew every day, sparked by the popularity of movie and TV western shows. Winchester Fire Arms was in the ammunition and long arms manufacturing business. The new gun sport activities resulted in the sale of Winchester blanks, cartridges and brass. But without a manufactured side arm, Winchester could not capitalize on the Fast Draw Western TV show driven business boom. Winchester came up with a brilliant idea – why not develop a shooting sport centered on the use of Winchester rifles? Most Single Action Fast Draw shooters are likely Winchester rifle owners.
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30th August 2009, 09:49 pm
One of the unspoken facts about the sport of Fast Draw is that it’s true roots are in the combat sports. Preceding the wax bullets and blanks ammo we use today Single Action Fast Draw was practiced using live ammo in combat matches dominated by shooters using double action and semi auto handguns. Many of the founding members of the sport we know today came from that group of pioneering gunfighters who had the audacity to step up to the line with the best combat shooters in the world shooting live ammo from the hip with a single action revolver. Thell Reed was one of those men.
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15th February 2009, 12:08 am
What is Fast Draw?
by Ron Mossholder
Reprinted from Top Gun Fast Draw News Magazine
April 1962
Fast Draw is a fast-moving, fast-growing sport, which carries on the traditions of our western heritage. It is a test of speed, reaction and accuracy. It is exciting, entertaining and safe.
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14th February 2009, 11:59 pm
The Mexican Colt
by Jim Martin
This Colt has a Colt letter with it and was originally sent to a Mexican Railway in 1903. The backstrap is engraved with the abbreviated letters of the railway, Ex. Nat. Mex. I made the grips for it from whale jawbone. When I bought the gun it was in need of work. The barrel & cylinder were pretty rough so I decided to replace them.
Continue reading ‘Jim Martin – Pop Warner’s Mexican Colt’ »
14th February 2009, 11:54 pm
If there is one person that personifies our sport of Fast Draw, it is 84 year old E.L. Warner, of Scottsdale, Arizona. “Pop” to his many friends.
The son of an itinerant horse trader, “Pop” learned to shoot a Colt sixgun from a retired gunhand turned cowhand. He grew up to become one of the last of the professional old west gunfighters, hiring his gun out in Mexico, the south western United States, and the last of the range wars in Wyoming.
Continue reading ‘Bob Arganbright – Mr. Fast Draw’ »
14th February 2009, 11:40 pm
Those Vegas Days
by Den Robinson
I was just a green kid when I first read about these, now legendary, contests hosted by the Sahara Hotel and Colt Firearms Company. I was just coming off a collapsed lung and I weighed in at my lowest – 122 pounds. I possibly would have been a great REAL gunfighter as, turned sideways, nobody could have hit me plus I ALREADY had a hole in my lung! Anyway, I was both determined and destined to enter in what would become the last Nationals contest. I was probably the first Canadian to ever enter an “OPEN” organized Fast Draw Competition.
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14th February 2009, 11:35 pm
The year was 1957. A Denver television station invited me in to do a live studio show with Hugh O’Brien. Hugh was in town promoting his TV show, “Wyatt Earp.” At the studio I met Marshal Faber who was an electronic engineer in charge of the station audio and visual equipment. Marshall was a very nice fellow and quite talented in many technical fields. The studio invitation was offered quite unexpectedly and required that I be there the afternoon of the late morning call. Eager to share my new found potential fame, I called my sister who lived in Denver and suggested she watch the show.
Continue reading ‘Bob Crismon – Faber FasDraw Timer’ »
14th February 2009, 11:08 pm
The year was 1958 …. Sammy Davis, Jr. was the hottest of club entertainers – and one of the best in Hollywood at handling a Colt Single Action. Interest in Single Actions was booming as the most popular TV shows were serial westerns. A whole bunch of Hollywood wannabe cowboys were learning to draw, shoot and twirl their six-guns and Sammy was right up front leading the “Pack”. Many of Sammy’s fellow actor friends were also active in the fledging sport and held private contests at each other’s homes. I was in LA drumming up fast draw timer business and received a call from my employer, the Faber FasDraw Timer Company in Denver. Both of Sammy’s timers had quit working and he wanted them fixed before he went on a road trip. I knew Sammy had ordered two clocks about a month earlier but I had not met him. I was told I should meet him back stage around 9:00pm at the Moulin Rouge Night Club in Hollywood.
Continue reading ‘Bob Crismon – The Check is in the Mail’ »
10th February 2009, 08:27 pm
Tuning a Hahn .45 for Fast Draw
by Dee Woolem
Guns Magazine, December 1959
Excerpt from the article Tune-Up Tips for Fast Draw
Reprinted with the permission of Tom Blasgen
from his book “Fast Draw… Yesterday, Today”
It is foolish to think you can take any single action gun, regardless of make, in its production-line condition, and attain any kind of real speed, or without getting a torn thumb from its sharp edges. Do you think any of the top target shooters in the U. S. are using production line guns? Well, possibly a few, but if so it is only because the manufacturers of target guns have recognized the needs of competitive target shooting. Has any company done like-wise for the Fast Draw boys? We must have special guns, finely tuned for our sport. Crosman Arms Company has done a lot in this direction with their low-cost Hahn 45 and their CO2 Single Action Six. So has Ruger, with the positive action of their Single-Six. But even these fine guns can be improved for fast draw speed and fast draw safety. And for this improvement, each fast draw sportsman must be his own gunsmith. He must sweat it out over the work bench.
S-o-o, Cowpokes, hand and rattle. Here’s a few timely tips on “Tuning for Time.”
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10th February 2009, 08:17 pm
The Man Who Teaches Hollywood Stars to Shoot
by Ben Irwin
Guns Magazine – March 1956
Reprinted with Tom Blasgen’s permission
From his book “Fast Draw… Yesterday, Today”
THE FASTEST MAN with a gun, 45 Colt or any other variety, to be found in that never-never land they call Hollywood is not John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster or even Roy Rogers. He is a mild-mannered gent named Arvo Ojala and everyone of the movie colony’s western stars is properly envious of the man who bears the title of Hollywood’s fastest gun slinger.
In fact those who should know say Arvo Ojala may well be one of the fastest men on the draw in this country or perhaps anywhere. Which is a large statement, admittedly. The facts, however, would seem to support that contention.
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1st February 2009, 01:22 pm
The Gunfight at Apache Junction
Circa 1872
By Claude Gosney
S.A. Live Ammo World Champion
Midwestern Fast Draw Association Newsletter
March 1973
Me, “The Wild Irishman” and the Chicago Kid (Cal Eilrich) rode into town on a clear May morning. My horse Ole Charlie was feeling fine. I wish I was, I had a hell of a hangover.
The Challenge had been cast just a week before when all us good guys having one of our Sunday shoot outs in the small and little known town of Phoenix, Az. were challenged to a real gunfight by the California Kid himself “Thell Reed”!
Continue reading ‘The Gunfight at Apache Junction’ »
