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The year was 1957 … Back in those early days Fast Draw and Entertainment Reenacting blended together. Just west of Canyon City in Colorado the ghost town tourist attraction named Buckskin Joe invited the Colorado Springs Fast Draw Club to provide weekend entertainment. About a dozen or so of us had a bunch of fun shooting our single actions in contests and staged shootouts held on the town street. Since we always played the Bad Guys during skits, our costumes were usually black. Town employee professional stunt men wore white hats and played the Sheriff and his Deputies. A complimentary steak dinner Saturday evening made the fun and gun activity even more attractive to the wives. Of course, we held a Fast Draw contest several times during the day using our Faber FasDraw Timer.

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I wonder how the sport of Fast Draw would have started if the TV show “Gunsmoke” had not lit the fire! Beginning September 10, 1955 and for the next 20 years, Marshall Matt Dillon was the most recognized actor around the world! Every Saturday night the guy and gal with a small screen black and white TV were the most popular people in town. How many times did all of us “new Fast Gun in town” convince ourselves each week that we outdrew the Marshall! Many thought that the guy in black down the street fired first but the Marshall was perceived to be more accurate.

Perhaps the most ongoing Fast Draw issue then and now is the hand distance rule. At the beginning of Fast Draw as a sport, we envisioned ourselves to be Marshall Matt Dillon facing Arvo Ojala in the dusty street of Dodge City! If you observe the Marshall’s hand placement in this most famous of all gunfight scenes, his thumb was about six inches away from the gun hammer. Notice his gun hand is actually much closer to the holster and gun. Also he wore a low skirted holster, not an over the belt loop design. In this opening scene Matt’s holster was not tied down. Didn’t need to as most all manufactured holsters back then included a thin hidden metal stability lining. Matt, Roy, Gene and the Duke always thumbed – never fanned the gun.

Arvo taught the drawing method where the thumb will be the first part of the gun hand to come in contact with the hammer. This type of draw actually knocked the gun out of the holster as the hammer was being cocked. Today, Fast Draw shooters either have their hand surrounding but not touching the gun (WFDA, OFDA) or may be touching the gun (CFDA). Is it possible that current hand placement and drawing methods are slower than the Arvo technique mentioned? Perhaps that is why in those early days a reaction wax bullet thumbing score in the high twenties was often seen; a thumbing score in the low thirties today is considered quite well.

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Some time ago I was surfing YouTube for Fast Draw video and found one that was obviously old 8mm film footage converted to digital format with some modern music added in time with the shooters movements. I recognized the gun spinner as Jim Martin.

I contacted Jim and after viewing the video Jim told me he remembered the shoot. He said it was taken by an australian couple that were vacationing in the western United States in the early 70's. The couple had asked the gun store owner who was hosting the shoot to introduce them to Jim because they had heard about his gun spinning skills. When they met him they asked him for a demonstration. Jim initially declined because it had been a few years since he last preformed his routine. They convinced him it would be one of the highlights of their vacation if they could capture his fancy gunhandling on film so he got his double rig out of his truck and performed the routine cold.

Jim was surprised to see the footage appear 30+ years later. Some how the film ended up in South Africa. I contacted the owner of the YouTube clip and explained what he had. He told me he got it from a woman whose husband had passed away and she found it when she was going through his belongings. Initally he was drawn to some Vespa motor bike shots but he found the Fast Draw portion interesting since he had never seen it before. He decided he would edit it to music as a fun project and post it on YouTube. He was fascinated by the story behind the film and offered to send me the unedited footage.

Besides Jim I recognize Gil Guerra (Sr. and Jr.) and Bob Bussinger tells me the gunfighter in the blue shirt is Ted Blocker. If anyone can identify the rest of the shooters I would appreciate it if you could email me their names.


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High on my list of favorite Gunfighters to spend time with is Den Robinson. He is a master storyteller and I could easily get caught up for hours talking about Fast Draw with him. Den has fed my need for stories and facts since 1999.

It is my opinion that if Dee Woolem is to be considered the father of Fast Draw in America then Den is definetly the father of Fast Draw in Canada. For over 40 years he has been tireless in his effort to preserve the rich history and tradtions of the sport. He has been active in leadership roles in both Canada and the United States and he was a key contributor to the formation of the World Fast Draw Association. Many of the fastest champion shooters including Bob Mernickle, Howard Darby and Nicole Franks have been mentored by Den. Fast Draw is a family affair in the Robinson household. Den's wife Karen is one of the most gracious women you could ever have the pleasure of meeting and she has earned numerous Fast Draw titles to prove her committment to the sport they love. Famous for their hospitality they have opened their home and their hearts to shooters from all over the world. Bob Mernickle even cut his first holster on Den and Karen's kitchen floor. Unfortunately Bob cut through the leather so deep that he cut the pattern into their linoleum too! If you are a member of the Gulch you can search on his name and learn a little more about Den and his club, The Thunderbirds.

Here's something that Den shared with me knowing I would find it interesting. He has compiled the most complete list of Fast Draw associations, clubs and publications that I have ever seen. I'm sharing it with all of you hoping new shooters will appreciate the history lesson and veterans shooters will enjoy the trip down memory lane. Here's what Den sent me:

"Well, there you have it Greg. It will not be complete and could be added to I'm sure. Any omissions/typos I can accept however my info was gleaned over the years mostly through my collection of Fast Draw Magazines, newsletters, and maybe a little bit of my memory."

Den Robinson

Thanks Den and Karen for all you do for Fast Draw!

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Those who know me understand that my interest in Fast Draw is so much more than just developing the skill to draw and fire a single action as fast as I can. I am fascinated by the stories and I have been fortunate enough to meet veteran shooters who were willing to share their stories with me. One of my favorite story tellers is Jim Martin.

Many people including author John Taffin, Colt technical expert Jerry Kuhnhausen, and AWA owner Russell Simpson recognize Jim as amongst the best of the old time single action gunsmiths. One of the few who are blessed with the skill to fine tune the stock internal Colt parts making the action so smooth that you would swear it had piano wire springs in it. Not only does he possess expert level knowledge of the inner workings of the Colt SAA he uses the outside as a canvas to express his artistic abilities. An example of his talent is his tribute to one of his favorite musicians Bob Wills.

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Oh... and if you want the best biscuits and gravy in Arizona look no further than the restaurant at Pioneer Village. Make sure to wear your suspenders because your belly will be fighting your pants after eating a full order of these. My buddy Mississippi Marshal told me gravy is a beverage where he comes from. Now I know what he means!!!

As daylight was starting to creep into the eastern sky, the Marshall woke up with a start. A noise had came from outside the office, the Marshall slipping on his boots, stuck his six gun in the holster, and went outside to investigate the noise. In the dim shadows he saw a figure laying half on the ground and half setting up against the building. It was ole Joe, drunk again, and looking for somewhere to sleep it off. The Marshall helped him to his feet, and got him into the sheriff’s office into the jail cell, and on a bunk, so he could sleep it off. All the time the Marshall was getting Joe to the cell, Joe kept saying, “He’s here to get”, and that was all the Marshall could understand of Joe’s muttering. Guess he would have to wait until noon, when Joe woke up. Meanwhile it was the start of another day. Daylight was here, the sky was cloudy, a north wind blowing, and making it seem colder than it was. Looks like rain, the Marshall said to himself as he started to fix the morning coffee. The fire in the pot bellied stove, was down to just red coals, but a few sticks of wood and a nice blaze was going. Sure feels good the Marshall thought, as he put the coffee pot on the stove.

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George Narasaki founded the Sundowners in Berkeley, California in 1958. The original five-member group practiced at a gun club in San Leandro until their move in the late 1960’s to Bob Keeney’s Buckeye Ranch in Lafayette, California. Membership in the Sundowners was by invitation only. During their time at the Buckeye Ranch the club grew to fifteen members, all top Fast Draw competitors. Besides George their roster included well-known west coast Fast Draw Champions Van Gentry, Ken Gentry, Francis Carlos, Ed “Fast Eddie” Hawkins, Jerry Black, Bob Grilli and Helen Stransky. The club found itself in an envied position in the world of professional Fast Draw since Sundowners were regularly taking championship honors home from many of the biggest Fast Draw events in California and the surrounding western states. If the Sundowners showed up at a Fast Draw contest participants knew they were facing some tough competition and it would be a fight for the prize! Sundowners competed in three of the four famous Colt Sahara Walk and Draw National Championships held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Sponsored by the Colt Firearms Company and the Sahara Hotel and Casino from 1959 through 1961, this contest was one of the most prestigious competitions in the 50-year history of the sport. The event drew hundreds of competitors, a huge crowd of spectators and reporters from all over the US and Canada to watch the best in the sport compete in an old fashion walk down western gunfight. The contest was held at the height of the Hollywood Western era prompting all the major Hollywood production studios to send some of their most recognizable cowboy stars including Clint Eastwood, Rodd Redwing, Peter Brown, Jock Mahoney and others to the event to promote their movies and TV shows directly to their target audience. Not only did the Sundowners participate in contests, they hosted many championship level events including the 1964 California State Fast Draw Championships in Concord, California. Typical of the large Fast Draw clubs the Sundowners were also active in organizing gun safety presentations and fund raising events for the communities in which they lived. In the early ‘70s George’s family and his construction business had grown to the point where he decided to step away from the world of Professional Fast Draw. He disbanded the Sundowners, hung up his guns, sold most of his equipment and fully immersed himself in his life responsibilities.

I was introduced to George through a mutual friend; renowned single action gunsmith and gun coach Jim Martin. Jim had mentioned George as one of the best thumbers he had ever known in an interview that was documented in Bob Arganbright’s book “The Fastest Guns Alive – The Story of Western Fast Draw”. As an Asian American and amateur Fast Draw historian I was interested in the story of George Narasaki in particular. I contacted Jim in 2003 and he told me he had lost track of his friend many years ago. As fate would have it, in 2005, George found himself semi-retired and curious about what happened to the sport that was an important part of his life in his younger years. He began researching the current state of affairs in Fast Draw and was pleasantly surprised to find that after a 30+ year hiatus the sport he loved was still alive and well though substantially smaller than when he was an active competitor.

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Andy Anderson developed his first fast draw rigs while still a saddlemaker in Arkansas, but it was Arvo Ojala, a Hollywood technical advisor and gun coach to the stars, who first marketed a commercial fast draw rig known as the Hollywood Fast Draw Holster.

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I was sitting at the bunkhouse table with my hog leg 45 laying there in a bunch of pieces, cleaning and checking parts for wear and dirt from the last two weeks of moving the cattle from summer range up high to the lower range for the winter. I tend to daydream a little while doing jobs that do not require a lot of thinking on my part, and that old 45 could almost put itself back together with out my help.

I was thinking back to the fall of ’85. While I was doing the same task of cleaning and oiling that 45, when the bunkhouse door flew open and Jack came charging in like a bull in a glass factory. All out of breath saying, we got two hours to get ready and down to the train station. I just sat there looking at him wondering what he was talking about. Finally after catching his breath, he settled down and said, we have four days vacation, and I got two tickets to Chicago, we have to be at the train station in two hours to leave, hurry up. I sat there looking at him, still wondering what was in Chicago, that might be of interest to me, as Jack was finally getting the idea that I didn’t have any intention of moving until I knew what for.

Finally, he told me the story as he handed me a piece of paper telling of a fast draw contest in Chicago. The prizes were silver bars from the local silver mine. The contest was fifteen shots at a fourteen-inch square plate, and it was set up with some new fangled device that timed the shooter. There were judges to make sure the target was a good hit. It sounded like fun to me, so I put my gun together, packed some clothes, got on my hat and boots, and said “Let’s go.” Jack and I got to the train station with thirty minutes to spare.

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We decided to ride at night and rest by day to save the horses and avoid the searing heat of the desert sun. We rode out of Tombstone about sunset after we had watered and fed the horses. (Actually we gassed up the car.)

We stopped at Wickenburg to refuel the horses and water was 47.9 cents per gallon. It was packed in by Burro! We then headed for a camp in Nevada called Las Vegas where we heard life was free, easy and fast. Upon arriving we weren’t disappointed for we wasted no time once we passed through the swinging doors. Wes (Flowers) started playing Blackjack with a painted woman who called herself Flo. Jerry (McGee) favored Chuck-a-luck and I had a hankering for Monte (It’s a GAME stupid!). Anyway Wes broke even, Jerry lost ten bucks and I lost 3.

The sun was starting to rise over the mountains above Boulder Dam and as we were a bit behind schedule we decided to travel by day. We headed Northwest through Nevada for an area in California called Yosemite. The country sure is beautiful! Desert to the East and snowcapped mountains to the West. Before we headed into the mountains we asked an old prospector if the pass thru Yosemite was open. He assured us that it was so we then headed due West.

We reached an elevation of 11,000 feet at the pass and the snow was still 10 feet deep along the side of the trail. We stopped often for the horses to get their breath and drink a little snow. At one of those stops we had a snow ball fight and Jerry and I did Wes in good.

Wildlife was abundant as we saw deer, coyote, cats, wolves and a fat forest ranger that took us for $3.00 for riding thru the park!

We hit Angels Camp Friday night, bunked out and anxiously waited for Saturday to slap leather in the Western States Fast Draw Championships.

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Saturday “Walk & Draw Level”

Ready on the left… ready on the right… walk! And so started the first sanction shoot of the year. And what a way to start it. Bob Munden started setting the pace with a 26 hundredth of a second, which was the fastest time of the day. But due to a little hard luck, Bob went down in the early rounds. George Reese pulled a .27 second in the middle of the contest and was shooting like a champ. Ken Gentry, George Narasaki, Van Gentry and Francis Carlos were cracking like the electric starter had gone out of style.

By the end of the day it was obvious that one of these shooters would be acclaimed the winner. The spectators as well as the shooters were breathless as the two finalists approached each other. On the left it was George Reese; on the right – Ken Gentry. “Walk!” When the smoke had cleared there was one cowboy left standing, George Reese. (Where were you Ken when the light went on?)

In the Women’s Walk and Draw it was Helen Stransky all the way. What can you say about a gal like her? She is more than just another gal-slinger. She started when she was just a kid of 15. I’ve seen her shoot down men that are rated as some of the best. She shot in the Men’s O/A Nevada State Championship last year and took 4th so what can you say unless it’s, “I hope I never draw against her.” If you ever draw her you’ll know what I mean.

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During the late nineteenth century, Doc Holiday was the most infamous gun-fighter that the state of Georgia produced. During this century Georgia sired another gun-slick namely "Red" Jordan of Macon. "Red" was known and respected far and wide in the late ‘50s and into the ‘60s and beyond. He was a great thumber in those early years of Fast Draw, way ahead of most of his peers. His 13th place finish at the 1961 Colt-Sahara National Walk and Draw Championship, out of some 200 entries, attest to that fact, and his is still a top shooter.

“Red” started his Fast Draw career in 1957 at a shoot in Southern Illinois. In the November 1959 issue of “Fast Draw”, “Red’s” picture was on page 23 along with a group of shooters believed to be the Macon Georgia Fast Draw Club, taken at Renshaw, Illinois, where the Mid Western Nationals Fast Draw contest was held. The Macon group headed by “Red” Jordan received prizes for being the largest traveling group at the contest. Even in 1968 at Apache Junction, Arizona “Red” received an award for farthest traveled.

I first met “Red” in 1961 at the Cottonwood First Annual Fast Draw Contest held at Jeffersonville, Indiana. We shot walk and draw level on top of a flat bed trailer and “Red” was poetry in motion as he consistently shot low 40’s thumbing, and a normal walk, not the crab walk style of the West Coast. “Red” was a winner at the contest and still is a winner!

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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”!

Everyone had heard of him but few had seen him. It had been years since he had shown his face! Even as clean and pretty as it was we didn’t like being called “blank poppers.”

So on that May morning the Chicago Kid woke the Irishman out of his Delerius Tremors and was anxious to go. I would rather have slept.

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The Thunderbird Fast Draw Club was born in late 1958, during Fast Draw’s “Heydays”, in the northern hills of British Columbia, Canada. The T-Birds were first called the “Coast Marksmen Hipshooter’s Division. The first recorded news of them appeared in B.C. Outdoors magazine, March 1959. Club members, under the direction of Army Sgt. Reg Patterson, used live ammo at balloons and tin cans, and wax bullets at a timer fashioned from a clock radio.

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I met Rodd in 1957 at a Fast Draw contest I was entered in. He had come out to watch the contest and to see the fancy gun handling contest that was being held in conjunction with it.

I had taken 2nd place in the fancy gun handling and after the trophies were given out Rodd came over to congratulate the top 3 winners. That’s when I got my first advice from Hollywood’s top gun coach. He took me off to the side and told me I should have taken first place and then explained why I didn’t.

He said, “the winner used two nickel plated colt’s and you used two blue colts. The winner’s guns looked flashier to the audience and influenced the judges. You did more with your guns, but did it too fast and the judges really didn’t see everything you did.”

He told me to use nickeled guns and practice my routine slower so the audience could see everything I did clearly. He was right as usual. It wasn’t too long after that I won my first championship.

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If all Indian braves had been as handy with guns as full-blooded Chickasaw Rodd Redwing you’d never hear today’s taxpayer’s lament, “Give the country back to the Indians!” You wouldn’t hear it because the Indians would still be in full possession!

Rodd is one of Hollywood’s leading technical experts on weapons. He might very well qualify for “fastest gun alive” laurels, if he cared to claim them. But, as he puts it, “I don’t simply because I don’t think there is any such thing. In the Old West, the white man had a saying, “There was never a horse that couldn’t be rode, or a man that couldn’t be throwed.” This applies to fast guns. Gun slinging is like any other skill; you can’t be best all the time. Speed with a gun depends upon the shooter’s current physical and mental condition. One day, he might be unbeatable, on another, he just can’t do anything right. The most any athlete can hope for is to average out as one of the best.”

Actually, Rodd makes his living by doing things right all of the time – at least when it counts. Too often, doing something wrong would not only cost substantial money losses for a film studio – it might cost a life.

During the filming of “Fastest Gun Alive,” for which Rodd was technical director, he was obliged to shoot down a narrow corridor between dozens of extras who were “spectators” at the famous “beer mug shot” by Glenn Ford. Alan Joslyn dropped the beer mug (made of wax to avoid glass splatter), and Glenn drew and shot at it with a blank. Rodd, placed out of camera ranges with a .22 rifle, shattered the mug in unison with Glenn’s shot. The backstop for Rodd’s bullet was a bale of hay placed at the end of the narrow corridor between the extras. A wrong shot here could have been disastrous, but nothing happened; and all three “takes” were perfect.

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Exhibition, showmanship, skill or whatever you wish to call it, trick-shooting takes practice. Any person who is willing to sacrifice many hours each day, month after month, certainly deserves recognition. True, most of the shooting is trick, but then the shooter bills himself that way. So now let us take a look into the “tricks” of the trade.

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While cowboy historians agree the first of what we would later recognize as a cowboy action match was put on by Gordon Davis in December 1979, the roots of both the Single Action Shooting Society (SASS) and the National Congress of Old West Shootists (NCOWS) lies much deeper. Davis’ match had originally been scheduled for October in commemoration of the Shootout at the OK Corral (c. 1881) but the match got rained out and rescheduled for December. One of the shooters Davis invited was a tall drink of water named Jim Martin, and for good reason. Unlike some shooters at that 1979 match, Martin, at that point, had already been making his living with a sixgun for over twenty years.

During that time, Martin repeatedly demonstrated his ability to handle six-shooters in ways no one else had the huevos to attempt. While very few are able to “twirl” a sixgun in and out of a holster with any kind of style, Martin may be the only man alive who ever drew and twirled two guns, came out of the twirl cocking the hammers onto live rounds (real bullets, not the wax they used in fast draw), threw the two cocked guns up behind his back in an arc that ended in front of him, caught them in mid-air, fired AND HIT two separate targets at the same time. The twirl back into the holster after that performance was a practiced signature by a true professional.

He was no slug when it came to fast draw either. Martin, who is discussed in Bob Arganbright’s book The Fastest Guns Alive, has forgotten more wins than some shooters remember losing. While many leatherslap champions can “fan” a gun into the low 50’s (fifty one-thousands of a second for the draw, fire, and hit), Martin holds to the old style drop thumb technique which he has used to press championship titles into the low 30’s. He has the powder burns on his hip to prove it.


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When Red Jordan was buried Saturday with his boots on, eight of his buddies were there for a fast-draw gun salute.

The man who was born Eulie Washington Jordan Jr. more than 85 years ago made quite a name for himself across the country as a gun fighter.

He's slung guns with Clint Eastwood, Sammy Davis Jr. and the legendary gun coach of the stars, Arvo Ojala, who appears in a gun battle with James Arness in the opening scenes of TV's "Gunsmoke."

Each year Jordan would load up a mattress in the back of the family station wagon and head West to compete. He still holds a world record in "walk and draw," his friends say.

Since Jordan died last week of a cerebral hemorrhage, he has been hailed as an icon, legend and pioneer of the sport of fast draw.

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Our initial plan was to have a small monthly contest amongst our club and a few of our Fast Draw friends around the United States who practice in their garages, basements, barns, etc. For the first contest we decided we would shoot 3 sets of standing wax at 12’. Everyone would shoot the events on the same day whenever it was convenient for them in their respective time zones. The results would be emailed to us, we would compile the data and post the results on our website. We settled on 12’ because it was challenging and was the furthest back most of us could get in our home ranges. Since we had shooters who were new to the sport we limited the event to 3 sets.

Back in 1958, when Crosman Mfg. introduced the Hahn "45", Single Action B.B Revolver, I was manager of the TANDY Leather Company Store in Columbus, Ohio. My love and association with guns and horses was what created the newer love of "leather", meaning Gun Belts & Holsters, Saddles & Bridles. I had, as a teenager, purchased a saddle at a horse auction, then "silver mounted it", (with chromed and nickel studs, spots, etc.), using it on my beautiful Palomino Mustang Mare and riding in all the local Holiday Parades that were popular then, and now. I still remember the little kids pointing at us saying, "That's the one I want!!!" A million dollars, at that time, would not have taken that horse out from under me!!!

Having met the founders of TANDY Leather Company, Mr. and Mrs. D.L Tandy, while in the Navy and stationed in Jacksonville, Florida - I was promised the opportunity to manage a company store upon my discharge from said Navy in 1954.

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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.

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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. This is where it gets interesting… many years ago when E.L. (Pop) Warner first started shooting he had John Phillips change his Colt from 44/40 to 45 so he could use it in fast draw. The 44/40 is the one he carried when he was young and got in the gunfights that you can read about in Tom Blasgen's book "Fast Draw Yesterday & Today". He also carried it when he was a Mercenary soldier for a while with Pancho Villa. As luck would have it John had kept his original .44 barrel and cylinder all these years. They were in fair shape, better than what was in the gun, so I called John and bought them from him to put in the Mexican Colt. It just seemed like a fitting idea because of his tie in with Villa. Al and I were friends from the first day we met back in the early 60's until the day he died.