They say every gun has a story. A reader submission series from American Handgunner, Wheelgun Diaries seeks to tell some of those stories through the words of revolver owners.

The following stories were shared by email with permission to publish.
 
 

Pretty as a Picture

 
In the latter part of Oct. 2000, I was traveling through parts of Florida on business. I made a quick stop at a pawn shop in Ocala just to see what they had in the way of Colt firearms, particularly Pythons, which were going through a kind of “resurgence” at the time.

There, in one of the display cases, was a nickel 4” Python looking somewhat tired and sad. It’d obviously had a lot of use, and to be honest, looked rather dilapidated and beat up with a $575 price tag on it. I called Colt, described what I was looking at and asked what a complete restoration would run. I also asked to include having the 4” barrel removed and refinished, as well as a new 2” barrel installed. I was quoted a total of $250 with a 6-week turn around. It was paid for and shipped to Colt that same day.

Six months later, it was completed — and what a beauty it turned out to be! It was, and still is, perfect! Since then, I have obtained Colt’s Letter of Authentication, the correct time period Colt box with Styrofoam liner and paperwork, hang tag, cylinder protector, detective’s grips and wood felt-lined Colt presentation case. This Python was manufactured in 1969 — the first year the “E” serial number was used.

I don’t make it a habit to give my cars, firearms or anything else for that matter a ‘name,’ but if I had to give one to this Python it would be “Phoenix” as it has been reborn and ‘risen from the ashes.’ Now over 20 years since that now 52-year-old Colt Python was given a new life, it remains unfired and pretty as a picture!

R. A. Dea
Florida

My First Revolver

I was a young man in the early 1970s; a fan of the Colt Single Action Army and .45 Colt cartridge. I acquired this love of gun and cartridge from watching Gunsmoke with my dad. We watched every episode together and had been doing so since the late 1950s.

My dad and I both shared a love for firearms. He bought me my first .22 rifle for Christmas when I was 10 years old. He was mainly into rifles and shotguns, so we didn’t have any handguns at home, but I told him when I turned 21 I wanted to buy my first handgun — a .45 Colt SAA. He said that sounded great.

But until then, I convinced him to let me start handloading .45 Colt loads so I would have plenty of ammo when I finally bought my revolver. He agreed, and I started loading .45 Colt and 12GA shotgun loads. For the next few years, I read every loading manual I could find on the .45 Colt cartridge and settled on 8.5 grains of Unique powder and a 255-grain cast flat nose lead bullet. By the time I bought my revolver I had loaded about 1,000 rounds of .45 Colt.

Finally, the day came and I turned 21 years old. I had also been saving my money, but even in the mid 1970s the Colt SAA sold for a lot of money, and more than I had, so I bought a Ruger SA Blackhawk in .45 Colt with a 7.5” barrel instead. The Ruger was a great revolver; I found I could load hotter rounds for it and enjoyed shooting it in metallic silhouette competitions. The Ruger SA Blackhawk had served me well for many years, but I finally traded it in four years later to buy the Colt SAA with a 5.5” barrel.

I love my Colt Single Action Army, and have it to this day, but several years later I bought another early model Ruger SA Blackhawk in .44 Magnum, and then a new model in .38-40 and 10mm caliber. I’ve also bought many other Ruger SA Blackhawks, Vaqueros and Colt SAA revolvers in various calibers over my long gun collecting career. I have many stories of guns I traded away, only to find and buy them again later, when I could afford it, for my growing gun collection. But I’ll never forget my first.

Ralph R. Miller

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