BIRDS OF PREY - Jeffersonian

SPEAKOUT
it the woods and lost it from his “one
size fits none” holster. He wasn’t able to
recover it until the next day. In the meantime,
a squirrel or some other rodent had
decided to take a taste. Another set of
friends had ferrets that loved the taste of
Hogue HandAll grip sleeves.
Daniel Watters
Contributing Author
at “The Gun Zone”
www.thegunzone.com
Jenny Craig Paper Diet
While other magazines are getting
skinnier and losing track of what
readers really want to read about, you
guys put out a fat, beautiful issue (Nov/
Dec 2009) with stunning photos! Why
can’t they?
Gary Smith
Via e-mail
Keith .45 Magnum?
I saw a rebuttal (Taffin’s “The .44
Special Is Still Special,” Nov/Dec
2009) to Mike Venturino’s article (“The
.44 Special Ain’t,” July/Aug 2009)
coming as soon as I read it. As you
mentioned, stir the pot now and then,
and see what comes out. Charlie Askins
used to do this with his “Let’s scrap
these pistol calibers” articles. He was
always trying to eliminate one of my
old time favorites, the .38-40. Well I’ve
outlived him, so I won’t have to put up
with those articles anymore. I bought
my first pistol in 1959, a Colt Scout .22
SA. The next one was a Colt SAA .45,
and I’ve never owned a pistol that gave
me more pleasure.
Along the way, I’ve owned many
of the same pistols that John and Mike
have, I just was never able to hold on
to anywhere near as many of them.
As to .44 Specials, I’ve only owned a
paltry six, five of which I still have. In
their articles, I feel Mike and John have
both missed the point of what the .44
Special was all about. Elmer wanted a
more powerful round than the factory
blackpowder .45 Colt. When he tried
to heavy-load the .45 with smokeless,
he found it was easy to bulge the bolt
cuts, or even blow out the cylinder wall
of a Colt SAA. The .44 Special, with its
thicker chamber walls, allowed him to
achieve his famous load of a 250 grain
bullet at 1,200 fps. Mike’s article deals
with the practical side of loading, up to
around 1,000 fps. John’s is purely emotional.
Elmer was, in my opinion, purely
practical. If he could have achieved
1,200 or more with the .45 Colt in the
SAA, he might never have bothered
to do any work with the .44 Special,
and it would have been as dead as the
12 WWW.AMERICANHANDGUNNER.COM • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010