Guns 2012-08.pdf - Jeffersonian

A Very Special
Revolver
Skeeter Skelton’s last sixgun.
t was Elmer Keith who lit the sixgunning fire in my
Iheart, however it was Skeeter Skelton who continually
fanned the flames. Keith did the majority of his work and
writing about sixguns before I ever purchased my first
revolver, however I kind of feel like I grew up with Skeeter,
who was 11 years old when I was born, and whose first
articles appeared in these pages in the late 1950s. Skeeter
became Handgun Editor of another magazine in the mid-
1960s and I followed everything he wrote for the next two
decades. Skeeter not only did feature articles he also had
a monthly “Hipshots” column and sometimes a questionand-answer
section; above all he had the rare ability to
grab sixgunners by the heart, soul and spirit, and pull
them right into the article.
Skeeter was single-handedly
responsible for the resurrection of
the .44 Special going all the way
back to 1972 when he did an article
on converting Ruger Old Model .357
Blackhawks and Smith & Wesson
Highway Patrolman .357 Magnums to
.44 Special. He also lobbied both Colt
and Smith & Wesson to begin producing
a .44 Special once again and the
result was the Single Action and
New Frontier from Colt and S&W’s
Models 24 and 624 in the early 1980s.
It is altogether fitting and proper his
last sixgun would be a .44 Special.
Skeeter passed from us in 1988.
Shortly thereafter in 1989, I did an article
on Ruger conversions for our sister
publication, American Handgunner,
and soon after that I received a letter
from our mutual friend John Wootters
and he related the tale of Skeeter’s
last sixgun. I’ll let him tell the story:
“Your recent Sixgunner piece about the
This custom Ruger Blackhawk
.44 Special serial number S.S.
1 was Skeeter’s Last Sixgun.
“little Rugers” inspires me to tell you a
tale. The so-called “little Ruger” in .44
Special was the favorite type of sporting
pistol cartridge of my late buddy,
Skeeter Skelton, who spent much of
his terminal illness in a hospital here in
Houston. Together with another friend
and single-action expert, Bob Baer,
we passed a lot of time plotting the
creation of just such a pistol, of which
he’d done several only to sell or trade
them all away. We even acquired the
3-screw, .357 Mag Blackhawk for raw
material. Sadly, Skeeter had to fold his
hand before the last race, and the project
never went further, until recently.
“The gun was re-chambered and
re-barreled (4-5/8", from a slow-twist,
proven-accurate .44 Douglas premium
blank) by Houston pistolsmith Earl
Long. Bill Grover (Texas Longhorn
Arms) then took over. He recut the
forcing cone to suit himself, put a Coltstyle
crown on the muzzle, and installed
one of the front sights he makes for his
Grover’s Improved No. 5 Keith gun.
He also re-chambered the cylinder
and adjusted the cylinder gap to less
than .002" (which makes it the tightest
Ruger, even customized, I’ve ever
seen!), and then hand-fit one of his No.
5 basepins. Finally, he broke the leading
edge of the cylinder all around to make
it easy on holsters.
“Bob Baer took over from there. He
installed a bolt-block and hand-tuned
the action… and he is as good at that as
any living man. He also performed his
trigger magic, producing an absolutely
exquisite 2-pound letoff. Then he flatfiled
the frame, removing all markings,
and rounded off the square corners of
the topstrap, sort of ala Colt SAA.
“Many years ago, Skeeter and I
shared a hunting trip in northern British
Columbia, during which we jointly
discovered the skeleton of a mature
Stone ram, probably killed in an
avalanche. We slipped the horns, and
Skeeter took one and I the other. Later,
continued on page 89
90
WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • AUGUST 2012