MAGNUM MAGNUM - Jeffersonian

John Taffin
Photos: Chuck Pittman, Inc.
or more than 60 years big-bore sixgunners had been perfectly
content, at least most of them, to shoot the .45 Colt,
.44 Russian, .44 WCF, .44 Special and the relative newcomer,
the .45 Auto Rim. Then in 1935 Smith & Wesson
raised the Big Bore Bar significantly with the introduction
of the .357 Magnum. It’s most interesting to go back
and read the reports when this magnificent revolver first
came out and see the awe it inspired. To promote the new
Magnum sixgun Col. Doug Wesson hunted with it, taking antelope,
elk, moose and even grizzly bear.
Not too many sixgunners would choose the .357 Magnum
today for such duties. The advertising called it more powerful than
56 WWW.AMERICANHANDGUNNER.COM • MARCH/APRIL 2011