Posted on 01/20/2013 1:22:34 PM PST by virgil283
"What really made Elmer special was not his skill with or knowledge of guns, but his commonness. Even though he was to be the most famous gun writer of all, he always had time to talk to the ordinary guy and often answered, personally, without a secretary....... In 1911, Elmer was burned terribly in a hotel fire ... with his left hand turned upside down on the back of his left wrist.... 'I told Father I had to have a left hand so I could hold a rifle and do normal things'. Father contacted every doctor in Helena to try to get them to operate on the hand and break it over and straighten it out. None of them would tackle the job. They all said I would never live to be 21 anyway and they were not going to torture me any further..... Finally, I had had enough of going with only one hand, so I asked Dad if he would break it. Mother said, "Can you stand it?" I said, "I don’t know, but you can go ahead and do it anyway.".....
(Excerpt) Read more at sixguns.com ...
***In 1911, Elmer was burned terribly in a hotel fire ... with his left hand turned upside down on the back of his left wrist***
Years later he had his hip bone slip out of it’s socket while working with a heavy load. His story of how they put it back makes me hurt even now. It is in HELL, I WAS THERE.
When I first tested that M29, it was on a friend’s nack porch, he was selling it for a guy who had used it as an arctic backup gun. Took aim at a clod fist-sized clod of dirt 70-80 yards away, and it just blew away. Fell in love with the gun right there and grabbed it. It’s one of two favorites - I can regularly hit thumb-sized targets at 25-30 yards on mil shoots with the 45 1911, and the old 29. Have an “assault” 9mm too (18-shot mag), but it doesn’t feel that natural. The 9 seems to have more “bite” to it than the 45 softie, for some reason.
I traded my model 57 off when I was in grad school and needed money. A fellow student traded me 7 guns for the model 57.
We met at his place which was in a rural area. He had me shoot it instead of shooting himself. I was really in good form that day and he was impressed.
Several students told me I had made a bad trade as all the guns except one were sort low price ones. The only nice one of the 7 was a Ruger Security Six. I had done some quick figuring in my head and knew I was getting the better end of the deal and sure enough I sold them all separately for a total of around $900.
I’m also a fan of Keith. I like the .45 Colt in a strong frame, though. ;-)
I have a cache of brass (never re-loaded) somewhere in my storage space. What do you pay for those?
It was hard to pass up 100 rounds for $4, so I didn't.
I've probably got at least 500-600 new .41 mag in my stash. Probably the same or more for other handgun cals.
I try to keep anywhere from 500-1000 loaded rounds for each handgun cal.
The only thing I'm short on is .32-20 and .32mag.
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