Dead Man's Gun

[serialsolver]

The Texas Ranger Museum in Waco Texas is a must see. Many fine weapons are there. From the plain to the fancy. Walkers to 1911’s. Sadly my insider there has retired. He had promised to get me into the back room to see the rest of the large collection that is not on display because of the too small Museum.

[avidreader]

I happened upon it by accident back in the early 70's. it was an extremely pleasant experience, Bonnie & Clyde Guns and letters and early S&W's with Ivory Grips, wished I'd had more time to tour the place, it's worth going to Waco just to see the Museum, keep it in mind if you find yourself in Texas.

[jayhawker]

I own Bill Jordan's "loser's gun", a black powder model Colt SA parts gun. With his huge hands, it has 1860 Army grip frame, custom Herretts stocks, and a .357 magnum barrel and cylinder. This was so he could use it in his act and use the same blanks/wax loads as in his Model 19. I have used it a few times in my FD act, as well as shooting it in a few SASS matches.
He called it his "loser's gun" because he gave it to the volunteer in the beat the drop trick, and the volunteer always lost. Beat the drop = draw and fire before someone with the drop on you can react and squeeze the trigger. When I would see Bill at SHOT or NRA, he would always ask if I had shot the old gun. I also bought, at auction, his rig that he used in his act, which is a Dan Combs duty rig, steel lined and covered with elephant hide taken by Bill in Africa. Great memories.
Jayhawker Bob

[aciera]

Jayhawker:
Being a fan of the man, I had to smile when I tead your post.

Humbling.........

[salvo]

Back in 1988 I was participating in the IHMSA Internationals in Idaho, Elgin Gates had his prototype Dan Wesson 445 and invited some of us to shoot it, I was hooked and put in my order for a Stainless 445. Elgin got a bunch of my money for quite a few guns through his little operation called the Silhouette.
He was a gentleman in my dealings with him, we kept the mailmen busy with our correspondence there for a wile.

Here is a picture of a picture, of me receiving 1 of three trophies that year from Elgin.