Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Draw

"More time is required to master the handgun than any other type of firearm. To become an expert sixgun shot, one must live with the gun. Only by constant use and practice can one acquire a thorough mastery of the shortgun. You must work and play with it, eat with it, sleep with it, and shoot it every day - until it becomes a part of you and you handle it as surely as you would your knife and fork at the table."

Elmer Keith

Jim Taylor used to toss a quarter at a post 30' away (with his shooting hand) then draw and hit it before it touched the fence. He and many like him could hurl a beer can into the air and empty a six-gun into it before it hit the ground. And we're not talking a rodent's six-gun, either. For years I practiced Bill Jordan's routine of drawing and hitting a dime resting on a post from 25'. Jordan was said to have used a Bayer aspirin, but nowadays the net ninja's would be calling BS until old Bill drew down on THEM. Follow-up shots with hot loaded .44's and .45's were never a big deal until the amateurs took over and ushered in the era of the wondernine. Elmer knew that
if you wanted to be any good, you had to eat, sleep, and fondle that old iron until you could barely stand the look of it. But who "has the time" anymore. Spray and Pray works just as good, doesn't it. Forget that the diary's of famous gunslingers are full of instances where they drew down on someone who had the drop on them and ended the disagreement without batting an eye. Nowadays the mantra is "action beats reaction", and "you'll never beat a man if he's holding his on you while yours is holding leather." Gone are the thoughts of being so damned good that you were downright scary with your shortgun. Can't, Shouldn't, Won't, Never-Happen. They've replaced Can-Do, and with a vengeance.

The Speaker of The House of Representatives of the United States of America is a woman who hates guns. The Senate Majority Leader is a pencilneck geek who wants them banned and destroyed.

Gutcheck time.

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