That is great! I would love to see pictures of the bronco etc. if you knew Ted you have to know a personal friend of mine, he was friends with Ted also.
My gunsmithing yes custom revolvers (of course!) are shaped by what i learned from Elmer Keith! My favorite caliber is because of Elmer Keith and yes it is my license plate as well. 41 SPL Elmer talked about it on two or three occasions in Sixguns by Keith starting on page 280. Elmer had me with what he thought was the ideal cartridge! But then add his bullet design and that cartridge is one of the greatest things since sliced bread.
So yes I too am a huge Elmer Keith fan! I think i have about every book he wrote, most are first editions and signed by the man.
You all make me feel inadequate although I am a huge Elmer fan , I am very much a fan of another man highly influenced by Elmer that is John Taffin. I read every article he wrote seems like. I followed him in the magazine write up articles all the time. Still read and post . I was doing it over at the previous site but I will start up agsin soon. John Taffin inspired me to the big bore handguns.
He may have been a big proponent of the 41mag and the 44 special and helped to inspire development of the 44mag with Remington through his heavy 44 special loads, but I dont see how he did any harm to the 45ās reputation. He owned 45ās and even had his Bronco plates as 45. Elmer loved all Revolvers he just preferred a specific caliber for himself. That being said I prefer anything in .45 caliber and I was inspired by John Taffin inspired to greatness by Elmer . John Loved the big calibers and I dont ever recall Elmer telling him he was screwing up.
I am a huge Elmer Keith fanā¦ā¦ so if you will bare with me and read the entirety of what i have to say perhaps you can in the future pick up a copy of Sixgun cartridges and loads. It is very dated but read it for the times it was written and you will see the genius of elmer for the time!
When I read all his works I personally feel Elmer doesnt do the 45 Colt injustice at all. He was speaking of the limitations of the caliber and firearms in that caliber. AT THAT TIME! The bad engineering ie mismatched groove diameter to chamber diameter causing poor accuracy.
Elmer judged thing by his time. What was available at that moment. Today we have so many more options and much better engineering.
You have a right to feel that way of course! But if we take off the lenses of today and judge Elmerās works by his time, the limitations of what he had. Example the thin walls of the colt SAA cylinder we can see he was right to disregard the 45 colt for what he was doing. Elmer openly talked about experimenting with the 45 colt and the mishaps etc. the 45 colt has had some of the worst consistency of any caliber out there. Bore diameters running .450 all the way to .457 with chamber mouths running 452, .454. .456 etc.
not defending anything except we need to judge the past with the lense of the past and not todays point of view or knowledge base.
Just my humble opinion is all.
You are correct @samlcolt1873 , thats why he perferred the smaller caliber more metal left on the chamber. I couldnt tell you how many post I have personally read over the last 25 yrs. That where about tolerances and throat sizes and bore sizes. Hence the reason for slugging a barrel/chamber and the reason alot of guys use lead in the 45. The lead will obturate taking care of the lack of qaulity.
I read your article , it seems to me that people seen one 45 round was longer than the other and simply using everyday talk would say give the 45 long colts. When they would go to the hardware store to buy some. Laying that in Elmer Keithās lap is sorta unfair In my opinion. As I suspect it was going on a long before he was even born in 1899. It was probably something alot of people said all the time. Good write up though
The article you wrote looks great, I didnāt see it validating the injustice, Colt did more to harm their own name throughout its existence which is now what, owned by CZ?
I canāt see LC any more injurious to a brand than Shelby or Yenco could be deemed to Ford or GM,
As a gunsmith i constantly inform people there is no 45 long colt just 45 colt.
I can not understand the tearing down of anyone over a term or label they might have used. Elmer Keith was on our side. He was a true firearms aficionado, a true American Handgunner. The man did more for the handgun industry than almost anyone. Many of our cartridges, ammunition developments are based on his work or an outcrop of his work. No one is perfect! Not me or you! Even if he made a mistake i would much rather think about all the wonderful things he did for us than think about one negative thing i do not like. Besides why waste all the energy on hating a guy who is dead? A man that is not here to defend himself. Especially over a term! There are much bigger things to worry about in this life.
I just think you have made a mountain out of a mole hill and dismissed all the good the man did.
Try thinking about the good, instead of the one thing you dont like!
I like the 45colt revolvers for what they are, but when it comes to hunting I like bigger faster 45caliber cartridges like 454,460,450marlin,
Honestly one of the easiestto find handgun calibers is .44mag and .38
although I am a huge Elmer fan , I am very much a fan of another man highly influenced by Elmer that is John Taffin. I read every article he wrote seems like. I followed him in the magazine write up articles all the time. Still read and post . I was doing it over at the previous site but I will start up agsin soon. John Taffin inspired me to the big bore handguns.
