Elmer Keith “On Six Gun”

[Wambli Ska]

A great read if you keep it in the context of the old cowhand’s time! Enjoy.

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https://www.americanrifleman.org/conten ... 49a11aab9b

[Bigslug]

His full book of the same title is well worth reading. If memory serves the original published date was 1955.

A lot of what Keith considered fact - heavy, tissue-crushing bullets with a significant amount of penetration being the key to effectiveness - seemed to get lost somewhere in the velocity-mania era of the 1960's through 1980's. We appear to have largely gotten over that, and when you factor in improved bullet design, reading the modern "conventional wisdom" feels a lot like reading Keith.

In the Sixguns book Keith mentions how some of his cronies were sizing the 160 grain hollowpoint version of his 358429 SWC down to .356-.357 and loading it to about 800-900 fps in the 9mm. This basically replicates the much-vaunted .38+P 158gr lead SWCHP "FBI Load" of the 1970's/'80's era, which had a reputation for working at the time when the 115 grain 9mm HP's were delivering inconsistent results.

I feel that Elmer was a little like the Wright Brothers - they went a long way in terms of showing us how.

[Wambli Ska]

I knew you’d appreciate this article and yes, a whole lot of it is out of his book by the same title. Everything old is new again…. Now we all rave about 147gr 9mm bullets when they knew back then they were a better idea.

[Bigslug]

Partly due to my Dad's joint deterioration issues, partly due to my historical nerdiness, I've been dabbling a lot in the range of things like the British .38 S&W / 200 grain / 600 fps loads; Pre-Keith .44 Special loadings; the WWI .455 Webley; .45 Auto Rim; and the translation of those loads into more modern offerings. "Fire breathers" aren't really part of the picture, and I'm not missing them.

Veral Smith (RIP) picked up the bullet design ball from Elmer and gave us the LFN and WFN concept. The post-1986 Miami research done by the FBI confirmed a lot of what the old guys understood, but their sensible approach of comparing the differences of why Bad Guy A fell down and Bad Guy B didn't went a long way to quantifying it all. Elmer and Veral would probably get considerable satisfaction from it.

[Wambli Ska]

Funny, one of my next endeavors is getting a good .45 AR load going for my Indiana Jones 1917. Should be fun experimenting. Thinking if using .452 250gr .45 Colt LFN bullets for them, but I do have a box of Webley slugs somewhere on my bench.

[Zee]

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[Bigslug]

Funny, one of my next endeavors is getting a good .45 AR load going for my Indiana Jones 1917. Should be fun experimenting. Thinking if using .452 250gr .45 Colt LFN bullets for them, but I do have a box of Webley slugs somewhere on my bench.

Keith's Auto Rim bullet was the 452423, in creating which he disregarded his usual long range notions in favor of purity of the short range purpose. It''s an ugly, .34" meplat fireplug of a bullet - I like to imagine he was a little pissed off at the world when he designed it.

https://www.mattsbullets.com/250-Grain- ... p_150.html

[Elk Creek]

Yeah, I had to buy that book from what I read in the article…../