I made it down to the South Lamar Half-Price Books yesterday for the first time in a while. Good gun books have been scarce on the ground, but I found this:
Sixgun Cartridges & Loads by Elmer Keith. You can get reprint editions on Amazon fairly easily, but this is (as far as I can tell) an original Samworth/Small-Arms Technical Publishing Company first printing from 1936. Amazon lists one of these for $45.85+shipping in “acceptable” condition. I’d probably put this at “acceptable” condition, too: it has some jacket wear, and there’s underlining and writing throughout.
I paid $50+tax for this one, which may have been a little high (prices on ABE Books for this edition seem to be all over the place), but it has character. And I didn’t have a coupon, alas.
On the other hand, I did (through a series of work events) fall into some Amazon funny money, which I used to check off the last Timothy J. Mullin book on my want list:
Serious Smith & Wessons the N- and X-Frame Revolvers. Look for the smiling face of Archduke Ferdinand Elmer Keith on every copy!
I already had the other two Mullin S&W books (Magnum: The S&W .357 Magnum Phenomenon and The K-Frame Revolver: and I also have a copy of Letters from Elmer Keith: A Half Century of Advice on Guns, Ammo, Handloading, Hunting, and Other Pursuits) and I’ve had this one in hand for about 90 minutes now.
But it looks like there’s a lot of fun stuff in it. I’m kind of a sucker for N-frames to begin with, but:
- I had no idea there was a run of 3″ .45 ACP guns for Lew Horton. Want.
- I had heard about the John Ross Performance Center .500 Magnum, but literally only within the past week: Mullin devotes a considerable amount of space to it. (For the people who aren’t as much into Smiths as I am: imagine a .500 Magnum X-frame, but with a 5″ barrel. Sort of a larger, heavier, but still packable and shootable variant of the .44 Magnum.) S&W makes a 3.5″ stainless version (which looks absurd to me), a 4″ stainless version (maybe not so bad) a 6.5″ stainless version with a compensator, and 7.5″ and 14″ stainless variants (and I may be missing some). But this looks like a well-balanced gun for field carry and use: I’m thinking if I were to pick up a .500 Magnum, this would be the way I would go.)
- There’s a nice section of Keith gun photos from the auction.
I’m sure I’ll find more as I go through this: I’m hoping to have down time to do so during the upcoming week.