Jim Taylor
Sixgun Stuff
Wednesday, April 21, 2021, 07:21

20-some years ago I was running a website called Sixgunner.Com. Somewhere along the way I met Gary Reeder and we worked together on building him a website. During the course of time I asked Gary about building a custom Limited Edition Sixgunner.Com sixgun and he came up with a package, limited to 20 guns. I posted on the Sixgunner website that the first 20 who signed up would get in on the deal.

The package was for Gary to build a limited edition gun for those who signed up for it. Each gun would be numbered (1 of 20... 2 of 20 etc.), and included cutting the barrel to 4" (or if it was a 4 5/8" gun, the barrel was cut to 3 5/8") – recrown - move the sight - shorten ejector rod and housing - reshape the grip - action job - engrave sixgunner.com on the barrel - engrave owners name if they desire - high polish the gun. Custom grips were extra and several extras could be ordered as the customer saw fit.

My gun started out as a stainless steel Vaquero 4 3/4". To the basic package I added the Laminated Ironwood Grips and I had the front edges of the cylinder rounded. The gun shoots very well and is one fine little gun. I could not find all the photos I once had of it, but here are a few.

Firig a 300 gr. load ..

I practiced with it quite a bit and took it out in 2002 for Javelina. I settled on the Cor-Bon 200 gr. JHP factory loads as the hunting load I would use. The Limited Edition gun hit just above Point-Of-Aim at 25 yards with these loads. Cor-Bon lists these as producing 1100 fps. While the short barreled gun will not necessarily reach that, velocity was sufficient to produce good bullet expansion.

The second day of the hunt we climbed up into hills near Oracle, AZ and saw a group of 4 or 5 hunters about a mile away on the other side of the canyon in the direction we were heading. We watched them work their way down into the canyon as we moved in that direction ourselves. About a half hour later gunfire began racketing out of the canyon and as I watched I could see the shape of pigs running across the canyon from us. It was a quarter mile or more away but I could still see them as they ran through the brush. I told the guy with me to get out on the point of rocks ahead of us at the mouth of the draw we were in. I figured the pigs would cross the canyon and come our way, especially since the cliffs were very steep to both sides of us. The place we were in was a natural passage.

About 10 minutes later he signaled that he saw pigs coming our way. I began moving up around a hill in front of me to try and cut them off. As I came over the hill I pulled the sixgun and held it in my shooting hand, just in case. Coming around a point I was suddenly confronted by a large Javelina who had a younger, smaller pig running with it. At the sight of me the larger pig bristled up and began popping it's tusks at me. The distance was no more than 20 feet and the pig presented an almost perfect silhouette shot. I pulled the sixgun up and caught the front sight and fired.

At the shot both pigs ran directly away from me. I put the sight on the large pig and fired again. Then they were out of sight around the corner of a hill. I wondered to myself, "Did I miss?" ... but as I thought about it, the shot "felt" good. I replaced the 2 fired cartridges and then moved along the path they had taken.

As I rounded the hill I saw a large splash of blood on the rocks. A foot or two further and another... and another .. and another. I looked up ahead as I came through some brush and I could see the pig laying on it's side. It appeared to still be breathing and I did not want to spook it so I stopped and waited.

As we came up on it the pig breathed it's last. I got my camera out and set it on my backpack and took a self-portrait. I did not notice at the time but I did not get all the pig into the picture, but you can see where my first shot hit it.

My first shot had taken the pig high through the abdomen .... gut-shot. Intestines hung out the off side. Devastation from the Cor-Bon 200 gr. JHP was very evident. The second shot had taken it center in the stomach from the rear and intestines were protruding from the entrance wound of that shot. There was no exit from that shot, the bullet going up through the abdominal cavity. The sow ran no further than 50 or 60 feet before bleeding out. I was impressed with the bullet performance. Interestingly, when I skinned it later I found some pieces of jacket material and lead under the hide around the edges of the exit wound.

My practice at catching the front sight and shooting paid off. The Arizona sun was bright enough I could not see the rear sight very well. I shot instinctively, doing what was put into the computer, and it worked. Both shots were fired fairly rapidly.

The little sixgun was sold or traded off when we moved to Mozambique. I disremember who got it. I am sure they enjoy it.