Jim Taylor
Shooting a Sixgun Upside Down
Tuesday, November 30, 2021, 15:29

Gary posted a photo of me shooting a sixgun upside down in my left hand. Here's the story behind that:

My Dad used to shoot in pistol matches back in the late 40's and early 50's. He shot either a Colt SAA .45 or a S&W 1917 .45. Many of these matches were indoors and most shooters shot .38 Specials with 148 gr. wadcutters over a couple grains of Bullseye. Three grains was pretty much a factory load and these guys shot less than that. Dad would go in and shoot his .45 Colt with full Blackpowder. The blast and the smoke psyched a lot of the shooters and made it easier for him to take the match. He also would make a few practice shots with the 1917 holding it upside down in his left hand, pulling the trigger with his little finger. He would make a shot near center on the bullseye and then quit and wait for the match to start. That put a lot of pressure on the other shooters.

So early on I learned how to to that ... shoot the sixgun upside down in the 'weak' hand. This came in handy at times.

I was the new pastor at the little church in the southern Arizona mountains. New in town. New to most all the people. I had been there a couple weeks and my wife and I were invited to dinner at one of the church member's homes. When we arrived the husband and I got to talking while the women were in the kitchen. He said, "Hey preacher .. you ever shoot a gun?" I said, "Yeah a couple times." He said, "Lets go out back and shoot some beer bottles." And I agreed. I said, "I have an old pistol in the car. I will get it." And went and got my old 7 1/2" Ruger Blackhawk in .45 Colt.

He looked a little surprised at the gun and then pointed to the bottles about 10 or 15 yards off and said, "Think you can break one?" I said I would be happy to give it a try. I held the sixgun upside down in my left hand and broke 5 bottles in a row. He just looked at me, walked in the house and put his gun away without firing a shot. We had a nice dinner and polite conversation but he never talked about shooting with me again.