" What started it all ? "

[Red Rock Hank]

I was a kid in the heyday of the TV Westerns. I 'm actually old enough to remember walking to the Movie Theater with my Dad on Saturdays to watch the Hopalong Cassidy movies. I received a cowboy hat for my 3rd birthday, which legend has it, did not leave my head for three days and nights.

Hoppy, The Cisco Kid, The Lone Ranger and Tonto, Roy Rogers, Gene Autrey, Wild Bill Hickok, Wyatt Earp, The Lawman, Bat Masterson, Yancey Derringer, Cheyenne, The Rebel, Wanted Dead or Alive, Have Gun Will Travel.... My brain was soaked, and marinated in Westerns.

When I was about five my Mom took me downtown, and I picked out my first cap gun. It was modeled after the 1851 Navy, with reddish brown plastic grips. It was more substantial than a run of the mill cap gun, and the loading lever actually worked. Operating the lever popped up the guns cap chamber for reloading. I took great care of that gun, and would have it still if it had not been collateral damage in the "Great Toy Chest Massacre" of 1967.

Needless to say when it came to a chance to buy my first Colt clone, it was an 1851 Navy.

Love of The Old West and the guns of that era are embedded deep in my being.

[Slamfire]

 We must embrace our past ,, and hold on to our short present ,, " we are the lucky one's " ,, for the future doesn't hold much hope ,,if it ( gun's )don't have a " Lazy  Beam and a muffler " how are they going to hit anything ( just my take on it ) .


  smoke'm if y'a got'm ,, Hootmix .

[Tinker Pearce]

I got started on percussion revolvers when I was stationed at Ft.Riley, Kansas. I'd been reading Louis L'Amour religiously ever since I joined, and saw a Navy Arms 1860 Army in a local gun store and asked to see it. Sheer curiosity, really... until the gun welded itself to my hand and felt like an extension of my being. I bought it and an 1851 5-1/2" 'Sheriff.' I started taking them coyote hunting with one of my sergeants, and my the time I mustered out I had a small collection, and my first SAA clone- an ASM .45 Colt I believe.

In the civilian world I wound up working for Detonics, which got me started on 1911s and IPSC. I never really got back into cap-and-ball, but in '98 I lucked into a USFA at about half-price. No idea how that happened. Then I got a Cimarron Thunderer and loved it. Unfortunately we lost our asses in the high-tech crash in 2008 and had to liquidate to stay afloat.  I wanted another SAA-type, but didn't reload so I couldn't afford a .45; ammo prices had skyrocketed, and to me a SAA just doesn't feel right in a caliber that doesn't begin with '4.'  I think there's just too much metal in the .357 cylinder and barrel. I mourned for my cowboy guns, but soldiered on.

Then my wife bought me a Cimarron Richards-mason Conversion replica in .38 Special for Christmas- a caliber I could afford to shoot now and then! I was in love- the looks and balance of an 1851 with the convenience of metallic cartridges? Yes please! The I caught the gunsmithing bug and was off and running. I made two cartridge conversions using Kirst gated conversions, and started reloading so I could afford to shoot them. Then of course I had to make my own conversions. The rest was history... or maybe mythology...

[Buffalo Creek Law Dog]

During the Davy Crockett era, my flintlock was an old hockey stick.  A small nail for the front sight and trigger, a hammer from a broken cap pistol nailed to the side for the cock (hammer) and the trigger nailed in front of it backwards for the frizzen.

[DeaconKC]

I guess I've always liked guns. My folks have a picture of me at about 3 years old with a cowboy hat and cap gun! My Grandpa bought me my first pair of boots when I was 2! As soon as I could I began collecting and shooting. A love of history sparked research and growing up in Chicago has really caused my interest in the Prohibition Wars and their guns.

[The Pathfinder]

Growing up watching the early westerns on TV and reruns of the old western movies with my grandfather.  :)Then being taught to shoot using my great uncle's original 1851 Navy, my great grandfather's original 1860 Army, my uncle's original 1895 Springfield, another uncle's Kentucky rifle and my father's Enfield Jungle Carbine.  I know, but my father hated having to clean up after the black powder, for which I forgave him many years ago. My first rifle was a 32-30 1892 Winchester, then an EMF 1851 and then an Iver Johnson Cattleman in 45 Colt. Then my first Real Colt SAA. Now well over a hundred (most of which I still have) guns later, I guess I'm hooked. And waiting patiently (well, mostly) for Cimarron's new American to come out.

[Professor Marvel]

Under the Tree a Hubley 45 ( Yes thats what Hubley called it )

That was 62 years ago ... I fell for the streamlined Colt 1860 Army ....

Oh my good Major

Did you save those white plastic grips all those years for the prop Centaur you described in the Centaur thread?

Prof Marvel

[Cowtown]

Where did this begin?

Early on, Bonanza and the Big Valley followed by all of Louis L'Amour's books.

Then in college my roommate and I found two CnB guns at a gunshop and he already knew something about these so we bought them. A .36 and a .44 something or others. Paid less than $80 each, shot them a few times, had fun and then got into paintball. How quickly that SQUIRREL hit us then. 

Fast forward to the Selleck movies and it stuck this time.

Now I have CnB guns and open tops I use in SASS. Love 'em.

[Major 2]

Oh my good Major

Did you save those white plastic grips all those years for the prop Centaur you described in the Centaur thread?

Prof Marvel

Ah ! a resurrected thread     

I just saw your question Professor...No Sir... The Centaur in question was not mine, but was on the Prop Trailer and I did recognize the plastic grip from the Hubley.
That gun disappeared, we assumed stolen, but it turned up years later on the trailer.
It went missing again, to my knowledge it is still missing   
Though the trailer is still parked in Riverton Ill. but hasn't moved in several years.

[Tascosa Joe]

I suppose my interest started with TV and radio Westerns.  My grandfather and I used to listen to Gunsmoke on the radio before we had a TV.  He also had a Colt SA 38-40 that he carried on his truck in the 1930's.  He or my Dad held it and I pulled the trigger when I was 3 or 4 (49 or 50} and I have been addicted to them ever since.  I still have it and a NRA Centennial .45 SA that I received as a college graduation gift in 72.  I have several others and have traded lots of guns over the years, but those 2 are still with me.  My first open top was a 4 screw 1860 Army I traded for in the mid 60's it had all the finish buffed off, but it was a neat old gun with an untold history.

[Coffinmaker]

  Ha! 

No flash, no Fanfare.  I also had a plethora of toys in the 60s.  But it really started when I walked into a Gun Show in Denver Colorado and the local SASS club had an actual Overland Wells Fargo stage coach set up with a table in front and continuous running video.  Not to mention two of the gals were in Saloon Girl costume.  I must admit, the Saloon Girls hooked me right in.

Play Safe Out There

[Drydock]

So how many cap gun barrels did ya saw off afore mom took the big carving knife away?

[Higganum]

   My Dad had a pine 6-gun cabinet with a storage cabinet underneath. He builtit from magazine plans.  He was always willing to let me handle "The Guns." He was a Connecticut  pheasant hunter (12 ga Remington 11-48) and went to Maine  to deer hunt (300 Savage 99EG) a week every year. He had some guns but was not an enthusiast.
   For my ninth birthday, 1961, my mother gave me the book "Great American Guns and Frontier Fighters" by Will Bryant.  I still read it every year or so. To me, it tied everything together, the history, technolgy, and art of firearms. It's been my main hobby ever since.