Thread: Race Guns
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Jeff Higgins Jeff Higgins is online now
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Yeah, there is no shortage of people who shoot themselves in the leg when playing Wild Bill Hickok with loaded six-guns. All quick draw competition is done with blanks, unless they actually have to hit something (usually a balloon), in which case they use wax wads. Even those can be dangerous, though... there was a television actor who shot himself in the head with one in the '70's. He died.

The next step down this rabbit hole is what is known as a "slip gun". Elmer Keith covers them extensively in Sixguns by Keith.



Notice there is no trigger. That, and the hammer spur has been cut off and welded back on lower down the hammer. These are pure close range gunfighter weapons. They are fired by simply pulling the hammer back with the thumb or web of the hand as the gun is drawn, letting the hammer slip out from under it when the muzzle comes up on target.

Keith actually used one for awhile, determined to get good with it. He accomplished that, but in the end found it to be too "single use", and it ruined him for trigger work. Interesting little bit of gunfighting history, though.
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Old 01-13-2024, 02:17 PM
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