DESERT MARKSMEN RIFLE & PISTOL CLUB ANTELOPE VALLEY, CA FOUNDED 1958 *2021 THIRD EDITION* *SPECIAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING* MARK YOUR CALENDAR DMRPC will host a membership meeting on Saturday, June 5th, 2021, at 2:00 pm. The meeting will be at the Black Powder range; bring your own chair. Gate security staff will be in place to manage the Angeles Forest Highway gate for our member’s convenience. As always, plan ahead for any type of weather. Proposed changes to the DMRPC bylaws are the focal point of this meeting. In order to make necessary changes to ensure the future of our club, this must be done in person with a quorum of members prior to sending out ballots. ================================================================= SAFETY MESSAGE When arriving at the DMRPC complex, for those members who wish to wear a loaded sidearm, and are not already carrying their sidearm (CCW), DO NOT handle firearms in the parking areas when you arrive; bring your cased sidearm to one of the designated firing points such as the main rifle firing line, pistol shed, or “fiddle zone” located adjacent to the tactical range, and when safe to do so, load your sidearm and secure it in a proper holster. If other people are down range, placing targets, etc., in a “cease fire” manner, wait until all have come back, the “all clear” signal has been given, which at that point you may load, and safely holster your sidearm. It is absolutely crucial that the rules of safe gun handling are observed, and in that case especially so of proper muzzle discipline and keeping your fingers OFF the trigger during the holstering process. As a reminder, when people are down range, DO NOT handle ANY firearms. WAIT until the “all clear” has been given, and only at that point can firearms be handled. If you are wearing a holstered sidearm, it must remain holstered. If your firearm is securely cased prior to a called “cease fire”, it can then be moved at any time while cased. You may set it down at any firing point while cased, however it is NOT to be opened until everyone is safely back behind the firing line, and the “all clear” signal is given. “Handling” means anytime you make physical contact with any part of the firearm; while people are down range, DO NOT touch firearms. To do so is not only a safety violation, it is against DMRPC rules, and is very RUDE. ================================================================ COWBOY ACTION SHOOTING It has been a busy year for everyone, with our gracious DMRPC host of the cowboy action discipline keeping a busy schedule; he was still able to offer this latest installment in his continuing series: Hello and welcome back to part eight of our discussion on The Gun That Won The West. We have now passed the one year mark since this damnable pandemic grabbed hold of us and, with vaccinations well under way, we are setting our ever so hopeful sights on the slight chance of putting this thing behind us before yet another year races by. Until then however, what do you say we do our best to look forward to the good weather and good times ahead while we sit back for a spell to talk about some of our favorite subjects, one of which is guns! If I remember correctly, the last time we got together, we pondered the fact that we just might be focusing all of our attentions on the repeating rifle as the only type of firearm that could qualify as any sort of suitable candidate for the title of “The Gun That Won The West” when, in fact, it just might be possible that it could be the single shot rifle, the shotgun, or even the handgun that will end up holding this venerable title. If memory serves, in our last discussion we were on the cusp of the introduction of the 1873 Winchester, Hollywood’s single most popular choice for “The Gun That Won The West” but, it is important to remember that before this model’s release, or even the model before that, yes, all the way back to the Henry Repeating Rifle, Samuel Colt had already amassed a great deal of experience with his “revolvers”. In fact, by the time the Henry hit the market, Colt’s Manufacturing had already sold over 400,000 revolvers, and “Horse Soldiers” were well vetted in the their use on the battlefield, cementing the repeating handgun’s place in history forever. Samuel Colt, who was acting on an idea that he had while on an ocean voyage to Europe, supposedly based upon the ratcheting mechanism of the ship’s capstan or windlass mechanism and, also likely inspired by viewing the Collier Flintlock Revolver while visiting the Tower of London, hired gunsmith, Anson Chase to build a prototype of his revolving cylinder, single barrel, repeating handgun from wooden carvings and drawings that he had made while shipboard. Colt did not invent the revolver, but he perfected it by adding a locking pawl that held each chamber in alignment with the barrel upon the cocking of the hammer. Chase delivered the first prototype in 1831-32, and Colt quickly took it to the US Patent Office in Washington, where his designs were granted patents in 1836. Armed with a patented design, Colt sought facilities and capital to have his revolvers manufactured. In March of 1836, Colt, along with several investors, formed the Patent Arms Manufacturing Company in Patterson, New Jersey. Fraught with investor infighting, high sales prices and an inefficient manufacturing system, the company fell into bankruptcy by 1842, with only about 3,000 revolvers manufactured. Colt busied himself with other projects until he met Captain Sam Walker, and another familiar name from history, Ely Whitney, who had ample manufacturing facilities in Whitneyville, Connecticut. Together, Colt and Whitney were able to obtain a government contract for 1,000 revolvers. The contract was signed on January 4th, 1847, and the new gun, which Colt named the “Walker”, became the U.S. Model of 1847, the first revolver ever adopted by any military. Sam Colt was solidly in business now, and was sure to someday be a huge success, even though he himself admitted that the handgun would not be the gun to settle the vast North American frontier. The handgun is best classified as a personal protection weapon and, whether used defensively or offensively, is generally a short range proposition for person to person encounters. Until Sam Colt’s fairly reliable repeating Patterson revolver came into the picture, the handgun often came even after the sword as a last ditch option for when things got really sporty. The handgun was never designed to be “the” gun that would be used to secure the wilderness or to conquer the lands and its indigenous peoples. It was meant however, to accompany those brave men and women who did endeavor to persevere in such works. Although there are many accounts of times in which the use of the handgun saved the life of its user, against wild animals, was used in the taking of game for meat, or protected families from marauding bandits, the duty of settling a largely untamed wilderness and forming a nation were mostly beyond it’s scope. I believe that even though the handgun, whatever model it may be, was likely not the gun that won the west, It did serve a large supporting role, and it is my belief that its development and manufacture by Colt had a bigger historical significance than most of us might realize. Colt was more than the man who perfected the revolver; he was truly a man of his time in New England, which was a great center of mechanical invention. Much of this invention got its start in the gun making business, where manufacturing consisted of an inventor/designer/ gunsmith person, and a few employees. Colt’s unceasing desire to increase production and reduce cost changed all of that. Samuel Colt was a genius inventor of machine tools and manufacturing processes for the mass production of his revolvers. Tirelessly striving to improve production and reduce the cost of his firearms, Colt developed and implemented what we now call the American system of manufacturing. This system would be the basis for the American industrial revolution and it far out classed the smaller European systems of manufacture. In fact, Colt and his employees invented mass production rifling machinery that would be the world standard until well after WWII. Colt had built factories that instead of employing only a few gunsmiths making a few guns, one at a time, had an army of workers, in an ocean of machinery, turning out thousands of interchangeable parts to assemble the finest guns in the world. This method of manufacturing was further developed by other New England gun and tool makers, who mostly worked for Colt at some point, and many of them would adapt it to the manufacture of other products. Colt’s system spread like wildfire to the making of bicycles, typewriters, farm equipment and much more. Farther along the timeline of history, it was applied to the manufacture of automobiles where Henry Ford would use this system to build his cars. The massive American manufacturing giant that was able to supply our allies with the guns, vehicles, and other equipment through two world wars is due, in large part to Samuel Colt, a man who wanted to build more and better revolvers, cheaper and faster than anyone else. So, what do you think? Was Colt’s revolver The Gun That Won The West? Was it the Smith and Wesson with its bored through cylinder and self contained metallic cartridge? The Merwin & Hulbert with its quick change barrel system and Swiss like precision? Was it any handgun for that matter? There is no doubt that the development of each of these sidearms and the advancements in firearms and manufacturing technology that accompanied them, had a major impact on the very fabric of our rich history and, there can be no doubt that these sidearms were present at a great many pivotal moments in history.