Just wanted to post these for your viewing pleasure. These are from the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering just last month where I and my friend Jim Jones performed and just plain had a grand old time. It’s a great event and I highly recommend it. See the link above for more details about next year’s Gathering.
Far from being antiques, modern single-action revolvers are extremely popular among today’s handgunners. In this day of higher-capacity semi-autos and double-action revolvers, it’s difficult for some to consider the single action as a viable choice for personal defense. But, single-action revolvers were
originally designed as fighting guns and they did an excellent job of taking care of defensive chores for many, many years.
Today, the modern semi-automatic pistol and double-action sixgun have the old single action beat in capacity and speed of reloading. But, center hits stop dangerous attacks, not the amount of ammo your gun carries or how fast you can recharge it. Let’s look at some of the shooters who favor the single action and examine some of the techniques that make the single action a viable choice.
Click here to visit Shooting Illustrated to read the rest of this article.
Among the calibers that came from the military is the 7×57 mm Mauser.
It’s surprising how many of our most useful and reliable cartridges started life in the military. Some that quickly come to mind are the .45 Colt, .45 ACP, .308 Win., .223 Rem., and the glorious .30-’06 Sprg. And right in among those, I also have to add another great performer, the 7×57 mm Mauser. The 7×57 mm, although less popular in this country, is an excellent performer featuring good accuracy and moderate recoil.
Click here to visit American Rifleman to read the entire article.
Jim with an Australian Buffalo.
Our Australian buffalo hunt couldn’t have been more successful. Il Ling and I used the 350 gr. Barnes TSX bullets, in .375 H&H, to take eight head of buffalo and one Australian Wild Ox.
We were hunting with Simon Kyle-Little, of Australian Big Game Safaris, on the Walker River, in Eastern Arnhem Land. This area is all tribal land, some 12 million acres of it, and Simon’s concession is 2 million acres. And, on those 2 million acres, the only fence is the one around the camp garden. Our hunting companions were Dr. Dean Taylor, Vee Miller, and Doug Miller.
Asian buffalo, bantang, and wild ox, were all brought to northern Australia about 1830. At this time, there were forts being established and the idea was that these animals would feed the soldiers. However, a few years later, the forts were abandoned and the various bovine were released to fend for themselves. The animals have run wild ever since.
Il Ling and Simon Kyle-Little with one of her head of buffalo.
Our specific load for the Barnes 350 gr. TSX bullet consisted of Remington cases and enough Ramshot Big Game powder to drive the bullets to 2300fps. This proved to be a very accurate load on paper and very comfortable to shoot. As our hunt proved, there is absolutely no need to drive the 350 gr. TSX bullet any faster. The .375 H&H does not have to pound you to give good results.
During our hunt, we took buffalo at distances from 12 yards to 272 yards (a one-shot kill). The Barnes bullets that we recovered showed good expansion with all of the petals intact. However, as you can imagine, several of our shots gave full penetration and the bullets were not recovered. In these cases, however, the exit wound clearly showed that the bullets had expanded.
The biggest adventure that I had on this hunt was collecting an Australian Wild Ox. These animals are the original short-horned European cattle that have run wild in Australia since the 1830s. They are quite a bit spookier than the Asian buffalo and the big bulls prefer to stay in the really heavy timber, either in the swamps, or along the wooded ridges. Usually, when you see a wild ox, you are looking at his rump and he is leaving. In spookiness, I would compare them to whitetail deer.
In other parts of Australia ranchers will have wild cattle, inside their fenced pastures, and improperly call them wild ox. Nothing could be further from the truth. These are merely scrub cattle of all different colors. The true Australian Wild Ox is red in color and found in only the most remote areas. The SCI recognizes the Wild Ox only when it is red in color and taken in remote areas, specifically not on ranches.
At any rate, I took my Wild Ox in the heaviest brush of the coastal swamp region. When I first saw him, he looked like a red freight train moving across a small opening in the brush. I shot him on the point of the left shoulder at @ 20 yds, and broke that shoulder and leg. As he spun and thrashed, I was able to move in closer and shoot him in the right shoulder at @ 12 yards. Simon came in to about seven yards and spined him with his BRNO .375 (the spine shot was not needed, but we had no way of knowing that at the time). This big bull was every bit of 2,000 pounds and had a massive set of horns. Altogether, a great trophy!
Jim and Simon pose with the elusive Australian Wild Ox.
I can’t recommend Simon Kyle-Little enough. He has been guiding Australian hunts for 28 years. He runs a clean, efficient hunting camp and he knows his game. Based upon the client’s physical condition and desire, Simon can do a spot & stalk hunt or the more strenuous, day-long hunts into heavy brush. Naturally, the heavy brush is where the big bulls are going to be found.
Simon’s wife, Elspeth, is a past master at getting all of the client’s permits and documents in proper order. Two of our hunting companions wrote down the serial numbers of their rifles in the wrong sequence. This usually results in the rifles being confiscated. However, in both cases, Elspeth was able to get the mistake corrected and the guns returned to the hunters in time for their hunts. More importantly, Simon & Elspeth conduct their hunts in a pleasant, honest manner that makes you want to go ahead and book another hunt right away. Check out their web site at www.australianbiggamesafaris.com.au.
My story on this buffalo hunt will appear in the NRA’s American Hunter magazine. I’ll also write up the Wild Ox hunt separately, and you can expect it to appear in another magazine.
See ya down the road…..
In just a couple of days we’ll be off to the Northern Territory of Australia on a buffalo-culling operation. We’ll be hunting with Simon & Elspeth Kyle-Little (www.australianbiggamesafaris.com) on the Gove Peninsula in the Northern Territory.
I’ll be shooting my Ruger #1, in .375 H&H, with a Leupold 1.5×5 scope. Il Ling will be shooting her brand new CZ 550, also in .375 H&H. Thanks to our friend Jason Morton, at CZ USA, for getting that rifle out to her so quickly (www.cz-usa.com).
We’ll both be shooting a new Barnes 350 gr. TSX bullet for the .375. The bullets are loaded over a suitable load of Ramshot’s Big Game powder, pushing them at a bit over 2300fps. This new bullet and load are surprisingly accurate and has produced ¾” groups in both of your rifles. Jessica Brooks tells me that Barnes will put the new 350 TSX and a 350 gr. banded solid in their 2010 Barnes Bullets catalog (www.barnesbullets.com).
Anyway, we are really excited about this hunt. We’ll have some good friends along to share camp with and it should be all-around great fun. I’ll be writing the hunt up for American Hunter magazine. And, of course, will have a full report, with photos, for my web site when I get back.
See ya down the road….
Well, finally, here is my new web site. I will be updating it on a regular basis and sharing events, thoughts, and ideas, with you. If you have information or questions, you can reach me at jw.44@sbcglobal.net.
WEB SITE
Thanks go to my friend Carlos Vazquez for designing and maintaining this web site. I highly recommend his work and, if you’re needing a web site, or work done on an existing web site, you can contact him at Dichotomy Consulting. I think you’ll be pleased with his service.
WRITING ENDEAVORS
In the spring of 2008, I quit Shooting Times and Intermedia. Almost immediately, I began an association with NRA Publications. I’ve got a regular column (Straight Talk) in Shooting Illustrated, and I do feature articles for Shooting Illustrated, American Rifleman, and American Hunter magazines. In addition to that, you’ll see my articles in the various Wolfe publications, Handloader and Rifle magazines.
Joe Graham, John Zent, and the crew at the NRA, are great folks to work with and I am really enjoying this association. I’ll say the same for Don Polacek, Dave Scovill, and Roberta Scovill, at Wolfe Publishing Company. This change in writing jobs also brings with it the opportunity to do a lot more hunting and writing about hunting. As you can imagine, that just about broke my heart. But, in the words of that Great American John Wayne, “A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do!”
TELEVISION WORK
In conjunction with my association with the NRA, I have also increased my television work. You’ll see my regular weekly segment on American Guardian TV on Wednesday nights, on the Outdoor Channel. And I am also featured on the American Rifleman show and the American Hunter show, also on the Outdoor Channel.
In fact, back in March, we had a great aoudad hunt down along the Rio Grande, in the Chinati Mountains of the Texas Big Bend. We filmed it for the American Hunter show and I think you’ll find it pretty exciting. I can tell you this, with the passing years; those mountains seem to be getting steeper. Must be a global warming thing.
So, anyway, welcome to my new web site. I hope that you enjoy it and will visit it often. I’ll do my best to have an update of some kind for you each month. Let me hear from you with your questions, thoughts, and ideas.
See ya down the road……
Sheriff Jim Wilson is the latest addition to the prestigious list of columnists featured monthly in Shooting Illustrated, The Definitive Source for The Modern Shooter. Wilson, arguably one of the most respected gun writers in the industry, has his first installment in the August issue of the magazine.
Wilson served as a Texas police officer in Crockett and Denton counties for nearly 30 years. In 1988 he was elected sheriff of Crockett County, a position he occupied until his retirement in 1996. Since then his byline has appeared in a variety of publications, covering firearms, ammunition, personal protection and much more.
“I can’t think of a better writer to provide accurate information on self-defense, facing down a bad guy or accurately depicting strategies or situations readers may someday encounter,” said Shooting Illustrated Editor in Chief Guy J. Sagi. “His column is named ‘Straight Talk,’ partly because of his style that has garnered such a loyal readership, but also because he will be delivering the truth about self-defense, without all the hype.”
For more information about Shooting Illustrated, visit www.shootingillustrated.com
To read the original news release at The Outdoor Wire, please click here.
My disillusionment with the police riot shotgun came to a head some years ago during the apprehension of a felony suspect. The bad guy was hit with a load of 00 buck. He did not go down. He did not even seem too uncomfortable about the whole affair. And finally, his injuries from the shotgun blast were not very serious. I quickly became very unimpressed with riot guns.
Now, you have to understand that back in those days, our shotguns were part of the equipment that stayed in the squad cars. You had to continually check to see if the gun was loaded or if there were extra shells in the car. And the buckshot loads we were issued were not purchased because they were the most powerful or gave the best patterns. That shotgun ammunition was selected because it was the cheapest ammo the city could buy.
In October of 2006, I spent a week at Gunsite. This is the school that the late Col. Jeff Cooper founded out north of Prescott, Arizona. I was there as a guest of Smith & Wesson, and a host of other companies, to spend the week shooting and using new products. I also had the chance to spend time with the new owner, Buz Mills, and his fine staff. I was impressed enough with their teaching skills that I booked another school with them for May of 2007.
Gunsite is a great place to learn the basics of defensive use of the handgun, as well as develop useful skills with the rifle and shotgun. A little over a year ago, I visited with a lady from Arizona who wanted to learn defensive handgun skills and get her Arizona Concealed Carry license. At my suggestion, she booked a class at Gunsite and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. Later, I wrote her story up for one of my Gun Smoke columns.
But Gunsite is far more than a school for beginners. Its a great place for experienced shooters to re-sharpen their shooting skills. Thats the reason that Im going back in May. Left to our own devices, we tend to practice what were already good at. A good shooting school will make you stretch just a bit and work on those things that need improvement.
by Bob Gray
The proper order of things is that first you live it–then you write about it. Doesn’t really matter whether it’s prose, poetry, or music. It’s very doubtful that you’re going to have anything interesting to say about an experience you haven’t had.
With Jim Wilson, a featured player on the Schreiner University campus during Living History Day on September 26th, that’s not a problem. Born in Austin and raised in San Antonio, a peace officer in Denton and elected Sheriff of Crockett County until his retirement in 1996, this is a man who has lived the Texas and Western life.
One of things I look for in a person is the words they are willing, or unwilling, to use when describing what’s important to them. So the first line in Jim Wilson’s website biography was very reassuring for both the words used and sentiments expressed:
“Cowboy music is a great way to keep in touch with our traditions and re-affirm freedom as Western people.”
Work it through. He is saying several things–nearly none of which you’re likely to hear today said publicly. Most important in my mind is that Freedom is important –“freedom as a Western people.” The concomitant thought is that westerners view freedom differently than northerners and easterners. It’s true, we do. We have traditions of freedom that genuinely seem to befuddle New Yorkers. We carry guns in our pick-ups (an instantaneous reason for arrest and incarceration in NY). We haven’t yet caught the virus that makes every problem a political problem. We don’t automatically look to government for help. A true Westerner doesn’t go on Oprah or Jerry Springer and cry or display indelicacies and emotions for the world to pick over.
“Cowboy music is a great way to keep in touch with our traditions…” Precisely so. Cowboy music is born of hard work and self-reliance. The Western tradition is not the 9 to 5 and TV ‘til midnight way of life found elsewhere. The attitude that prevails in most of the country (and prisons) is that “if it’s not happening to me, it’s not happening.”
Westerners think differently. When our neighbors have a problem, we help without being asked–and we expect nothing in return but “Thanks.” When we have a problem we keep it to ourselves if possible. We work it out as best we can without applying for a government loan or laying our responsibilities off on others.
In fact, we are much more likely to respond in the way he describes in the song Seven Days From Musquiz on his CD, Border Bravo. In this song (and remember that it is being sung by a life-long lawman), he and his partner are left with the choice–starve or smuggle some horses out of Mexico. You don’t have to guess. They “know that what we’re doing really ain’t alright, but the grass is short in Texas and there ain’t no rain in sight.” They don’t apply for a government loan, they don’t take up a collection from the neighbors, they don’t demand the local church bail them out. They smuggle.
It’s important to make the distinction here: He isn’t saying that hard times excuse breaking the law. If they’re caught they’ll take the punishment without crying about it. His point is rather that his life is his responsibility–and he’d rather break the law than bitch about fate or ask others to subsidize him.
These attitudes are Westerner’s customary responses, and are all things that Cowboy music epitomizes. And Jim Wilson’s music–the songs he writes and those he covers–are in this tradition.
As if to underscore this fact, Wilson works as the handgun editor for Shooting Times magazine, while simultaneously serving as vice-president of the Western Music Association. “When I was Crockett County sheriff, I worked for the passage of the Texas concealed/carry (handguns) bill. I wanted us to have a better law on the books than the old Penal Code 46.02, that was so ambiguous,” he told me. He is happiest when ranch and rural folks in his audience respond to his music. “My music is for people who live on gravel roads, and the ones who have always wanted to.” All of this is connected–and gratifying to hear from a Texas peace officer.
The Western Music Association has nominated Border Bravo for album of the year. One of his original and most beautiful songs, Mountain Home, finished in the top five at the Academy of Western Artists awards show held on July 8th in Ft. Worth. Considering the hundreds of songs and albums produced annually in Texas, this is no small feat.
Another of his originals, The Road to Sonora, combines gorgeous and innovative instrumentals with retrospective lyrics. His voice and style are the perfect meld of the best from Ray Price and Johnny Cash. The result is both individual and warmly recognizable. This is an experienced hand doing what he loves.
You should be seriously considering buying this album by now. If love of truly beautiful Texas music played and sung by seasoned and peerless performers is a motivator, then log onto www.sheriffjimwilson.com. There you’ll meet him, see his incredible performance schedule, and be able to order the album.
On Friday, the 26th of September, Jim will be performing his songs and telling his stories in person to all comers to the Living History Day on Schreiner University campus in Kerrville, Texas, from 9 am to 3 pm. Well, actually from 9 to 10 am he will be conducting an up close and personal seminar in Cailloux Hall on the campus. This seminar is open to the first twenty people who sign up with $15. Go to club.ed@kerrvilleisd.net for more information. The seminar is being kept small so the time spent is personal and intimate. While the seminar is going to concern mainly music writing, for those of us who write everything but songs – Jim is busy now on a novel. The story will be based on actual circumstances, a murder on the border in the 1890’s. While the rest will be fiction, even the fiction is going to be based on a lifetime of living the lawman life in America’s last real frontier – the Southwest. The tentative title is Agua Verde Crossing (also the name of the third of his original songs on the CD). I can hardly wait.
And you aren’t going to find a more widely experienced performer to answer your questions. He’s been performing since his college days back in the 1960’s, and Border Bravo is an excellent showcase for all he’s learned through those years. If you can make it to the Living History Day performance, you can buy the album for fifteen dollars and save the two bucks for shipping and handling.
“This will be my second year to perform at Living History Day. Kerrville has always represented all the different types of Texas music, and that’s what I really like about this event. Kathleen (Director of the Texas Heritage Music Foundation) brings them all together on one day in one place,” said Wilson. “The American West and the cowboy aren’t dying as some folks seem to think. They may be changing a little, but they sure aren’t dying out. As long as there’s a beef industry in America, and wild country to run cattle in, the American cowboy will be alive and well.” I’d like to add that, as long as there are peace officers like Jim Wilson, freedom will also thrive in Texas–and America. BG
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