Elmer Keith Book question

[Black River Smith]

I want to buy the book but there appears to be three different versions of the Keith book called Sixguns - The standard reference works.

What is the best version in your opinion?  The one with two percussion pistols on cover (1955 version??) / the one with russel drawing of cowboy on horse in town (1961 version) / or the one with Tom Mix (I think) (2012 reprint of 1955??)?

Or are all of the version exactly the same text and it does not matter?

Thanks

[Delmonico]

The 61 was an up-date of the 1955, just has a bit more in it, including the 44 mag.

[Black River Smith]

Thanks for the response.  I found one at 'my price' on Amazon.

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[Delmonico]

Good read no matter which one.   Should be mandatory for anyone before they are allowed to have a handgun.   

[St. George]

True...

And it should be re-read every so often, because new facts seem to emerge.

Scouts Out!

[Johnson Barr]

My copy has a baby dragoon and a cased Walker on the cover. Inside cover lists 1955 and 1961 copy rights. This is the definitive book that at the age of fifteen lead me on what is now a 45+ year percussion addiction. Hello, my name is Mark. I am a cap-a-holic!

[Black River Smith]

JB,

That is the version I was able to get.  Mine was from amazon and according to the description - has been at a high school library since 1976.  I just hope it is intact and all pages present.

Well sir, seeing that we are about the same age, it appears that I am 45 years behind you in reading this.

I too had a real like for the 1851 but the Richards conversion was always a desire to own, never did though.  CAS for me was mainly a 1873 clone.
 

[Johnson Barr]

After Elmer passes grace over you my friend, you will have to have a '51 cap gun and wonder why all the fru-fraw over the obviously, now proved, self contained cartridge myth will never last. Loose powder, like loose women will satisfy a mans needs. Cap on brother!

[Delmonico]

He also might want to put gold bars on his front site, a winter project to find out about, have a friend who does some jewlery work.


Bill Ruger should have had that done with all his ajustable sighted SA revolvers.


I will hit the 300 yard targets at Camp Pitspiter next year, not just the 100 and 200 yard ones.

[Davem]

I really like old Elmer and I think in some circles he gets a bad rap for being a "big gun" fanatic.  A lot of what you read has to be re-read to a degree. An example is the 600 yard handgun shots.  If I recall he is in the arid west where the bullet will kick up some dust so he can tell where he is off and then walk up the shots and then the deal is you might be able to hit the target half the time- well at 600 yards that's still pretty incredible. Some folks read that stuff but come away with this attitude you can just shoot a handgun at 600 yards which was not the case.
I have never found anything Elmer wrote to be untrue.  You can bank on anything he ever wrote.  On the "big Gun" stuff he deals with all that, the heavy African type guns being shot offhand. The recoil isn't as bad when you are standing.   He also wrote a very good book on shotguns but it was pretty much built around the old side by sides.  He liked Ithaca.  He shot the 10 Gauge Magnum but a 10 gauge magnum side by side weighs a lot so the recoil is less.  He also thought the old 16 was an ideal upland gun.

[Navy Six]

Make sure all the pages are there. My 1955 copy has a few pages that are loose and comming apart from the binding. I take care of books and I took special care of this one as I got it directly from Elmer Keith along with his autograph. At one time you could write him and order most of his books (if he still had copies) and he would autograph them with a short personal inscription if you wished. Mine are all dated to the late Seventies.
I bought a second copy of SIXGUNS so I wouldn't put more wear on the original. I seem to recall there was some problem with how the paper in books was treated at that time which has caused this deterioration. You better believe I reread them every few years. Elmer was directly responsible--with a little help from Skeeter Skelton--for my interest(ADDICTION) in shooting.

[Black River Smith]

Navy Six, you are a luck man to have an autographed copy of the book.

So far I am only on page 77.  Mainly through the history and now into SW and what calibers are best for what type of work.

Definitely interesting to this point.