sixshot
Buckeye
Everyone who's ever heard of Elmer Keith knows that he always preferred "big & slow" over "small & fast" when it came to hunting or self defense.
Going back 35 years I had a table at a local gun show, one of the guns on my table was a very early Ruger #1 in 45/70. A gentleman stopped at my table who was very interested in my 4 digit #1, it had outstanding wood, some of the finest wood I'd ever seen on a factory rifle.
The man's name was Jed Wilson, he was either the Sherrif or a deputy of Lemhi County (Salmon) Idaho & was very well aquainted with Elmer Keith. I had met Elmer 2-3 times earlier & was eager to make another trip north to Salmon. Jed called me a few days after the gun show & told me he wanted to purchase the 45/70, I told him I would deliver the gun if he would tell Elmer I was coming & would like to visit him again, he said he would take care of it.
I've shown this photo before but its worth showing again. This is Elmer Keith in about 1975 holding his own Ruger #1, we were out back of his house in his trophy/writing room.
After my visit with Elmer I drove over to Jed Wilson's, he showed me a very nice gun collection & told me an interesting story of why he had a large steel chest on the floor of one of his bedrooms. Instead of a safe he had this chest built so that it was too big to fit through the door....no one could steal it because of its size!
The story goes like this, Jed's son was a policeman for the city of Salmon, he noticed a car traveling at a high rate of speed running through a red light, he gave chase & a running gun fight broke out. Jed's son called for backup as the chase headed north along the Salmon River & would last for many miles next to the Montana border.
The young Wilson fired many shots trying to break the back window of the getaway car, his duty gun, a 9mm was just bouncing the issue ammo off the glass, the bad guy was returning fire but no one was getting hit & all those involved were just having a great time getting in a little night time shooting practice.
Finally after a 30 mile chase the bad guy got stopped & when the cops popped open the trunk of the car there was 2 dozen of the younger Wilson's dads gun collection bouncing around on the floor. Thats why he later had the steel trunk built. He told me Elmer Keith gave all of them the raspberries for packing those itty bitty 9mm's when a single 44 slug would have ended the chase. The getaway car has over 20 hits on the glass &
body!
Jed told me he carried a 44 "most" of the time after that, he didn't want the "old prophet" chewing on him again for carrying a dinky little 9mm!
Dick
Going back 35 years I had a table at a local gun show, one of the guns on my table was a very early Ruger #1 in 45/70. A gentleman stopped at my table who was very interested in my 4 digit #1, it had outstanding wood, some of the finest wood I'd ever seen on a factory rifle.
The man's name was Jed Wilson, he was either the Sherrif or a deputy of Lemhi County (Salmon) Idaho & was very well aquainted with Elmer Keith. I had met Elmer 2-3 times earlier & was eager to make another trip north to Salmon. Jed called me a few days after the gun show & told me he wanted to purchase the 45/70, I told him I would deliver the gun if he would tell Elmer I was coming & would like to visit him again, he said he would take care of it.
I've shown this photo before but its worth showing again. This is Elmer Keith in about 1975 holding his own Ruger #1, we were out back of his house in his trophy/writing room.
After my visit with Elmer I drove over to Jed Wilson's, he showed me a very nice gun collection & told me an interesting story of why he had a large steel chest on the floor of one of his bedrooms. Instead of a safe he had this chest built so that it was too big to fit through the door....no one could steal it because of its size!
The story goes like this, Jed's son was a policeman for the city of Salmon, he noticed a car traveling at a high rate of speed running through a red light, he gave chase & a running gun fight broke out. Jed's son called for backup as the chase headed north along the Salmon River & would last for many miles next to the Montana border.
The young Wilson fired many shots trying to break the back window of the getaway car, his duty gun, a 9mm was just bouncing the issue ammo off the glass, the bad guy was returning fire but no one was getting hit & all those involved were just having a great time getting in a little night time shooting practice.
Finally after a 30 mile chase the bad guy got stopped & when the cops popped open the trunk of the car there was 2 dozen of the younger Wilson's dads gun collection bouncing around on the floor. Thats why he later had the steel trunk built. He told me Elmer Keith gave all of them the raspberries for packing those itty bitty 9mm's when a single 44 slug would have ended the chase. The getaway car has over 20 hits on the glass &
body!
Jed told me he carried a 44 "most" of the time after that, he didn't want the "old prophet" chewing on him again for carrying a dinky little 9mm!
Dick
