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REMEMBERING SKEETER AND SIXGUNS WRITTEN BY JOHN TAFFIN

It is hard to believe Skeeter Skelton has been gone from us for a quarter of a century. There have been many excellent gunwriters over the past 100 years or so, and I have looked up articles by them written before WWI. Beginning in the late 1920s, Elmer Keith caught the attention of shooters and held it for over 50 years; I believe I’ve read everything he ever wrote, especially pertaining to sixguns. Keith wrote about sixguns, shotguns, rifles and hunting with nearly a dozen books to his credit.

Skeeter on the other hand, wrote mostly, almost exclusively, about handguns. His writing career lasted less than 30 years and he never wrote a book, however many of his articles were compiled into a pair of books after his passing and his influence and appeal are everlasting. Those two books which demand high dollar prices these days are Hipshots, Hoglegs, and Jalapenos and Good Friends, Good Guns, Good Whiskey. Just as with Elmer Keith, today Skeeter’s articles seem somewhat dated, nevertheless, just as with Keith, they are also highly relevant in many ways to shooters today.

Skeeter joined the Border Patrol in the early 1950s at a time when it was still a horseback outfit, and also was actually allowed to enforce federal law concerning illegals. He went on to become sheriff of Deaf Smith County, Texas, and while serving as sheriff wrote many of his early articles. His first freelance efforts appeared in this very magazine under his given name of Charles A. Skelton.

Skeeter Skelton was directly responsible for the resurrection of the S&W .44 Specials in the early 1980s.

 

Some articles I recall (in fact saved in my file) are “Pistols For Plainclothesmen,” “The New Varminters,” “Rigging Up For Sixgunning” and “Belt Guns Along Rio Grande.” I’m not a betting man, but if I was, I would be willing to wager many of those reading this have done the same thing. Skeeter also freelanced for Gun World and GunSport, then became handgun editor for Shooting Times in the mid-1960s. For more than 20 years in that position, Skeeter caught the imagination and attention of sixgunners everywhere.

Skeeter was more than just a gunwriter as he had a natural talent for entertaining stories, whether they were about his childhood days with his friend in the “Me And Joe” tales or his fictional accounts of the adventures of Dobe Grant. The imaginary Dobe was made up using a compilation of the attributes of several real characters in Skeeter’s life such as Bill Jordan and Evan Quiros. With “Me And Joe,” many of us were able to relive parts of our childhood and dream of years gone by that we shall never see again; with Dobe Grant there was always an adventure and a good definition of what real friendship is.

I first met Skeeter in 1978. The NRA Show was held in Salt Lake City that year, so Diamond Dot and I drove down to attend it as well as The Outstanding American Handgunner Awards Foundation Banquet. I had high hopes Skeeter would win that year, which he did, and I still have the banquet program he autographed for me. I caught his attention on the show floor by walking up to him and handing him a picture. It was a picture of a 1st Generation Colt Single Action I owned and the close-up of the barrel revealed an inscription: “Russian and S&W Special 44.” Skeeter grabbed me by the arm and said, “Let’s go find a place to talk.” He loved Colt Single Actions, especially the .44 Special.

Over the years, Skeeter’s physical condition suffered greatly because of several fights he experienced as a law officer, car accidents and especially a botched operation. He was 60 years old when everything finally caught up with him. While Skeeter was in the hospital I sent him many of my manuscripts, hoping with them he would experience just a small part of the enjoyment I had received from his.

Skeeter often carried a Colt Single Action (above). Skeeter with
his favorite 5″ Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum (below).

 

Two of my friends, John Wootters and Bob Baer, spent a lot of time visiting with Skeeter in the hospital, and the three of them, along with the help of Bill Grover, built what turned out to be Skeeter’s last sixgun. It is a Ruger 3-Screw .357 Blackhawk converted to .44 Special, fitted with stocks made from the horns of a bighorn sheep picked up by Wootters and Skeeter while in British Columbia. This sixgun now belongs to John Wootters and is pictured in my Book of the .44, which is now out of print. I also dedicated a chapter in that book to Skeeter and the resurrection of the .44 Special. Since his passing in 1988, I have tried to pick up the torch and carry it for sixguns in general… the .44 Special in particular.

Skeeter’s articles were mostly written at the time of the Classic Sixguns, in the middle of the 20th century. I was in college when he wrote about the arrival of the Colt New Frontier. His 5-1/2″ .44 Special was about the most beautiful single-action sixgun I had ever seen and I dreamed of the day I could possibly have one of my own. He not only liked the New Frontier but he had a special fondness for 4-3/4″ Colt Single Actions in both .45 Colt and .44 Special. He made all of us dream of what could be with his articles on custom single actions.

By the late 1970s, it was pretty impossible to find a Colt or Smith & Wesson .44 Special as they had both been removed from production. Skeeter showed us how to make our own in one of his articles. His piece on converting .357 Magnums to .44 Specials has had a tremendous affect over the past 30 years, with the result several top-drawer gunsmiths have converted hundreds of .357 Magnums to .44 Specials.

Skeeter showed us how to do it with both a Ruger 3-Screw Blackhawk and a S&W Highway Patrolman. Because of his writings, Colt returned the .44 Special Single Action into production and S&W produced both blued and stainless steel N-Frame .44 Specials in the early 1980s. Today both companies again offer .44 Specials; Ruger produces the .44 Special Flat-Top New Model while Lipsey’s offers special runs of Ruger .44 Specials, including the Bisley Model and the stainless steel Flat-Top Blackhawk. The .44 Special is indeed alive and well and are a lasting testimony to Skeeter’s inspirational articles.

Skeeter was also a great fan of the S&W double-action sixgun. We could all sympathize with him as he wrote how difficult it was to find a .357 Magnum S&W in the late 1950s. He finally came up with a 5″ Smith and, from his writings, I conclude it was one of his all-time favorite sixguns. Not only were .357 Magnum revolvers hard to find at that time, it was also very difficult to come up with .357 Magnum brass.

The load he developed will probably be forever known as the “Skeeter Load” and consisted of .38 Special brass, 13.5 grains of 2400 powder, and the Lyman Ray Thompson designed 358156 gas-checked bullet. This bullet has two crimping grooves and Skeeter used the bottom groove to allow more case capacity; muzzle velocity is right at 1,300 fps. With the arrival of the K-framed Smith & Wesson .357 Combat Magnum, Skeeter found he had a smaller and lighter Magnum which was much easier to pack all day; however, he still used his same load for this S&W sixgun.

Skeeter acquired one of the first 4″ 1950 Target .44 Special S&Ws, although when the .44 Magnum arrived he replaced it with a 4″ version of the latter. He soon found the Magnum was too heavy and too powerful for police work and went back to a 4″ 1950 Target Model .44 Special. (Just about every .44 Special sixgunner knows of and uses Skeeter’s .44 Special Load, the 250-grain Keith bullet over 7.5 grains of Unique.)

He opined at the time the .44 Magnum was strictly for hunting and he found a slightly used 7-1/2″ .44 Blackhawk, the original Flat-Top version and this became his favorite hunting handgun carried in a George Lawrence No. 120 Keith holster. He was carrying that sixgun and his brush clothes when he was called to take part in a drug raid and also when he pulled down on a drug smuggler, who was armed and ready to fight.

With that big .44, all the fight disappeared from the contrabandista; the man later said: “That cowboy had the biggest gun I ever saw!”

What are probably the most popular double-action revolver stocks ever designed are now known as Skeeter Skelton Stocks. Skeeter took the stocks Walter Roper designed for the S&W in the 1930s but modified them to better fit his hand. My friend, the late Deacon Deason of BearHug, acquired permission from Skeeter to reproduce this grip. With the passing of Deacon, friend Tedd Adamovich of BluMagnum now offers the same excellent grip for S&W double-action sixguns.

When it comes to sixguns and sixgunning, Elmer Keith and Skeeter Skelton influenced just about everything. Their writings caught the imagination, heart and soul of every true sixgunner. I hope in some small way, I have carried on their tradition.

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The IDF Mekut’zar Carbine: The Extraordinary Israeli Improvised Rifle BY Will Dabbs

The IDF Mekut’zar Carbine is a uniquely Israeli weapon. I took this picture in Israel in 2012.

Images like this from the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor rightfully conjured a white-hot rage among Americans of the era.

Table of contents

Dark Days In History

Certain dark days are burned into our national consciousness. For our grandparents’ generation, it was December 7th, 1941. The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor claimed 2,403 American dead and helped precipitate the bloodiest war in human history.

Every adult who lived it remembers the details of 9/11.

For us, that day was obviously 9/11. On the 11th of September 2001, nineteen al-Qaeda terrorists directed by Osama bin Laden transformed four heavily-laden airliners into massive manned missiles with which to attack our homeland. Three of the planes struck their targets. The fourth was foiled by the valiant passengers onboard the doomed aircraft.

At the end of the day, some 2,977 Americans perished. This egregious terrorist act conflagrated a Global War on Terror that still smolders on more than two decades later.

Dark Days In Israel

On the morning of 7 October 2023, the nation of Israel had their own 9/11. The attack occurred less than a week ago as I type these words, so the details are still a bit fuzzy. Current estimates are that the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas based in the Gaza Strip launched a widespread attack with up to 2,500 heavily armed militants.

In the first 24 hours these maniacal Islamists murdered at least 1,300 Israelis, most of whom were civilians. Many of the victims were actually children. This was the bloodiest day in modern Israeli history. More Jews perished on this one day than had died on any other single day since the Holocaust. The sheer unfettered brutality of the thing shocked the planet.

A Point of Political Privilege…

The Jews are justifiably none too keen on allowing things to come to this again.

I honestly do see both sides to a degree, at least in theory. Six million Jews were institutionally exterminated by the Nazis during World War 2. Many of those who survived made their way to the Middle East and resurrected the historical nation of Israel as a refuge and sanctuary from the hate that nearly wiped them out.

This small piece of dirt, roughly the size of the state of New Jersey, was the only truly safe space in the world for the Jewish people in the aftermath of one of the most efficient and effective genocides in human history.

Hamas’ recent murderous attack on Israeli civilian targets wrecked any pretense of civility in the eyes of the world.

By contrast, I own a small piece of land in Mississippi. If American Indians returned to my farm and took it by force because their ancestors had lived on it two thousand years ago that would upset me.

However, whatever moral capital Hamas and the Palestinian militants might have accrued evaporated the moment they decapitated Israeli infants sleeping in their cribs. That was simply beyond the pale. Hamas showed the world that they are now synonymous with ISIS, themselves the most bloodthirsty mob of psychopaths since Heydrich, Himmler, and Mengele. Anyone who defends Hamas is either delusional or something far worse.

The World Is Holding Its Breath for Israel

At this moment upwards of 150-200 Israelis and assorted foreigners are feared abducted. After a week’s worth of merciless aerial bombardment, the Israeli Defense Forces stand poised to launch a massive ground assault into Gaza with the twofold mission of exterminating the Hamas terrorists and retrieving the hostages. The world is holding its breath to see how it all unfolds.

I shot this picture of a Merkava tank on the side of the road in Israel. The IDF is preparing a ground invasion of Gaza as I type these words.

Unlike conflicts of eras past, we get to watch this one in real-time. The terrorists live-streamed their murderous killing spree as it occurred. IDF troops with helmet cameras produce gritty combat footage that is uploaded as soon as the smoke clears. The rest of the world has a ringside seat to the carnage.

While our hearts break for the innocents on both sides, it is impossible for a true gun nerd to look away. The weapons, equipment, and tactics on display are morbidly fascinating. The Israelis have been fighting without serious respite since 1948. They are, by now, quite adept at the art of war. Their small arms reflect this storied military legacy.

Combat Iron

The Tavor X-95 is a state-of-the-art bullpup combat rifle.

This was typical of the Tavor rifles I encountered in Israel. Note the conventional trigger guard as opposed to the full-length sort on our civilian versions. Also note the ubiquitous application of dummy cords.

One of the common long guns seen in our newsfeeds coming out of Southern Israel is the Tavor X-95 bullpup assault rifle. The GI-issue version sports a 13-inch barrel and an overall length of just 22.8 inches. The Tavor is a combat-proven design that is well-liked by the IDF troops who carry it. However, at 7.3 pounds stripped and empty, the rugged X-95 is undeniably portly.

Loosely based upon the Colt 653 CAR-15, the IDF Mekut’zar Carbine is unique to Israel. The barrel on this homebuilt example is slightly longer than the originals so as to comply with American firearms laws.

The other common rifle seen in our newsfeeds is the M-16 carbine in a bewildering array of forms. Some are standard M4’s with flattop upper receivers and 14.5-inch barrels. Others sport stubby little 11.5-inch tubes. The most fascinating of the lot is a curious home-grown Frankengun they call the Mekut’zar. Mekut’zrar appears to be an alternative form of the term. I fear I don’t speak Hebrew, so I am unable to elaborate. However, I’m told this is simply IDF slang for “CAR-15” or “Shorty.” These locally-produced weapons do not seem to be as common as was once the case, but I have still seen a few in the news in the past week.

Origin Story of the Israeli Carbine

There have been more than ten million Uzi submachine guns produced.

Israel prosecuted their miraculously successful Six Day War in 1967 armed predominantly with the Uzi submachine gun and FN FAL rifle. The Uzi is the most-produced pistol-caliber SMG in history. The FAL is a magnificent piece of iron, but it was designed for service in Europe. In the dusty spaces where the IDF served the FAL suffered reliability problems. The Israeli answer was the Galil assault rifle.

The Israeli Galil was a rugged though expensive combat weapon.

Introduced in 1972, the Galil was a hybrid combat rifle that incorporated the action of the Kalashnikov, the cartridge of the M-16, and the folding stock of the FAL. It was versatile, accurate enough, and as reliable as a tire iron. The Israelis even incorporated a bottle opener into the forearm. The first prototype Galils were built on Finnish Valmet receivers smuggled into the country illicitly.

While the Galil was a superb infantry weapon, it was both fairly heavy and expensive to manufacture. The Israelis needed a lightweight rifle that troops both on duty and off could carry with them while going about their daily routines. In the 1970’s that rifle was the American M-16.

The 1967 Six-Day War represented an astonishing example of Israeli military prowess.

The 1967 Six-Day War was a stunning victory for the Israelis. Their enemies call it “The Setback” to this day. However, the follow-up Yom Kippur War in 1973 was a very iffy thing for the beleaguered IDF. One of the reasons the Israelis prevailed was Operation Nickel Grass.

The Americans gifted untold thousands of M-16A1 rifles to the Israelis.

Nickel Grass was an emergency strategic airlift of American weapons, ammunition, and supplies from US stores to the IDF. Tanks and planes were shipped directly to the war zone, had Israeli insignia painted on, and then went straight into the fight. As part of this massive outpouring of military support, the Israelis received tens of thousands of American M-16 rifles.

The IDF Mekut’zar Carbine has proven to be a popular and effective weapon in the hands of IDF troops. My semiautomatic clone was built up using an XM177E2 from Troy Industries as a foundation. The barrel is roughly three inches longer than that of the GI originals.

The M-16 was lighter, handier, and more accurate than the Galil. As they came from the US as military aid, these rifles were also free. This substantial pool of combat weapons served as a foundation for the Mekut’zar Carbine.

I snapped this picture in Old Jerusalem. These guys used to be everywhere.

Back in the day, IDF troops who were home on leave often carried their weapons with them. Back when I was there in 2012, every decent crowd had a handful of young studs in civilian clothes packing Tavors, M-4’s, or Mekut’zar Carbines. Lamentably, that is apparently not as common today as was once the case. However, to fill the need for a lightweight yet powerful personal defense weapon, Israeli armorers went to work modifying those full-size M-16 rifles into something stubbier.

Transformations

The collapsible stocks on IDF Mekut’zar Carbines are frequently adorned with a little extra bling like this fancy sling mount.

 The first step was to exchange the fixed stocks of the M-16’s for collapsible versions. Some of those were standard American-made stocks as found on the M-4. Others were Israeli-specific variants. FAB Defense was the most common local source. However, the biggest transformation was in the barrels.

To create the Mekut’zar Carbine, Israeli armorers pruned the 20-inch M-16A1 barrels shown here back to just behind the existing gas block. The front sight base was then relocated rearward to accommodate a carbine-length hand guard.

Customization

IDF slings include this nifty little pouch for ear plugs.

IDF small arms are often heavily customized. They all seem to sport electronic optics nowadays. I saw quite a few Trijicon ACOGs as well as a variety of domestic sights from Meprolight. Israeli slings are typically a bit wider than our own to help better distribute the weapon’s weight.

The slings usually have a quick-release feature as well as a pouch to hold earplugs. There are additionally scads of nifty little Velcro and elastic additions all designed to make good guns better.

The weapons I saw in public carried a loaded thirty-round magazine in the magwell and an orange chamber block under the bolt. IDF troops with whom I spoke explained that they were trained to rack the bolt, remove the chamber flag, and have their weapons in action very quickly. Most everything on the weapon, including the magazine, chamber block, and optical sight, was usually secured with a length of dummy cord.

Zahal.org is a one-stop shop for all of this cool IDF gun stuff.

Zahal.org is the source for genuine IDF weapons accessories. Before the recent war, you could order this gear over the Internet and it would show up over here in a week or two. I have no idea what the situation is today given recent sordid developments.

Ruminations

 Israel is indeed a nation forever at war. Both sides have legitimate grievances, and there are clearly no easy answers. Tragically, the foundations of this current conflict go back millennia and are, at this point, impossible to rectify. However, this recent horror is shocking even by ISIS standards.

The Israelis’ fight is with Hamas, not necessarily with the Palestinian people. However, given the egregious nature of this recent massacre, Hamas as an entity will likely have to die. Barring anything unexpected, I doubt the IDF is going to stop until Hamas is essentially exterminated. As we Americans sit comfortably at home watching the carnage on the news we should all be thankful that such tragedy is not occurring on our own shores. To keep the chaos at bay will no doubt require proper vigilance in the months and years to come. It remains to be seen if our political leaders have the stomach for that.

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Ruling Destroying California Gun Ban Should Now Apply to Washington State by Alan Gottlieb

Yes to guns AR rifle black ar15 gun rights iStock-Yevhenii Dubinko-898227674.jpg
iStock-Yevhenii Dubinko

Thursday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Roger T. Benitez which struck down California’s ban on so-called “assault weapons” should have a direct impact on a similar ban in Washington, because both states are in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court, the Second Amendment Foundation says.

“If a gun ban in California is unconstitutional,” SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb observed, “it is just as unconstitutional in Washington state.”

“We are eager to see this case through to what may become a Supreme Court confrontation, because we are confident that we will prevail. People who support gun bans, like California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, are wrong on this important constitutional issue.”

The case is known as Miller v. Bonta, filed by SAF, the San Diego County Gun Owners Political Action Committee, California Gun Rights Foundation, Firearms Policy Coalition and four private citizens, including James Miller, for whom the case is named. They are represented by attorneys George M. Lee at Seiler Epstein, LLP and John W. Dillon at the Dillon Law Group, APC.

In his 79-page ruling, Judge Benitez wrote, “While criminals already have these modern semiautomatics, the State prohibits its citizens from buying and possessing the same guns for self-defense. At the same time these firearms are commonly possessed by law-abiding gun owners elsewhere across the country.

 

Guns for self-defense are needed a lot because crime happens a lot. A recent large-scale survey estimates that guns are needed defensively approximately 1,670,000 times a year.

 

Another report, originally commissioned and long cited by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that there are between 500,000 and 3,000,000 defensive gun uses in the United States each year.”

 

“Judge Benitez’ ruling is a stinging rebuff to the gun prohibition movement,” said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “His detailed discussion of the history of firearms regulation, along with his dismantling of the state’s arguments and assertions of its experts sends a signal that the days when gun banners could simply attack the Second Amendment without challenge are finished.”

“We will take this challenge to the Supreme Court if necessary, as part of our commitment to restore firearms freedom, one lawsuit a time.”

Second Amendment Foundation

The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 720,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.

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THE WET NAKED MAN WRITTEN BY WILL DABBS, MD

Particularly in a military environment, the shower is for getting clean,
not socializing. Unsplash photo—photographer One Beauty.

Private Daniels was just not cut out to be a soldier. A wheeled vehicle mechanic, she was forever in trouble. She stole money from her roommate and then attacked the young lady with a shoe brush for reporting her. At the time of this incident she was already being put out of the Army for writing bad checks.

Private Daniels’ boyfriend was a local civilian whom she had met in a bar. I have no idea what he did or where he came from. She had invited him up to her room in the barracks, and he was stupid enough to accept.

CW2 Johansen was one of my Warrant Officers. A former NCO before attending the Warrant Officer course and flight training, Bill was an old school soldier. This fateful evening he was the Battalion Staff Duty Officer. Part of his responsibility involved circling through the barracks, the hangars and the motor pools to ensure everything was quiet and secure. Most officers, myself included, did a fairly cursory job of this. We weren’t at war, and the possibility that the Russians might try to infiltrate our truck park seemed low. Not so Bill Johansen. He checked everything quite thoroughly.

It was wintertime and well below freezing. Bill linked up with the CQ (Charge of Quarters) of the female barracks for a quick walk-through. (Barracks were segregated by gender back then.) The CQ was a junior enlisted soldier whose duty it was to mind the front desk to the barracks all night. As it was a female-only facility, the CQ served as Bill’s escort as he did his walk-through. On the second floor, as they strolled past the communal latrine, they heard jungle noises.

Bill dispatched the CQ to investigate. The CQ duly reported that Private Daniels and her boyfriend were enjoying a cozy shower together. Bill Johansen was having none of that.

Bill was a pretty intimidating guy. He snatched up Private Daniels’ terrified boyfriend and frog marched him, dripping and naked, down to the CQ desk. The poor kid asked if he could go back to Private Daniels’ room to retrieve his clothes, but Bill refused. He felt this to be a teachable moment.

It’s all fun and games until you’re running wet and naked through the snow.
Unsplash photo—photographer Abdullah Ali.

 

The boyfriend was soaking wet. Bill had the CQ fetch whatever clothing was available in the latrine for the guy to use to cover himself. The CQ returned with Private Daniels’ see-through pink negligee.

Imagine if you will a 19-year-old wet, terrified man shivering in an office wearing nothing but a woman’s sexy transparent nightgown. With this as a foundation, Bill went to work. He started the conversation by postulating how long he thought the kid would go to jail for molesting government property.

Bill explained that Private Daniels belonged to the government, and that the penalties for illicit showering with GIs were severe. By the time he got done the unfortunate young man was expecting fifteen to twenty years hard labor at Fort Leavenworth. At that critical moment Bill placed a phone call. When he returned to the holding area the damp naked man was nowhere to be found.

The kid had crawled out the window. It was 26 degrees out, and Private Daniels’ date was both soaked and barefoot. Additionally, ours was an absolutely enormous Army post. It was literally miles to the nearest gate. Bill sighed and rang up the MPs. He asked them to be on the lookout for a desperate, shivering, wet naked man trying to escape and evade off post. They dispatched a squad car and found the poor miserable guy in short order.

The MPs gave the kid a ride to his apartment off post and donated an Army blanket to the cause. Though I can’t be sure, I rather suspect the sordid events of the evening put a damper on the blossoming relationship between Private Daniels and her now exceptionally clean boyfriend.

Bill briefed me up on the situation the following day. I didn’t have the heart to castigate Private Daniels. She was already well on her way to becoming a civilian. Sharing a communal shower with a civilian in the female barracks wasn’t going to substantially accelerate that process.

I don’t know exactly what I expected work to be like when I chose to become an Army officer. I hoped for travel and adventure, to be sure, but I never expected stuff like that. As for Bill Johansen, he felt good about himself. He could rest easy in the knowledge that absolutely all of the Battalion property was indeed secure.