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Elmer Keith
When I was lot younger and a lot skinnier.
I briefly saw the old boy in the flesh. From what I saw & heard was this was one hard man. Who did not suffer fools at all.
Later on I bought one of his books. (Hell I was there!) 
So I think that I was right the first time about this hard case of a man.
Elmer Keith shooting two revolvers at the same time.
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| Born | March 8, 1899 |
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| Died | February 14, 1984 (aged 84) |
| Nationality | United States |
| Occupation | Rancher, author, Firearmsenthusiast |
| Known for | Creation of the .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum, and .41 Magnumcartridges |
| Home town | Salmon, Idaho |
| Spouse(s) | Loraine Randall |
Elmer Merrifield Keith (March 8, 1899 – February 14, 1984[1]) was an Idaho rancher, firearms enthusiast, and author. Keith was instrumental in the development of the first magnum revolver cartridge, the .357 Magnum, as well as the later .44 Magnum and .41 Magnum cartridges.
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Personality and life[edit]
Keith’s trademarks were his cigars, his ten-gallon Stetson, and his outspoken opinions. Keith was an avid handgun hunter in the earliest days of the sport, and often hunted medium game with a double action Smith & Wesson revolver.
In the days when handgun cartridges tended to fire large, slow bullets like the popular .45 Colt, or light, fast bullets like the .30 Mauser, Keith was pushing the limits of existing cartridges, driving large bullets at high velocities.
He was married to Loraine Randall. Elmer Keith was born in Missouri but was raised in Montana, Idaho, and eastern Oregon.
In the 1930s and early 1940s, he had a ranch on the North Fork of the Salmon River near Salmon, Idaho. In the late 1940s, Elmer and Loraine left the ranch and moved into the town of Salmon. [The ranch is still owned by the Keith family.]
During World War II, Keith served as an inspector at the Ogden, Utah Arsenal. The rifles that he inspected were cartouchestamped with the initials “OGEK” in a rectangular box, on the buttstock.
Rifles stamped OGEK without a rectangular box were inspected by Ed Klouser at the same Ogden Arsenal.[2]
In The Phantom Of Phu Bai, a biography of USMC Scout Sniper Eric England written by Dr. Joseph B. Turner, one chapter is about Elmer Keith and his influence on the shooting community.
Magnum revolvers[edit]
Keith’s first major contribution, the .357 Magnum, was the result of handloading the .38 Special cartridge far beyond normally accepted limits, taking full advantage of the greater strength of the revolvers available in the 1920s compared to those of the late 19th century.
The .357 Magnum first became available in 1935 and quickly became a favorite among law enforcement and civilian users. The .357 Magnum had a slightly longer case than the .38 Special, but was otherwise identical, so .357 Magnum revolvers could shoot .38 Special or .357 Magnum ammunition, but .38 Special revolvers (most of which are not safe for the pressures generated by the Magnum round) could not chamber .357 Magnum ammunition.
Buying a .357 Magnum revolver gave the shooter all the abilities of the well-established .38 Special, with the ability to double the available power by using the Magnum cartridge.
Keith’s contributions to the commercial development of the .357 Magnum have been questioned by some writers, and Keith subsequently denigrated the .357 Magnum as he had the .38 Special.
The .44 Magnum was developed in much the same way, and was released commercially in 1956. Keith had earlier determined that the thinner chamber walls of the .45 Colt would not comfortably withstand the pressures generated by his own heavy loads.
He therefore started experimenting with the .44 Special revolver, and used the same formula of pushing heavy bullets at high velocities that he had used for the .357 Magnum.
The resulting “.44 Special Magnum” was a formidable cartridge for handgun hunting, firing a 250 grain bullet at 1,200 ft/s (370 m/s).
Keith encouraged Smith & Wesson and Remington to produce a commercial version of this new high pressure loading, and revolvers chambered for it.
While S&W produced the first prototype revolver chambered in .44 Magnum, the famous Model 29, Sturm, Ruger actually beat S&W to market by several months in 1956 with a .44 Magnum version of the single action Blackhawk revolver.
In fact Remington delivered a more powerful cartridge than Keith asked for, firing a 240 grain bullet at 1,500 ft/s (460 m/s), and it remained the most powerful production handgun cartridge until the commercial introduction of the .454 Casull (based on the .45 Colt).
The .44 Magnum is still far more popular, as the recoil of .454 Casull rounds is considered excessive by most shooters, and revolvers in .454 Casull were rare and expensive until the introduction of .454 Casull models by Sturm, Ruger and Taurus in the late 1990s.
The .41 Magnum, released in 1963, was an attempt to reach a middle ground between the .357 and .44 magnums. The .357 Magnum was adequate for hunting deer-sized game, but the limited power meant it needed to be used by a skilled marksman.
The .44 Magnum provided far more power, easily taking deer sized game, but recoil and muzzle blast are substantial, at least in the earliest commercial loadings.
The .41 Magnum, inspired by the older, obsolete .41 Long Coltcartridge, was intended to provide more power than the .357 Magnum with less recoil and muzzle blast than the .44 Magnum. The .41 Magnum used a completely new case (unlike the .357 Magnum and .44 Magnum which were based on existing cases), and used a .410″ bullet instead of the earlier .41 Colt and .38-40‘s roughly .400″ diameter bullet, while pushing the new .410″ bullet to similar velocities as achieved by the .357 and .44 Magnum bullets.
However, while there was (and still is) a small community of shooters preferring the .41 Magnum, the round failed to achieve a similar high degree of popularity. Some police, to whom the .41 Magnum was initially marketed, were happy with the .38 Special or .357 Magnum, and many officers had no interest in anything more powerful, and which also delivered greater blast and recoil that could place the shooter at a disadvantage in a gunfight requiring fast follow-up shots.
However, some police departments adopted the 41 Mag with the reduced load designed for police use, and were quite happy the added power required only one hit to put an opponent down.
Thus the 41 Magnum saved many officer’s lives who were lucky enough to use them[citation needed]. Hunters likewise stayed with the more commonly available .44 Magnum, which could be used with full power factory loads, less powerful handloads, or commercial .44 Special ammunition as needed.
Keith regarded the handgun as a weapon of opportunity. He had plenty of opportunities to use his sixgun on game during his life. He was incredibly skilled with handguns.
He shot at a rifle-wounded deer and hit it several times at a range of 600 yards using his 6½ inch S&W Model 29.[3] It is currently part of the Keith collection with the factory standard 4-inch (100 mm) barrel length that he more commonly carried.
The Keith firearm collection has been dispersed, having been sold individually at auction by James D. Julia in March 2015. (http://jamesdjulia.com/373_shs/)
Keith is also famous for designing and commissioning his No. 5 revolver, fashioned by R.F. Sedgeley, in 1928.
Keith-style bullets[edit]
Keith was also responsible for a number of bullet designs still popular today, and collectively called “Keith style” bullets.
These bullets were based on the semiwadcutter design, but using a wider than normal front surface, and convex sides.
These changes increased the volume of the bullet outside the case, thus allowing more room inside the case, needed for large loads of slower burning powders (see internal ballistics).
These bullets remain popular for both target shooting and hunting. When shooting paper targets, they cut a relatively clean hole in the target, yet provide more case volume and a better ballistic coefficient than a flat front wadcutter.
When used for hunting, the heavy bullets provide excellent penetration; they are often used on dangerous game, for which more reliable penetration is required than is possible with expanding hollow point or soft point bullets.
Keith-Style SWC
Originally Keith specified a meplat that was 65% of the bullet caliber, but later increased it to a 70% meplat.
The other distinguishing characteristics of a “Keith-style” SWC are a double radius ogive, beveled crimp groove, three equal width driving bands, wide square bottomed grease groove, and a plain base with sharp corners.
The wide forward driving band helps keep the bullet aligned as it jumps across the cylinder gap. Because of the three wide equal width driving bands, the total bearing surface is half the length of the bullet.
The relatively large bearing surface helps the Keith-style SWC to be an inherently accurate bullet, and minimizes leading from gas blow-by. The wide square bottom grease groove holds ample lubricant.[4]
Work with rifles
Keith was instrumental in the development of various wildcat cartridges, a few of which were later adopted as factory rounds.
The .333 OKH (“O’Neil-Keith-Hopkins”), developed in conjunction with Charlie O’Neil and Don Hopkins, was made from .30-06 Springfield brass necked up to take the .333″ 250 and 300-grain bullets of the .333 Jeffery.
There was also a .334 OKH,[5] based on the shortened .300 H&H Magnum case.
The .333 OKH, necked up slightly to take the more common .338″ sized bullets of the older .33 Winchester, led to the creation of the popular Wildcat cartridge the .338-06, also known as the 338 OKH, and was the inspiration for the 1958 commercial introduction of the .338 Winchester Magnum based on the larger belted .458 Winchester Magnum case.
The .334 OKH, likewise necked up to accept .338″ bullets and given the distinctive Weatherby “double-radius” shoulder, was introduced by Weatherby in 1963 as the .340 Weatherby Magnum. The .338-378 Weatherby Magnum.
Introduced in 1998, was developed based on another one of Keith’s wildcats, the .338-378 KT(Keith-Thomson), which he developed in the 1960s with Bob Thomson.
An admirer of the old British double rifles, Keith had numerous examples in his collection.
He used two of these doubles, a .476 Westley Richards and a .500 Nitro Express, to take dangerous game in Africa on two different safaris. Keith documented the first of these hunts in his 1968 tome, Safari.
Published works
Keith was a prolific writer, writing both books and magazine columns.
During the 1950s and 1960s, he was especially well known for his regular monthly columns he wrote for Guns & Ammo magazine and American Rifleman.
Typically exploring the performance of the latest new gun offerings. Especially those firing large, heavy bullets pushed to high velocities.
He has influenced modern gun writers such as Mike Venturino and John Taffin.[6]
- Sixgun Cartridges and Loads. Onslow County, N.C., Small Arms Technical Publishing Co, 1936. [Riling 2200]
- Big Game Rifles and Cartridges. Onslow County, N.C., Small Arms Technical Publishing Co, 1936. [Riling 2199]
- Keith’s Rifles for Larger Game Huntington, WV: Standard Publications, 1946. [Riling 2551]
- Elmer Keith’s Big Game Hunting. Boston: Little, Brown, 1948. [Riling 2648]
- Shotguns. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole & Heck, 1950. [Riling 2726]
- Sixguns. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole & Heck, 1955.
- Guns and Ammo for Hunting Big Game, with John Lachuk. Los Angeles, Calif. : Petersen Publishing Co.,1965.
- Safari. La Jolla, Calif: Safari Publications, 1968.
- Keith, An Autobiography, Winchester Press, 1974[7]
- Hell, I Was There (autobiography). Los Angeles, Calif.: Petersen Publishing Co., 1979.
References are to Ray Riling, Guns and Shooting, a Bibliography, New York: Greenberg, 1951.
References
- Jump up^ Elmer Merrifield Keith at Find a Grave
- Jump up^ “Inspectors Stamps”. m1903.com. Retrieved 24 July 2011.
- Jump up^ Elmer Keith’s 600 yard shot
- Jump up^ From Ingot to Target: A Cast Bullet Guide for Handgunners© Chapter 12: The Keith Semiwadcutter (SWC)
- Jump up^ Frank C. Barnes, Holt Bodinson, Cartridges of the World: A Complete and Illustrated Reference for Over 1500 Cartridges Cartridges of the World, ISBN 978-0-89689-936-0, S. 198,66
- Jump up^ Taffin, John (1997). Big Bore Sixguns. Krause. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-87341-502-6.
- Jump up^ Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 73-78837, ISBN 0-87691-137-8
John Peter Gabriel – Lawman & Gunfighter
John Peter Gabriel
John Peter Gabriel (1838-1898) – A prominent lawman in Pinal County, Arizona in the 1880s, Gabriel pursued the Red Jack Gang and numerous other bandits. In 1888, he barely survived the Florence, Arizona Gunfight with Joe Phy.
Gabriel was born on November 17, 1838 in Kruft, Germany, the fourth of six children to John and Anna Schlauss Gabriel. When he was just nine years-old, he immigrated with his parents to the United States, where the family settled in Grant County, Wisconsin. Two years later, his father died and when his mother was unable to support the family 12-year-old Pete was taken in by a prominent lawyer named Ninian Whiteside, who soon joined the gold rush for California, moving his family and young Gabriel with him. When John grew up he worked in various professions before eventually making his way to Arizona, where he often worked in mining and at other times, as a lawman.
In 1877 , he was running a hotel at Silver King in Pinal County, when Sheriff Peter R. Brady appointed him a resident deputy. Gabriel’s popularity with local Democrats prompted him to run for sheriff against his boss the following year, he defeated Brady at took office in January, 1879.
He quickly established himself as one of Arizona’s finest and most-dedicated sheriffs, fighting lynch mobs and tracking down stage robbers, murderers, horse thieves and cattle rustlers. His skills with a gun were also well known, prompting one observer to say: “Gabriel was the finest pistol shot I have ever known, equaling, I am sure, the best the West ever produced.”
Somewhere along the line, he hired a man named Joseph Phy, an experienced law officer, to become his deputy. The pair who had previously known each other in the law enforcement capacity were friends. However, in 1883 he fired Phy for disorderly and drunken conduct and later arrested him in Case Grande, Arizona for assault.
Gabriel left the office of sheriff at the end of his term in 1886. He spent much of his time at his mine in the Dripping Springs Mountains, only occasionally coming to town to buy supplies and conduct business. That same year, Phy decided to run for sheriff and despite their past differences, Gabriel initially supported him for the job. However, at some point he withdrew his support and the two former friends soon became bitter enemies.
Tunnel Saloon, Florence, Arizona
After two years of simmering anger, both men were in Jack Keating’s Tunnel Saloon in Florence, Arizona on May 3, 1888. Before long an argument erupted that quickly escalated to the point that Phy went out on the street, calling Gabriel out. Both men went for their guns and a blazing gunfight occurred. After eleven shots had been fired, Gabriel was wounded in the groin and in the chest and staggered to a nearby stable where he collapsed. Miraculously, he would survive. Phy; however, was not so lucky. Also seriously wounded, he lived but four hours. Gabriel stood trial for the killing but was exonerated on the grounds of self-defense.
Peter Gabriel spent the next decade prospecting in Arizona and northern Mexico before returning to work his old claim – the Monitor Mine on Mineral Creek. At the age of 59, he drank some poisonous water, probably laced by arsenic used in mining, and for a week, he lay alone and deathly ill in his cabin. Finally, his mining partner found him there on July 28, 1898. Gabriel died the next day and was buried near the mine.
In reporting his death, the Phoenix Herald said, “He was a bold and fearless man, a good officer … Pete Gabriel probably carried more scars at the hands of the lawless element than any other man in the southwest.”
By Kathy Weiser-Alexander, September, 2017.
Sources:
Auer, L.C.; Gun Grudge in Florence
Boessenecker, John; Pete Gabriel: Gunfighting Lawman of the Southwestern Frontier; The Journal of Arizona History; Arizona Historical Society, Spring, 2012.
Find a Grave
True West Magazine
Also See:
Lawmen of the Old West
Old West Gunfights
Arizona (main page)
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"What's in a Name"
Or Maybe just maybe gasp, some Personal Responsibility!
FBI: Over Four Times More People Stabbed to Death Than Killed with Rifles of Any Kind
JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images
The FBI Uniform Crime Report (UCR) for 2016 shows more than four times as many people were stabbed to death than were killed with rifles of any kind.
And because the category of rifles covers every type of rifle, this means there would be an even greater divide between the number of people stabbed to death versus those shot to death with an AR-15 or similar rifle.
According to FBI: UCR Table 12, there were approximately 374 people shot and killed with rifles of any kind. There were 1,604 people killed with “knives or cutting instruments.”
Table 12 also shows that more people were killed via the use of “hands, fists, feet, etc.,” than were killed by rifles of any kind. In fact, the tally shows that the death numbers were not even close. While approximately 374 people were shot and killed with rifles, roughly 656 people were beaten to death with “hands, fists, feet, etc.”
On September 26, 2016, Breitbart News reported similar gaps between rifle/shotgun homicides and stabbing homicides. UCR figures showed the number of people killed with rifles and shotguns combined in 2015 was approximately 548. Nearly three times that many — approximately 1,573 people — were stabbed or hacked to death.
This is not to diminish the deaths of those who did die via a rifle. But it does show that the Democrats’ relentless focus on banning “assault weapons” is a focus on something that is not used for homicide with anywhere near the frequency of knives and/or fists and feet.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
I do so miss that show! I am just so glad it’s on DVD.
Categories
A Beginners Guide To Calibers
I still find after all of these years that the subject of Firearms calibers to be extremely confusing! So do not feel that you are alone!
Grumpy
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The Top 3 Best First Handguns!
Just like rectums, everybody has their opinions. (Now you see why I have the nickname of G.!)
Grumpy
Attachments area
Teenager who set up £12m estate agency… while still in the sixth form! Entrepreneur is already worth millions after selling houses during his lunch break
- Akshay Ruparelia, 19, wants to put traditional estate agents out of business
- As they charge thousands in commission, he says he can sell a house for £99
- In his firm’s early days, he hired call centre staff to answer his switchboard
- The entrepreneur would then call clients back on his lunch or after school
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Most teenagers of his age spend their school lunch breaks playing football or chatting to girls.
But Akshay Ruparelia used every spare moment to sell houses.
The young entrepreneur – nicknamed Alan Sugar by his friends – set up an online estate agency while still at sixth form.
The teenager started his business after persuading family members to lend him £7,000 and already employs 12 people
And his clever business model has been such a hit that his company doorsteps.co.uk has been valued at £12 million in just over a year.
Now aged 19, Akshay has had to put plans of studying economics and management at Oxford University on hold because the firm he set up at school is expanding so rapidly.
In the early days he hired a call centre service to answer his company switchboard while he was in class and rang clients back after the school bell rang.
The website resulted in Akshay’s friends nicknaming him Alan Sugar after the star of The Apprentice
The confident teenager is now on a mission to put traditional High Street estate agents out of business because they charge thousands of pounds in commission to sell a house and he can do it for just £99.
His idea is proving so popular that this week Akshay’s company became the 18th biggest estate agency in the UK – just 16 months after his website went live.
Wolf of Walthamstow: Pupil, 15, who built a £50,000-a-year…
What a cracking business plan! Entrepreneur earns…SHARE THIS ARTICLE
The firm, which he started after persuading family members to loan him £7,000, already employs 12 people and is growing rapidly.
He recently raised £400,000 from investors on a crowd funding enterprise website in exchange for 3.25 per cent of his business. With the teenager and an uncle owning the remaining shares he is theoretically already worth millions.
The company pride themselves on low fees and good customer service.
It is recruiting an ever expanding network of mothers across the UK, who work on a self-employed basis showing clients around properties he has been asked to sell. They are already operating from Cornwall to the Scottish Highlands.
Akshay hopes to put traditional high street estate agents out of business by selling people’s houses for a fee of £99, undercutting those who charge thousands in commission
‘I want to rip up the old-style way we sell homes in this country,’ said Akshay, who set up the business between lessons at Queen Elizabeth High School in Barnet, London, and still managed to get five A’Levels, three at A* and two A grades in maths, economics, politics, history and financial studies.
‘I soon realised people have had enough of being ripped off by High Street agents in flash suits and cars charging them a fortune, but actually doing not a lot to sell their home,’ he added.
‘Why give an estate agent a small fortune just for putting photos of your house on the internet?
‘Mums know a thing or two don’t they and quite rightly people trust mums. Every mum who works for me will be honest and tell the truth. That’s so important because for the vast majority of people selling their home is the biggest financial transaction of their lives.’
ounder of Doorsteps.co.uk Akshay says he was inspired to set up his business while reading a biography of budget airline boss Michael O’Leary
Akshay says his ‘lightbulb’ moment came while studying for his financial studies exams when he read a biography of Ryanair founder Michael O’Leary.
‘Mr O’Leary began by selling flights for just £4.99 and his point was that if you can offer customers something at a price they just can’t believe and you deliver what you say you will, you hook people in and your business will work,’ said Akshay, who still lives with his parents in Harrow Weald, London.
‘So I took that same logic and applied it to estate agency. Research showed some online estate agencies were still charging homeowners between £800 and £1,000. I knew I could do it for a fraction of that.’
After setting up the website his paid his sister’s boyfriend to drive him to Sussex to take photographs of his first client’s home.
‘I hadn’t passed my driving test and didn’t have a car. It was a five bedroom place with a swimming pool! I put the house on at £485,000 and the land for £185,000 on top, I’d sold it within three weeks.
The young entrepreneur says his website has already sold £100million worth of homes and its success has meant him delaying his university career
‘I was standing in the school playground and got an e-mail on my mobile from the vendor to say he’d accepted the combined £670,000 offer I’d got for him and that I was a “legend, an absolute star”. That was a sensational moment, the vendor was chuffed, I was just thrilled.
‘I’d proved what I said I’d do, I’d sold a house for £99, but I couldn’t go out and celebrate, I had to go home and revise for my exams. I got a Domino’s pizza in as a treat.’
Akshay says doorsteps.co.uk has sold £100m worth of homes and it currently has more than 1,000 properties for sale on the website.
Despite the success he is yet to cash-in personally.
He said: ‘At first I paid myself £500 a month, things are going quite well now so I’ve upped that to £1,000 a month. I’ve passed my driving test, but still don’t own a car, the insurance is so expensive. At the moment everything apart from my salary is being re-invested into the firm.’
His father Kaushik, 57, is a care worker and also does shifts in a Royal Mail sorting office to make ends meet and mother Renuka, 51, is a teaching assistant for deaf children. Money has always been tight in the family, but not for much longer it seems.
He said: ‘Of course my parents are very proud of what I’ve now achieved, but I lie in bed some nights and can barely believe it.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4982920/Teenager-set-12m-estate-agency-sixth-form.html#ixzz4viHf0OuC
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