I pitched fastpitch softball five times a week all over Southern California for over twenty years.
After pitching fastpitch softball in Denver, Colorado, I came to Southern California and pitched in a variety of leagues in the San Fernando Valley, Burbank, and Glendale. In 1974 and 1975, I pitched in a Sunday morning league in East LA at Evergreen Park on the corner of 4th and Evergreen, and then starting in 1976, the better players, for miles around, started playing in Watts at Hoover Park on the corner of Manchester and Hoover just west of the Harbor Freeway.
Hoover Park was large enough that four fastpitch games could be played at the same time on softball diamonds located at all four corners of the park. All of the games started at 10 am and then after the games, most of us gathered around under some trees on the first base side of the softball diamond located on the northwest corner of the park. With the help of his teenage children, an enterprising man sold barbecued chicken, hot links, ribs, and a variety of cold drinks to wash it all down.
Most of the guys stayed around for a while and discussed what happened at the games on all four softball diamonds. The best part was all the joking and storytelling. Ballplayers, fans, and old-timers all joined in to have a good time. It was great!
One older gentleman used to come to the games dressed in a suit. I guessed that he was stopping by after church. He would stand behind the backstop, watch whatever game was being played on the northwest softball diamond with some of his older friends, and then stay for the storytelling afterward. I looked forward to the times when he would show up. I enjoyed kidding him and listening to his stories.
One time he told me a funny story about the .45-52 Zulu gun. I couldn’t remember the whole thing. I would try to repeat it but couldn't remember all the little parts of it and begged for him to help me with a word or two but he would never give me any help. The next time I saw him, I would pester him to tell me again about the .45-52 Zulu gun. It would just drive me nuts because he would only tell it one time and then that would be it. He would never repeat it. He would always say, “I’ll tell it to you again the next time I see you.”
Sometimes, I wouldn’t see him for months, and I used to worry that I might never see him again. I put a small cassette tape recorder in a zip-lock bag to keep out the dust and began to always carry it in my game bag.
Finally, in 1982, I saw him for the last time, and this time I told him that I wasn’t going to let him go without him telling me about the .45-52 Zulu gun. I showed him the tape recorder and told him that I had a C-90 cassette in it.
After some barbecue, he said, “Let’s take a walk.” I let him do all the talking as we walked away from all the others and continued walking down the left-field line toward the other softball diamond on the northeast corner of the park which was almost deserted by then. I sensed that he just wanted to talk. He talked about his life and an assortment of topics. We quit walking and sat in the stands at the other softball diamond and just talked about ball playing and life in general.
When the first side of the tape ran out, I flipped it over to the other side. We talked for a while longer and then he said, “Before your tape runs out, I’d better tell you about the .45-52 Zulu gun.” We started walking back to join the others when he began to tell the story and, as any good storyteller would do, he took his time.
With his gravelly voice, he slowly related the tale about his marvelous gun: “I want to tell you about the .45-52 Zulu gun. It’s the most amazing gun you’ll ever see. You’d have to see it to believe it. It’s the .45-52 Zulu gun built upon an automatic frame. It'll shoot nine times before you can cock it and ten times before you can stop it. If you hold it on the left it says, "If you hold me square, I'll shoot him fair." If you hold it on the right it says, "If you hold me level, I'll shoot the Devil." Then he moved his old, bony hand back and forth past my ear in a snake-like fashion when he said, "It shoots the bewitching cannonball. If it goes by and misses you, it'll back right up and hit you. Don't allow you no chance at all!"
He was a real gentleman and I miss him.
When people ask me if I have any guns, I tell them that I have one of each. Seriously, I have a large collection of new guns in all of the various actions—single-action and double-action revolvers, single-shot handguns and rifles, semi-auto pistols and rifles, bolt-action rifles, lever-action rifles, semi-auto shotguns, black powder revolvers and rifles, and an assortment of pellet pistols and rifles. My AEG (Automatic Electric Gun) battery-powered KWA Airsoft rifles are really fun. Unlike compressed-air guns that lose air and are never ready to shoot at a moment's notice when you really need them, the large, rechargeable Airsoft batteries maintain their state of readiness for well over a year. They are perfect replicas of a military M16 and they shoot in the semi-auto and full-auto mode at a rate of 20 hard, plastic 25 grain BBs per second out of a 120-round magazine. The BBs travel at 400 feet per second and will slightly penetrate human skin but will only bounce off of a dog's fur. When some stray dogs roam through our property chasing our cats, with the battery-powered, full-auto Airsoft M16s, I just wash them out of our yard like using a very powerful garden hose. It's fun to watch! You don't even have to use the sights; you just follow the stream of white BBs. Even though I have ten AR-15 rifles with various sights, accessories, and barrel lengths, I still have a soft spot in my heart for my collection of lever-action rifles and single-action revolvers. I have an entire room in my house and part of my very large garage/workshop dedicated to guns and all sorts of reloading stuff including my Hornady 5-stage Lock-N-Load Auto-Progressive Reloading machine with an automatic case feeder that will make 500 completed rounds per hour. I own many .22 rimfire guns in all of the various actions. The .22 rimfire revolvers, pistols, and rifles have minimal noise and recoil. Shooting a mountain of rimfire ammo is a great way to train your mind to disassociate pulling the trigger from any noise and recoil. Then, when I shoot my more powerful guns, my mind is only concerned with proper trigger control and not concerned with whatever happens after that. Remember to concentrate on your front sight because the #1 reason for having to reload is missing your target. When shooting my revolvers, sometimes I leave one of the cylinders empty so that I can be surprised when the gun doesn’t fire. I can then make sure that the barrel had absolutely no movement and that the sights stayed perfectly aligned and on the target. My Freedom Arms Premier Grade, Model 83, .454 Casull, 10" barrel, single-action revolver is the world's finest made single-action revolver. It has twice the muzzle energy of my Ruger Super Blackhawk .44 Magnum, 10.5" barrel, single-action revolver and is just one example of some of my “thumpers.” I can hit soft drink cans at 100 yards with these long barrel revolvers and I can also hit soft drink cans at 100 yards with Spanky, my Smith & Wesson Model 640 double-action .357 Magnum, 2" barrel, concealed-hammer revolver. Contrary to popular opinion, the length of the barrel has nothing to do with the accuracy of the gun. It's just easier to keep the sights aligned when the sight radius is longer. When I'm shooting, I just concentrate on controlled breathing, using a consistent, firm grip on the gun with my off-hand, keeping my shooting hand relaxed so the movement of my index finger is not influenced by my grip, using just my index finger pad to press the lower part of the trigger straight to the rear, keeping the sights aligned, and maintaining consistent control of the gun after it has been fired and while the bullet is still traveling down the barrel. As the big boys say, “If the recoil's gonna kill ya, there's no sense flinchin.”
When I lived in California, every weekend for 4 years, I used to drive my motorhome up to the high desert about 6 miles south of Barstow to an exit off of the I-15 Freeway called Hodge Road. There was nothing off of the Hodge Road exit except sand. I would park about a mile or two west of the freeway where all the shooters practiced against a nice, big hillside. It was all BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land and I could park from Friday night until Monday morning when I had to go back to work at 1:00 pm. All my friends knew where I was on the weekends and they would usually stop by for a few hours and sometimes camp out overnight. Because I shot a lot of .22 rimfire ammo and not a lot of the bigger stuff, I probably spent more money on steaks and beer than I did on ammo. Walmart used to sell bricks (550 rounds) of Federal Bulk .22 Rimfire, 36 grain, long rifle, plated lead, hollow point ammo for $8.99 when they had a sale and I would really stock up. If you cannot become a good shot after shooting a ton of ammo every weekend for 4 years, there is something wrong with you. Sometimes, I would get so "in the zone" that the gun just seemed to shoot itself and I couldn't miss.
While shooting at Hodge Road, we had a tradition. Later in the afternoon on Sundays when we were done shooting, I would load up the 5-shot, .454 Casull and anyone still standing around could try to hit a clay pigeon on the hillside 80 yards away. I always shot last but one time when I pulled the trigger…nothing happened! I was very happy to discover that the barrel never moved at all. I kept the gun pointed downrange for 15 to 20 seconds to make sure that it wasn't a delayed firing…a misfire. I reasoned that if it weren't a misfire then somebody might have pulled the hammer back incorrectly and bypassed a cylinder. I decided that it would be good practice for me to keep pulling the hammer back and pulling the trigger while never knowing when or if it would fire and keeping the barrel rock steady. After a couple more tries, the gun finally fired and I hit the clay pigeon even with all the distractions. My attorney Steve Johnson was one of the shooters and can verify the story. I gave him one of the pieces of fired brass from .454 Casull to put on his desk to commemorate the occasion.
The two loudest sounds you will ever hear are when the gun goes bang when you were expecting a click and when the gun goes click when you were expecting a bang.
One of the most accurate guns that I own is a Ruger New Model, Single-Six .22 rimfire, single-action revolver with a 9.5" barrel that I bought in 1981, In addition to shooting .22 rimfire, it came with a .22 Magnum cylinder. Most people don't know that .22 Magnum ammo uses a .224" diameter bullet and the regular .22 rimfire ammo uses a .222" diameter bullet. So, how is it that a revolver with a .224" maximum internal groove diameter accurately shoots a smaller .222" diameter bullet? The answer is that a new rimfire barrel is drilled to the lesser diameter or bore of .219. Then barrel reamers are pulled through the bore and cut grooves in the bore. The reamers remove metal until the larger barrel diameter of .224 is attained and only the raised material that is still a diameter of .219 remains. This remaining metal of what was once just the bore is now called the lands. A typical barrel would have 6 lands and grooves with a right-hand twist because the bullet is usually made to spin in a clockwise direction. Even though the diameter of the groove is .224", the smaller diameter .222 rimfire bullet easily engages the .219 lands and is accurately spun in the barrel.
When I ordered my .454 Casull, I specified that I also wanted a .45 Colt and a .45 Auto cylinder. The nominal bullet size for all 3 bullets is a diameter of .452". The .45 Auto needs a special cylinder because it doesn't have a rim on the brass to hold it in the cylinder and must headspace on a step or groove in the cylinder. The brass for the .454 Casull is longer than the .45 Colt and the explosion of .45 Colt in the .454 Casull cylinder will create a worn spot and make it harder to extract the .454 Casull brass once it has been fired. The .454 Casull also came with a taller front sight for the times when you want to shoot .45 Colt and .45 Auto. Due to the much slower speed of both of these rounds, they will spend more time in the barrel and the barrel will rise more. Therefore, the bullets will be launched at a higher trajectory. If a taller front sight is not used, the bullets will fly right over the target.
The same problem is encountered to a lesser extent when shooting .357 Magnum and .38 Special ammo without adjusting the sights. The slower .38 Special bullet will spend more time in the barrel, the barrel will rise more, and the bullet will be launched at a higher trajectory. Therefore, the .38 Special bullet will hit higher on the target than the .357 Magnum bullet.
I have a Glock Model 20 which shoots bear-stopping, 10mm Auto ammo, holds 17 rounds in the magazine, one in the barrel, and is about equal in power to a .41 Magnum. I love Glock pistols because I think that they are the most reliable semi-auto pistol made and that is the pistol that I keep beside my bed for things that go bump in the night. The problem is that I hate picking up brass and so I wanted a revolver that would shoot 10mm Auto. Ruger finally decided to make a New Model Blackhawk, Convertible, 10mm Auto, single-action revolver with a 6.5-inch barrel and an extra .40 S&W cylinder. I love convertible revolvers and now I don't have to pick up the brass.
Incidentally, the Glock 10mm pistol can shoot .40 S&W ammo with no modifications. Regardless of the length of the brass, the 10mm Auto ammo and the .40 S&W ammo are held in place against the bolt face by the extractor. There is no extra wear on the extractor, the pistol functions perfectly, and I highly recommend giving it a try. Some Glock shooters say that they have fired over 20,000 rounds of .40 S&W through their 10mm Glocks without any problems.
My 2-inch barrel .357 Magnum S&W Model 640, 5-shot revolver will definitely spank your hand and that's why I named it "Spanky". Concealed hammer revolvers like Spanky are the only guns in the world that can be shot all 5 times in your pocket without taking it out of your pocket. If the noise in your backyard is just the neighbor's kid retrieving his football and you have your hand on Spanky in your pocket, he doesn't go running home saying that you pulled a gun on him but, if it's a bad guy who is already in your face, you can immediately start defending yourself while Spanky is still in your pocket.
Whenever a group of people would park next to my motorhome, I would let them shoot for a while and then go over and introduce myself. I loved to do a little "show and tell" with Spanky and tell them that they should get a concealed hammer revolver for self-defense. I had my S&W Model 617, 8 3/8” barrel, .22 rimfire target revolver hidden in my armpit. I would put on a little demonstration with Spanky by having their best shooter shoot at a big target about 15 to 20 feet away after telling him how hard the gun would recoil. Naturally, he would miss way low because he anticipated the recoil and jerked the gun downward. I would ask him if he wanted to shoot it again and most people would decline the opportunity. While he was shooting, I would secretly hand the long-barreled .22 revolver to one of his friends. I would then tell him that I knew what the problem was. He was shooting at something way too big and way too close. I would then point out a small clay pigeon on the hillside 80 yards away. I used to love to see their eyes get as big as silver dollars when I would hit the clay pigeon on my first try. What they didn’t realize was that I would do the same demonstration several times on a Saturday and several times on a Sunday with my special .357 Magnum reloads. Over the years, I averaged 4 to 6 demonstrations per weekend. With 52 weekends in a year, that added up to 200 to 300 demonstrations a year. Over the course of 4 years, I put on that same demonstration 800 to 1,200 times. So, given that much practice, even if I didn’t hit it on my first try, I would almost always hit it with one of my five shots. On the rare occasion that I missed it on all five shots, I was so close to the target that you’d almost wonder why I didn’t hit it. Then I would hand their shooter my S&W Model 617 .22 rimfire target revolver and tell him to shoot it. Because the revolver had such a long barrel, he assumed that the recoil would be terrible and again he jerked the gun and shot way low on a very big and close target. His friends already knew what was going to happen because I told them while he was shooting Spanky. All of us would enjoy a good laugh and then they would invite me to shoot all of their guns. I shot a lot of their guns and ammo for free and everyone had a good time.
In California, it used to take a long time and a lot of patience to be willing to jump through a lot of hoops to get a Concealed Carry Weapons Permit. When I retired, I wanted to move to a gun-friendly state and so, after I moved from California to South Dakota, I asked the Sheriff what it would take to get a Concealed Carry Weapons Permit. His answer was, “$10 and 20 minutes.” Now, with constitutional carry, I don’t have to have a permit to carry in the state but I still buy the permit so that I can legally carry in all other states that have reciprocity agreements with South Dakota. The $10 permit used to be good for 4 years but last time when I renewed, the $10 permit was good for 5 years. 25 states have now passed Constitutional Carry laws with more to come. Hopefully, one of these days, all 50 states will have Constitutional Carry laws and we can finally do away with permits of any kind to carry a concealed gun. Crime has decreased in every state where concealed carry permits are easily obtained. As the old saying goes, “Society is safer when criminals don’t know who’s armed.” A gun is the only way that a 100-pound woman is equal to a 300-pound guy. As the old saying goes, "God made man but Colonel Colt made them equal".
When I was shooting in California, I rarely set up targets but I loved to see a lot of empty, plastic shotgun hulls lying on the ground leftover from when somebody else was practicing shooting clay birds with their shotgun. Because .22 rimfire ammo was cheap to shoot, I used it for most of my shooting when I tried to go 6 for 6 on the same shotgun hull with any of my .22 rimfire guns. Thousands and thousands of times in my 4 years of shooting all day long, I would pick out a shotgun hull lying on the ground about 15 to 20 feet away from me and shoot it. Regardless of where it would land, I shot the same shotgun hull again and again. Each time I shot the same shotgun hull it bounced up in the air and landed farther away from me. So, when I finally shot at the same plastic shotgun hull for the sixth time, it is always a long way from me and hitting it was fairly difficult but I still managed to do it quite often. Even though the desert floor was sandy and fairly level, there were still small undulations. If I were already 5 for 5 on a shotgun hull, the hull might be partially hidden behind one of those small undulations and almost impossible to see when it was time for my sixth shot. When I managed to hit it, beyond all probabilities, I just gave myself a mental high-five, reloaded, and moved on to the next shotgun hull. What was really disappointing was when I was already 5 for 5 and the shotgun hull landed where it was impossible to see. In that instance, I just picked out a target of opportunity to empty the cylinder. I always reloaded a full cylinder so I was prepared to go 6 for 6 on my next shotgun hull.
All day long, I kept changing to different types of 22 rimfire guns but I never loaded any more than 6 rounds in the magazine. Even though I had various types of speed-loaders, I never used any type of speed-loader so unloading and reloading the cylinder or magazine would build muscle memory and I would get really good at it. I even got good at just picking 6 rounds out of my ammo can. My Ruger 10/22 semi-auto rifle has a 20" Volquartsen barrel and a red dot scope. The 10/22 can also be fitted with an illuminated reticle scope. It's boring to shoot because it's almost impossible to miss the target. My Ruger 77/22 bolt-action rifle has the same 20" Volquartsen heavy barrel with a muzzle brake and a Leupold 6.5x20x40 scope with target knobs and a Mil-Dot reticle the same as all my other bolt-action rifles. It's really boring to shoot because you just can't miss. When I shoot at a target 200 yards away, two seconds later the target falls over.
Limp wristing is a term used for when you don’t hold your semi-auto pistol, rifle, or shotgun firm enough that the bolt doesn’t function properly and it results in a malfunction called a failure to feed. Semi-autos of all types need a certain level of resistance from a firm grip to be able to cycle the action on the gun. If you hold the gun too loose, the spent cartridge might not be ejected if the bolt doesn’t go far enough to the rear during the reloading sequence. Also, the bolt must go far enough to the rear to fully compress the recoil spring so that when the bolt goes forward, it will have the speed necessary to pick up and fully seat a new round.
When someone else shoots a gun that you have sighted in, regardless of whether the gun has iron sights or a scope, the bullet will usually hit a different spot on the target. Because no two people grip a gun with the same amount of firmness, the gun may have more or less movement while the round is still moving down the barrel that is still rising from the recoil of being fired.
Speaking of grip, I changed the grips on all of my revolvers to Hogue OverMolded Grips. Hogue doesn't make a grip for my Freedom Arms .454 Casull revolver or else I would change it. I even changed the pretty, white grips on my Ruger Vaquero to Hogue OverMolded Grips. I like the fact that the grip is the same whether I'm shooting my 22 rimfires, my .44 Magnum, or all the various calibers in between. I just want a secure grip that is consistent so, just by the feeling of the grip of the gun, I don't know what gun I am shooting. The greatest shooter of all time is Jerry Miculek. Because he is involved in action shooting which depends on a fast draw, he uses smooth wooden grips and he even puts corn starch powder on his hands to make them even slicker. Jerry reasons that, when he draws, he wants the gun to move in his hands to achieve the best grip while he is presenting the gun to the target. I'm just the opposite. I don't do quick-draw shooting but I just want a firm grip.
Jerry Miculek – World Records
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzHG-ibZaKM
I retired to a small town in northwest South Dakota and, as luck would have it, there’s a shooting range just south of town. A few years back in 2018 when I was 73 years old and before I started to do a little plinking in the afternoon, I was still lugging a couple of guns and a few ammo cans up to the shooting bench at the local shooting range when, Bill Johnson, the local Deputy Sheriff stopped by the range. We talked about routine stuff for a while, but then Bill said that he had better leave because he didn’t want to interfere with my shooting practice. I told him to stay because he had never seen me shoot. Six years earlier in 2012 when I was 67 and shortly after I retired here in 2011, I was talking to Bill at the local grocery store and I explained to him that when I shoot, as part of my shooting routine, I try to go 6 for 6 on the same shotgun hull. I was new in town and I could tell he really didn’t believe me because most shooters are like fishermen and the big fish they caught keeps getting longer and longer as the years go by. I usually shoot with any of my .22 rimfire guns because it’s cheaper but this time I wanted to practice a little with my new Ruger New Model Blackhawk Convertible single-action revolver. I loaded it with .357 Magnum ammo and shot at the first shotgun hull about 15 feet away—and missed! The bullet hit the ground under the target. I hadn’t been shooting in about a year and failed to mentally adjust my aim to shoot over the target for the first few yards because the distance was less than my first zero. When a gun is fired, even though the sights are aimed directly at the target, the muzzle of the gun is pointed at a spot lower than the target. The muzzle starts rising while the bullet is still in the barrel, and the bullet is launched in an upward trajectory. The bullet’s flight will start below the line of sight, will rise through the line of sight (the first zero), will rise above the line of sight for the rest of the arc of flight, and then drop down to hit the bullseye on the target at its second zero. I sight in all of my iron-sighted handguns at 25 yards and at distances over 25 yards, you naturally have to aim over the target. Well, back to shooting—I hit the shotgun hull with my second shot and then missed the same shotgun hull with my third shot. I joked that I hadn’t been shooting in about a year and was pretty rusty. I've got to be honest and say that the thought that, after all of that fancy talk, I might embarass myself did flash through my mind. There's an old saying that you only have one chance to make a good first impression. I hit the shotgun hull with my fourth shot and it landed farther away. I hit the shotgun hull with my fifth shot and it landed even farther away. I finally redeemed myself by hitting the same shotgun hull with my sixth and final shot. After Bill left, I measured the distance and the hull was almost exactly 40 yards away when I shot at it. I tried to make excuses for missing because I was not warmed up but Bill said what was even more impressive was the fact that I was that accurate before any warm-up shots.
Whenever I’m in a group of guys who I don’t know and the subject turns to guns, it always seems that there is someone who is the ultimate gun expert. He is more than willing to tell everyone that he knows it all. After a while, I like to ask someone like that if he knows anything about the .45-52 Zulu gun. Quite naturally, he has something to say about the .45-52 Zulu gun. Then I take the opportunity to mention that I have a chance to buy the gun but it seems like it’s going to use a lot of ammo. Then I start telling him that the owner says that it’s the most amazing gun you’ll ever see and you’d have to see it to believe it. As I continue telling the story about it shooting 9 times before you can cock it and 10 times before you can stop it, everyone in the group starts to realize that I’m talking about an imaginary gun and then they start making fun of the supposed gun expert. The story is always good for some laughs. Some guys want to know if I could write it down for them but it’s just easier to refer them to my website. Enjoy!
P.S. I’d like to give a special thanks to Smith & Wesson for their excellent customer service. I shot a mountain of .357 Magnum loads through Spanky, my S&W Model 640 .357 Magnum, 5-shot revolver with a 2” barrel. After years and years of abuse, it started to get a little loose. I sent it back to S&W and they went through the entire revolver. They replaced the cylinder, reshaped the forcing cone, retimed the revolver, fixed unseen stuff, and even replace the screws that looked a little worn. The total cost for all of the repairs was...FREE!!! I have always only bought S&W double-action revolvers because they are simply the best and they bend over backward to make sure the customer has a reliable product. In the future, to protect my little friend, I will only shoot .38 Special ammo for practice and load .357 Magnum ammo for things that go bump in the night. I love S&W double-action revolvers!!!
