Skieeter's sixguns - The Sixgunner

When his first article appeared in the pages of Guns Magazine he was known as Charles A. Skelton. That did not last long as he soon began to use his nickname of "Skeeter." For nearly 30 years, Skeeter Skelton would captivate readers as no other gunwriter before or since. Not only with articles on new guns and old standbys, but he was also a highly gifted fiction writer. He was surrounded by characters such as Jug Johnson, Dobe Grant, Me and Joe, Bill Jordan and Evan Quiros. We loved them all equally, both the real and the fictional.

Skeeter spent most of his adult life in law enforcement, first as a city cop and Sheriff in Texas, then the United States Border Patrol, United States Customs and finally the DEA were all badges he wore. The late Tom Ferguson of the San Antonio Police Department, and another writer, told me without hesitation "Skeeter was real!" A short, but comically written, stint in the cattle business turned Skeeter into a full-time gun writer. It was not only Skeeter's writing skills that made him so popular, it was also the fact he wrote about traditional sixguns most appreciated by those in my circle of sixgunners.

In 1978 Skeeter was the sixth recipient of the Outstanding American Handgunner Award. This was also my first meeting with him. I approached him with a photograph without saying a word. He grabbed me by the arm and said, "Son, let's go someplace and talk." That picture was a close-up of the barrel of a 1st Generation Colt Single Action Army inscribed ".44 RUSSIAN AND S&W SPECIAL." I had found the way to his sixgunning heart. Let's take a look at some of his favorite sixguns -- both .44 Specials and others.

Pistol Passion

In 1951 Skeeter received an appointment to the United States Border Patrol, stationed in Arizona. Two years earlier he had carried a 5" Colt Single Action .45 as a city cop in Amarillo. He did not care for the Border Patrol issue revolver, the 4" Colt New Service .38 Special, so that .45 was used anytime he was not forced to carry the New Service. What he really wanted was a Smith & Wesson, the model in those days known simply as the .357 Magnum. He was able to trade for a 5" .357 Magnum one of his fellow officers had obtained from Col. Doug Wesson. This sixgun wore custom stocks by Walter Roper. Skeeter would later modify the Roper to what is now known as the Skeeter Skelton Model. These were offered by BearHug Grips until Deacon Deason's death in 1994 and are now custom-made by BluMagnum.

That sixgun followed him to his job as Sheriff of Deaf Smith County Texas and was only the first of five identical .357 Magnums with 5" barrels with 1/10" front sights. These were certainly some of his most cherished revolvers. In fact, Skeeter called this particular model and barrel length his favorite .357 Magnum.

Skeeter also had a special feeling for Ruger's first centerfire revolver, the .357 Magnum Blackhawk, acquiring serial number 125 in 1955. He often wrote of the 6" version of this Flat-Top Model and also had a 10" Blackhawk cut back to 7" calling it "The nicest carrying Ruger I've ever known." At the time, neither he nor anyone else realized the 10" .357 Blackhawk would become a rare collector's item.

Forty-four Specials also had a special place in Skeeter's life. Early on he had a Smith & Wesson 1950 Target .44 Special cut to 5" to match is favorite .357 Magnum. With the advent of the .44 Magnum from Smith & Wesson, Skeeter acquired one of these with a 4" barrel. He soon found it was overly-powerful for law-enforcement use, and when he went back to .44 Special loads, he could no' see any reason to carry the extra weight and mass of the .44 Magnum. It was sold and he went back to the .44 Special, purchasing what is now a very rare sixgun. an original 4" 1950 Target. "This sixgun was much lighter and less bulky than its Magnum counterpart, yet handled the .44 Special handloads with complete comfort ... In all likelihood, this is the best all purpose sixgun I've ever owned."

When both Smith & Wesson and Colt dropped the .44 Special, Skeeter not only lead the drive to have them reinstated he also introduced us to .44 Special conversions on existing .357 Magnums. For this he chose both Ruger's Old Model .357 Blackhawk and Smith's .357 Highway Patrolman. He started a trend that still exists today. One might be attempted to ask, "Why bother since we have so many excellent .44 Magnums?" The answer is .44 Specials do not have to be as large nor as heavy as the comparable .44 Magnum models. The Old Model Blackhawk is the same basic size as the Colt Single Action and this model, as well as the Highway Patrolman, when converted to .44 Special, weigh about one-half pound less than a .44 Magnum.

I had just finished college, which translates to I had very little money to spare, when Skeeter caused me to lust, I mean really LUST after a .44 Special sixgun. He had earlier recounted a custom Colt Single Action he had built in the late 1940s. Starting with a .38-40, Christy Gun Works installed a new .44 Special barrel and cylinder, King Gunsight Co. added an adjustable rear sight and bead front sight, the entire revolver was then deluxe blued and fitted with ivory grips. Sixguns such as this one were often dreamed about during my college days when I was carrying a full load of classes, as well as working full-time to support by growing family. Those dreams often kept me going. Now he was talking about a new factory manufactured .44 Special, the 5' Colt New Frontier. Skeeter said this .44 Special may seem expensive at $140 but, referring to his earlier custom .44 Special Colt, "I once paid more." I had to have one of those New Frontier .44's, however it would be a long time into the future before that beca me possible.

But There's More

Skeeter had decided the .44 Magnum was not suitable for law-enforcement use but rather made an excellent hunting handgun. The above-mentioned 4" Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum was traded for a 6" version for hunting, however his most-used .44 Magnum was a Ruger. Skeeter recounted he had left law enforcement to go into the cattle business in 1960. Many of his sixguns had been sold to finance this ill-fated adventure. Living in New Mexico at the time, Skeeter found a previously-unknown-to-him Ruger in a gunshop.

Ruger had been manufacturing the .44 Magnum Blackhawk with a 6" barrel and had also just recently introduced the 7" Super Blackhawk. Like many of us, Skeeter preferred the standard Colt Single Action-style grip frame of the older Blackhawk to the new Dragoon shaped grip frame of the Super Blackhawk. The standard Blackhawk found that day was a used 7" standard model with a price tag of $50. "Although I own several .44 Magnums of various types, this old flat-top is still my favorite. I've taken a great deal of game with it and trust it implicitly."

Skeeter was especially fond of the Colt Single Action. "But there are times when the need for concealment, or for fast-handling qualities, or for trophy winning precision is not important. These are the good times when I'm hunting or just knocking around in the brush. Being a gun-oriented short, I still pack a sixgun on those days and it is still frequently a single action... As a defense gun, the Colt Single Action .45 is slower to operate than double actions and automatics, but its large caliber and good handling qualities make it quite formidable. When I'm cruising the desert or mountains, just dawdling, the old .45 Colt is all the gun I need."

After Colt dropped the Single Action Army in the 1970s, Skeeter not only campaigned for its return, he also worked hard for the return of the Single Action chambered in .44 Special. His clamoring for more .44 Specials was also directly responsible for Smith & Wesson bringing back the Model 24 in the early 1980s.

Skeeter's gone now. That day in 1988 when we received word of his passing still seems like yesterday. He was just shy of his 60th birthday and certainly had much more to share with sixgunners. I knew he had a great influence on my life, however, I didn't realize how much until I started taking photographs for this article. All sixguns shown are not Skeeter's originals but rather those I have purchased during my sixgunnin' life thanks to Skeeter's and Elmer Keith's influence.

The 4" .44 Magnum from S&W was fried for law-enfortement duties/however skeeter discarded it in favor of a 4" 1950 Target 44 Special

It was Skeeter who caused Taffin to lust after a 5" Colt New Frontier chambered in .44 Special.

one of Skeeter's favorite knockabout single actions was the original Ruger Black-hawk .357 Magnum.

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