There’s really no two ways about it: They don’t make them like Elmer Keith anymore. He was known for wearing big Stetson hats, smoking big cigars, and hunting big game with handguns long before anyone else did. In Keith’s day, handgun rounds were either big and slow or fast and small. Confronted with this kind of ballistics market, Keith sought to make bigger rounds go faster. This is how Keith became the father of the magnum cartridges that we use today: the .357, the .41 and the .44.

Keith was perhaps most associated with the .44 magnum, with which he could dispatch a mule deer at 600 yards. He was also a prolific wildcatter of both pistol and rifle rounds, who was always looking for ways to make big rounds bigger. Indeed, Keith was very vocal about his distaste for smaller rounds, and would even express it to contemporaries such as Jack O'Connor who championed the 270 Winchester.

Keith was born and raised in Hardin, Missouri, right on the Western frontier, and had the opportunity to meet many gunfighters and Civil War veterans. He claimed, in fact, that it was the town barber, a former gunfighter, who taught him how to shoot using linoleum in back of the shop.

The Hotel Fire That Changed Everything

In 1911, Keith was burned very badly in a fire in Missoula, Montana. These were scars that he wore for the rest of his life and the fire would likely have killed just about any other man. But Keith refused to die. It was so bad that his chin became fused with his right shoulder and his left hand was turned completely upside down. His father contacted several doctors in the area to perform a surgery to fix his hand, but they all refused, saying that he probably wouldn’t even live to see 21 anyway.

It finally fell on Keith’s father to break his hand and reset it. After a trip down to the local liquor store to get a bottle of 100-proof Old Granddad, Keith told his father to break and set his hand no matter how much he passed out or screamed. Keith was then fitted with a special glove, and over the course of two years, regained the normal use of his hand through a lot of painful use. The hand was deformed, but Keith could use it to both rope steer and shoot pistols.

He became one of the most famous gun writers of all time and regularly responded to his own correspondence without the help of a secretary. He received, on average, between 300 and 500 letters every month. Among the dedicated six gunner community, these letters are held as prized mementos.

America’s Most Prolific Gun Writer

Keith was a prolific gun writer throughout the early part of the 20th Century. His first published work was a humble letter written to American Rifleman in August 1925. His final original manuscript was written in the 1980s.

Keith was not the tinkerer that many wildcatters are. He was a simple man: When he found something that he liked, he stuck with it. However, when the thing that he wanted didn’t exist, he figured out a way to make it. This is how he arrived at the 44. Magnum.

In 1945, he exploded a .45 Colt SAA and switched over to the .44 Special. Up until that point, Keith had never even seen a 44 Special. But once he got his hands on one, the world of firearms was about to change forever. He created the Keith bullet, which has become somewhat genericized today, but had very specific specifications when Keith first designed it. Thousands of six gunners today still make Keith bullets to his original instructions.

Before the advent of the 44 Magnum, Keith spent years custom loading his 44 Specials to make them more like the 44 Magnum that was to come. However, Keith still wanted something better and so he approached Smith & Wesson, who then collaborated with Remington to give birth to what would become one of the most iconic rounds in American firearms history. Remington was in charge of the ammo and Smith & Wesson was in charge of the weapon, which was the Model 29.

Dirty Harry Changes the Game

It’s worth briefly reflecting on just how iconic the Model 29 was, because this was a large part of what drove sales for the .44 Magnum. In 1971, Dirty Harry was released. And can you imagine Harry Callahan with a Colt 1911, a Luger, or another equally iconic but semi-automatic weapon? Of course not. Demand for the Model 29 was so sharp after the release of that film that people were easily paying three times the list price because gun shops simply could not keep them in stock.

The 44 Mag led to a revolution in ammunition and sparked a drive for greater and greater stopping power among the American public. We have Elmer Keith to thank for it. He was also instrumental in the development of truncated cone solid ammo, the 41 Remington Magnum and the 357 Magnum.

Keith had a debilitating stroke in 1981, which effectively ended his career. His books include topics like six guns, hunting big game, shotguns, and his own life story – the last of which is a fascinating read if there ever was one.

But his legacy lives on as anyone who has ever hunted with a handgun can tell you. Try dropping a deer or a wild boar with a 357. It’s simply no match for the .44 Magnum, which is, at least in the world of firearms, as iconic an American creation as Coca-Cola, Levi’s and Harley-Davidson. Keith was a man with a total inability to quit – and we have him to thank for it.

Elmer Keith: The Forgotten History of the Firearms Author and Father of Big Bore Handgunning originally appeared in The Resistance Library at Ammo.com.

When I was a kid, I read everything I could get my hands on by Elmer Keith, or about him. When I got my first .44 Magnum, not a Model 29, but a blued Ruger Super Blackhawk, I had Elmer Keith in the back of my mind when I got it and shot it. You really couldn't read about the .44 Magnum in the 70s and 80s without reading about Elmer Keith, too.

The era of print was great. Collecting books and reading Finn Aagaard, Elmer Keith, Jack O'Connor, Grits Gresham, and Skeeter Skelton made a boy see a cape buffalo in every field of grass and want a pistol in every drawer. IMO, there is nobody in shooting today that inspires the way these gun-guys did back then. No one.

I've got a couple of his books.

He's directly responsible for me having a couple of .44 Magnum revolvers.

I've got an almost New copy of this on top of my 1937 Zenith Console Radio/phonograph.

Always looked forward to his articles over the years. I learned many things from him, one of which I use today.

The idea of a defense round having low recoil and incredible stopping power and that is using a light target load and hollow base wad cutters, only loading them with the hollow base out. Back then, before ballistic gel, old water soaked phone books were used to demonstrate performance. I think Elmer used these in a 44 special.

Thanks for the article about him.

I have a copy of SIXGUNS.

Indeed, truly one of the forefathers, and back before the internet, email, etc. Unfortunately, the days of true sportsmen like him, and the environment in which they could exist and perform are in the decline.

I was quite surprised several of his guns, including the Famous No. 5 ($80K) didn't sell for much, much more at auction a few years ago.

http://bulletin.accurateshoote...ell-for-1-9-million/

Taffin has done a good job picking where he left off and carrying it forward.

$.02 worth,
Boss

So Elmer Keith never even saw a .44 Special until 1945? I guess he must have lied in the books and articles he wrote. Either that, or this piece is as poorly researched and written as several of the others you've posted.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:
I've got a couple of his books.

He's directly responsible for me having a couple of .44 Magnum revolvers.

I've got an almost New copy of this on top of my 1937 Zenith Console Radio/phonograph.

I have one with an inscription signed by Keith. Wrote to him years ago and got it in return.

quote:

Originally posted by mesabi:
So Elmer Keith never even saw a .44 Special until 1945? I guess he must have lied in the books and articles he wrote. Either that, or this piece is as poorly researched and written as several of the others you've posted.

Relax and call it a TYPO. 1925. Easy mistake.

He gave us a lot to be thankful for; his Wonderfull
Keith style SWC pistol bullet design. The .44 mag.
collaborated on the .41 mag I believe.

Count me among those that grew up in the 70s/80s reading Grandpa's Guns&Ammo and American Rifleman every chance I got.

I believe it was Mr. Keith I'm paraphrasing: "If you're fixin' to put a hole in something, make it a hole to remember."

That philosophy has never let me down.

quote:

Originally posted by nosticks:
Always looked forward to his articles over the years. I learned many things from him, one of which I use today.

The idea of a defense round having low recoil and incredible stopping power and that is using a light target load and hollow base wad cutters, only loading them with the hollow base out. Back then, before ballistic gel, old water soaked phone books were used to demonstrate performance. I think Elmer used these in a 44 special.

Thanks for the article about him.

Like Dirty Harry said in Magnum Force: It's a light special. In this size gun if gives me better control and less recoil than a 357 Magnum with wadcutters.