Spaghetti westerns, Gus, and a new Pietta…

I grew up on westerns….in the movies and on television. I had high hopes for the new Disney movie about the Lone Ranger, but I was disappointed when the critics panned it. My neighbors saw it, though, and they liked it so it’s back on the list for me. I’m old enough to have enjoyed the original Lone Ranger TV show with Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels, along with many others on the silver screen and the little screen. Bonanza, The Rifleman, The Virginian, Gunsmoke, Fury, My Friend Flicka, Bat Masterson, Wanted Dead or Alive, Have Gun Will Travel, How the West Was Won, and the list goes on. I love them all. I’ll bet more than a few of you reading this blog do, too.

What’s amazing to me is the trash that passes for entertainment on TV today. Most of it is terrible, and the worst of the bunch are the so-called reality shows (with the possible exception of American Pickers…we like that one). It just seems like we continue to move in the wrong direction. On the one hand we’ve got entertainment industry airheads condemning violence, yet most of what they turn out is senseless gore. We bought a copy of Django over the weekend, and on a scale of 1 to 10 it was a negative number. Folks, don’t waste your shekels on this one.  Calling it stupid would be an insult to stupid people.

One notable exception a few years ago was the Lonesome Dove series (it was on TV in the 1990s). Based closely on the Larry McMurtry novel of the same name, it was an awesome story. I’ve read the book four times and I’ve probably seen the movie series at least that many times. Gus McCrae is my hero…he’s who I want to be when I grow up.

Gus McCrae and his Colt Walker 44, the largest and most powerful black powder handgun of its era

The nice thing about the westerns in the 1950s and the 1960s is what was right and what was wrong was easy to understand. It was logical. Nobody had any doubt about who the good guys were and who the bad guys were. We didn’t need talking heads to explain it all to us like we see on the news shows today. Those early westerns were just plain old good entertainment. They appealed to our better instincts.

Clint Eastwood, the spaghetti western king, also armed with Colt Walkers

The 1970s brought us another phenomenon…the spaghetti westerns. You know, it’s weird, but the Italians making those movies had a better handle on our heritage than we did. I guess most of the writers and entertainment types in Hollywood already had their brains fried by drugs, and the stuff being made in Italy was much better. I liked the ones with Clint Eastwood the best.

So, where am I going with all of this?

You may remember me talking about my good buddy Alan from the Motor Scooter International Land Speed Federation here on the blog. As it turns out, Alan is a student of the American West and our early history. He’s also a black powder aficionado. And so is my friend Pauly B, whom I visited in Hollister this past weekend. Between Alan and Pauly, I’ve been getting indoctrinated into the black powder world.

Black powder is cool. These guns don’t take cartridges…you actually pour the gun powder into the gun, force a ball (the bullet) on top of it, add a percussion cap to light the fire, and let ‘er rip. Just like they did in the old days. There was no Hollywood nonsense about holding your 9mm automatic sideways and rattling out 18 rounds along with a string of profanity.  In the old days when folks built America, you had one shot in a rifle and maybe six in a handgun.  And then it took a long time to reload. You had to make each one count. Cool stuff.

So what I’ve been learning about the black powder world is very interesting. One of the things that really surprised me is that the best black powder guns in the world today are made in Italy, and they are copies of the guns that figured prominently in our U.S. history. When I asked how is it that Italian gunmakers are cranking out copies of Colts from the 1850s and 1860s, the only reasonable explanation Pauly and I came up with are the spaghetti westerns. Like I described above. With Clint Eastwood. The Italian arms industry loves our history so much they are the ones making copies of our original classic firearms.

Here’s the bottom line: I pulled the trigger a couple of weeks ago (figuratively speaking) and I bought an 1851 Navy Colt made by a company called Pietta in Italy. It’s a .44, which in the black powder world means it’s really a .45 (it takes a .45-caliber ball). The original 1851 Navy Colts were never actually used by the Navy, and they were only available as a .36 caliber. But the modern 1851 Navy Colt is a 44 and it’s made in Italy. If you’re confused by all of this, don’t feel bad. I’m just starting to get it myself.

My new Pietta 1851 Navy Colt...for $169 this is an exceptional handgun!

Another thing that amazes me about the blackpowder world is that in most states these guns are easy to buy. They are excluded from all of the controls and hoops you have to jump through to buy a cartridge gun. I ordered my 1851 Navy Colt from Cabela’s and they shipped it directly to me.  The UPS guy left it by the front door earlier today when I was at the plant.  Amazing, ain’t it?

Anyway, I hope to get out to the range soon to play with his new toy, and maybe shoot a video while doing so. They tell me blackpowder guns are kind of like politicians and some motorcycles I won’t name here – they make lots of smoke and noise. It should be exciting.

I will keep you posted, folks.