What were the most popular revolvers in the Old West. How did the Colt Peacemaker compare to other firearms of the era. Why was the six-shooter so iconic in Western lore. Explore the fascinating history and mechanics of classic handguns from the American frontier.
The Reign of the Colt Revolver in the Wild West
When most people think of Old West firearms, the Colt revolver immediately comes to mind. While Colt certainly dominated the market, it wasn’t the only six-shooter in town. Remington, Starr, and Smith & Wesson all produced quality revolvers that saw use on the American frontier. Even legendary figures like Wyatt Earp and the James brothers were known to carry non-Colt firearms at times.
Why did the Colt revolver become so iconic? The U.S. Army conducted rigorous testing of various revolver models, and while other brands excelled in certain areas, none could match the Colt’s overall ruggedness, reliability, and simplicity of design. This combination of factors made it the preferred sidearm for many frontiersmen and lawmen alike.
Famous Users of Non-Colt Revolvers
- Wyatt Earp – Occasionally carried a Smith & Wesson
- Frank James – Owned an 1875 Remington and a Smith & Wesson Schofield
- Jesse James – Carried both a Colt and a .44 Starr revolver
- Buffalo Bill Cody – Admired and used Smith & Wesson revolvers
The Practicalities of Six-Shooter Usage in the Old West
Revolvers were primarily designed for close-quarter combat. An experienced gunman was considered proficient if he could hit his target at a distance of 15 yards. The maximum effective range was about 75 yards, though the weapon could still be used at greater distances with proper adjustments.
How accurate were these firearms? At 50 yards, grouping shots within a six-inch circle was considered good shooting. The rifling in the barrel caused bullets to drift about 30 inches to the left at 300 yards, regardless of the shooter’s skill. Army tests of the Colt Peacemaker found that at 150 yards, one needed to aim 4 feet above the target to hit it, and at 200 yards, a full 8 feet above.
Effective Ranges of Old West Revolvers
- Close-quarters combat: 0-15 yards
- Proficient accuracy: Up to 50 yards
- Maximum effective range: 75 yards
- Long-range shooting (with adjustments): Up to 200 yards
The Impact of Black Powder on Old West Gunfights
Until the 1890s, black powder was the standard propellant for firearms. This created large puffs of white smoke that could quickly fill enclosed spaces like saloons. How did this affect gunfights? The poor visibility likely contributed to the sometimes comically poor marksmanship reported in Old West shootouts.
A prime example occurred in Dodge City’s Long Branch Saloon on April 5, 1879. Cockeye Frank Loving and buffalo hunter Levi Richardson engaged in a close-quarters gunfight, chasing each other around a gaming table. Despite firing from point-blank range, Richardson managed to miss with all five shots from his pistol, only succeeding in setting Loving’s clothes on fire. Amidst the smoke and flames, Loving eventually landed the fatal shot on Richardson.
The Reliability (or Lack Thereof) of Old West Firearms
While revolvers were generally dependable, they weren’t without their quirks. Misfires were not uncommon, and the reliability of ammunition could be questionable. A notorious example is the assassination of Wild Bill Hickok in Deadwood on August 2, 1876. Jack McCall’s pistol misfired on every cartridge except the first—which happened to be the fatal shot.
How did gunslingers cope with potential misfires? Many carried multiple weapons or extra loaded cylinders to quickly swap out in case of malfunction. This practice was especially common in the early days of revolvers when reloading was a time-consuming process.
Strategies for Dealing with Unreliable Firearms
- Carrying multiple revolvers
- Keeping spare loaded cylinders on hand
- Developing quick-draw and firing techniques to maximize first-shot accuracy
Debunking the Myth of the Two-Gun Fighter
Hollywood has popularized the image of the dual-wielding gunslinger, but how accurate is this portrayal? In reality, few individuals could effectively use two guns simultaneously. Even the famously ambidextrous Wild Bill Hickok admitted to being less proficient with his left hand, once quipping that he’d never shot a man with it anyway.
So why did some Old West figures carry multiple guns? The primary reason was to have a backup weapon ready. In the early days of revolvers, reloading was a slow process, making a second loaded gun a valuable asset in a prolonged gunfight.
The Colt’s Reputation for Ruggedness and Reliability
One of the key factors in the Colt revolver’s popularity was its ability to function even when damaged. Texas Ranger Captain John “RIP” Ford recounted an incident during the 1866 Battle of the Frio where a ranger named Sam Walker Trimble (the author’s great-grandfather) continued to use his Colt even after the hammer broke. How did he manage this feat? By using a small hand-held tack hammer to strike the percussion cap, demonstrating the Colt’s remarkable durability in harsh frontier conditions.
The Evolution of Revolver Design: Colt’s Competitors
As the popularity of revolvers grew, other manufacturers began producing high-quality firearms to compete with Colt. How did these new designs innovate upon the original revolver concept?
Remington’s Contributions
In 1858, Remington introduced a single-action revolver featuring a solid-frame strap over the cylinder. This design provided increased strength and a continuous sighting groove, improving accuracy and durability. Five years later, they released the popular .44 caliber New Model Army, which incorporated several modifications to further enhance performance.
Smith & Wesson’s Innovations
Smith & Wesson developed their famous No. 3 single-action revolver around 1868, which remained in production until 1898. In 1870, Major George Schofield of the U.S. Cavalry redesigned the No. 3, making several minor improvements and one major change that would ensure the revolver’s lasting fame.
What made the Schofield design unique? Unlike traditional revolvers with side-loading gates, the S&W Model 1875 Schofield featured a top-break design. This innovation allowed for simultaneous ejection of all spent cartridges, significantly speeding up the reloading process—a crucial advantage in the heat of battle.
The .44-40: A Cartridge for Both Pistol and Rifle
In 1878, Colt introduced a .44 caliber revolver that quickly gained popularity among Westerners. Why was this particular model so well-received? The key lay in its compatibility with the Winchester Model 1873 rifle, which chambered the same .44-40 cartridge. This commonality allowed frontiersmen to carry a single type of ammunition for both their pistol and rifle, simplifying logistics and reducing the burden of carrying multiple types of cartridges.
Advantages of the .44-40 Cartridge
- Versatility: Used in both revolvers and rifles
- Simplified ammunition management
- Reduced weight and bulk for travelers
- Easier resupply in remote areas
This compatibility between handguns and long guns would continue to influence firearm design and usage well beyond the frontier era, showcasing the practical mindset of Old West firearms users.
The Legacy of Old West Revolvers in Modern Times
The revolvers of the Old West have left an indelible mark on American culture and firearm design. How do these classic six-shooters continue to influence us today?
Modern firearm manufacturers still produce replicas and updated versions of iconic Old West revolvers, catering to collectors, history enthusiasts, and competitive shooters in Western-themed events. The simple, rugged design principles that made these revolvers so effective on the frontier continue to inform modern handgun development.
Beyond their practical influence, Old West revolvers have become powerful symbols in popular culture. They feature prominently in films, literature, and artwork, often representing themes of individualism, justice, and the untamed spirit of the American frontier.
Modern Applications of Old West Revolver Designs
- Cowboy Action Shooting competitions
- Historical reenactments
- Collector’s items and museum pieces
- Inspiration for modern revolver designs
- Props and replicas for film and television production
As we continue to study and appreciate these remarkable firearms, we gain not only a better understanding of the technological challenges faced by our forebears but also insight into the culture and values that shaped the American West. The story of the Old West revolver is, in many ways, the story of America itself—a tale of innovation, practicality, and the enduring spirit of a young nation forging its path in a vast and challenging frontier.
Shooters – True West Magazine
Illustration by Bob Boze Bell
Reading the pulp westerns and watching B-westerns one might conclude that the Colt revolver was the only pistol used in the Old West. Remington built a fine six-shooter and so did Starr and Smith & Wesson. At times Wyatt Earp carried a Smith & Wesson. Frank James packed an 1875 model Remington and also owned a Smith & Wesson Schofield, as did his brother Jesse. Buffalo Bill Cody was also a great admirer of the Smith & Wesson revolver. Besides his trusty Colt, Jesse James carried a .44 Starr revolver.
The Army gave rigorous tests to several revolver-making companies. Other brands were superior to the Colt in some tests but for overall ruggedness, design, reliability and simplicity of design, none could compare with the Colt.
The revolver was designed for close-quarter fighting. An experienced gunman was considered proficient if he could hit what he was aiming at in a distance of fifteen yards.
Since the rifling in the barrel twisted to the left, the bullet would also drift some 30 inches in 300 yards no matter how good the shooter was. Its maximum effective range was 75 yards. At fifty yards it was considered good shooting to group the shots in a six-inch circle. But it could be effective at long range. The army tested the Peacemaker and found that by allowing for trajectory, the point of aim at 150 yards should be 4 feet above the target and at 200 yards one had to line the sights up 8 feet above the target.
In 1878, the .44 caliber Colt came on the market. It was popular among westerners because most also carried the Winchester Model 1873 .44-40 in their scabbard. That way one needed to pack only one kind of ammunition for both pistol and rifle.
Black powder was used until the 1890’s and it threw out large puffs of white smoke that could that could quickly engulf a saloon. That might explain why some of the shooting seemed so poor. A gunfight in the Long Branch Saloon in Dodge City on April 5th, 1879, is a good example.
Cockeye Frank Loving and a buffalo hunter named Levi Richardson got into a row, chasing each other around a gaming table, shooting all the while, their pistol barrels almost touching. Richardson, fanning his pistol, fired all five rounds, missing five times, succeeding only in setting Cockeye Frank’s clothing on fire. His clothes trailing smoke, Cockeye finally hit Levi with a fatal bullet.
One couldn’t always count on the cartridges to explode. When Jack McCall shot Wild Bill Hickok in Deadwood on August 2nd, 1876, the pistol he used misfired on every cartridge in the cylinder except the first one–the one that fired the fatal bullet.
The two-gun fighter was mostly a creation of Hollywood. Few could do any more than waste ammunition with their off-hand. Even the ambidextrous Hickok wasn’t as good with his left hand. During a shooting exhibition when the left hand didn’t perform as well as the right, his only comment was he’d never shot a man with his left hand anyway. The real purpose of a second gun was to have a weapon in reserve.
In the early days of the revolver extra weapons were carried because it took a painfully long time to reload. If they didn’t carry extra pistols, they often had an extra cylinder or two loaded and ready to insert.
One of the reasons for the Colt’s popularity out West was that if any part of the weapon was broken, it would still function. Texas Ranger Captain John (RIP) Ford wrote that during the Battle of the Frio, in Texas in 1866, the hammer of ranger, Sam Walker Trimble’s (this writer’s great-grandfather) Colt revolver broke and he was still able to fire his weapon by using a small hand-held tack hammer to strike the percussion cap.
Before long other manufacturers were producing good revolvers to compete with the Colt. In 1858, Remington produced a single-action revolver with a solid-frame strap over the cylinder which gave more strength and a continuous sighting groove. Five years later a new model came out with several modifications that resulted in the popular .44 caliber New Model Army.
Smith & Wesson developed their famous No. 3 single action (SA) revolver around 1868 and it remained in production until 1898.
In 1870 Major George Schofield, an officer in the U.S. Cavalry, redesigned the No. 3, improving it in several minor and one major way, reputedly for mounted use. It was the Schofield version that ensured the revolver’s lasting fame.
The S&W Model 1875 Schofield, like any single-action revolver, the No. 3’s hammer had to be manually cocked before the weapon could be fired. There is no side-loading gate or external ejector rod housing on a No. 3. Instead, it was a top-break design.
The principle advantage of this design is that all fired brass can be removed simultaneously. (Actually dumped out, since there is no ejector.)
Starr came out with a revolver during the war that was more rigid than the Colt and had a top strap across the cylinder similar to the Remington. It was also easier to break down to remove the cylinder.
Despite this, the .44 Starr never did gain universal appeal among Westerners.
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Marshall Trimble is Arizona’s official historian and the Wild West History Association’s vice president. His latest book is 2018’s Arizona Oddities: A Land of Anomalies and Tamales. Send your question, with your city/state of residence, to [email protected] or Ask the Marshall, P.O. Box 8008, Cave Creek, AZ 85327.
Ruger’s 6-Shot, Single-Action Revolver: An Old-School Gun (Reborn)
Here’s What You Need To Remember: The Ruger New Model Super Blackhawk revolver mixes tradition and power, a design that harkens back to the days of America’s westward expansion while shooting one of the newest pistol calibers on the market.
Although not for everyone, the .44 Magnum pistol has many applications, from target shooting to big game hunting. It, and handguns like it, will continue to fill a niche for a long time to come.
In the world of large caliber handguns, the most popular and powerful caliber by far is .44 Remington Magnum.
Also known as .44 Magnum, it requires a stout, equally powerful pistol or even carbine to shoot it. One gun up to the task is the Ruger Super Blackhawk, a single action revolver that combines the reliability and simplicity of a revolver with the energy of the famous magnum cartridge.
The .44 Remington Magnum cartridge was a progressive development of the .44 Special round. The .44 Special round, used in larger revolvers, was the rough equivalent to .45 ACP in semi-automatic pistols, particularly the M1911A1 in U.S. military service. Both were subsonic rounds with a typical energy load of 300 to 400 foot-pounds.
Noted gun enthusiast and writer Elmer Keith took the .
44 Special round and through extensive testing supercharged it to new heights. The resulting .44 Remington Magnum starts at 741 foot-pounds and can achieve up to 1,400 foot-pounds of force, depending on the particulars of the load. This opened up a brand new frontier of powerful big bore revolvers suitable not only for target shooting but for taking on big game, including deer, bear, and other North American animals.
Although Smith & Wesson and Remington were persuaded to get behind the new round, the first revolver actually brought to market was from Sturm Ruger. Ruger was the first to ship a .44 Magnum round with its new Blackhawk revolver, upscaled from an existing .357 Magnum revolver frame. The revolver debuted in November 1956 at the price of $96—approximately $897 dollars in 2019 prices and just seventy dollars more than today’s suggested retail price for what is in many respects the same gun.
Today’s version, the New Model Super Blackhawk, is a revolver with an Old West design.
The grip, frame, barrel and sights all resemble the Colt Single Action Army revolver, one of the most famous firearms in American history and a staple of western films. The New Model Super Blackhawk even comes in a so-called “Bisley” version, a takeoff on the Colt Bisley, a Single Action Army with a low hammer for competitive target practice.
A big bore handgun like the New Model Super Blackhawk needs to be strong to inspire user confidence. Unlike smaller high-capacity autoloading pistols, the gun is made entirely from steel. This is in turn reflected in the revolver’s weight: the Super Blackhawk, with a 7.5-inch barrel, weighs 48 ounces—or three pounds—unloaded. A version with a 10.5-inch barrel weighs 55 ounces. A full load of six rounds in the cylinder adds another three ounces.
The New Model Super Blackhawk is not a small gun. In addition to barrel length, the pistol’s length is also dictated by the length of the cartridge, which has an overall length of 1.61 inches.
The shortest version, with a 3.75-inch barrel, is approximately 10.5 inches long. The more popular 7.5-inch model is 13.38 inches long, and the largest, with a 10.5-inch long barrel, is a massive 16.38 inches. The revolver is sold as a blued model with light colored hardwood grips, a satin stainless model with dark colored hardwood grips, and a distributor’s special with a western-style case hardened finish.
The Blackhawk is a single action pistol, meaning the hammer needs cocking before it can fire. Although this slows down reaction time, especially in hunting situations with large, dangerous game, it does result in a slightly lighter handgun (compared to comparable double action revolvers) and a trigger pull of just 3.75 pounds. This can help such the pistol stay on target despite very heavy recoil. A similar model, the Ruger Redhawk, is a double action revolver.
The Ruger New Model Super Blackhawk revolver mixes tradition and power, a design that harkens back to the days of America’s westward expansion while shooting one of the newest pistol calibers on the market.
Although not for everyone, the .44 Magnum pistol has many applications, from target shooting to big game hunting. It, and handguns like it, will continue to fill a niche for a long time to come.
Kyle Mizokami is a writer based in San Francisco who has appeared in The Diplomat, Foreign Policy, War is Boring and The Daily Beast. In 2009 he co-founded the defense and security blog Japan Security Watch. (This article was originally published last year.)
Image: Wikipedia.
‘Wild West’ guns | Royal Armouries
Welcome everybody to the wild, wild west. We thought we’d introduce you to a magnificent seven guns from our collection you may see in the hands of your favourite cowboys and cowgirls.
Based on the 1860 Henry Repeating Rifle, the famous Winchester featured a tube magazine with an enormous capacity for the time and a rapid-fire lever action. Its mechanism would later inspire the Maxim machine gun. The 1873 model is the best known, even starring in its own movie: Winchester ’73 (1950).
The LeMat was unusual in that its cylinder held nine shots instead of the usual five or six, and because it had an extra shotgun barrel mounted underneath. This was a lot of firepower when the revolver was introduced in 1856, and it went on to find favour with the Confederate States in the American Civil War. The LeMat appears prominently in 2010’s martial arts/Western mash-up ‘The Warrior’s Way’.
The British Whitworth rifle resembles the better-known Enfield Pattern 1853, but features hexagonal rifling and was designed to fire a close-fitting, hexagonal bullet. This wasted less propellant gas on firing, making it prized for its accuracy amongst Confederate snipers in the American Civil War. A lesser-known weapon of the period, it appeared recently as a plot point in BBC One’s Victorian police drama ‘Ripper Street’.
Named after gunmaker Henry Deringer, ‘Derringer’ became a generic name for a small, concealable weapon for very close range self-defence, carried in a vest pocket or lady’s muff.
Remington’s version featured two barrels that lifted up for loading and is featured in reproduction form in ‘Django Unchained’ (2012).
Probably the most famous of the Old West guns, the Colt six-shooter became renowned as the ‘gun that won the West’. Popular with the military, agents of the law, and with criminals, it was said by a former train robber that ‘a Colt’s forty-five makes all men equal’. The Royal Armouries is fortunate enough to have on loan the Colt that belonged to rancher John Tunstall, whose murder ‘Billy the Kid’ set out to avenge in 1878.
Percussion six-shot revolver – Colt Navy Model 1861 (PR.3537)
The Navy Revolver was based on the original Colt Paterson design of 1836 and saw widespread military and civilian service. Using the percussion system of ignition, it would take some time to load but was among the first pistols to provide the user with multiple shots before reloading. This is one of the pistols wielded by Jamie Foxx in ‘Django Unchained’ (2012).
Unlike the Winchester, which fired short-range pistol ammunition, the Sharps was a single-shot, full-bore rifle chambering the powerful .50-70 or .45-70 Government ammunition. This made it highly accurate and powerful, whether for hunting large animals or ‘sniping’ human targets, as in ‘Django Unchained’ (2012).
Samuel Walker, Samuel Colt, and the Six-Shooters That Won the Wst
On June 1, 1844, Captain Jack Hays led fourteen Texas Rangers from their camp on the Medina River twelve miles west of San Antonio. They rode north through broken hills and winding streams in search of American Indians. What happened one week later, on a small creek about fifty miles away, would dramatically change the nature of frontier combat and the history of Texas and the American West.
For most of the previous year, the western half of the young Republic of Texas—where most Indian attacks occurred—had been relatively quiet. When President Sam Houston had been elected for a second time, in 1841, he’d sought to solve the nation’s conflicts diplomatically.
The main reason was money. Between the Indians incensed at white settlers encroaching on their land, and Mexico, which had never acknowledged the independence of its former territory, the cash-strapped Republic faced hostility on multiple fronts, and it was incapable of properly defending against incursions. Mexico had its own problems to deal with—lack of money and troops, as well as internal strife—that kept it from causing too much trouble for the new republic. But Indian attacks were taking their toll. Houston’s efforts to treat with the Indians had achieved some success: during meetings in March and September of 1843, Texas had signed agreements with several of the smaller tribes. They discussed a boundary line beyond which the Indians would remain, but because the largest and most powerful tribe in Texas, the Comanches, had attended neither meeting, the line and its exact location would have to wait until the third, which convened in April 1844 and was still in session as Hays’s Rangers broke camp.
Texas’s cost-cutting measures had included disbanding the 560-man regular army and auctioning off the navy’s four vessels, which left Hays’s 40-man Ranger company as the country’s only defense force. Lately, they had spent more time chasing Texan outlaws, Mexican spies, and bandits along the Rio Grande than fighting Indians.
Because of the ongoing negotiations, Hays was under orders not to penetrate too far into Indian country. But a series of raids had recently been perpetrated on the San Antonio area, and the dutiful captain had gathered nearly half his company and headed north in search of the culprits. After several days with no success, they turned toward home.
At midday on June 8, they took a break on a creek a few miles north of the Guadalupe River, near the Pinta Trace, an old north-south trail. Two men climbed a nearby cypress tree to collect honey from a large bee colony. They had just begun to cut into the tree when the Rangers’ rear guard galloped into camp.
They had sighted ten warriors on the back trail, heading their way. The honey was forgotten, and Hays ordered his men to mount and prepare for a fight.
The Indians came into view—warriors all, sporting full war paint and armed with lances, bows, and shields. A raiding party, Hays was sure. The fifteen Rangers tightened their horses’ cinches, mounted, checked their arms, and moved forward slowly. The Indians retreated, also slowly. As they fell back toward thicker brush and trees, the Indians pranced about, clearly hoping to lure the Rangers into attacking. Hays resisted this trap, and the Indians disappeared into the trees. Moments later they reappeared on a hill behind the brush. Now there were between sixty and seventy of them—Comanches, it looked like—dismounting and taunting the Rangers, yelling, “Charge! Charge!” and daring them to fire their rifles. The odds had shifted: the Rangers were outnumbered four to one by a Comanche war party.
This gave Hays little pause.
The Rangers with him were a hardened bunch, the best he’d ever had. Almost all had served with him before, and the new men were good, especially quiet Samuel Walker, recently escaped from Mexico.
Samuel Walker.
Walker didn’t resemble the other Rangers, most of whom were large, bearded, and rough. He was slightly built, and beardless, with sandy reddish hair and an easygoing demeanor. Born in 1815 into a large Maryland farming family, he had been apprenticed as a young man to a carpenter. It didn’t take—Sam later admitted to being “naturally fond of military glory,” with a “love of chivalric immortal fame”—so he had enlisted in the Army to fight in the Creek and Seminole Wars. Though promoted to corporal for bravery, he had found that the life of an enlisted man wasn’t for him. After some railroad work in Florida, he’d headed west and arrived in Texas early in 1842.
Walker had signed up for ranging work in time for the Battle of Salado Creek in September, where he helped repel an attack by more than a thousand Mexican soldados.
After the battle, seven hundred Texans, including Walker, had reorganized to march into Mexico in retaliation. They recaptured the towns of Laredo and Guerrero and then were ordered to disband and return home. Most did, but three hundred men marched on the Rio Grande town of Mier, unaware that three thousand Mexican soldiers were in the area. They were ultimately forced to surrender, and the survivors were marched to Mexico City. General Santa Anna ordered their execution but eventually mandated that only every tenth prisoner from the Mier expedition would be killed. Though Walker survived, he was imprisoned and brutally beaten. After six months, he escaped. In September 1843 he returned to Texas, and he joined Hays’s Ranger company in February 1844.
Hays had worked his men in horsemanship and marksmanship, using Indian and vaquero riding tactics and equipment—like a heavier Mexican bit that provided more control to the rider, allowing him freedom to deal with his firearms—and drilling them constantly until they rivaled the Comanches themselves.
And they were a disciplined group, or as disciplined as a group of Texans could get. As he faced the Comanche war party that day in June 1844, Hays knew what his men were capable of, and he knew he could count on them.
A year earlier, Hays might have declined the Comanches’ invitation for a fight. But this time was different. This time the Texans had a new weapon.
Photograph by Dan Winters
The standard frontier gun at the time was the mountain or plains rifle, a more compact version of the Pennsylvania-Kentucky flintlock muzzle loader, accurate to about two hundred yards. Dependable and powerful, it had one drawback: it took time to properly load—a full minute or close to it, and even longer on a horse, in a fight. Indians knew this and adjusted their tactics accordingly. They would send a few warriors to draw fire; then the entire band would swoop down onto the furiously reloading Anglos. Carrying a pistol or two or three helped, but these single-shot flintlocks were inaccurate at anything but the closest range, and they often snapped, or refused to fire, because of wet powder.
And since an Indian could shoot ten to twelve arrows in the time it took to reload, the Anglos were at a serious disadvantage. Until now.
On this day, Hays and his men were armed with Samuel Colt’s patented revolvers, a newfangled invention they had only recently obtained.
A Connecticut Yankee who had been raised in a family of some privilege—at least before his father lost the bulk of his fortune—Colt had been fascinated with explosives and firearms since childhood. He’d come up with the idea for his revolver while still in his teens, but he didn’t have the funds for such an undertaking, so he’d hit the road for a few years as the Celebrated Dr. Coult, putting on stage shows demonstrating the wonders of laughing gas. Besides being smart and mechanically curious, Colt was a born huckster, and these shows were popular and lucrative.
Much later, Colt would write that he burned with a desire to do “what never before has been accomplished by man.” Toward that end, in 1836, at the age of 22, after he’d saved enough money and acquired several investors, and after years of experimenting, he patented a five-shot revolver.
The new pistol took advantage of a recent innovation, the percussion cap, which had replaced the flintlock as a much more reliable way to ignite gunpowder. He began manufacturing the guns in a Paterson, New Jersey, factory. Firing five shots in less time than one man could reload a flintlock weapon should have guaranteed large orders from the government. But the Paterson, as Colt’s first revolver became known, was fragile and fired a small-caliber ball, and it had to be half-disassembled to reload, so military tests were unimpressive, as were sales. When his company went bankrupt in 1842, Colt had turned to other pursuits, such as underwater mines and waterproof cables.
Samuel Colt.
But before Colt went out of business, his best customer had been the Republic of Texas. Paterson revolvers had somehow found their way there, and the Texas army and navy placed orders for the expensive weapons. When the two military branches were eliminated, many of the five-shooters were given to the Rangers.
They had used the Colts in fights before June 1844, but it was only recently that all men were armed with revolvers in addition to their flintlock guns. Hays had seen enough to know what the revolver could do. And as he looked up at the large force of belligerent Comanches before them that June day, he might have been itching to test its worth in combat against a formidable enemy. He ordered his small company forward.
Reaching the base of the peak and realizing they were out of sight of the Comanches, Hays quickly led his men around the hill and up one side. As the surprised Indians leaped onto their mounts, the Rangers fired their rifles, pulled their five-shooters, and charged into them, shooting left and right. The Comanches gave way but regrouped and closed around the Rangers, who formed a tight circle, backs to one another, and for fifteen minutes the battle raged at close quarters in a blizzard of arrows, lances, and pistol rounds. Two Rangers were hit with arrows, and lances found two others, Sam Walker and Ad Gillespie.
But at such a short distance, the Patersons found their marks, and Comanches fell to the ground steadily until they finally broke—shocked, surely, by the guns that never seemed to stop firing—and hurtled off the hill.
The Rangers paused to change cylinders—another five rounds each—and pursued. The running fight continued for two or three miles, the Comanches wheeling and charging a few times, the Rangers meeting them and forcing them steadily back. A half hour later, about forty Comanches still resisted. The Rangers were down to their last shots. When Hays saw a chief exhorting his warriors to charge, he asked who had a loaded rifle. The wounded Gillespie did. “Dismount and shoot the chief,” Hays said. Gillespie dismounted, took careful aim over his saddle, and fired. The Comanche leader fell from his horse, dead, and the rest finally galloped away.
The Rangers counted 23 dead warriors, among them a few Mexicans. Their own casualties were 1 man dead and 4 wounded, Walker the most seriously—some expected him to die, though he would eventually recover.
Hays sent a rider to San Antonio for help and supplies. By the time Hays and his men returned home, news of the battle had already begun to circulate. Hays would name the stream where the battle started Walker’s Creek, and he told a few people about the epic fight there. Texas newspapers ran an account, but almost no one understood its significance: never again would Indians own the clear advantage, man to man, in an evenly matched fight.
Photograph by Dan Winters
A year later, with annexation imminent, U.S. President James Polk ordered Army regulars into Texas under the command of General Zachary Taylor. By July 1845, 1,300 troops were camped on the beach at Corpus Christi, just 130 miles up the coast from Mexico. When Taylor requested locals who knew the area to act as scouts, large groups of eager Rangers signed up. Like many Texans, they felt they had a score to settle with Mexico for what they considered unwarranted executions at the Alamo and Goliad and during the Mier expedition. Walker, who had vowed to avenge his executed Mier comrades, volunteered.
Early in 1846, when Taylor and his regulars were ordered to move to the mouth of the Rio Grande, across from Matamoros, Walker’s 26-man company was mustered in for three months. They immediately began to do what Rangers did best: scout and reconnoiter through hard country and fight like devils when necessary—but only after Walker requisitioned and received Colt Patersons for his men. As skirmishes with the Mexican army began, and war became official in April, Walker and his Texans were in the thick of it, and the value of skilled horsemen who knew the land and how to operate in it became clear quickly. Over the next few months, they earned a reputation for getting the job done, no matter how difficult, sometimes slipping into Mexican camps and towns to engage in reconnaissance. Walker’s personal deeds especially—delivering valuable information through dangerous country, twice making his way through enemy territory bearing critical dispatches—made headlines across the United States. He earned further glory in battles at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. In a matter of months, his daring exploits made “the gallant Walker” the first true hero of the Mexican-American War.
Walker’s enlistment was soon up, and that summer, when two regiments of Texas mounted volunteers, many of them ex-Rangers, were raised, Hays was elected colonel of one, with Walker as his lieutenant colonel. In September, in the hard-fought Battle of Monterrey, the Texans took the lead in assaulting the city, with Hays and Walker at their front. When Taylor arranged an armistice on September 24 that allowed the Mexican army to evacuate the city with their arms, the Texans were furious—“unsated with slaughter,” wrote one observer. In Taylor’s eyes, the Texans’ excellence in combat barely offset their insubordinate, unruly behavior—and the occasional vindictive atrocities they had visited on Mexican citizens—so he ordered them home when their three-month enlistments expired.
Few outside Texas had heard of the Rangers, but newspapermen delighted in reporting the adventures of the colorful volunteers with their own style of fighting. Walker quickly became the best known. Several Army officers had petitioned Polk to offer him a commission, but when the president did so, Walker didn’t accept immediately—possibly weighing his unpleasant experiences with the Army in Florida against regular pay and a captaincy and another chance at vengeance in Mexico. But on October 1, 1846, he became Captain Walker of the newly formed U.S. Regiment of Mounted Riflemen and was ordered to report to Washington to begin recruiting his company.
The Army’s leadership hoped that Walker’s popularity would induce young men eager for glory to enlist under his command, especially because the war was unpopular in the North. Walker traveled to New Orleans, where he sailed for the capital, and then New York for a brief visit. At almost every stop, he mentioned that he wanted Colt revolvers for his men. The problem was, there were none. Due to lack of sales, Samuel Colt’s company had gone bankrupt a few years before.
Though he had no money and no factory, Colt hadn’t given up on his revolvers. He’d continued his attempts to garner contracts and interest in his guns. When he learned that Walker was now in New York, a desperate Colt saw his opportunity. He wrote Walker, asking to meet and requesting a list of actions in which his pistols had been used. He also urged the Texan to intervene personally with the president and the secretary of war to push for a military contract with Colt.
Walker replied immediately. He praised the Paterson in the highest terms: the Texans’ “confidence in them is unbounded,” he wrote, “so much so that they are willing to engage four times their number.” He went on to describe the June 1844 fight—characteristically, without mentioning that he had been there—and gave all the credit to Colt’s pistols. “With improvements,” he concluded, “I think they can be rendered the most perfect weapons in the world for light mounted troops.”
Colt seized his chance. If anyone could get him a sizable contract, it was Walker, who somehow had obtained permission to act as a buying agent for the government. They met the next day.
They were very different men. Colt was loud and self-promoting; Walker was quiet and self-effacing. Colt enjoyed the pleasures of the good life, including fine whiskey and women; Walker was accustomed to a bedroll on the ground. But they got along swimmingly, and a friendship grew as they corresponded. (Walker once referred to Colt as Peace Maker, a name that would be applied to a future Colt firearm.) In that first meeting, they discussed how the Paterson could be improved. Walker had some very specific changes he wanted to see—changes that would result in a sturdier, larger, more powerful gun.
In a letter the next day, Colt agreed to deliver one thousand revolvers in three months. He had to know that was an impossible delivery date for a new, untested pistol, but Walker wanted them as soon as possible, before he left for Mexico. In further meetings, they agreed on the improvements he wanted, and they were many: a larger cylinder to accommodate six .44-caliber conical or round balls and hefty powder charges; a much-needed trigger guard; a nine-inch barrel for improved accuracy; fewer moving parts; and simpler, faster reloading. Walker even specified the kind and quality of metal (“the best cast or double sheet steel . . . the front sight of German silver”) for each part.
Colt wasted no time getting to work. Walker used his high-placed contacts—the president, the secretary of war, and Senator Sam Houston, to name a few—to push the order through, and the two signed a contract. Fortunately, Colt had retained the patents to his firearms, so after cajoling a friend, armsmaker Eli Whitney Jr., into taking on the manufacturing, he was back in the revolver business. At Whitney’s Connecticut factory, Colt hired fifty experienced men and paid them up to four times the going rate. He begged, blustered, and borrowed, but he got the order filled, though it took six months, not three. He dubbed the new gun the Colt Walker—in gratitude, surely, but also in calculation, since Walker’s name could only improve sales.
But Walker’s men would never receive their revolvers. Some four hundred did reach Hays and his Texas regiment before the hostilities ceased, and the huge pistols impressed everyone who saw them in action, including high-ranking Army officers: “No weapon is equal to it,” said one brigadier general. Before the war was over, the Army ordered a thousand more, and additional orders started pouring in—not only from the U.S. military but from countries around the world wanting the gun that could shoot six times without reloading and possessed the range and stopping power of a rifle. The Crimean War, the California Gold Rush, the escalating Indian wars, the dangerous trek west by countless settlers—these developments all contributed to a boom in the weapons market, and for many years, Colt’s weapons were the most desirable. He built a large plant in Hartford and began making high-quality guns—and a fortune—using interchangeable parts and one of the earliest assembly lines.
There were slight imperfections in the Colt Walker—the loading lever would not stay in place, and the heavy powder load sometimes burst a cylinder—but after that first batch was shipped, each subsequent generation of Colt revolvers included improvements, and each became a huge success. Several models were adopted as the standard sidearm for U.S. military officers. The 1873 Single Action Army Peacemaker, Colt’s first revolver using the new metal cartridges, would become known as the “Gun that Won the West,” carried by settlers, lawmen, outlaws, Indians, miners, and countless others who never ventured ten miles from the East Coast.
Samuel Colt didn’t live long enough to see the Peacemaker. He died in 1862 of gout and rheumatoid arthritis, at the age of 47, one of the richest, most famous men in America, with his beautiful young wife and three-year-old son at his bedside. He’d achieved what he set out to do—“what never before has been accomplished by man.” His widow and her brother took over the business and guided it well for the next 39 years.
Samuel Walker got what he wanted, too—military glory, and even a measure of immortality. Though they had only flintlock pistols to use, his company reached Mexico in May 1847, and his young volunteers spent months distinguishing themselves in the unglamorous job of keeping General Winfield Scott’s supply lines open on the march to Mexico City. Once, fifty of Walker’s men repulsed an attack by six hundred Mexican lancers, with their captain walking behind them and maintaining discipline with his coolness under fire. By the middle of September, American forces were in command of the capital. But Santa Anna had begun one final counteroffensive. Part of his plan was to cut off Scott’s army from the coast, and in early October, a U.S. column set out from Perote to Puebla, eighty miles away, with Walker’s mounted company and two others as escort. On October 9, word reached them that Santa Anna and his lancers were in Huamantla, a town eleven miles away. Walker, given command of the two hundred mounted men, was sent ahead to reconnoiter while the main column followed.
Four days earlier, Walker had finally received two of the revolvers named after him, a presentation pair from Colt sent months before. Each of the massive guns weighed almost five pounds fully loaded and charged, but they would fit in the large saddle holsters Walker had arranged to have made for his company. On the cylinder was engraved a scene representing the Battle of Walker’s Creek. Colt had asked the captain for a drawing of it to give to his engraver, though it’s doubtful if Walker ever supplied it, since the Rangers in the engraving wore U.S. Army uniforms. But it was a fitting tribute to those who had made Colt’s reputation.
Walker’s horsemen reached the outskirts of Huamantla at noon to find several hundred lancers waiting for them. Inside the town, Santa Anna’s artillery was preparing to leave. Walker led his men in a charge into the enemy ranks, and the Mexicans wavered and then broke, turning and retreating into town, the U.S. volunteers at their heels. The Mexican cavalry scattered, and Walker took command of the main plaza. He’d just sent scouting parties out when all two thousand of Santa Anna’s lancers descended on the town. In the fierce fighting that followed—a battle that would trigger a vengeful bloodbath on the town after the main U.S. column arrived and routed the Mexican troops—Walker was shot from behind in the back and head. He died minutes later, blood streaming down his face, but not before telling his men, according to one soldier, “I am gone, boys. Never surrender! Never surrender! Hand me my six-shooter!”
Carlos Hadaway “The Old Six Shooter” Framed Print
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The Six Shooter | Old Time Radio
Text on OTRCAT.com ©2001-2021 OTRCAT INC All Rights Reserved. Reproduction is prohibited.
Western Drama (1953 – 1954) starring Jimmy Stewart
The man in the saddle is angular and long-legged his skin is sun-dyed brown
the gun in his holster is gray steel and rainbow mother-of-pearl, its handle unmarked.
People call them both “the Six Shooter.”
Western on the radio began as kiddie fare with a definite division between the “white hat” good guys and the “black hat” villains. Although they were created for the younger set, producers noted that they had a great deal of appeal to grown-ups as well. In the Late-Forties “adult Westerns” began to rise in popularity. Adult westerns dealt with issues beyond good versus evil, the growing sub-genre looked at questions of right and wrong.
Although there were a few earlier examples of Adult Westerns on the Radio, Gunsmoke, which debuted in 1952, has been largely credited as bringing the sub-genre to radio prominence. Praised for its ‘gritty reality’, Gunsmoke episodes often ended with a tragic twist and good-guy Marshal Matt Dillon would not always win.
NBC had to answer Gunsmoke’s success and did so with The Six Shooter starring James Stewart, debuting September 20, 1953. Stewart, who was not only at the top of the Movie Business’s A-list but was also a genuine War Hero, having entered the Army Air Corps as a Private and commissioned a 2ndLT soon after Pearl Harbor. Although he was still under contract with MGM, he served for a time with the First Motion Picture Unit before demanding a combat assignment. After instructing pilots in New Mexico, Stewart was sent to England as part of the 445th Bombardment Group and piloted B-24 Liberators over Germany.
While many Radio Row figures worked the airwaves while waiting for their film careers to take off, James Stewart was interested in radio work as a change of pace. He had appeared on several programs in support of his films but had yet to have a recurring role on the radio, so he brought enthusiasm as well as his talent to the role of Britt Ponset.
Comparisons between Marshall Matt Dillon and Britt Ponset are inevitable. Both are experts with their guns but are weighed down by the realization of the finality of solving problems with gunplay. With this in mind, both Ponset and Dillon tried to avoid pulling their guns and were nearly always more than justified when they did. The biggest difference was the worlds the two men lived in.
Dodge City represented the encroachment of civilization on the wild frontier, and Marshal Dillon represented the authority of Law and Order. Britt Ponset was a mythical wandering cowboy; although he respected the domesticating influence of civilization he would not allow himself to be tied down by it. He shared a sense of justice with Marshal Dillon, but while Dillon would end his adventures by returning to Dodge and his friends, Ponset would ride off into the sunset afterward, bound to find another injustice unfolding around the next bend in the trail.
Sadly, even though it was one of the best produced and acted Westerns of the OTR period, The Six Shooter lasted just a single season. Of 39 episodes. Liggett & Myers Tobacco was anxious to underwrite the project to pitch Chesterfield Cigarettes. However, recognizing that an association with cigarettes could damage the ‘good guy’ reputation which was so vital to his movie success. Coleman Outdoor Products signed on to pitch their Home Space Heaters, which was enough for the network to give the show a green light. After the first four episodes, Coleman dropped their sponsorship. Still unwilling to accept cigarette sponsorship, The Six Shooter finished the season as a network sustained program. Given Stewart’s Star-appeal and the quality of the program, surely a sponsor outside of the tobacco industry could have been found, but the Star and Producers seem to have been satisfied in creating just 39 episodes of some of radio’s best rather than extending the project.
For more great Jimmy Stewart performance, see also: The Jimmy Stewart Collection. For other excellent western series, see also: Frontier Gentleman, Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, and Luke Slaughter of Tombstone.
Text on OTRCAT.com ©2001-2021 OTRCAT INC All Rights Reserved. Reproduction is prohibited.
Customize Your Six-Shooter! | Shoot On
Heritage Manufacturing’s popular single-action revolvers are a great buy-in, but you can take that shooting iron to the next level with easy-to-install factory upgrade parts
by Rob Reaser
Connoisseurs of classic American firearms “get it.” Even if you are not steeped in the history, the lore, or the romance of 19th century arms—favoring instead the fighting prowess of modern polymer-frame striker-fired pistols—there is simply no way to wrap your strong hand around an single-action revolver grip and not feel “it.” Shoot On contributor Wayne van Zwoll elegantly captured the spirit of the Old West revolver in his recent article Plow Handles and Big Lead:
“Boom! The revolver rocks easily. So it was designed. You don’t grip an SAA but let it pivot, nose up, in the smoke. Magically, gently, it settles on point, your thumb licking the hammer on the way down. Snickickety. Boom! Thank uncanny balance, perfect placing and proportions of trigger, hammer, and that plow-handle grip.”
If there is one manufacturer who has excels at delivering the essence and the thrill of shooting Single Action Army Colt clones to the masses, it would be Heritage Manufacturing. The company’s Rough Rider series of small- and big-bore revolvers hits the mark for anyone looking for a break from the intensity of modern semi-auto handguns—a chance to slow things down and to appreciate the technology and styling that effortlessly captures the hearts and imagination of shooters of all persuasions. Part of the appeal of Heritage revolvers is the price. For somewhere south of $200, you can get a classically-style single-action revolver that is accurate, easy to carry, and as much fun as you can have with your boots on.
If you don’t already own a Heritage revolver, you probably know someone who does. What’s not so commonly known or taken advantage of are the many options to customize the Heritage single-six—including changing the entire grip assembly to create a gun with a personality totally different than what came in the box. We’ll show you how to do that shortly.
One of the cool features of the Heritage Rough Rider series and its rimfire variants is the interchangeability of the cylinders. If your revolver came with only a .22 LR cylinder, you can purchase direct from the factory a cylinder chambered for .22 WMR. The cylinders are easy to swap because they are supported by a base pin instead of a crane. Take out the base pin and the cylinder comes right out. Having the option of shifting from .22 LR to .22 WMR seriously expands the revolver’s versatility, allowing you to go from target plinking to small-game hunting in a blink.
Aside from the utility of shooting two different cartridges, the available cylinders come in a variety of finish treatments and even special engraving designs. This is perfect for developing a handgun with just the right visual flavor, especially if you want to change the grips.
Speaking of grips, Heritage offers many different models in both the standard “plow handle” design made by Altamont as well as the trim bird’s head style. From laminated to solid hardwood, plastic to mother of pearl, engraved and printed designs, multiple wood types, colors galore…finding a grip to make your own statement is easy and inexpensive, with most grip sets costing $25-$30.
Of course, no western-style revolver is complete without some premium leather to hold it in. Again, Heritage delivers with model and barrel-length-specific holsters. Several styles are offered, along with standard and cartridge belts as well as leather ammo pouches.
Going All the Way
The primary single-action revolver handle styles are the original plow handle type and the bird’s head. What most folks who own Heritage revolvers don’t realize is that these handguns can be converted to accept either style. Heritage sells a broad range of parts for the Rough Rider series, and that includes the bird’s head backstrap. This is a particularly cool modification if you have a short-barrel rimfire because, quite frankly, the smaller bird’s head grip is a better-looking setup for revolvers with 2.5- to 4-inch barrels.
We picked up the new Heritage Barkeep in January (go here for our complete review) and love it. The only downside was that the original plow handle grip seemed aesthetically too big for the diminutive 2.68-inch barrel. Since all Heritage rimfires are built on the same frame, and since the backstrap (the subframe to which the grips are attached) can be removed and replaced with a bird’s head backstrap, that’s exactly what we decided to do.
For the grip, we chose wood laminate with a satin finish, and to expand the revolver’s function and to round out the styling, we added a .22 WMR cylinder with the Buffalo Nickel Homage engraving into the mix.
If you want to go down this road, be sure to buy new screw sets. This would include the 5-piece small-bore backstrap screw set and the small-bore grip screw/bushing set for the bird’s head.
So, how easy is it to convert a Rough Rider revolver to your liking? Check out this simple firearm DIY upgrade…
Bird’s Head Grip Conversion
There are five screws that secure the backstrap to the pistol frame. After clearing the firearm and removing the cylinder, select an appropriately sized parallel flathead driver bit and begin by removing the two screws at the back of the frame.
One of the reasons we keep Real Avid’s Smart Drive 90 screwdriver set on hand is because it offers a wide range of bit sizes to precisely match the screw head widths and slot dimensions. This prevents damaging the screws and the gun, which is what can happen if you use tapered and incorrectly sized “automotive” or “general purpose” screwdriver bits.
Next, remove the two backstrap screws located behind the trigger guard.
The fifth and final screw is located in front of the trigger guard. Before you remove this, note that the loading gate plunger spring is located inside the frame just behind the trigger. This spring is under tension and must be controlled while removing the front backstrap screw. Use your fingers to clamp the backstrap to the frame as you remove this screw.
With the front backstrap screw removed, allow the backstrap to separate from the frame while maintaining control of the loading gate plunger spring (arrow).
Our new bird’s head grips came with the grip screw bushings pre-installed, so we did not need to use the ones that came with the new grip screw. If you need to install the bushings, be sure to place the tapered bushing in the right-side grip and the parallel bushing in the left-side grip, as shown.
Install the new grips into the bird’s head backstrap.
The grip screw goes into the assembly from left to right. Tighten until it is just snug. Overtightening can damage the grip or grip screw. This is especially true if you are installing a plastic grip.
As you can see, there is a radical difference in profile between the plow handle grip (left) and the bird’s head grip (right). Both exude elegant, classical styling.
Heritage recommends that all backstrap screws be installed with a small amount of blue 242 (non-permanent) Loctite and torqued to 3 to 3.5 in/lbs (that’s inch-pounds, not foot-pounds!). To do this properly, clean the screw threads and the threads inside the frame with denature alcohol and let dry, and then apply a small drop of 242 Loctite to the screw threads.
Begin by aligning the backstrap with the frame and compressing the loading gate plunger spring back into the frame. Hold the assembly together while inserting the two rear backstrap screws. Do this first (as opposed to installing the front backstrap screw first) to prevent stressing the front backstrap screw due to spring tension. Torque to 3-3.5 in/lbs.
Install the front backstrap screw and torque to 3-3.5 in/lbs.
Install the bottom backstrap screws and torque to 3-3.5 in/lbs.
Install the cylinder and base pin. Perform a complete function check to ensure the trigger/hammer assembly and the safety are working properly.
The new grip and cylinder gives our shorty single-action an entirely new personality, feel, and function.
Personal Defense Ammo in .22 LR?
Ammunition is a sore spot for all of us right now, and manufacturers are stressed beyond any historical precedent to keep up with demand. Yet despite the chaos, the folks at Federal Premium have not let up on the gas in terms of new product innovation. One of their latest offerings is a rimfire cartridge intended to put the .22 LR into the personal defense zone.
The new Federal Punch 22 LR combines velocity, bullet weight, and bullet composition to give the .22 LR a modicum of credibility as a defensive round for those who favor a small rimfire like the Heritage Barkeep as a backup, or who simply desire a harder hit from any .22 LR-chambered firearm. The cartridge features a 29-grain bullet with a flat-nose profile and lead core/nickel-plated composition to enhance penetration from short-barrel handguns. Propelled through a 2-inch barrel, the Punch 22 LR exits the muzzle at 1,070 fps. Also nickel-plated is the cartridge case. That’s a plus for corrosion resistance and to facilitate extraction—particularly from a revolver cylinder.
Going .22 WMR
The single-six is a popular sidearm for ranch and farm carry for good reason. It’s easy to pack and handy for close range encounters with rodents, varmints, and snakes. That being the case, it only makes sense to pack as much WHAM into your single-action revolver as possible. That’s where the .22 WMR cartridge shines, which is why the .22 WMR cylinder option is always the right choice for any Heritage Rough Rider owner.
For our upgraded Barkeep, we’ve been running CCI’s Maxi-Mag in the .22 WMR cylinder. Haven’t shot any rascally critters with it yet, but with the new crop of groundhogs about to pop out, you can bet there will be action forthcoming. The Maxi-Mag sends a 40-gr. jacketed hollow point downrange at a decisive 1,875 fps. At revolver distances, that will air out varmints with ease.
90,000 The body of a missing six-year-old girl was found near Kharkov, the police suspect a 13-year-old teenager who lived in the neighborhood
“Unfortunately, the six-year-old girl, whom they were looking for, was found dead. Now the police are establishing the causes of the child’s death. I am grateful to everyone who helped in the search. Sincere condolences to the family of little Miroslava,” Facebook.
About the disappearance of a child on July 28 at 19.10 the girl’s mother reported to the police. She said that her daughter had left the courtyard of the house where she was walking with a 13-year-old neighbor boy an hour before, and did not return home.
The missing person was searched for by the police, rescuers, a group of dog handlers and a volunteer search team. On the same day, at about 11.50 pm, law enforcement officers found the girl’s body with signs of violent death (bruises to the face and head) in an abandoned house in the urban-type settlement of Staryy Saltov.
The police suspect a 13-year-old teenager with whom the girl was walking.Law enforcers are preparing a petition to the court for permission to interrogate him and place him in a police detention center for children.
Production under part 2, item 2 of Art. 115 (premeditated murder of a child) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The sanction of the article provides for punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of 10 to 15 years or life imprisonment.
The teenager’s mother does not believe that her son had committed the murder, but he confessed to the police, claims the Starosaltovsky village head Eduard Konovalov.At night, he saw the boy and interacted with his mother, he told the Public.
“Well, I’m not an investigator … The fact that she was killed is a fact. I saw this face, I saw this head,” he said. According to Konovalov, the children lived in the same house on different floors and were friends. The teenager was not registered with the police or social services.
At the same time, the relatives of the deceased girl also suggest that a 13-year-old neighbor was involved. The girl’s mother, Tatiana Tretyak, told the local newspaper Newsroom that he “pushes children at school, throws stones at them, drowns cats in the toilet.”
90,000 A pensioner shot a child from an air rifle in the Industrial District of Khabarovsk
On Tuesday, September 3, in the Industrial District of Khabarovsk, a pensioner fired an air rifle at children who were walking near his house. A six-year-old girl was injured – a steel bullet hit her face. The incident became a pretext for a criminal case, reports the portal “Gubernia”.
The conflict took place on Montazhnaya Street.According to the children, the elderly man, dissatisfied with the noise, first yelled at them, and then used a weapon. He shot from the window of an apartment on the ground floor, having previously pushed aside the mosquito net. At that moment, the children were about 15 meters from the pensioner.
The injured girl was first taken to the intensive care unit of the regional hospital: there was a lot of blood, and the doctors did not know from which weapon the patient was wounded. Soon the child was transferred to the city hospital and operated on – they pulled out a bullet from the sinus.
The 67-year-old shooter himself fled after the incident. The police detained him several hours later. It turned out that the suspect had previously been tried for threats of murder, and many administrative protocols were also drawn up against him. The man was placed in a temporary detention center.
Neighbors said that the pensioner abuses alcohol and has aggressive behavior.
“We have him here a few years ago in the presence of children, kittens turned heads.The children here were all in shock. Either he throws stones at them, then jumps at them with knives, ”said a local resident.
The materials of the case were transferred to the investigative committee. A man’s actions are qualified as attempted murder of two or more persons, committed against minors, in a generally dangerous way out of hooliganism. The investigation will apply for the arrest of the suspect.
The rifle was found and confiscated. The life of the injured girl is not in danger.
Recall that earlier on Pacific Street, another pensioner wounded a child with a bullet fired from a spitting tube. The injury was not serious, so only an administrative case was brought against the man.
90,000 The Duma approved Medvedev as Prime Minister, who did not answer the most important questions
What does the prime minister’s longevity of Medvedev say? Although not true. What should it talk about? About the outstanding qualities of a statesman, about his effectiveness as a state top manager.Are these qualities available?
Until May 7, Medvedev was not remembered for his fundamental independent decisions (except for the translation of the clock hands). Perhaps the only exception is the dismissal of Alexei Kudrin from the post of Deputy Prime Minister, which happened on September 26, 2011 on a live television broadcast, then Kudrin was not helped by his remarks that he would “consult with the Prime Minister,” who at that time was Vladimir Putin …
All important substantive decisions concerning the actual work of the government were passed on to Vladimir Putin.Medvedev organized their implementation. This, however, has always been the division of labor in the Putin-Medvedev “tandem” that took shape long before the 2008 presidential reshuffle. So perhaps Medvedev earned the praise of Putin’s resignation of the last government by saying that it “did more than it could.” Although it is unlikely that Medvedev’s government, unlike himself, did everything that was expected of him.
Medvedev made his main political decision when he refused to run for a second presidential term and obediently yielded to the Kremlin to his patron.Such loyalty in politics is rare and highly valued by Putin. Although she speaks more specifically about Putin, who managed to find a shadow replacement, than about Medvedev, who never came out of the shadows.
Why did I write that Medvedev was not remembered for any independent decision “before May 7”? Because on May 7, he named the deputy prime ministers of his new government and, it seems, in many respects this is his own personnel decision.
On the day of his fourth inauguration, Putin issued a decree (of course, in May) “On the national goals and strategic objectives of the development of the Russian Federation until 2024.”Already from the name it follows that the government is required, first of all, a strategic approach, which is clearly lacking.
It is necessary, in particular, to develop 12 programs (national projects) in the main directions named in the decree: from demography, increasing the average life expectancy to 78 years by 2024 (without dividing the life expectancy of men and women, which can already be considered a loophole for partial solution of the problem), the development of health care, education and the environment to the growth of labor productivity, the digital economy and the creation, first of all, in the manufacturing industries and agriculture of a “highly productive export-oriented sector developing on the basis of modern technologies.”
A strategic approach requires a new structure of government work. And what did Medvedev suggest on May 7?
His reshuffle among deputy prime ministers, in football terms, is a change in position. Instead of Igor Shuvalov, Anton Siluanov (while the minister of finance), the curators of the military-industrial complex – Yuri Borisov (while the deputy minister of defense), instead of Arkady Dvorkovich – Maxim Akimov (so far the deputy head of the government apparatus).
Very characteristic of the “new” government of migration. Olga Golodets from the curator of the social block, where she is to be replaced by Tatyana Golikova (while the chairman of the Accounts Chamber), is turning into a curator of sports, culture and youth policy.
Vitaly Mutko, who has covered himself with doping glory, will not only not retire, but will remain the Deputy Prime Minister, now responsible for … construction. Dmitry Kozak, “Deputy Prime Minister for Special Assignments,” remains, but now oversees industry and energy. And the “crown of change” is the return of Alexei Gordeev to his former post of Deputy Prime Minister and at the same time Minister of Agriculture.
The question is: Does the targeted, strategic approach in the work of the government strengthen as a result? Who will be the Chief of Staff for Operation Breakthrough?
It seems that the picture is traditional: the May decree is about one thing, and the government is about another.The decree is “on national goals and strategic objectives”, the government is on turnover. Perhaps, there will be an emphasis on new national projects and personal responsibility for their implementation, but no new “strategists” have appeared in the government.
But the appearance of Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov, the current assistant to the President, who is responsible for the strategy, was discussed ?! Perhaps Medvedev opposed the emergence of a strategic deputy breathing down his neck, perhaps it was decided to leave the old division of labor, keeping the strategy behind the Kremlin.But then the government remains in the notorious position of a “bad guy”, constantly not keeping up with the pointing finger from behind the Kremlin wall. Well, everyone is used to it. As well as the fact that strategy is politics, and in government, not politicians, but technocrats. As a result, Russia is lagging behind in many strategic areas. To which, alas, are also accustomed to.
There are also personnel puzzles. Why did Medvedev “surrender” Dvorkovich, his faithful squire? First, Dvorkovich himself did not shine; secondly, the “Magomedovs case” happened, and this is the Dagestan corruption trail, possibly leading to Dvorkovich, and through him to Medvedev; thirdly, Medvedev traded Dvorkovich for Konstantin Chuichenko, who in the rank of deputy prime minister will head the government apparatus.
Chuichenko is not only Medvedev’s university classmate, but also his most trusted person who knows many secrets. For many years he headed the legal department of Gazprom, he was also the executive director of RosUkrEnergo, a joint venture between Gazprom and Ukrainian entrepreneur Dmitry Firtash, which was involved in intermediary operations in the supply of Russian gas to Ukraine.
The question of whether Alexei Kudrin will appear in the power structures remains unanswered.In principle, he can make up for the lack of “strategists”, but clearly not in the government, but rather behind the Kremlin wall, where anonymous sources predict the post of deputy head of the presidential administration. If this appointment happens, Medvedev’s life as prime minister is clearly not going to get any easier. However, Medvedev’s second six-year term as prime minister would be a frankly stagnant sign.
Read the article: “Putin’s new term began with disappointment named Medvedev”
Poklonskaya, Valuev and others at the approval of Medvedev by the Prime Minister
See the related photo gallery
“I carry food on foot”: how a Simferopol citizen without a leg rescues homeless people
https: // ria.ru / 20200923 / blagotvoritelnost-1577621768.html
“I spread food on foot”: how a Simferopol citizen without a leg saves homeless people
“I spread food on foot”: how a Simferopol citizen without a leg saves homeless people – RIA Novosti, 09/24/2020
“: how a Simferopol citizen without a leg rescues homeless people
Yuri Obozenko in Simferopol is known to almost all homeless people. He feeds them with hot meals, arranges for treatment, and visits them in the hospital. I myself have two jobs, but … RIA Novosti, 24.09.2020
2020-09-23T08: 00
2020-09-23T08: 00
2020-09-24T18: 58
society
homeless
republic of crimea
simferopol
moscow
volunteers
charity
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MOSCOW, 23 Sep – RIA Novosti, Angelica Panchenko. Almost all homeless people know Yuri Obozenko in Simferopol. He feeds them with hot meals, arranges for treatment, and visits them in the hospital. He himself has two jobs, and he manages to help everyone who asks. Yuri is an invalid: 12 years ago he lost his right leg, but he did not get angry with the world and did not get lost in life. His story is in the material of RIA Novosti. The arrow worked – the foot was torn off Under the photo on VKontakte (in the social network he is registered as Yuri Yurkin) Obozenko indicated that he does not participate in charity or volunteer movements.But on his page every day there is a new entry about good deeds: he brought food and money to a seriously ill boy, helped his mother find her son, and fed a homeless woman in a cafe. “Yurochka, thank you! For the first time in many days, Sasha happily ate macaroni and cheese and washed it down with juice”; “Yuri, you are probably an angel,” they write in the comments. Charity is more of a hobby for him. Officially, he works at two enterprises at once – a manager and a mechanic. And he claims that he is used to such a rhythm of life. I would do more for people, but … the prosthesis cannot withstand such activity.“My mother was also disabled – no legs, – says Obozenko. – She died in 2006, when I turned 19. I got a job on the railway as a car inspector. And in 2008, this job crippled me.” That night he went out on duty for a shift – could not refuse. He took a hammer, went to inspect the train, but unsuccessfully put his foot. The arrow was moved, and the foot was tightly clamped between the rails. “I woke up in intensive care,” the former railroad worker continues.It turned out – phantom pains. When I realized that my foot had been amputated, hysteria began. I didn’t want to live. I was still quite a kid. And suddenly – everything, cripple. I didn’t get out of depression for a month. “After the surgery, it didn’t feel better – the stitches festered, Yuri was sent to the infectious diseases department. He underwent seven more operations: each time a part of his leg was cut off, but the wound did not heal. For six months in the hospital, almost nothing was left of the lower leg. “Then the doctor said: if it doesn’t overgrow again, you will have to take your leg above the knee,” Obozenko recalls.- I immediately wrote a refusal, went home, processed the seams myself. And in two weeks everything went away. ” Five years later, difficult times came: salaries were cut, then they were ordered to write applications for vacations without pay.He learned that the local business was looking for thermists – specialists in metal hardening. The profession is interesting, only special knowledge is needed. He studied chemistry, read specialized literature. Prepared, but the company closed about a year later. Now Yuri works as a manager – he mastered the warehouse program. Basically – at a remote location, only a few times a month leaves on call for inventory. Recently they offered a job as a locksmith at a factory. I agreed right away: “I have free time, why not go?” Failed volunteer— Decided to help others after they themselves got into trouble? – I am cautiously interested in Obozenko.“No,” he says. “I’ve been like that since childhood. As a child, Yura fed and accommodated hungry dogs and cats in the neighborhood – neighbors threw them under the door.“ Once they brought a whole brood – a cat and five kittens. I hid it in the garage, looked after. When they grew up, I gave everyone away. I left one for myself. ” Went to shift, he sees – a man is lying in the bushes. I asked people, called an ambulance. And Obodzenko has many similar situations.In 2017, Yuri noticed an elderly woman with a dog begging for alms. I talked and found out that she had been on the street without documents for 15 years. I contacted the volunteers, they helped to restore the papers, and the prosecutor found housing. After this story, Obodzenko joined the volunteer movement, but quickly became disillusioned with it. “Once they hung up bags of groceries in the park, filmed it and sold out,” he explains. “And I stayed to see what would happen next. the drunkard cut off one package, then brought his friends and they took everything for a snack.I suggested to the guys not to leave the food that way, but to refer it to those who really need it. But I was not supported. Then I decided to act on my own. “” Dentures are being erased “About those who need help, Obozenko learns from social networks – there he launched a whole information campaign. He even organized meals for the homeless – they are now fed with hot meals.” One guy got connected, “says Yuri. – He has food delivery, in the evening his employees cooked borscht. I bought the pans. They poured the soup, packed it, and I took it to the station.To begin with, I took ten. It could have been more – everything flew away in an hour. “- We went by car? – No, of course, on foot. Where did I get the car. – You complained that the prostheses do not hold up … – The modular-type prosthesis is designed for two years. Apparently, they think that the disabled person moves a little. But this is not about me. I have enough for a maximum of six months. And he rubs to blood, the leg swells, the stitches diverge. You constantly sit on painkillers. In addition to the station, Obozenko regularly visits the hospital department for the homeless in the suburbs of Simferopol. diapers, clothes, food.There he met the terminally ill Sergei M. His legs and arms do not move, his eyesight is almost completely lost. : so I want to see the children from my second wife … “Yuri found a woman and persuaded her to come to the hospital with her ten-year-old son and six-year-old daughter:” Sergei had so many emotions – beyond words. Everyone around was crying, even the medical staff. I could not resist , went out into the street. ““I’m too trusting.” Once at the train station in the trash bin, Obozenko saw a pregnant woman. “I look: the rags are moving,” he recalls. “I came closer – a woman. I looked closely, and her stomach was already on her nose – in the seventh month. Calm down for a few days. I could not, I thought what to do. I returned to the station, persuaded her to go for an ultrasound scan. No documents were not accepted anywhere, tricked me into an agreement with the hospital. I told her that after the ultrasound scan they would let her go. But she was about to give birth, they left her there. And a few days later a boy was born.Surprisingly healthy. Now they are in the Center for Mother and Child. “However, according to Yuri, not all homeless people want to change their lives. So it was with Andrei, who settled on the heating main. They washed him, put him in a hospital for examination, wanted to restore his documents. got drunk and returned to the pipes. Sometimes people see Obozenko’s readiness to help and deceive – someone is eager to make repairs at someone else’s expense, someone does not really need it, but does not mind receiving free food. “It’s a shame?” I ask.- No. I just can’t understand: why? Some have cars, and they live a hundred times better than me. I run to them without a leg every day, and at this time someone really needs my help. The volunteer admits that he is too gullible, otherwise he would not get into such situations. Recently, he turned to his subscribers and asked them to renovate and re-register the old house inherited from his grandfather in accordance with all the rules. Yuri has no doubts that they will help. He believes: the world is not without good people.
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society, homeless people, republic of crimea, simferopol, moscow, volunteers, charity
MOSCOW, 23 Sep – RIA Novosti, Angelica Panchenko. Yuri Obozenko in Simferopol is known to almost all homeless people. He feeds them with hot meals, arranges for treatment, and visits them in the hospital.He himself has two jobs, and he manages to help everyone who asks. Yuri is an invalid: 12 years ago he lost his right leg, but he did not get angry with the world and did not get lost in life. His story is in the material of RIA Novosti.
The arrow worked – the foot was torn off
Under the photo on VKontakte (on the social network he is registered as Yuri Yurkin) Obozenko indicated that he does not participate in charity or volunteer movements. But on his page every day there is a new entry about good deeds: he brought food and money to a seriously ill boy, helped his mother find her son, and fed a homeless woman in a cafe.”Yurochka, thank you! For the first time in many days, Sasha happily ate macaroni and cheese and washed it down with juice”; “Yuri, you are probably an angel,” they write in the comments.
Charity is more of a hobby for him. Officially, he works at two enterprises at once – a manager and a mechanic. And he claims that he is used to such a rhythm of life. I would do more for people, but … the prosthesis cannot withstand such activity.
April 8, 2019, 08:00
Refugees from Donbass sheltered an engineer who had lived in a cave in Crimea for three years
“My mother was also disabled – no legs,” says Obozenko.- She died in 2006, when I turned 19. I got a job on the railway as a car inspector. And in 2008, this work crippled me. “
That night he went on duty for a shift – he could not refuse. He took a hammer, went to inspect the train, but unsuccessfully put his foot.
“I woke up in intensive care,” the former railway worker continues. – I feel: my leg is aching, so, I think, on the spot. It turned out – phantom pains.When I realized that my foot had been amputated, hysteria began. I didn’t want to live. I was still quite a kid. And suddenly – everything, cripple. A month of depression did not get out. “
After the surgical intervention, it did not get better – the stitches festered, Yuri was sent to the infectious diseases department. He underwent seven more operations: each time they cut off a part of his leg, but the wound did not heal. For six months in the hospital, there was almost nothing from the lower leg
“Then the doctor said: if it doesn’t overgrow again, I’ll have to take my leg above the knee,” Obozenko recalls.- I immediately wrote a refusal, went home, processed the seams myself. And in two weeks everything went away. ”
“ Ran all over the Crimea ”
Then he could not even get close to the railway station – thoughts of an accident rolled over, he was overwhelmed with horror. But he coped with his panic state and returned to work.
They didn’t take him back, they offered him the post of a security guard, and five years later came hard times: they cut salaries, then ordered him to write applications for leave without pay.Having lived for three months almost from hand to mouth, Obozenko quit the railway and got a job in an advertising agency as a photographer.
“The agency placed advertisements on buses, and the customers demanded monthly reports on what routes it” travels “, – says Yuri. – I dangled all over the Crimea. new and changed jobs.For a person with such a physical disability, like mine, this is not an easy task.But if you want, you can get a job. “
He learned that the local enterprise needs thermists – specialists in metal hardening. An interesting profession, only you need special knowledge. He studied chemistry, read specialized literature. Prepared, but the company closed after about a year.
Now Yuri works as a manager – he has mastered the warehouse program. Mostly – at a remote location, only a few times a month he goes on call for inventory. Recently, they offered a job as a locksmith at the plant.I agreed right away: “I have free time, why not go?”
Unsuccessful volunteer
– You decided to help others after you yourself got into trouble? – I am cautiously interested in Obozenko.
“No,” he replies. – I’ve been like this since childhood.
As a child, Yura fed and housed hungry dogs and cats in the neighborhood – neighbors threw them under his door.
“Once they brought a whole brood – a cat and five kittens. Blind, just born. I went out onto the porch, and they squeaked.He hid it in the garage, looked after. When they grew up, he gave everyone away. He left one for himself. ” An elderly woman with a dog, begging for alms, talked and found out that she had been on the street for 15 years without documents. I contacted the volunteers, they helped to restore the papers, and the prosecutor’s office officer found housing.After this story, Obodzenko joined the volunteer movement, but quickly became disillusioned with it.
“Once they hung up bags of groceries in the park, filmed it and sold it out,” he explains. “And I stayed to see what would happen next. everything for a snack. I suggested to the guys not to leave food like that, but to bring it to those who really need it. But they didn’t support me. Then I decided to act on my own. ”
“Dentures are being erased”
About those who need help, Obozenko learns from social networks – there he launched a whole information campaign.He even organized meals for the homeless – they are now fed with hot meals.
“One guy connected,” says Yuri. “He has a food delivery service, in the evening his employees cooked borscht. I bought some pots. They poured the soup, packed it, and I took it to the station. To begin with, I took ten. I could have had more – that’s all. flew away in an hour. ”
– Did you go by car?
– No, of course, on foot. Where did I get my car.
– You complained that the prostheses do not hold up …
– The modular prosthesis is designed for two years.Apparently, they think that the disabled person moves a little. But this is not about me. I have enough for a maximum of six months. He also rubs to blood, the leg swells, the seams diverge. You sit on painkillers all the time.
In addition to the station, Obozenko regularly visits the hospital ward for the homeless in the suburbs of Simferopol – carries diapers, clothes, food. There he met the terminally ill Sergei M. His legs and arms did not move, his eyesight was almost completely lost.
“Only the neck is still turning. A man is lying, waiting for death.I asked: Seryozha, maybe you have some kind of dream? He says: so I want to see the children of my second wife … “
Yuri found a woman and persuaded her to come to the hospital with her ten-year-old son and six-year-old daughter:” Sergei had so many emotions – beyond words. Everyone around was crying, even the medical staff. I could not resist, went out into the street. “
” I am too gullible “
Once at the station in the trash bin Obozenko saw a pregnant woman.
” I looked: the rags were moving, “he recalls.- Came closer – a woman. Looked closely, and her stomach is already on her nose – in the seventh month. For several days I could not calm down, I thought what to do. He returned to the station, persuaded her to go for an ultrasound scan. Without documents, they did not accept it anywhere, with a cunning arrangement with the maternity hospital. I told her that after the ultrasound they would be released. But she was about to give birth, and they left her there. And a few days later a boy was born. Surprisingly healthy. Now they are in the Center for Mother and Child. “
However, according to Yuri, not all homeless people want to change their lives.So it was with Andrey, who settled on the heating main. They washed him, put him in a hospital for examination, and wanted to restore his documents. And he ran away, got drunk and returned to the pipes.
Sometimes people see Obozenko’s readiness to help and deceive – someone is eager to make repairs at someone else’s expense, someone does not really need it, but does not mind receiving free products.
– Offensive? – I ask.
– No. I just can’t understand: why? Some have cars, and they live a hundred times better than me.I run to them without a leg every day, and at this time someone really needs my help. Ugly.
The volunteer admits that he is too gullible, otherwise he would not get into such situations. Recently he himself turned to subscribers – asked to renovate and re-register the old house inherited from his grandfather in accordance with all the rules.
Yuri has no doubts – they will help. He believes: the world is not without good people.
A suspect in the murder of his wife and her pensioner son was detained in Kuban :: Society :: RBK
Photo: Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation
A 67-year-old man was detained in the Pavlovsky district of the Krasnodar Territory, who, according to the investigation, killed his wife and her son, and also tried to kill her one more son.This is stated on the website of the Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee (IC) in the region.
The pensioner lived with his wife in Pavlovskaya stanitsa. On the morning of November 25, a domestic conflict broke out between them, as a result of which a man killed his wife, stabbing her at least three times in the chest and neck. After that, he came with a hunting rifle to the house of the 43-year-old son of the deceased, intending to kill him too.
The daughter-in-law of the murdered woman opened the door to the intruder, she noticed the pensioner’s weapon and managed to warn her husband.He tried to take away the gun, the pensioner shot in his direction and the woman in the hand, causing serious harm to her health. After that, he went to the house of his wife’s other son.
A resident of Engels confessed to the murder of his friend’s six-year-old stepson
“The suspect came to the house of the 44-year-old son of his deceased wife <...>, attacked a man and stabbed him in the neck area, killing him, ”said the Investigative Committee.
Mitsubishi Pajero Sport :: Autonews
The training course for the four-wheeled friend took place in a calm atmosphere and without excesses. However, Mitsubishi Pajero Sport is already a well-trained service dog, and you just need to establish contact with him. Representatives of Mitsubishi in Russia staged demonstration performances of their honored pets, who are still in good shape.In the fresh air, in nature, Pajero will easily run to the stick thrown to him and drag it to the owner in his teeth, and if they send it, he will rush into the hole and into the water, and climb a hillock. She just won’t climb a tree, not a pampered cat, not a Jaguar, a real huge dog – faithful and big.
This SUV can do a lot. In the world of cars, he plays the role of a hardened shepherd dog, falling out of a number of expensive and prestigious fashionable “fancy” cars, but honestly doing his job, for which all mastiffs and Dobermans do not have enough courage or skills.Unlike other cars called SUVs, the exterior and interior of the Pajero Sport are nothing like that.
I didn’t have to get used to either the dimensions of the car or the controls, although everyday trips around Moscow are carried out on much smaller models of the automotive industry. In communication, he is kind and understanding, like an old familiar dog. When, 3 meters after I pressed the gas pedal for the first time, and in front of my Pajero Sport there was an abyss with a slope of 60 degrees (fear clearly loses its accuracy from the eye), the car with the set operating mode in a lower gear, resting on all four round paws, gently slid down the slope and serenely ran forward.
Then on the way there were many more obstacles, however, previously tested by professionals, the dog did not fiddle around, did not be capricious, climbed the slope, took the hills, helped out when the driver sees only the sky, and the road already completely trusts the car, crossed the river, frolicked glades as groovy. It seemed that the usual Central Russian landscape was completely within his teeth, if only the side mirrors were squeezed between the trees. It is not clear only why manufacturers with enviable persistence make the sides of the car glossy and shiny.Each branch leaves a scratch on the paint, and lacquered bumpers threaten to ruin the owner for a tidy sum, which will have to pay for cosmetic body repairs.
A 3.0-liter 170-horsepower engine and an impenetrable suspension urge you not to slow down, so before corners you have to get into braking, which for Pajero Sport turns out to be extreme: he reluctantly brakes on frozen ground and ABS comes to his aid. With an intimidating rumble and vibrations, the ABS system brings braking to its logical conclusion.After turning the leg, we move to the gas pedal and all the problems are behind, Pajero is again obedient and ready for exploits.
Crossing a river is a separate delight, like a six-year-old scoundrel peeing from a balcony. The depth of the ford to be overcome is half a meter. It’s damn nice to be a boat for at least a couple of seconds. True, after taking water procedures, parktronic sensors caught a cold, which did not stop squealing painfully with or without reason.
It should be noted that four paws are noticeably better than two, for Pajero Sport in any case, on the rear wheel drive with a rut and grass under the wheels, Pajero fell into a skid a couple of times and got up three-quarters in the direction of travel.Turning his paws in one place, he leveled himself with the steering wheel, and, with puppy delight, raced on, jumping on bumps, except that he did not stick out his tongue. On an all-wheel drive, such overshoots were not repeated, but increased accuracy and attention is required: a track in a field or in a forest is not a smooth surface of asphalt, each next meter of the track can be radically different from the previous one.
Switching the transmission called Easy Select 4WD from rear-wheel drive to four-wheel drive and vice versa can be done while driving at speeds of less than 100 km / h.Before the assault on especially formidable obstacles, you should stop to engage a downshift in the transmission. The 4-speed adaptive automatic transmission, within the limits of reasonable movement without kick-downs, does not cause perceptible inconvenience to the driver by always making gear changes for him on time.
After a noticeable number of kilometers traveled along incomprehensible gullies, I was pleased with the low fuel consumption, which is indicated only by the stubborn unwillingness of the fuel level indicator arrow to move down to the “Empty” mark.Accustomed to a good driver, the lack of a trip computer enters into a stupor – it is in the forest, where refueling does not appear like mushrooms from the rain, that the indicators of the range and fuel consumption are most worried about. Passport data say that in urban mode, a 3.0 engine with an automatic machine eats up 17 liters of feed, and in a suburban mode – 11.1 liters. But there is no sense in these numbers on the off-road.
Despite the fact that Pajero Sport has a large trunk, on a country road things fly over it like balls in a lottery drum. Neither small boxes, nor a fixing net for minivolleyball, where the ball is any object carefully folded for the road, up to a one and a half meter shovel, does not help.A serious SUV must take full care of the load, because there is no one else to do it.
If you do not own a whole pack of hounds, it becomes unbearably sorry to drive your own only car through the dense forests, like your own dog – it will go everywhere without problems, but will return from the slums scratched and crumpled. Therefore, she will live in her own garage box and run around real nature on smooth asphalt. Surprisingly, Mitsubishi is good at this too.At the 2H position of the box, 120, 140, and 160 km / h run without problems. But a jeep with canonically bad road characteristics. Give it up! Rides normally, unlike the same Lancer, where at 120 you have to “hold” the steering wheel with the grip of a bull terrier so that the car, frightened by its own speed, does not madly rush to the side of the road with a squeal. The large Pajero-Sport on the highway has other problems, strong aerodynamic noises, impressive fuel consumption, brakes that cannot cope with the huge weight (almost two tons), and the inability to take turns at the speeds familiar to passenger cars.
That is, any turn at first results in a whole problem, first you need to brake in advance and carefully by the fact that it does not slow down, and then smoothly turn around by the fact that it does not turn. This feature of an SUV is quite bearable if the asphalt serves only as a short-term delivery to the place of real fun. All to the forest.
Prices for the five years that the last restyled version of the car has been produced have not changed. They still range from $ 35,000 for diesels to $ 41,000 for this petrol version with leather interior.If we are talking about a more honest purchase, then the choice must be made in favor of a real workhorse – the Mitsubishi L200, which does the same off-road and at the same time is noticeably cheaper: prices for it start from about $ 22,000.
