Jeff Cooper's Pre-29?

Dump1567

Dump1567

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I'm currently reading the book "GARGANTUAN GOSSIP 3". Several times in the book, Col. Cooper referenced his pre-model 29 as "having some collector value" & it "isn't suppose to exist"? Possibly a 4 or 5 screw?

Does anyone know what he had & where it is today (I'm assuming still with the family)?

Thanks.
 
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No idea. Several of those gun writers got early .44s. Askins apparently was the first one to use it on a person when he shot an NVA/Vietcong that was smuggling weapons in 1956-57. Results were what you’d expect.
 
There's a photo in a GUNS &AMMO article from around 1963 where Cooper is holding a nickel 6 1/2" (29, pre-29, what have you) during a javelina hunt.
 
Going by photos in his early books and articles, Cooper had both a

6.5 incher and an 8.3 incher.

I began reading him in 1958, when I was 13.

No one mentioned dash suffixes then.

I know he used the long one on javelina. I'm ALMOST sure he also owned the shorter model, too.

And he had a prewar .357 with white grips and 6.5 or six-inch barrel.

And a Colt SAA with adj. sights, a .38 Super, etc. He was hardly a .45 auto man alone.
 
Jeff Cooper's 8 & 3/8" Five Screw 44

Jeff Cooper wrote an excellent section on handgun shooting in the Outdoor Life hardcover book "COMPLETE BOOK OF SHOOTING", published in 1965.
He covers a lot of things in the span of 130 pages, much of it things you wouldn't expect from him, i.e: formal target shooting, small game hunting, and a good overview of arms and cartridges.

The photos in the book show both a 6.5" and 8.375" Smith and Wesson .44 Magnum, the latter with custom thumb rest target stocks. I've included only the long one here.
The last picture shows his one shot group (?) at 100 yds. It's dated "19 Aug '63". So, he had this long barrel .44 at least that early.

I've attached a few pertinent images, plus one fun picture.
You can plainly see a five screw 44 Magnum with the long 8.375" barrel. Holding the book in my hands, the front sight pins are even clearly evident.

One of the strangest entries concerns big game hunting in the continents of the world. He says this about Africa:
"Skipping the giants and the traditional, I'll choose the gorilla. You'll need a museum permit to take him, but such can be had. If you threaten his group he will charge, and a charging gorilla is a fearful spectacle. To stand your ground with a handgun and flatten him at 15 feet is man's work."

So, there ya go.
The info on shooting techniques are still quite informative. In fact, the whole chapter beats most of the internet info-babble you read today.
Oh yeah, the rifle chapters are written by Jack O'Connor and Roy Dunlap...excellent reading!

Jim
 

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Would it be a little more fair if the gorilla had an AK-47 from one of the revolutionary groups? I am in favor of hunting, especially for food or damage control, but to get a “museum permit” as an excuse to have a confrontation with what was a member of a declining species even then for the sole purpose of proving one’s manhood was far beneath the dignity I had always granted Jeff Cooper. I wouldn’t have thought he had anything left to prove even back the.

Don’t bother to flame me, this is JMHO.

Green Frog
 
Doc44 said:
Jeff Cooper's 44 Magnum (now with an 8 3/8-inch barrel) was shipped on May 8, 1956 to a distributor in Miami, FL. It originally had a 6 1/2-inch barrel. I was contacted by an attorney in 2007 to document this revolver. It is still with Mr. Cooper's family as far as I know.

Bill
Click to expand...

I figured you'd probably have the answer. :)
 
Green Frog said:
Would it be a little more fair if the gorilla had an AK-47 from one of the revolutionary groups? I am in favor of hunting, especially for food or damage control, but to get a “museum permit” as an excuse to have a confrontation with what was a member of a declining species even then for the sole purpose of proving one’s manhood was far beneath the dignity I had always granted Jeff Cooper. I wouldn’t have thought he had anything left to prove even back the.

Don’t bother to flame me, this is JMHO.

Green Frog
Click to expand...

No flames, but I tend not to judge history from a modern perspective. I wasn't there and don't know what my mind set would be during that time based on my education & believe system.

That's what's currently tearing down Statues & our History.
 
"Skipping the giants and the traditional, I'll choose the gorilla. You'll need a museum permit to take him, but such can be had. If you threaten his group he will charge, and a charging gorilla is a fearful spectacle. To stand your ground with a handgun and flatten him at 15 feet is man's work."

Run For The Trees, James S. Rand, original printing 1967, a fictional novel about Africa, my guess pre WWII, has a chapter on hunting a gorilla with Luger to test one's manhood!
 
I've seen a video but cannot find it.[FOUND IT- BELOW] Interview with Tom Siatos of Guns & Ammo, part of it talked about an incident at Cooper's house. They had been looking at his guns and discussing world problems. Probably after a few drinks, Cooper picked up his S&W 44mag and pointed it across the room. To everyone's surprise, when he pulled the trigger it went bang. After the echoes faded, and everyone looked wide eyed at each other, Cooper calmly asked if anyone had a screwdriver. He said it was shooting a little to the left. He had hit something in the yard and Siatos said they had it plated and presented it to Cooper a few months later as a "trophy".

The video is one of this series for G&A but I cannot get it to play.
Tom Siatos Interview Part 7
 
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Doc44 said:
Jeff Cooper's 44 Magnum (now with an 8 3/8-inch barrel) was shipped on May 8, 1956 to a distributor in Miami, FL. It originally had a 6 1/2-inch barrel. I was contacted by an attorney in 2007 to document this revolver. It is still with Mr. Cooper's family as far as I know.

Bill
Click to expand...

I remember handling it and a 61/2 in His gun room downstairs in the late 70's.
 
Doc44 said:
Jeff Cooper's 44 Magnum (now with an 8 3/8-inch barrel) was shipped on May 8, 1956 to a distributor in Miami, FL. It originally had a 6 1/2-inch barrel. I was contacted by an attorney in 2007 to document this revolver. It is still with Mr. Cooper's family as far as I know.

Bill
Click to expand...

Col. Cooper’s 44 Magnum hangs on the hook on the far right of the “handgun wall” in his gun vault on the ground floor of The Sconce, the Cooper home at Gunsite. The Jeff Cooper Legacy Foundation owns Col. Cooper’s guns and personal property and Gunsite acts as caretaker for his guns and personal property inside The Sconce.
 

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6string said:
Jeff Cooper wrote an excellent section on handgun shooting in the Outdoor Life hardcover book "COMPLETE BOOK OF SHOOTING", published in 1965.
He covers a lot of things in the span of 130 pages, much of it things you wouldn't expect from him, i.e: formal target shooting, small game hunting, and a good overview of arms and cartridges.

The photos in the book show both a 6.5" and 8.375" Smith and Wesson .44 Magnum, the latter with custom thumb rest target stocks. I've included only the long one here.
The last picture shows his one shot group (?) at 100 yds. It's dated "19 Aug '63". So, he had this long barrel .44 at least that early.

I've attached a few pertinent images, plus one fun picture.
You can plainly see a five screw 44 Magnum with the long 8.375" barrel. Holding the book in my hands, the front sight pins are even clearly evident.

One of the strangest entries concerns big game hunting in the continents of the world. He says this about Africa:
"Skipping the giants and the traditional, I'll choose the gorilla. You'll need a museum permit to take him, but such can be had. If you threaten his group he will charge, and a charging gorilla is a fearful spectacle. To stand your ground with a handgun and flatten him at 15 feet is man's work."

So, there ya go.
The info on shooting techniques are still quite informative. In fact, the whole chapter beats most of the internet info-babble you read today.
Oh yeah, the rifle chapters are written by Jack O'Connor and Roy Dunlap...excellent reading!

Jim
Click to expand...


If memory serves me the custom grips were made by Fuzzy Farrant.
 
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I remember seeing pictures of Col. Cooper with his 8 3/8" .44 mag in articles, complete with the thumbrest target grips. I recall one of his statements about that gun, saying "it's accuracy is scarcely credible". Which I took to mean that it was almost unbelievably accurate.
 
6GUNSONLY said:
I remember seeing pictures of Col. Cooper with his 8 3/8" .44 mag in articles, complete with the thumbrest target grips. I recall one of his statements about that gun, saying "it's accuracy is scarcely credible". Which I took to mean that it was almost unbelievably accurate.
Click to expand...

Correct. "Scarcely credible" was "Uncle Jeff's" of saying that if he told people how accurate it was, no one would believe it. I loved his writing!
 
C0637789-03-A5-4-CBD-A192-04355-EEBE010.jpg


0557513-C-A8-DC-45-DE-B7-A0-8-F10-F1568-E79.jpg


The above pics are from a 1970 G&A article.

A better pic of the 44.

5-F35-EAA9-43-AD-457-B-81-E2-645864-CFEB4-E.jpg
 
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