Book Review: Revolver

My daughter buys books for me, and she has a knack for finding great ones she knows I will enjoy.  The latest in a long line of successes is Jim Rasenberger’s Revolver:  Sam Colt and the Six-Shooter That Changed America.  I enjoyed the book on many levels because I’m a shooter, I like biographies, I’m a student of business success, I like to read about mechanical things, and I love history (especially the history of the American West).  Revolver checked all the boxes.

Samuel Colt was anything but an overnight success, but successful he sure was.  He was one of the key figures in our Industrial Revolution, and he made the concept of interchangeable parts and mass production work well before Henry Ford came along.   Colt started out as sailor on a merchant vessel, he became a huckster selling laughing gas exhibitions, he failed at his first attempt to build a firearms manufacturing business, and then he succeeded wildly when he worked with Samuel Walker, the Texas Ranger who guided Colt’s design of the famous Colt Walker.  Revolver delves deeply into all this, including the Colt Walker story, and a grand story it is.

On that topic of the Colt Walker:  The Walker was the .44 Magnum of its day, a gun so over-the-top in size and power that as Colonel Colt observed, “it would take a Texan to fire it.”  I always thought it would be cool to own a Walker, but Colt only made 1,100 of them, and originals don’t come up for sale too often.  The last one that did went for over a million dollars.  The blogging business is good, folks, but it ain’t that good.

Uberti, a company in Italy, manufactures a replica of the original Colt Walker, and reading Revolver gave me the push I needed.  I ordered one this morning.  Good buddies Paul and Duane are both black powder aficionados, and I figure they can give me the help I’ll need learning how to load and shoot these historical weapons.

If you’re looking for a good read, pick up a copy of Revolver.  I believe you’ll enjoy it.

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