Dobe Grant's Old 45 Colt

by matt/pa , Saturday, May 03, 2014, 17:39 (3863 days ago)
edited by matt/pa, Sunday, May 04, 2014, 11:30

Most of you are Skeeter fans, like me, and have read most of his stories. One of my personal favorites is "Dobe Grant's Old 45 Colt", pg 117 of Skeeter Skelton on Handguns, the magazine on the left in the pictures.

This is the Colt New Service 45 ACP that Dobe sent to Sedgley in Joplin, MO before he shipped out to the South Pacific with the Seabees, lying about his age, after his only son was killed in the war. Dobe ends up getting shot at, and attacked, by Japanese soldiers while bull-dozing a runway on an island and kills a few of them with his gun.

I decided a few years ago to duplicate this gun. It took me a while to find the right base gun but it finally popped up on Gunbroker about 18 months ago. I sent it to Alan Harton in June of last year and I just finally got it back. Being a 45 Colt fan, I opted for that caliber instead of the ACP, other than that, I tried to keep it as close to Dobe's gun as possible.

The gun came with a 4" ribbed barrel with a ramp front sight, already in 45 Colt (barrel stamped 45 LONG COLT - definitely a Jug Johnson stamp ). I had Alan install a drift adjustable rear sight, lanyard, ejector rod button, action job, bob the hammer and sight it in with a 250gr LRNFP over 8gr Unique. He sent me a few pictures after he sighted it in, with a simple "This gun really shoots".

I thought I would share with you guys...

Next step is to get a set of combat "boot" grips made out of mesquite for it.

Thought you Skeeter fans out there would appreciate.

Matt