In the mid 80s I walk in to my favorite gunshop (Alexander's Guns) and the salesmen were all in a group at the back of the store . This is unusual because the talk is done behind the long bank of glass cases that displays there new and used pistols and rifles. It was late November and Texas Deer Season ended its third week.
Wally the owner was back from a South Texas deer/quail hunt on a lease he had newly purchased. The salemen, Hitch, Trap, Travis, and resident part time gunsmith Don were gathered around a brused and battered Wally. Wally with two blackeyes accounted his story of a deer hunt that became dangerous situation.
Wally arrived at the lease Friday evening checking in with the owners of the lease and then to the guest quarters/bunk house to get settled and turn in for Saturday's hunt. He woke up at 5 am to be in the stand with his Remington 700 chambered in .300 Win Mag. by 5 :45 am. The morning hunt yelded a small buck and does but nothing shootable. He gets out of the stand about 11:00 am and returns to the bunkhouse and eats lunch.
Wally grabs his New Ruger Red Lable 20 gauge to hunt the dense mesquite and sagebrush fields for quail. He puts number 6 shot in one and a 20 ga rifled slug in the other barrel in case he jumped a buck as he hunts quail. There are no other hunters on this particular track of land so Wally goes fourth in full camouflage. He is a few hundred yards into the mesquite when he sees a movement to he left and Wally freezes. It is a cow (yes is was brown). His host told him earlier that there was no cattle being run on the ranch and there was no concern about livestock, but here was this cow staring at him 15 yards away.
Wally knew from past experiance that if he made noise and move cattle would move away from humans, so that is what he did. If "bossy", he figured, got aggressive he would fire the shot barrel in the air to get her going. Haah!!! he yelled and waved his arms and indeed the movements were indeed noted by the cow. The animal took exception to Wally's actions and CHARGED!!! Wally fired the shot barrel at the bovine with no results. then he touched off the slug barrel as the cow was only fifteen feet from him. The cow's head hits the muzzle of the shotgun sending it spinning into to the mesquite and sagebrush. The cow falls across Wally burying him under a mountain of beef.
When Wally comes to he is pinned under a half ton of flesh and bone. He digs himself out from under the now deceased bovine. he check him self for broken bones and his head throbs. He finds the shotgun scarred up but functional and then limps to the ranch house and tells the owner what has happened. The owner gets his jeep and he and Wally drives back to the downed animal. They inspect the cow and find Wally's slug hit the to the right of the left eye killing it instantly.
Range cow, the rancher said. Wild cattle that rome South Texas since the Conquestador brought them hundreds of years ago. No harm no foul Wally split the meat with the ranch owner. and took the cow's skull for a trophy.
Upon hearing the story the "elves" of the gunshop set about a little project. We took a Savage 311, 12 ga double barrel shotgun, shortened the barrel to 21" and soldered a set of Williams iron sights off of a Remington 700 (they had alot of them from mounting scopes). We presented it to Wally who named it a "Cowgun" and said he would take it with him the next time he went to his new lease.
Pretty soon most of the regulars of Alexander's Guns had their versions of the "Cowgun". I wanted one more like the African double rifles so I found a 12 ga. Rossi Coach Gun (exposed hammers) with 28" barrels to which were shortened to 21" and had a ramp front sight and a rear sight from a Thompson Center Contender pistol with sling swivels mounted on the stocks. The barrels though not regulated shot slugs within 3" of each other at 50 yards (this is a close quarters weapon). A few years later it was put on the trading block. I still have a soft spot for double barrel slug guns and may build another.
