Texas Longhorn Arms

[Bob Riebe]

       

Graybeard

#2 · Mar 12, 2009
Boge I did some extensive research back when I set this forum up with the intention of trying to put something together either for here or for the home page but never got around to doing anything with it.

I picked it up from a variety of sources. Here it is for whatever it's worth. I think I got the source info on most if it was available where I found it.


Texas longhorn arms: Bill Grover 1944-20004
American Handgunner, May-June, 2005 by John Taffin

There are many things in this world we can have way too much of; good friends is not one of them and it always hurts deeply to have to say goodbye to one.
 I first "met" Bill Grover in the pages of GUNS magazine 30 years ago, and then followed this up by meeting him personally at the 2nd Annual Gathering of The Shootists in 1987.

     That early article told of his total re-building of a pair of 4Y/' Colt Single Actions for noted speed shooter, Thell Reed. Shortly after that article appeared, Bill went from gunsmith to gunmaker as he opened the doors of Texas Longhorn Arms.
Bill was born in Kentucky in 1944, which explained his definite southern drawl. He was fascinated by guns early-on and his sister told me of his first deer hunt. He was 15, shot a large Texas buck, and then, as many of us have also done, got turned around. He drug that heavy buck a mile and a half to the road not realizing if he had only gone the other direction he was only 100 yards from the road. He never lived that episode down. Bill was a great teller of tales but did not care to hear this one too often.

     Grover spoke in loving terms of "ma pistols," his right-handed single action sixguns. He always said Sam Colt was left-handed and built his single actions, beginning with the Paterson of 1836, for lefthanders. All of the percussion revolvers produced by Colt are most easily capped by switching the sixgun to the left hand and then capped with the right hand. Sam died in 1862 and did not see the advent of the cartridge revolvers, however all single actions from Colt, the Cartridge Conversions, the Open-Top, and the Single Action Army are all naturally handled by switching to the left hand which then operates the cylinder as the right hand ejects the spent cartridges and reloads the cylinder.

     Bill Grover said this obviously proves Sam Colt was left-handed. If the guns had been built for a right-handed person the loading gate and ejector rod would be placed on the left side so the sixgun would never leave the hand of a right-handed shooter. It certainly makes sense to me as I always switch any Colt, Freedom Arms, or Ruger single action sixgun to my left hand for loading and unloading. To correct this Bill formed Texas Longhorn Arms to produce "right-handed" single action sixguns. On all of Grover's single actions the loading gate and ejector rod are found on the left side and the cylinder rotates counterclockwise.

Right-Handed Sixguns

     The "natural" way to load or unload a Texas Longhorn Arms single action sixgun is to keep it in the right hand as the left hand opens the loading gate, and ejects the cartridges as your right hand rotates the cylinder. The problem with all of this is the fact the "left-handed" way seems natural after being in use for nearly 150 years before the arrival of Texas Longhorn Arms. I've had to force myself to learn to operate a TLA sixgun correctly.

     Bill, and Texas Longhorn Arms offered three right-handed single action sixguns all chambered mostly in .44 Magnum, .44 Special and .45 Colt and on the same basic platform. They all had several common attributes. Each sixgun was completely fabricated of 4140 steel with coil springs and a frame-mounted firing pin. The cylinder locks into place with a double locking of the bolt, one coming from the bottom, the other from the top. Grover maintained that a properly timed TLA sixgun would stay properly timed if it were handled correctly. This means no line around the cylinder from the drag of the locking bolt.
     Texas Longhorn Arms single actions have several distinctive, eye-pleasing features. All trigger guards are rounded, with the trigger also rounded and set far back in the trigger guard and contoured like a shotgun trigger. The three frame screws do not protrude all the way through the frame, leaving the left side of the sixgun clean for engraving. Also all screw slots line up together, a feature that takes a great deal of careful fitting.



The Flat-Top Target
     One of the TLA sixguns was the West Texas Flat-Top Target, a 7 1/2" single action with adjustable sights and a grip frame closer to that of the 1860 Army than the Colt Single Action as it is 1/16" longer than the traditional single action grip frame. I find it most comfortable. Bill Grover let me borrow his personal West Texas FlatTop Target with a 7 1/2" barrel and chambered in .44 Special, and after much cajoling on my part, Grover agreed to sell it to me. When I finally caught Grover at the fight time, he not only agreed to sell me the Flat-Top but also offered, if I would send it back, to fit it with two more cylinders, one in .44 Magnum and the other in .44-40.

     I agreed to meet Bill in Texas for a hunting trip and try to take three animals, one with each cylinder, .44-40, .44 Special and .44 Magnum. I did, he did, and we did with a most successful hunting trip taking three critters one with each of the chamberings with all three heads now hanging in my family room.
     When the Texas Longhorn Arms West Texas Flat-Top Target came back with all three cylinders, Grover also included one of his Texas High Rider Holster systems. The High Rider works with any single action sixgun and is especially handy with 7 1/2" barrel lengths. It's worn high, either strong side or cross draw and consists of a holster proper and a belt slide. The holster fits inside the belt slide and locks into place with the bottom end of a loop on the front of the holster that snaps to the belt slide. To remove the holster simply unsnap and raise the holster out of the belt slide. This same unit is now offered by Ted Blocker Holsters.

     That Flat-Top Target went back to Texas one more time for a fourth cylinder chambered in .44 Russian and was scheduled to make another trip to be fitted with a .44 Colt cylinder. Now some may ask why bother since a .44 Magnum cylinder will also handle the .44 Special, .44 Russian and .44 Colt. For those who understand, no explanation is necessary; for those who don't, no explanation is possible. Over the years this .44 Flat-Top has taken a lot a game and I always think of Bill when I use it.

                                                         

South Texas Army
     Bill's second right-handed single action was the South Texas Army with fixed sights, a barrel length of 4 3/4", and most often found offered as a .44 or .45 Colt. Unlike the TLA West Texas Flat-Top Target, my South Texas Army has only one cylinder, that being in .44 Special.
     The South Texas Army has Colt Single Action Army style fixed sights again with a grip frame much closer to the 1860 Army than the 1873 Army. The former grip has a slightly different angle, being a little straighter than that found on the Colt Single Action Army and it's also longer, allowing room for the little finger, which no longer has to either dangle in space or be wrapped under the butt. Texas Longhorn Arms grip frames are exceptionally comfortable when shooting heavy loads and both the Flat-Top and South Texas Army are fitted with beautifully shaped and fitted one-piece stocks of fancy walnut and mesquite respectively.



     The Texas Border Special was fitted with a round-butted grip long before they became popular on Ruger Vaqueros and custom sixguns. Bill did this for two reasons, to make it easier to conceal and to reduce felt recoil when shooting .44 Magnum loads. This traditionally-styled defensive single action sixgun packs very easily in a hip holster or even behind the belt and the specially designed wide hammer makes cocking for the first shot very fast, and is easy to get to for repeat shots.




Scarce Texas Longhorn Arms Inc. Grover's Improved Number Five Single Action Revolver

Introduced in 1988. Designed by gunsmith Bill Grover of Texas Longhorn Arms as an homage and improvement on famed six gun shooter and gunsmith Elmer Keith's legendary "Number 5" revolver with a limited production of only 1,200. The revolver was designed by Grover to be loaded, and unloaded, from the right hand with the loading gate and ejector rod on the left side. The unfluted cylinder rotates in a counter clockwise manner as opposed to the more common clockwise motion traditionally found in revolvers. Fitted with a fixed blade front and adjustable rear notch sights on the octagon barrel marked "IMPROVED NUMBER 'FIVE'" on the top flat, an octagon ejector rod housing, and an attractive Bisley pattern smooth burl grip.

TLA Salutes Keith
     In 1927, Elmer Keith set out to make the finest possible Single Action sixgun, writing about it in the April 1929 issue of The American Rifleman in an article entitled The Last Word. This was Keith's #5SAA. Keith's Number 5 was basically a Colt Single Action with a Bisley backstrap and a Single Action Army front strap. Grips were ivory, barrel length was 5 1/2", sights were fully adjustable, the base pin was over-size and the cylinder pin catch was a masterful design that operated on the lever principle. The chambering was .44 Special, what else, and it was fully engraved. It was Keith's number one sixgun until moving into town, when he started packing a 4" S&W .44 Special, followed six years later by its .44 Magnum counterpart.

     In 1987, Bill set out not to copy the Keith #5SAA, but to really improve upon it and still keep the original flavor. He succeeded in producing a real salute to Elmer Keith as Dean of the Sixgunners. The grip straps, grip contour, base pin and lever latch, are all identical to Elmer's original #5SAA. I've handled both sixguns at the same time and, when it comes to the grip frame, the original #5 and The Improved Number Five feel and look the same. The lever latch, other than being a mirror image on the Improved Number Five, is also identical.

     Bill's original plans were to build 1,200 Improved Number Fives in .44 Magnum with 5 1/2" barrels. After testing the original, I ordered serial number K44, which I now have, and also purchased an identical Improved Number Five chambered in .45 Colt. The plan of 1,200 .44 Magnums never materialized, nor did the 1,000 each of the West Texas Flat Top Target and South Texas Army.

     In addition to his Texas Longhorn Arms models, Bill also built a very few other custom guns. Two of these for me were both .44 Specials using Ruger Old Model frames. One of these is a 7 1/2" with custom fancy walnut grips by Charles Able and the other a 4 3/4" Packin' Pistol with a Colt Single Action grip frame fitted with one-piece ivory grips by Blu-Magnum. The long-barreled sixgun is serial number JT1. The Packin' Pistol .44 Special is one of seven. The first for Skeeter Skelton was SS1, mine is SS4. SS2 belongs to Bart Skelton, Bob Baer has SS3, Jim Wilson SS5, Terry Murbach, SS6, and Grover made SS7 for himself. There will be no more. As you might understand both of these sixguns are very special to me.

The Best Laid Plans
     Dreams help us to maintain hope in this life. Bill and I shared two dreams. The first, and largest, would see both of us hunting Africa extensively using TLA sixguns. This was to happen as soon as Texas Longhorn Arms became prosperous. The second dream was to see me designing what I considered the perfect single action sixgun and Bill would build it. Neither dream ever came true; instead Texas Longhorn Arms closed their doors in the late 1990s.

     Grover was a master gunbuilder but a lousy businessman. He never expected such a demand for his Improved Number Fives that he would be unable to keep up with production. That hurt his business tremendously. Add to this his trusting in the wrong people, and the inevitable happened.

     With the closing of Texas Longhorn Arms, Bill was physically affected greatly. So much so he never really let any of us know just how sick he really was. Diabetes, kidney failure and the amputation of both legs in September of 2004 was more than his body could handle. He went home in October of the same year.

     So long Bill, keep the campfire burning until I get there.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Publishers' Development Corporation
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group

[Lloyd Smale]

probably the best colt clones ever. better even than the best of the real colts

[Bob Riebe]

Not sure how I did it twice

[Lloyd Smale]

you had me scratching my head because i thought i had already replied