Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns KEN HACKATHORN, KEN HACKATHORN

Bob,

Yep that is the magazine!

Ken had much to say about it as it is such a rare piece. I will try to see if I can recall all of this right, as we talked about quite a few things,but one of the things I found was interesting was that Ken was talking about was that it showed Cooper's Single Action Army in there that he initially took to war in the Pacific with him.

Ken said that he had either written or spoke to Elmer Keith (I believe written) and asked what he should carry as a sidearm, and Keith told him to carry an SAA. However after some less than desirable events with a couple of Jap Soldiers, he realized the serious handicap of carrying the single action revolver and switched to a 1911, putting the SAA in his wall locker onboard the ship. Naval bombardment ship? I think Ken said that Cooper was in a small party doing something in relation to his duties when he ran into enemy soldiers. My memory is fuzzy on this but he either had set his rifle down or did not have one, but either way it was not close by when he needed it. Anyways he was very fortunate to run into a very small enemy force and got the hell out of there.

That exact SAA was pictured in the magazine and Ken was quite familiar with it, plus with both of us being big Keith fans it is always a great source for conversations (Not like we don't have things to talk about!).

I think Ken said that it was a .44 Special but I am not 100% on that. I seem to recall that Elmer Keith was working at least part of WW2 down in Utah at one of the arsenals, as I have handled a couple of the rifles that bear his stamp. The more I think about the conversation though, I seem to recall Ken saying that Cooper wrote him, so while he did not say so, I am betting that he wrote him at his home in Idaho.

It is always enjoyable hanging out with men like Ken H, Clint S, etc, as they are true class acts, and that is something that seems to be lost on many today.

Cheers!