Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns DID ELMER KEITH DRY FIRE?

Wonder if Elmer Keith dry fired to be able to shoot well and if he didnt would he have been better tf he had dry fired?
I am interested in what the " ones in the know" thinks/knows.
I am not in the know being a doofus and all.

I have the book Hell I was There. I don’t recall. But he lived in the boonies most of the time, so I am guessing he busted caps.

Elmer bought lead by the ton and powder by the barrel.

I knew Elmer a bit, and have many or most of his books.. Don't recall him mentioning that ... As stated he live where he could shoot most of his life.. I don't know about a ton of lead, but he did mention kegs of powder in his youth and , I think,, pigs of lead..

Ask his wife...

I doubt he did a lot of dry firing. S&W used to discourage dry firing the older hammer mounted firing pin revolvers.

Elmer killed more game dry firing than the rest of us have with live ammunition

That would ne a feat of magnanimous unlimitedness. I marvel at his greatness.

I enjoyed Bill Jordan's book. No second place Winner I think he favored the 10mm ballistics.
But the Model 19 was his workhorse while working for the Border Patrol.

Just got Jordan's book today!!! He and Elmer hunted elk some in Colorado!!!

The greater Salmon area, North Fork, and The Pahsimeroi, are all areas where "Targets of Opportunity" are hardly limited. Custer and Lemhi Counties have more back country than most people could even imagine. Ranges are virtually unlimited.

I don't think he needed to dry fire much.


Horse Heaven Pass, on the Pahsimeroi :




Is one of those places where you could shoot for literally miles.

All of these were local stomping grounds for Mr. Keith.



Here is sample of critters killed in country that Elmer Keith called home.

Ground squirrels






Cottontails




Bigger critters:




Not to mention a few truckloads of jackrabbits...



I know that he did a pretty bang up job on local scavenger birds like hawks and eagles

Nope, not much of a need for dry firing..

I asked him how much he shot. He said six perfect shots a day.

Yes, he did, at least two specific times I can recall from his various books. Once, when he was attempting to throw a gallon can 20 feet in the air and shoot it six times with a S&W Heavy Duty .38-44 before it hit the ground, he mentioned that he had been gifted the gun, plus 500 rounds of .38 Special. In practicing the stunt, he would throw the can, shoot six times, then repeat again while "clicking on the empties." That way he could practice tracking the gun in dryfire without damaging the hammer-mounted firing pin, and also conserve his ammo supply. Before the winter was up, he could hit the can 6-for-6, five times straight.

Also, when attempting to earn a spot on the U.S. International match rifle team in the 1920's, he mentions spending a winter on his ranch practicing getting into the various positions with his match "bull gun" and snapping the set triggers to "verify his holding."

So yes, Elmer certainly realized the training potential of dryfire. Whenever anyone questions Elmer's near-miraculous marksmanship exploits, I always point out that for a few years in his twenties he was a serious competitor at Camp Perry and could hold his own with the best rifle shots in the world, although he was always more of a poor working cowboy than a full-time competition shooter.

I don't know how much Elmer dry-fired, but I do know that he wrote a lot about the value of a good .22 LR revolver in developing marksmanship.

Also, there's a difference between being really good at punching paper on a range and being really good at shooting at living targets at unknown ranges. Elmer had plenty of experience with both. I shot in the All-Guard Match at Camp Robinson, AR once back in the 1980s. A guy there had known him, and said that he would shoot pretty much every animal he saw that was legal to shoot.


Okie John

My face recognition technology isn't able to ID you from that shot. Put up one that's not blurred.

My voice recognition array cannot hear you, please repeat ALL CAPS.

Mac would have to go all “Spook” and kill you then...And, you’d then be missed. Best to let the blurry effects stay as a PSA for us all 😎