[Jim Martin]

Back in the early days of fast draw it was all done w/live ammo then wax bullets came along & I always used a 7 1/2 ".In 1960 the very 1st Calif. state wax championship was held out @ Corriganville Calif, the 1st prize was a 1959 Colt,I still have both of them,the times varied between .50 & .55,that's hundreths of a second.There are photos of me shooting this contest on gunfightergulch.com if anyone doubts this.When I shot "Walk & Draw" I did use a 4 3/4" because it rolls out of the holster easier when your walking,when I entered "fancy gun handling"contests I mostly used the 4 3/4's but I did compete several times w/a pair of 7 1/2's,reminds me of spinning a baton.I won't own a 5 1/2",to me they're out of balance for everything that I do,about 6 or 7 yrs ago I found a 2nd gen w/a 5 1/2 for $750.00 & couldn't resist,the 5 1/2 bbl lasted about 2 wks until I stretched it out to 7 1/2.When Cowboy shooting 1st started I used the 7 1/2's only,but then I also used a 32" full & full dbl bbl. 12 guage,it shot like a rifle.I'll add here that I have a 6' 5" armspan so the long bbl's didn't seem to slow me down,when I used the 4 3/4's my times hardly changed because I probably was still pulling them the same as I did the 7 1/2's.