People approach handloading from different perspectives. When I was moving every few years in the service, handloading just didn't seem to be practical. Things eventually evolved to where I had the time and space for a good loading shop. My approach may be unusual, but I was so intrigued with the game that I dived headfirst into it by selling a minty Colt Single Action .44 Spl. for enough money to buy every single piece of equipment I thought I might need, along with die sets for every major pistol caliber. While most people piecemeal themselves into the game, yours truly did it all at once.

I got a question the other day at the gun store counter. A fellow customer wanted to know about a “New York reload.” That's an easy one and another of those elusive terms that surround the lore of guns and shooting. A New York reload is another gun.

Handguns can be intimidating to a complete beginner trying to get over the fear of injury that comes with handling what can be a deadly tool. After teaching him or her The Fundamental Rules of Gun Safety, it becomes time for the student to learn the operating drill for the particular handgun with which he or she will begin the training cycle. In my opinion, it is unwise to present a new shooter with more than one gun at a time. Ideally, the first gun should be a DA/SA revolver, but that is not always possible. Whatever the selected handgun is, make sure the beginner has a thorough understanding of how the gun works. Then you can move on to using the gun to its full potential.

For the first half of the 20th Century, one of the bread and butter mainstays of the revolver line was the New Service.  A double-action sixgun of generous size, the New Service was big enough to take all of the big cartridges of the day—.476 Eley, .455, .45 Colt, .44-40, etc.—as well as .38 Spl. and other milder calibers. Made from just before the turn of the century until the beginning of World War II, the New Service was used primarily by police and military personnel. Variations included adjustable-sighte “Target” models, as well as the legendary Shooting Master of the 1930s. The gun's greatest use was in World War I, when the government bought a total of 151,800 5 1/2-inch barreled 1917s, all chambered for the .45 ACP cartridge. That was the most numerous variation of the many New Service models. It is a big, rugged gun that could (and often did) take a lot of abuse. But, for reasons I have never understood, the New Service has never drawn the same interest as other contemporary handguns. 

Latter day students of gunfighters and their gear probably know about the Tom Threepersons holster as currently made by El Paso Saddlery and other custom makers. That rig is named for a legendary peace officer of the early 20th Century. There is some confusion surrounding him because of the fact that another famous westerner wore the same (almost) name. Threepersons was born in the Indian Nations in July of 1889. A Cherokee Indian, Tom grew up on the reservation and was educated in Indian schools and at the Carlisle Institute in Pennsylvania. Early in his adult life, Tom became a well-known and successful rodeo cowboy in the Pacific Northwest. I suspect that this is where things might have started getting confusing for latter-day researchers. Another young man named Tom Three Persons (note different spelling) was born in March 1888 in Alberta, Canada, and grew to adulthood as a cowboy and competition horseman. He also competed in rodeos and the great similarity in their names and early careers may have contributed to the confusion as to who did what. It is certain that Three Persons spent his life as stockman, while Threepersons became a lawman.