A True West reader asks if Old West gunmen and cavalrymen using the cross draw were as fast as using a normal draw.
I went to two fast-draw experts, Phil Spangenberger and Jim Dunham for an answer. “The reason for the cross draw, reverse or twist draw,” Phil says, “was because the saber was carried in the right hand, but if it was dropped or otherwise taken from the hand in
close combat, one coul

True West March/April 2025
In This Issue:
Western Books & Movies
More In This Issue
- Truth Be Known
- What Has Taught Me: Deb Goodrich
- Earp, Cowboy Songs & Prairie Hygiene
- Trails of the Old West
- The Frontier Characters of South Dakota
- The Bowie Knife
- The Kindled Flame 1835
- King of the Scatterguns
- Selling the Mythic West and the Real West
- A Gut Punch Turns into a Miracle Reprieve
- The Beginnings of the Bird Cage
- Frontier Colossus