November 06, 2023

Presidents and Guns

Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt overcame a sickly childhood by throwing himself into a vigorous life that included lots of hunting. Shortly before Theodore Roosevelt left on his famous nine-month Africa safari, the A.H. Fox Company presented him with an FE grade 12-gauge shotgun. Roosevelt wrote to Ansley Fox: "It is the most beautiful gun I have ever seen...I am almost ashamed to take it to Africa and expose it to the rough usage it will receive. But now that I have it, I could not possibly make up my mind to leave it behind." Later, in his account of the trip, African Game Trails, Roosevelt wrote: "I have a Fox number 12 Shotgun; no better gun was ever made." The gun also accompanied Roosevelt on his trip down the River of Doubt in the Amazon Basin, on which he nearly died of fever.


Grover Cleveland

Few people know that one of Grover Cleveland's favorite pastimes was hunting. Cleveland even published a book in 1906, titled Fishing and Shooting Sketches. To be a good quail shooter, Cleveland wrote, a hunter must follow these rules: Remain cool, trust the carrying qualities of his gun, have confidence in his ability as a hunter and rely on the intelligence of his dog. Experience and practice will take care of the rest. Colt produced its only 8-gauge, hammerless double-barrel shotgun for the president. The shotgun is on display at the NRA National Firearms Museum.


Harry S. Truman

A native of a Missouri farm, Harry S. Truman grew up around guns and collected firearms throughout his life. He was the only president to see action during WWI. Lieutenant Truman was issued a Colt M1911 .45 while in training at Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma, in 1918. Shortly after, he was issued a Colt M1917 revolver when he arrived in France. He retained both firearms until he donated them to the Truman Library in 1959. He turned the .45 in with two full magazines and the revolver in with a full cylinder, indicating that Truman kept them loaded for protection.


Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge was a lifelong hunter and shooter. As Warren Harding's Vice President, Coolidge was thrust into the Oval Office when Harding died suddenly of a heart attack. He won re-election in 1924. There is actually film footage from 1929 showing President Coolidge shooting trap with a Winchester Model 12 at his vacation home in Wisconsin. He was also the recipient of one of the best Christmas presents ever when Winchester gave him the one-millionth Model 1894 lever-action rifle on December 25, 1927.


Dwight Eisenhower

Dwight Eisenhower loved to hunt, shoot, and fish. Ike had a Skeet field built at Camp David and would regularly have the streams there stocked with trout before he arrived. A lifelong bird hunter from his boyhood in Kansas through his retirement, he owned a number of shotguns, but his favorite was this Winchester Model 21, a straight-gripped 20-gauge with the receiver worn from hours in the field. The otherwise un-engraved receiver has a gold pheasant inlaid on one side, a gold grouse on the other, five stars on the floorplate, and "DDE" on the trigger guard. The gun was presented to Eisenhower by Robert Woodruff, president of Coca Cola, with an engraving on the stock medallion that reads: "To a straight shooter from a friend".


Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter kept hunting into his 90s. He is also a 2016 inductee into the Georgia Hunting and Fishing Hall of Fame. As a farmer from Georgia, Carter is most closely associated with quail hunting and once said, "Life is just too short to go quail hunting with the wrong people." Carter mentions owning a few handguns, shotguns, and rifles. One of them is the Ruger Red Label O/U he mentions in his essay collection An Outdoor Journal. He wrote a letter to William Ruger thanking him for help in ordering a pair of Red Labels, one for himself and one as a gift to vice president Walter Mondale.


Thanks for reading,

The Editor

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