R - Sharps
What would the Old West be without the gun? From the Hawken
of the Mountain man to the Peacemaker of the gunslinger, we just can’t imagine
our protagonists any other way. A gun was not just a means of war between men,
but a way to put food on the table and protect against wild animals. Of course,
there was that ever-present incentive to politeness we’ve already discussed…
Here’s Part 3 of our gun glossary.
Reach, reach for the sky: raise your hands in
surrender when a gun was pointed your way
Remington:
Eliphalet Remington of Ilion, NY, made his first flintlock muzzle-loader in
1816; by 1828, he had a thriving business and was later joined by his sons. In
1845, he made his first standard arms in large batches for the military. He
manufactured exclusively for the North during the war, but both sides used
weapons of his pattern. After the war, more veterans purchased their Remingtons
than did Colt users. Early models, built to the Beal’s patent, were massive (2
lb, 14 oz), but beautiful in design and good in balance, easily recognizable by
the slope from the trigger to the tip of the lever-hammer. They were
cap-and-ball, single-action guns. The New Army and Navy models (cap-and-ball)
were still in demand until 1888 and 1875 respectively, and were often converted
for metal cartridge use – the firm produced a conversion kit so that the owner
could exchange chambers and use the weapon either way. Remington also made
“derringers,” pocket revolvers, shotguns, rifles and carbines. An important
step in the evolution of the rifle was the introduction of the rolling-block
breech, which greatly increased the loading speed. Also, through the nature of
construction, it became stronger at the moment of ignition; the greater the
recoil, the more tightly the parts of the breech interlocked. The early model
rifle was an instant success in the West. Nelson Strong, a trail driver, and
his crew proved its capability by fighting off a large band of Sioux led by
Crazy Horse.
Repeater:
sometimes in the early days used to refer to a revolver, but more usually to a
rifle capable of firing a number of shots without reloading
Revolver: Flint-locks
were in limited use in the US and Europe at the beginning of the 19th
Century, but made no great impression on gun-handlers until Sam Colt came along
with his adaptation of the cap-lock to the principle of the revolver. In 1835,
at age 21, Colt patented it in England, and in the US the next year. The
Paterson Colt was first used by the Texas Rangers in action against “some
astonished and shortly after, mostly dead” Comanches in 1844. Early guns were
cap-and-ball, and such weapons were used right into the 1870’s for a number of
reasons. Some were reluctant to change to the new-fangled metal cartridges
which came into use in the late 1850’s; they knew their old guns well and the
cap-and-ball, because it limited their shots, made them more careful. The
loading of the old guns was also more economical, and cartridges were not
always easily available. There were a number of pretty good guns besides Colts:
Remington, Starr, Smith and Wesson, Le Mat, Irving, Trantor, Adams, and a good
many others. Some of these ancient hog-legs were like young cannon and weighed
two to three pounds. Despite what is said, guns of 1850-70 could be fired
accurately in the right hands; however, size prevented them from the fast-draw.
Most men, even at quite a late period, wore weapons pretty high on the hip;
most carried one gun on the right side for the orthodox draw. Mounted men
favored a gun position high on the left with the gun butt forward.
Saddle-gun: a
rifle or carbine that was attached to and carried on the saddle, either by a
string over the horn, in or out of a scabbard, or booted under the leg of the
rider – unsatisfactory for long trips, as it chafed the horse. Earlier, the
term also covered horse-pistols.
Scabbards: this
term was used more commonly in the general sense than today, covering
gun-holsters, rifle-boots, and sword- and knife-sheaths.
Gun Holsters: After the Civil War,
these had flaps to retain the gun and keep out dust, but in the decade afterward,
these were mostly discarded as encumbrances. Until the
mid-1870’s, holsters were plain and not cut away for a
quick-draw. There were two basic styles: those with loops holding the holster
to the skirt (the flat leather between the holster and leg) and those which
were stitched to the skirt. The cutaway for the trigger-finger was not so vital
to the user of a single-action gun, for whom the thumb-cock was the first move,
so cutaways were necessary only when double-action guns came into use. For a cross-draw, the scabbard was worn high
with the gun close to the body; for the side-draw, the holster was slung at a
slight angle to the body, leaving the butt clear. In the 1880’s and 1890’s,
holsters were often artistically tooled, and by then, hideaways were in being
and usually worn underneath the left armpit, suspended in a shoulder harness.
The holster shape was dictated by the gun design. Not until the Peacemaker,
with its compact shape, could a holster be made for the classic quick-draw.
Shootists had holsters trimmed and fashioned to their own tastes – one had hip
pockets lined with leather to hold his guns. Holsters were constructed with
open fronts, necessitating a clip to hold the gun. One type was pivoted so that
the gun could be elevated to be fired while still in the holster. But the
average man kept his gun in a deep, safe scabbard so that, whatever happened,
his gun would still be there when his hand went looking for it.
Rifle scabbards: Dust was the great
enemy of every Westerner who cared for his weapons; when a saddle-gun was taken
on a trip, it had to be protected as much as possible. In the 1850’s, a much
favored scabbard was a decorated doeskin Indian scabbard, used by both Indians
and Whites. Most models covered both barrel and stock, leaving all or part of
the butt exposed. During the Civil War, the cavalry employed a spider, a small
socket affair attached to the off-side cinch ring, secured by a strap. The
barrel of the carbine went through this, and was attached by a ring and swivel
to the trooper’s shoulder-strap. Solid leather scabbards were official issue in
1885, and probably in use by civilians in the West before that. There were many
ways of carrying a scabbard on a saddle, including hanging it from the horn
loose and hanging it from the horn with the barrel secured by a latch under the
rider’s legs.
Fast-draw holsters: Tio Sam Myres,
master saddlemaker of El Paso, created a holster to the requirements of master
gun-handler and lawman Tom Threepersons: thick, hard leather that left hammer,
trigger and butt clear of that leather. The scabbard tilted slightly forward
and never lost shape once it was molded wet to the gun it was made for. Some
old-timers may have pulled iron from leathers a slight faster than some of the
opposition, but with holsters which were in use then, could never compare with
20th Century quick-draws.
Scattergun: a
shotgun
Sharps: one of
the greatest rifle-makers in the world. They made almost forty models between
the 1840’s and 1881. They are usually associated with the Big Fifty of the last
days of buffalo hunting; also with the Sharps-Borschardt .45, which could take
a heavy load and penetrate thick buffalo hide in a way repeaters (such as the
Henry and Spencer) could not. With production in 1875 of his .50-.90
(.50-caliber, .90 powder weight), Sharps responded to demands by hunters for a
gun that could carry heavy charges. This charge could vary to 100 and 110
according to personal taste. Bowman (1953) describes the Sharps of 1848: “The
Sharps’ action consisted of throwing forward the trigger guard, which dropped a
sliding block at the rear of the barrel and uncovered the breech for loading.
Paper and later Sharps’ linen cartridges …. were then inserted and after the
trigger guard was drawn back, the rising block sheared off the rear end of the
cartridge, exposing the powder charge. When the trigger guard was fully
returned to position, the sliding block effectively covered the breech.” This
was the pre-metallic cartridge Sharps. Buffalo Sharps were chambered for
various metallic cartridge, .44, .45 (the 2 1/10 Sharps is the same as the
.45-70 US) and in several .50-caliber loads.
Sources:
A
Dictionary of the Old West, Peter Watts, 1977
Dictionary
of the American West, Win Blevins, 1993
J.E.S Hays
www.jeshays.com
