Firearms of all kinds and flavors were important implements
in the Old West. Besides their use by “shootists”—the term “gunfighter” was
little used during the era while “gunslinger” originated in the 1920 movie, Drag
Harlan, they were the constant companions
of lawmen, ranchers, farmers, hunters, storeowners, travelers, and just about
anyone else. Even townsmen might own a shotgun or small-caliber varmint rifle.
Understanding the realities of
firearms in the Old West is important for writers. Granted, some take the safer
minimalist approach to depicting firearms in writing. For example, the firearm
used by a town marshal might be identified only as a “pistol” or “revolver”
with no mention of its make, model, or even caliber. It might be called only a
“Colt” or a “.45” or a “Peacemaker.” It’s “safer” than identifying a specific
weapon that may not have been used in the story’s timeline. Some writers will
include full information, a “Winchester .44-40 Model 1973 rifle.” That may be
too technical for some. Others consider it a slowing of the reading pace. Of
course once mentioned, such complete nomenclature need not be repeated.
I say “safe” in the minimalist
sense in regards to writing as it requires less in-depth research (a timesaver)
and less of a chance of making an error. An example, the .44-40 Winchester
Model 1873 was of course introduced that year. But it was not available in
.38-40 until 1879 and .32-20 until 1882. Hopefully this series will provide you
with some ideas and answers in regards to firearms of the Old West.
It is easy to get the impression
from novels and movies that just about the only guns used in the West were Colt
revolvers and Winchester rifles. That’s far from true. So what firearms were in
common use? Over the next few months—I have no idea how many parts this series will
entail—we’ll discuss the firearms used in The
Hardest Ride. When I came up with the idea of this article, I thought the
novel might be a good mechanism for the examination. It’s set in the winter of
1886, by which time most of the firearms in use through the Old West era were
already in distribution. There were of course later weapons introduced, but by
then many did not see widespread use in the Old West era. A word on
distribution. The Colt Peacemaker, for example. It was introduced in 1874, but
it was a year or two before they even came into wide use. Another consideration
when mentioning a weapons caliber. A particular weapon may have been introduced
in a particular year, but not necessarily in all the calibers it was eventually
made in. As this series continues we’ll
also look at additional arms mentioned in The
Hardest Ride’s sequel, Ride Harder.
A rope and a gun
Guns were tools of the trade for 1880s cowboys and vaqueros. These are some who argue that
many cowhands didn’t carry guns, that Western movies and novels overplayed the
common use of the gun. They claim too that this is based on period photographic
evidence. Many photographs of the Old West are from its later years and guns
were indeed not as frequently carried owing to the spread of law and order.
Most towns had laws on the books prohibiting guns within the incorporated
limits or at least within saloons and certain other establishments, not unlike
today. In many towns, respectable citizen, even cowhands known to be steady and
trustworthy, carried guns openly. They were known and trusted by the marshal, mayor,
judges, etc.
It may surprise some that in 1871
the Republican Texas Legislature passed a law stating: “If any person in this
state shall carry on or about his person, saddle, or in his saddle-bags, any
pistol he shall be punished by a fine of not less than twenty-five nor more
than one hundred dollars. That’s about $2,000 today. The law didn’t apply to travelers
and those in “frontier county liable to incursions by hostile Indians.” The
primary motivation of the law was to allow the Reconstruction government to disarm
Confederate sympathizers and those interfering with the rights of freed slaves.
Later, it allowed the Democratic Legislature to disarm Black sharecroppers.
Rifles and shotguns could be openly carried.
Pistols or revolvers? While
there’s a distinction between the two, the terms were used interchangeably by
the cowboy. What’s the difference between the two terms? Well, a pistol is any
handgun, whether single-shot or a self-loading semi-automatic, that’s not a
revolver.
Guns though were important to the
cowboy and widely carried, especially on the 1880s Texas-Mexican border. By
then there were few Indian troubles, but Mexican banditos, rustlers, highwaymen,
robbers, and plain old troublemakers were still plentiful. As a tool, the
cowboy viewed the gun as essential. The borderlands were perpetually simmering
and it didn’t take much for serious trouble to boil over. There were even
county “election wars” that saw their share of gunplay. Guns were carried
through for self-defense from the occasional bad man or outlaw, but more
commonly used for ranching “chores.” This included, but was not limited to putting
down injured or sick cattle and horses, killing snakes, eradicating destructive
javelina and wild hogs, shooting coyotes, skunks, and wild dogs—feared because of
hydrophobia—rabies, and bagging game when the opportunity presented itself.
Wolves and pumas, a threat to cattle and sheep, were rapidly being eradicated
from many areas.
True, many cowboys didn’t
routinely carry a revolver, but they often owned one, even if only a small-caliber
cheapo model. Some didn’t carry one openly, but in their saddlebag or coat
pocket. More commonly carried was the rifle, or more often, the shorter
barreled carbine for its handiness. Even out in the wide open spaces there was
not a lot of use for longer barreled rifles, unless one was a serious
hunter…and a darn good shot. Depending on where one was, the most common game
was mule deer, white-tail deer, and pronghorn antelope.
Before we talk about specific
guns, let’s discuss an important factor. Realistically, at how far can targets
be hit?
Realistic shooting
ranges
For the cowboy, most rifle shooting took place at relatively
close ranges, typically under a hundred feet, usually much less. Most cowboys
were not all that good a shot and were hard-pressed to hit anything near a
hundred feet much less a hundred yards. The chances of hitting a moving target
at such ranges were almost impossible. In the opening of The Hardest Ride Bud’s first-round hit on an airtight with a rifle at
a hundred paces, maybe ninety yards, was actually a very good rifle shot. They
didn’t have the funds to spend on a lot of ammunition.
More widely used than seen in
movies and novels was the plain old double-barrel shotgun. A shotgun plays an
important role in The Hardest Ride, a
metaphor for a young woman’s unconventionality and independence. Shooting was
at generally close ranges and the shooter was not always that good of a shot. Shotguns
were good for small game and bird hunting, and eradicating varmints. It was a
lot easier to hit a rattlesnake, or a man for that matter, at twenty feet with
a scattergun than a revolver. They were also cheaper than a mechanically sophisticated carbine. A shotgun gave
a man only two shots though. Scatterguns only scattered so much. At thirty
yards they only had about a three-foot spread. At forty yards they began to
spread more, but by then only a small number of pellets hit the target and they
had lost much of their potency. In room-size shooting situations their spread
might only be a foot, certainly not room-clearing blasts as is often assumed.
More often than not, shotguns retained their long barrels. Swan-off shotguns (under
18 inches) and short-barreled (20-22 inches) coach guns were relatively uncommon. We’ll talk more about shotguns in a future installment.
Most handguns, or rather the
shooters themselves, were not very accurate at over twenty yards, and that’s
really pushing it. It takes a crack shot to hit airtights at fifteen, even
twenty yards. More realistically, 10 yards—just 30 feet, was a difficult shot
for an airtight or bottle. By the way, I don’t think they shot to pieces a lot
of bottles. They were too useful for other things. Beer bottles, emerging in
the 1880s by the way, could be sold back to brewers. Most gunfights, not that
many cowboys were even involved in one, were at ranges of ten to twenty-five
feet. There is an account of the shootout between James Butler Hickok—“Wild
Bill” Hickok—and Davis Tutt in Springfield, Missouri. They opened fire on one
another on first sight at 150 feet. While the actual range is disputed, many eyewitnesses
claim it is so. Tutt bit the dust by the way. If true, that is certainly an
extreme range for a revolver fight.
And then there’s the silliness. There
are numerous Western movies in which a gunman braces himself, takes careful
aim, elevates his pistol based on I don’t know what, and hits a moving target
at extreme range. It didn’t happen. Handguns had short 4-6-inch barrels. Even with
a “long” barreled revolver with a small powder load, a heavy bullet, and simple
sights, it was difficult to hit a stationary man-sized target at even thirty
yards. Keep in mind that all guns of this period were still firing black powder.
Black powder loads offered more variance in ballistics than the smokeless
powder loads appearing in the 1890s. Bullets were solid lead, no semi-jacketed
hollow-points or anything fancy. With short barrels, heavy blunt bullets, and
light black powder loads, any degree of long-range accuracy with a handgun was
unobtainable, with the exception of the rare lucky shot.
Keep in mind too that when
shooting from a galloping horse or from a jolting stagecoach, especially if the
target too is on a galloping horse, is a virtually impossible shot. A fraction
of an inch alignment of the barrel with the target can mean a miss by a foot or
more at even a close target. Additionally there’s no way one can allow for
windage and the irregularity of a gallop on even an open level ground.
About the silliest shooting sequence
I’ve seen in a Western movie was so far beyond reality to be laughable.
Unfortunately I don’t recall its title. If this rings a bell with someone,
please let me know. The scene saw the hero duck behind a water trough as I
recall and it just so happened that there was a 16-inch long 1 x 4-inch board
laying there. He picked it up and there just so happened to be a knot near the
end of the board that just do happened to be loose enough that he was able to
knock it out with the butt of his Colt and it just so happened to be just the
right size to insert the butt into the hole that just so happened to be the
right distance from the board’s end to clear the trigger guard. With the
revolver wedged into the knothole, he used it as a cumbersome shoulder stock to
take aim and just so happened to hit the bad guy at a range difficult for a
carbine.
I have tried to give an idea on
the cowboys’ outlook and use of guns in The
Hardest Ride as well as include some interesting and sometimes little known
firearms that were somewhat more common than often acknowledged. There were a
large number of firearms around other than Winchesters, Colts, and Smith &
Wessons. They may not have been as common as these staple firearms, but they
were widely used in their own right. We’ll take a look at Bud Eugen’s firearms
in the next installment.
