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WINNING THE WEST
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#85
OF T H E OL D WEST 36
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LONG HUNTER EL PATRONE BY DENIS PRISBREY
Match-ready .357 from the shop of a CAS World Champion will help you take charge!
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WINCHESTER’S RETURN TO ’73 BY RICHARD MANN
A classic frontier lever is back, and it’s better then ever before!
HENRY BIG BOY .44 MAG
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B Y S C O T T W. W A G N E R
Traditional Old West style meets modern, fast-handling updates!
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CIVIL WAR CLASSICS
BY DENNIS ADLER
These 150-year-oldwarhorses fought on both sides of the War Between the States!
BY DENNIS ADLER, WITH JEFFREY RICHARDSON
The Paterson revolver and the Balance of Power on the American Frontier!
BY ROBERT A. SADOWSKI
76
Blondie’s .38 Colt conversion returns to keep the bad and the ugly at bay!
42
NEW MODEL EVANS .44
BY TODD G. LOFGREN
Revolutionary 1880s repeating rifle held the most rounds of its class!
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COLT’S FRONTIER LEGACY
36
CIMARRON’S MAN WITH NO NAME
30
72
BOILED SHIRTS
BY PHIL SPANGENBERGER
Frontiersmen wore these lightweight shirts all week long before boiling them clean! c o l u m n s
:
5 Western Words
ANNIE OAKLEY VS. LILLIAN SMITH
BEST OF THE OLD WEST
BY ASHLEY HLEBINSKY
KEEP ’EM CLEAN
8 Gear & Garb
Who was the better Wild West sharpshooter at the turn of the century?
10 Guns Of The Gunfighters
54
12 Black Powder
BAKER CAVALRY 20 GA.
B Y “ L A V I S TA” B I L L B E L L
COLT’S 1851 NAVY DANCE & BROTHERS .44
Confederate double-barrel scattergun returns as a high-quality replica!
16 Cowboy Artist
60
82 Air Cowboy
GET A GRIP!
BY ROBERT A. SADOWSKI
MASTER ENGRAVER KELLY LASTER UMAREX COLT PEACEMAKER
Gussy up your single-action six-shooter with custom grips.
54 SPRING 2015
62
NEW FOR 2015
BY BILL BELL & ASHLEY HLEBINSKY
82
A look at what’s “new” in the Old West! GUNS OF THE OLD W ES T
5
• Western Words •
FUTURE IN THE PAST
History is written by the victors—or is it? BY DENNIS ADLER
T
he often-quoted assertion that “History is written by the victors” is attributed to Winston Churchill, and while others have used it, and even reworded it, no matter how it’s phrased, it isn’t necessarily true. Sometimes, those on the losing side write their own stories. This certainly applies to the Civil War, which concludes its sesquicentennial celebration in 2015. Over the past four years, Guns of the Old West has examined various firearms used throughout the war, and from the standpoint of weapons built between 1861 and 1865, the South did a remarkable job of writing its own chapter. In this issue we review “Civil War Classics,” a dozen 150 year-old weapons that have been faithfully reproduced today. Many of those historic reproductions came about because of three men who saw a future in the past, Turner E. Kirkland, Val Forgett Sr. and Boyd Davis. Boyd, who passed away on November 25, 2014, at the age of 84, shared a belief with Kirkland and Forgett that it was important to keep our uniquely American arms history alive through recreating great 19th century Colts, Remingtons, Winchesters and other historic arms. In 1970, Davis became the driving force behind Early and Modern Firearms (EMF), founded in 1956 by Edgar Spinney Sr. and E.W. Spinney Jr. The first thing EMF did was purchase the Great Western Arms Company, which
had been making a copy of Colt’s Model P six-shooter since 1954. Colt had stopped building single actions in 1940, and the Great Western models kept the SAA alive until Colt was compelled to reenter the
Boyd Davis (right) and Harper Creigh founded the SASS in 1987. Davis, who led EMF, passed away on November 25, 2014.
market with its 2nd Generation in 1956. Even then, the Great Westerns gave Colt a good run for its money. In John Wayne’s last film, The Shootist, the handsome pair of engraved single-action revolvers Wayne carried as gunfighter J.B. Books were actually Great Westerns! In the 1970s, Davis took EMF into the business of importing quality Italian
reproductions of famous 19th century guns. EMF has since been one of the most influential names in the replica arms market along with Turner Kirkland’s Dixie Gun Works and Val Forgett Sr.’s legendary Navy Arms. But just selling Western guns wasn’t enough for Davis. In 1987 he became a founding member of the Single Action Shooting Society (General U.S. Grant SASS #2) and 27 years later was serving as the organization’s president at the time of his passing. To Boyd’s credit are many memorable Western firearms brought to life as modern reproductions, including the current Great Western II (GWII) SAA revolvers made for EMF by F.lli Pietta. Boyd Davis’ contributions to the preservation of the American West, its legendary firearms and the “cowboy way” are a legacy to which few men can lay claim. In this issue our writers also put the EMF Baker Cavalry shotgun to the test along with the Henry Big Boy .44, Winchester’s latest reprise of its 1873 lever action rifle, the Long Hunter Deluxe Uberti El Patrone single action, and a first look at the Umarex Colt SAA BB gun! Rounding out the issue are historical pieces on the Colt 1851 Navy, the Evans Model .44 repeating rifle, a history of the Western shirt, and the tale of William F. Cody’s famous lady sharpshooters Annie Oakley and Lillian Smith. If history is indeed written by the victors, then hail the victorious! ✪ Among the lever action rifles tested in this issue is the latest Henry Big Boy chambered in .44 Magnum.
6 GUNS OF THE OLD WEST
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®
Publisher • Stanley R. Harris Executive Publisher • Virginia Commander Group Publisher • Shirley Steffen Associate Publisher • Karin Levine Managing Editor • Linas Cernauskas Copy Editor • Greg Lickenbrock Advertising Sales • Leticia Henry Advertising Coordinator • Emily Boland Contributors Dennis Adler, Bob “Jayhawker” Arganbright, “La Vista” Bill Bell, Ashley Hlebinsky, Todd G. Lofgren, Richard Mann, Denis Prisbrey, Robert A. Sadowski, Phil Spangenberger, Scott W. Wagner, Sean Utley Art Director • James Allocca Production Director • Spiro Maroulis Circulation Director • Tim Hannon Production Manager • Danielle Correa Director Digital and Mobile Publishing • Kim Shay Social Media Director • Claudia Bircu Advertising Offices: Harris Publications, Inc. 1115 Broadway, New York, NY 10010 Harris Tactical Group can be reached at: Phone: (212) 807-7100; Fax: (212) 463-9958 gunsoftheoldwest.com
[email protected] Subscriptions/Back Issues: 212-462-9525
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Cover Photography By Dennis Adler To the Readers: Be advised that there may be products represented in this magazine as to which the sale, possession or interstate transportation thereof may be restricted, prohibited or subject to special licensing requirements. Prospective purchasers should consult the local law enforcement authorities in their area. All of the information in this magazine is based upon the personal experience of individuals who may be using specific tools, products, equipment and components under particular conditions and circumstances, some or all of which may not be reported in the particular article and which this magazine has not otherwise verified. Nothing herein is intended to constitute a manual for the use of any product or the carrying out of any procedure or process. This magazine and its officers and employees accept no responsibility for any liability, injuries or damages arising out of any person’s attempt to rely upon any information contained herein.
Combat Handguns® Presents: Guns of the Old West® is published quarterly by Harris Publications, Inc., 1115 Broadway, NY, NY 10010. Single copy price: $7.99 in U.S.A., $8.99 in Canada. Submissions of manuscripts, illustrations and/or photographs must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addresses envelope. The publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material. Copyright© 2015 by Harris Publications, Inc. All rights reserved under international and Pan American Copyright Conventions. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited. Printed in the USA. For subscriptions, single copies, back issues, or gift orders, please call us at 1-800-866-2886.
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GUNS OF THE OLD W ES T
7
• Gear & Garb •
KEEP ’EM CLEAN
Cleaning alternatives to keep your guns in mint condition! BY TODD G. LOFGREN
O
ne of the many lessons taught to me by my father was to take care of my possessions, whether they are toys, tools or treasure. A child of the Depression, he knew the value of making things last and that “an ounce of prevention was worth a pound of cure.” Guns played a big part of our lives, and he instilled in me early on that a properly cared for firearm would last well beyond any single man’s lifetime and could be passed on from generation to generation so that each could reap the pleasure and protection of its possession. I’ll admit that cleaning guns after a long day at the range or one in the field is not my favorite thing, but seldom does one of my firearms get put away before its interior has been cleaned and its exterior properly wiped down. I know quite a few gun people who think “pretty on the outside” is what counts, but personally, I’d much prefer a pristine bore over flawless blue and ding-less walnut. I recently passed on a Mannlicher-Schonauer Model 1910 that was a real looker on the outside but was less than sterling when viewed down its bore. Granted, guns of this vintage (and earlier) were harder to properly care for due to the nature of powders, primers and projectiles they fired and were subjected to much harder use than most firearms today, but a lot of early and antique examples are still in remarkably fine condition inside and out due to the proper attention paid them by their former owners. With that said, let’s look at a couple of products that will help you keep your favorite shooters in tip-top shape.
Lyman Cleaners A recent count of the cleaning rods hanging over my workbench revealed that I have 12 at my disposal. For the record,
8 GUNS OF THE OLD WEST
Made from washable, tight-celled foam, reusable Bore-tips and Gun-tips take the place of cloth patches and cotton Q-tips, providing superior, lint-free cleaning and lubrication.
although I have a couple, none of the ones I routinely use are jointed. I’m not going to turn this column into a cleaning tutorial, but let’s just say that all of the rods I routinely use are one piece and are either of the coated type or made from smooth stainless steel. Jointed or sectional rods and those made from aluminum or brass are, in my mind, to be avoided for general use because they allow grit, dirt and other undesirable materials to become embedded in the rod, forming an abrasive that
“Gun-tips…are perfect for cleaning and lubricating those hard-to-reach cracks and crevices found on most all firearms.”
could (and will) scratch your bore. I still have one or two of those jointed aluminum rods from my youth, but they have been relegated to emergency rods either stored in my trunk or hunting backpack. Lyman recently introduced its Universal Cleaning Rod System, which consists of a single universal rod handle and four interchangeable cleaning rods in their most popular sizes and lengths. The overmolded rod handle is constructed of chemicalresistant materials, is stoutly built and houses smooth-spinning thrust bearings that allow the rods to follow the rifling through the bore. The interchangeable cleaning rods are made from spring steel and coated with a tough, proprietary epoxy coating to protect the bore. The system comes with two 12-inch handgun rods designed for .22-.26 and .27-.45-sized bores and two similarly sized 36-inch rifle rods. Additional rods in .17-.20 and .40-plus caliber, as well as 26-, 40- and 44-inch length rods, are also available. All rods thread into the universal handle and are held in place with a hex-headed
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setscrew. Like the handle, all cleaning rods are chemical resistant and are threaded to accept all standard 8-32 jags and brushes. Since the swivel handle is the most intricate and expensive part of any cleaning rod, the Lyman system allows you to equip yourself with all the rod sizes and lengths you need at a fraction of the cost of buying several different individual rods. Lyman’s also got a nifty 26-piece Jag and Brush Set that’s the perfect complement to the cleaning rod system. It consists of a durable, plastic-hinged storage container that houses and organizes 13 sets of brushes and jags to accommodate bore sizes .17 through .45 and every conceivable caliber in between. I have a couple of drawers built into my reloading bench that contain all my loose jags, bore brushes and other cleaning implements and must say that finding what I need when I need it is much simpler with the new Jag and Brush Set. All jags and brushes fit a standard 8-32 thread, except the .17, which—due to its diminutive size—is 5-40. Jags are plated, solvent-proof and grooved and pointed to hold patches securely and centered.
Patch Alternatives When I was much younger, I used to make my cleaning patches out of old T-shirts and the like, but it seemed that I
The Lyman Cleaning Rod System allows you to use cleaning rods of various sizes and lengths on one universal handle.
always got them too tight to get down the bore or too small to make adequate contact. More affluent these days, I buy my patches precut, usually in bags of 1,000. I recently tried out some cleaning products from a company called Swabits, which offers (Please turn to page 81)
SPRING 2015
GUNS OF THE OLD W ES T
9
• Guns Of The GunfiGhTers •
COLT’S 1851 NAVY
Why this classic six-shooter might be the real gun that won the West! BY DENNIS ADLER
I
t is a long-standing belief that the Colt Model 1873 Single Action Army and the Winchester Model 1873 leveraction rifle are the guns that “won the West.” Who can dispute their popularity in the 1870s and throughout the remainder of the 19th century, or even into the 21st century for that matter? But consider this: At the beginning of the Western expansion and the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, the Colt Peacemaker and Winchester 1873 hadn’t even been invented! So what guns were ex-Confederate and Union soldiers, cowboys and cattlemen, homesteaders, farmers, storekeepers, outlaws and lawmen packing on their great adventure west? The answer is the same guns they had on hand during the Civil War. Among Colt revolvers, the 1851 Navy was second only to the 1849 Pocket Model for total production up to that time, and by the end of 1869 Colt had manufactured more than 209,000 Navy models, and that’s not counting another 42,000 produced in England at Colt’s short-lived London factory from 1853 to 1856. In 1873, when there were fewer than 200 of the new Peacemakers produced, there were upwards of 255,000 Colt 1851 Navy models in circulation! It would take Colt until 1904 to produce that many Single Action Army models.
Gunslinger’s Choice
erty in the 1850s and 1860s carried a lot weight. Certainly the most famous example of this was Wild Bill Hickok. The engraved Colt 1851 Navy shown here, one of a pair carried by Hickok in the 1870s, is on display at the Autry National Center of the American West in Los Angeles, California. Hickok favored the 1851 Navy above all
Is this the real gun that “won the West?” In 1873, when there were fewer than 200 of the new Peacemakers produced, there were upwards of 255,000 Colt 1851 Navy models in circulation. More Navy models went west than almost any other revolver. (Holster by John Bianchi)
others and had carried them in pairs since the Civil War. In 1869, he began carrying the two engraved and ivory-gripped revolvers, which are believed to have been presented to him by Senator Henry Wilson of
Massachusetts for services as the Senator’s scout on a hunting trip, or so the story goes. However he acquired them, Hickok carried the .36 caliber Colts butts-forward in the socalled “plains,” “underhand” or “twist draw” fashion, sometimes just tucked behind his waist sash, other times in holsters. John “Doc” Holliday’s first revolver was an 1851 Navy (and he continued to carry Colts his entire life). John Wesley Hardin also began his postCivil-War “career” with an 1851 Navy, but not everyone who carried a Colt Navy was a gunfighter or an outlaw— most were just men who needed a good gun. And that was one thing you could say about the 1851 Navy. When Samuel Colt introduced the .36 caliber Navy, he had finally produced the perfect gun—small enough to be carried in comfort, powerful enough to get the job done. Both the U.S. military and civilian markets were once again standing at Samuel Colt’s doorstep saying, “More please.” There were two basic versions of the elegant, octagonalThe engraved Colt 1851 Navy shown, one of a pair carried by Wild Bill Hickok, is on display at the Autry National Center of the American West in Los Angeles, California. Hickok carried Colt Navy models from the Civil War until the day he was murdered in Deadwood on August 2, 1876.
Considering that the average cowboy had little more than the clothes on his back and the horse beneath him, the purchase of a new gun wasn’t exactly paramount. Even for many who could afford a new six-shooter, familiarity with a gun that had been at one’s side in war or in defense of one’s family and prop-
10 G U N S O F T H E O L D W E S T
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Working with Colt, John Adams, Sr., recreated one of Wild Bill Hickok’s 1851 Navy revolvers with the same serial number (plus a special “A” prefix) with all of the detailed engraving based on the original gun in the Autry Museum.
barreled repeater, one with a squared-back triggerguard and another with a round triggerguard, and there were two versions of the latter. Patented in September 1850, the first examples of the 1851 Navy or Belt Model were being produced by early fall. In 1855, the U.S. government formally adopted Colt’s Navy model as the standard sidearm for the Navy and Army, ultimately purchasing some 35,000 guns. The cavalry also carried Colt’s Third Model Dragoons (introduced in 1851), usually in pairs with one attachable shoulder stock to make it into an effective .44 caliber repeating carbine. Navy models could also be ordered with the necessary modifications to mount a shoulder stock. The six-shot Colt had a standard barrel length of 7½ inches and weighed 2.63 pounds, but “standard” didn’t always apply to the 1851 Navy, which could be ordered from Colt with barrel lengths as short as 5-3/16 inches up to 12 inches, and this is not accounting for barrel lengths altered in the field. Examples are known with barrels as short as 2-5/8 inches. Colt made other minor changes to the Navy between 1851 and 1858, most notably in the shape of the gun’s triggerguard. The First Model of 1851 used the square-back triggerguard, a round triggerguard was introduced in 1855, and in 1858 the design was changed to a more ovoid rounded design.
Navy’s Second Act With so many 1851 Navy models produced by 1873, when Colt introduced the Peacemaker, the idea of converting its older percussion arms to fire metallic car-
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A post-Civil-War-era 1851 Navy with the barrel shortened to 2-5/8 inches, along with a very short loading lever, this rare original Third Model Navy was factory engraved by Gustave Young. (Gun courtesy Rock Island Auction Co.)
tridges had already been taking place for a year, first with converting the 1860 Army to .44 caliber cartridges, and then the 1851 Navy. The Navy was the most readily available Colt (aside from the 1849 Pocket Model) in the hands of civilians awaiting the opportunity to have their old capand-ball revolvers updated for a fraction of what a new Colt SAA cost, if you could get one in 1873, and for the most part you couldn’t. Initial allotments went to the military, and civilian guns really didn’t get out until late 1874 and 1875. William Mason’s 1872 patent for “Improvements in Revolving Fire-Arms,” was based on the 1851 Navy as a foundation for the conversion process. Mason also patented the design for the Colt SAA that same year. His design for converting the 1851 Navy used newly manufactured components for the barrel (the S-lug design), bored-through cylinders, a breechplate with loading gate and a cartridge ejector mounted to the right side of the barrel, but was done in such a way that even the cylinders and barrels of an older percussion gun could be modified, thus allowing guns to be sent to the factory and converted. Colt also had a large post-Civil-War inventory of Navy, Army and Pocket Model barrels, frames and cylinders, which kept the guns in production as cartridge models until the early 1880s. (Please turn to page 81)
GUNS OF THE OLD W ES T
11
• B l ac k P ow d e r •
DANCE & BROTHERS .44
The Confederacy’s version of the Colt 1851 Navy rides again! BY DENNIS ADLER
I
n May of 1861, after North Carolina became the 11th state to join the Confederacy, the South was already engaged in the task of evaluating its armaments. Prior to the war, all the revolvers and long arms in use by U.S. troops, including those in the South, were divided equally among the states, and soldiers in the newly created Confederacy had a proportionate number of arms to the North. In regard to handguns, nearly all were of older designs dating from the 1850s, and thus many Confederates were armed with Colt 1851 Navy revolvers and circa 1858 Remington Army and Navy revolvers. Others simply carried whatever handgun they owned, and it soon became incumbent upon the government in Richmond to acquire or produce as many new arms as possible. There were a number of manufacturers in the South who took up the cause, but the Confederacy also had to rely on importing firearms and ammunition from England, France and Belgium.
The North followed a similar course of action as the war carried on, and manufacturers such as Colt, Remington, Starr and a handful of other gun-makers located in the New England states began reaching their limits.
The Pietta Dance revolver rests on a .45 Maker Quantrill holster and belt. The Pietta, sold by Dixie Gun Works, is an accurate reproduction of the guns built in Texas during the Civil War by J.H. Dance & Brothers.
While Southern states had their own militias, along with former Federal troops who offered their allegiance to the South, the odds were simply not in favor of the Confederacy. Comprised of mostly agricultural states, many of which were approachable from the sea (either by the Gulf of Mexico or along the Atlantic coast) the newly formed government of Jefferson Davis was up against a superior force better than twice its number. One could The design for the Dance (top) was based on Colt’s very argue the 13 colonies had stood against an entire nation in 1776 successful 1851 Navy (bottom), which was in general use throughout the U.S. military at the start of the Civil and prevailed, but this was the heart of those very same coloWar. The Colt used a full-length octagonal barrel, whereas the Dance used an octagonal-to-round barrel. nies taking up arms and turn-
12 G U N S O F T H E O L D W E S T
ing them on themselves. The greater issue in 1861 was that there simply were not enough arms or soldiers in the South. In 1862, the Confederacy appealed to the patriotism of anyone who could contribute in the production of guns. Among a handful of Southern manufacturers answering the call was J.H. Dance & Brothers, located east of Columbia (the first capital of Texas) and just 10 miles from Angleton, placing their factory close to the Brazos River and seaports in the Gulf of Mexico. James Henry Dance and his family moved to Texas in 1853. Originally from North Carolina, J.H. and his brothers George and David established J.H. Dance & Company (later J.H. Dance & Brothers) to manufacture gristmills and cotton gins, but when the Civil War began they decided to try their hand at making revolvers. In the winter of 1861, they began developing their first model, with the prototype presented on April 22, 1862. A few months later, a .44 caliber Dance
The Dance was simplified for manufacturing by eliminating the recoil shield, thus creating a slab-sided frame. It also had larger grips with a more dramatic backstrap curve and pronounced flare at the bottom.
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The author, wearing a Confederate greatcoat, carries the Dance revolver in a 45 Maker Quantrill holster and matching waist belt. This style of holster was not uncommon with irregular militia during the Civil War.
revolver was in production. This gun closely resembled a Third Model Colt Dragoon. A second design, based on the Colt 1851 Navy, became eminently more popular and was further simplified for production by eliminating the recoil shield, thus creating a distinctive flat-sided frame. Though based on the Colt design, the Navy model’s full octagonal barrel was replaced by a simpler octagonal to round design similar to that of the 1848 Colt Dragoon. The Dance also used the later-style (Third Model) Colt 1851 Navy rounded triggerguard. Initially, Colt had used a squared-back triggerguard on the First and Second Model 1851 Navy. The rounded triggerguard was introduced in 1855 (the same year the 1851 Navy was adopted by the U.S as a military-issue sidearm), followed by a larger ovoid, rounded triggerguard in 1858. The Dance design was somewhere between the two rounded styles for size and shape. The slab-sided revolvers were made in both .44 and .36 caliber,
with 8- and 7-3/8-inch barrels, respectively. Originally, Dance had anticipated turning out 50 guns a week, but the company realized that figure was not realistic. Despite slower than anticipated production, their .44 and .36 caliber revolvers were well made. The Houston Tri-Weekly Telegraph lauded the Dance revolver as “superior to Colt’s best” in its September 5, 1862, edition.
Last Dance To the Confederacy’s despair, the Dance & Brothers factory, near the Gulf Coast of Texas, was within range of Union gunboats in 1863 following the Battle of Velasco. The Union attack breached the fortifications at Fort Velasco, which guarded the Texas coastline, enabling gunboats to proceed up the Brazos River to Columbia and raze the
SPECIFICATIONS:
▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼
Dixie Gun Works Dance & Brothers Caliber: .44 Barrel: 8 inches OA Length: 14 inches Weight: 41.5 ounces (empty) Grips: Walnut Sights: Front blade, rear hammer spur cut Action: Single-action Finish: Blued, casehardened Capacity: 6-shot MSRP: $342.50
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GUNS OF THE OLD W ES T
13
Dixie Gun Works Dance & Brothers .44
Photos courtesy Rock Island Auction Co.
(continued from page 13)
factory and its contents. During Dance’s brief existence, approximately 500 guns were produced, making original models very rare today. Dance relocated to Anderson, Texas, but arms manufacturing was not resumed, thus ending a short but promising chapter in the history of Civil War gun making. The Dance brothers returned to East Columbia after the Civil War and began manufacturing gristmills and cotton gins once again. Their factory remained in operation until the buildings were destroyed in the September 1900 hurricane that hit the Texas coast at Galveston. Among the handful of models produced in the South during the Civil War, the Dance was considered one of the best and remained popular for years after. Famous owners included Geronimo (at least he was pictured with one, but it may well have been a photographer’s prop), and infamous highwayman Bill Longley is said to have killed his first man with an 1862 Dance.
Gun Details
14 G U N S O F T H E O L D W E S T
1860 Army. Pietta has done an excellent job of copying the Dance revolver in fine detail. For a visual comparison, two original guns can be seen on page 266 of Claude E. Fuller and Richard D. Steuart’s book Firearms of the Confederacy. Not having a recoil shield on the Dance is a double-edged sword, as this makes it easier to cap the gun on one hand but also makes it easier for caps to be knocked free by recoil, since there is nothing behind them on either side of the frame (a little pinch on the edge of the cap before placing it over the nipple will help keep it secured). The frame design also leaves the percussion caps more vulnerable to the elements and the shooter’s hand more exposed to back flash. As a military sidearm, the guns of John Henry Dance & Brothers stood in well for
Photo courtesy America Remembers
The Dixie Gun Works .44 caliber version of the Dance revolver is manufactured in Italy by Pietta and closely duplicates the distinctive styling of the famed Texas-built Confederate pistols. Pietta makes this otherwise plainlooking revolver a handsome reproduction with a color-casehardened frame, loading lever, hammer and trigger, and a decent rendition of period bluing on the barrel and cylinder. The triggerguard and backstrap, like the originals, is brass. Weighing 41.5 ounces, the Pietta Dance is within half an ounce of an 1851 Navy, which has a 7½-inch, fully octagonal barrel. The Dance uses a rectangular barrel wedge and round barrel with an overall length of 8 inches, exactly like the 1863 models. Colt used a brass bead front sight on the 1851, while Dance offered Confederates a more easily sighted brass blade front sight similar to that on Colt’s 1860 Army. The .36 caliber Colt Navy cylinders, featuring the W.L. Ormsby engraving of the Texas Navy’s victory over the Mexican Navy in 1843, were 1-11/16 inches in length, whereas the Dance, which could be chambered in either .36 or .44 caliber, used an unmarked cylinder that was slightly longer. The grips on the Dance were one-piece oiled walnut with a longer and more curved backstrap than the Colt Navy, and they fit the average hand a little better but still offered less purchase than an
The Dance was a ruggedly built gun, and a number of examples still exist. This is one of the few surviving early guns with a recoil shield and a design based on the Colt’s Third Model Dragoon. The holster appears to be original to the gun.
The most famous photo of a Dance revolver is without question this image of Geronimo, who has a slab-sided, .44 caliber model tucked into his waist belt. It is possible that the gun was not Geronimo’s and belonged to the photographer, who used it as a prop when the picture was taken around 1894.
the Union’s Colt Navy, with the same degree of heft, natural pointing and ease of use. The Pietta model embodies all of this, and for those Civil War enthusiasts whose interests lean more toward rare Confederate handguns, this is well worth the purchase price of $342.50. Was the Dance a good gun? The answer might simply be that it was good enough, but too few to be enough. Perhaps no other army of the 19th century knew better than the Confederacy the true meaning of the words “make do.”
Confederate Leather Confederate holsters were either “former” U.S. holsters or copies, holsters cut to fit a specific gun (such as a LeMat) or handcrafted leather, like this reproduction of a California-pattern design made famous during the Civil War by Southern irregulars. They were a mix of military and non-military partisans whose purpose was to harass Northern troops and raid Union encampments. Among the most infamous and feared were Quantrill’s Raiders led by William Clarke Quantrill, a self-proclaimed colonel in command. His gang, including Frank and Jesse James, not only fought for the South but also for their own gain, making them both Confederates and outlaws in the North, and something of the latter even among many loyal Southerners. A hero of the South or a villain of the war, Quantrill’s acts and battle tactics are still in question to this very day. He was killed in action in May of 1865 during a raid against Union troops in Kentucky, but the James boys kept the legend alive well after the Civil War. The Quantrill-style holster I wore for testing is a California pattern with a triplerecurved throat profile that is very deep at the upper, leading edge. Deeply incised floral carving with a punch-dot background and clean triple border line accents the body of the holster, which is lightly contoured along the main seam and finished with an engraved brass end cap. This distinctive feature was rare but not uncommon on
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California-pattern holsters in the 1850s and 1860s, although brass or silver end caps were more commonly used on military pommel holsters. The holster is mounted on an adjustable military-style waist belt with a Masonic “all-seeing eye” two-piece sword belt buckle. This entire rig was handcrafted in Spain by 45 Maker and is among several Confederatestyle holsters offered today by the company.
Dropping The Hammer The Dance is a well-built blackpowder pistol with a hammer draw that averages 7.63 pounds and a short, light trigger pull of just 2.42 pounds on average, as measured on a Lyman trigger pull gauge. With that featherweight trigger, you’re not apt to pull this gun off target. The Pietta models are only chambered in .44 caliber, and Dixie Guns Works recommends loading the Dance with 22 grains of FFFg (or a blackpowder substitute measured by grains, not weight). My test load consisted of 22 grains of Pyrodex P covered by an Ox-Yoke lubed felt Wonder Wad and topped with a Hornady Black Powder .44 caliber (.454) lead ball. I used
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Like most every blackpowder pistol of the Civil War era, disassembly for cleaning was very simple. Using the Colt design, the Dance was taken down by pulling the barrel wedge outward and sliding the barrel and cylinder off the frame’s arbor.
ence. A few more reloads and fine-tuning rendered a best overall six-shot group measuring a little over 3 inches, with the best three clustering into 0.75 inches. Overall, the Dance is as easy to handle as any Colt 1851 Navy; it’s sturdily built, with a smooth action and a blade front sight that contributes to its consistency. Like most Civil War-era pistols, the Dance is simple to disassemble for cleaning, though it’s a dirty job. James Henry Dance and his brothers got it right in 1862, and so has Pietta 153 years later. ✪ i
Dynamit Nobel No. 1075 percussion caps. During the Civil War, combat distances with a pistol could have been anything from a few yards (especially on horseback or in close-quarter battle) to 100 feet and beyond. For testing the Dance, I decided upon 50 feet, the same distance used for testing singleaction revolvers when fired off-hand. The first test round struck the target 6 inches above the point of aim. After correcting I fired a full cylinder into a 4-inch circumfer-
FOR MORE j
INFORMATION
CONTACT: Dixie Gun Works
800-238-6785 dixiegunworks.com
45 Maker
801-628-7219 45maker.com
GUNS OF THE OLD W ES T
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• C ow b oy A rt i s t •
KELLY LASTER MASTER ENGRAVER Expert craftsman has mastered bulino engraving and more! BY BOB “JAYHAWKER” ARGANBRIGHT
I
first met firearms engraver Kelly Laster several years ago at the Illinois State SASS Championship, where he was set up as a vendor offering onsite engraving. I recall recognizing his engraving as being superior to most I have seen, but not being in the market for an engraved gun at the time I did not follow up on the opportunity. Recently, however, I found him set up at the Belleville, Illinois, Gun Show and took a closer look at his engraving. What instantly caught my eye was a small steel practice piece of bulino engraving, which is also known as “banknote” engraving. The subject, an elephant, looked like he was ready to step out of the piece of steel. First, a bit of engraving history. Before the invention of high-speed impact engraving tools, which are miniature jackhammers with variable rates of impact, engraving in steel was done by “chasing” the cutting tool with a small handheld hammer. Bulino engraving, which is described as being shallow, pictorial and photo quality, is executed with a hand-powered cutting tool called a “burin,” without the use of a chasing hammer. Laster is unusual in having mastered the bulino technique.
Making His Mark So, how did Kelly Laster become a firearms engraver? In 1983, he became a jewelry and soft metal engraver by attending Gem City College in Quincy, Illinois. Looking to expand his engraving skills, in 1999 he purchased a GRS engraving system and started learning to engrave steel. GRS designed and patented the first air-powered engraving tool, actually a miniature jackhammer, called the GraverMeister, which produces 1,600 to 2,400
16 G U N S O F T H E O L D W E S T
An expert engraver who specializes in the bulino style, Laster has learned from the best and even worked as a Colt engraver.
impacts per minute. GRS offers gun-engraving classes at its facility in Emporia, Kansas. Shortly after Kelly started working with his GRS engraving system, a friend offered a gun for engraving and the result convinced Kelly that his future was in gun engraving. Kelly joined the SASS as “Eldorado Flash” and found that setting up as a vendor at major SASS matches would be the perfect market for his engraving skills, engraving guns on site. Two world-class shooters that Kelly has engraved guns for SASS World Champion China Camp and Bob Munden, known as “the fastest man with a gun who ever lived.” In 2004, looking to expand his skills, Kelly attended an advanced engraving class at GRS. Who to better teach the advanced
use of the company’s engraving system than the manufacturer? With only four years of experience engraving guns, Kelly showed his work to a Colt representative, who was so impressed that he asked Kelly to engrave for Colt. His “trial” engraving was a barrel, and Kelly was soon receiving two guns for engraving from Colt every couple of months. Colt standard factory engraving is classified as grades A, B, C and D, with A having the least coverage and D being full coverage. Colt started Kelly with the standard B-class engraving and the pattern. With little opportunity for advancement, after two years as a Colt factory engraver, Kelly decided to pursue other avenues. But few gun engravers can include having been a Colt factory engraver in their resume.
Lasting Legacy In 2009 Kelly decided to travel to Italy and attempt to attend the prestigious Beretta engraving school, which is by invitation only. When interviewed for acceptance as a student, he showed them the bulino elephant and was immediately accepted. As one might guess, with a background as a jewelry engraver, Kelly includes gold and other precious metal inlay in his engraving skills. Kelly is middle aged, so he should have many more years to apply his engraving talent to many more guns. I hope to eventually own one of them. For more information, visit kellylaster.com. ✪ Here you can see some of Laster’s scrollwork on a Henry (left) and Colt SAA (center). Laster also uses gold inlay, as this skull and crossbones (right) shows.
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GUN
TEST
Photo C
ourtesy
Author
Regardless of which range it rides, open or shooting, your equipment has to be up to the job. You’ll have no doubts with the customized Long Hunter El Patrone in .357 Mag.
LONG HUNTER E
Match-ready .357 from the shop of a CAS World Champion WHEN YOU WANT TO TALK RACEHORSES, THERE’S NO BETTER WAY TO LEARN ABOUT THEM THAN TO SIT DOWN AND DO A FACE-TO-FACE WITH THE PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY DRIVE THOSE CRITTERS AROUND THE TRACK. It’s the hard-charging jockey who pounds the horse through the hot forge of competition—right smack in the middle of all the commotion of thundering hooves, dust, mud, sweat, heat and the roar of the crowd— that really knows a racehorse and what it has to have to gain a competi18 GUNS OF THE OLD WE ST
tive advantage. They’re not all created equal, and when you’re looking for a trophy, you don’t line up a Clydesdale behind the starting gate. From its humble beginnings in California in the 1980s, the Cowboy Action Shooting (CAS) sport has become an international pastime that now covers a broad range of ages, categories and equipment, and that all includes the long-standing and good-natured division between the “I’m just here for fun” bunch and the “in it to win it” gang. This is not an Earp/Clanton thing, and there’s nothing wrong with either
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l P A T R O N E E
will help you take charge!
BY DENIS PRISBREY • PHOTOS BY SEAN UTLEY
approach; like any other sport, you get out of it what you put into it, and as long as the destination’s the one you’re looking for (a good time had by all), the route doesn’t much matter. What does matter, though, is that whichever way you go, your equipment holds up through long days in all kinds of weather, and through all the stage scenarios that the twisted minds of the most devious match directors can devise. You can’t shoot your way through the saloon to save the schoolmarm held hostage by Black Bart Smythe-Jones, fight off Dead-Eye Dick’s
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Dastardly Disparate Desperadoes and recover the stolen bank loot, or clang the railroad switch to divert the runaway locomotive onto a siding to bypass the baby crawling between the rails, if your hardware lets you down right in the thick of the action. And that’s just the shame and public humiliation of a failure to live up to the cowboy code of the West; you can forget about any chance of your blinding speed and phenomenal accuracy taking home any Overall Best Shooter trophy. Either way, you want to do your best, whether you’re only competing
GUNS OF THE OLD WES T 19
L O N G HUN T E R E L PATR O N E
The wide hammer spur and numbered chambers are two deluxe features included with the Long Hunter El Patrone .357 Magnum sixgun. Note the extended Uberti cylinder base-pin safety.
Jared says his college graduation present was a gunsmithing lathe, and he thought he knew a lot about single actions until he came to work for Jim at the shop and discovered what he didn’t know. Since then he’s gained the full confidence of the owner, and it’s become largely Jared’s operation, run the way Jim started it and doing the work the way Jim established it. There’s your brief background on the Long Hunter name and game; don’t expect to reach Jim himself if you call, but you certainly can expect the same quality standards he founded his shop on. And right about now’s a good time to take a look at a Long Hunter gun.
Gun Details El Patrone is Spanish for “The Boss,” and this model originates from Uberti as a higher-grade entry with yourself or taking on the top guns head to head, and your guns need to have what it takes to get to the finish line. Which, by a roundabout route, takes us back to the horse and jockey analogy.
Long Hunter
what doesn’t work, what you need and what you don’t need in your equipment. Jim incorporated all of that into his Long Hunter Shooting Supply business early on, with premium action tuning in both long and short guns, custom services on Colt, Ruger and Italian single-actions, and the shop’s own line of cowboy hardware ready to hit the ground running. Jim is still very active on the competition circuit, but in recent years he’s increasingly turned over management of the shop to Jared Baker. Jared has his own history, apprenticing with a custom rifle-maker at the age of 14 and eventually connecting with Jim, who hired him on the spot at their first meeting.
Those with a fair amount of CAS dust on their boots are probably familiar with the name of Long Hunter. If not, Long Hunter is the Single Action Shooting Society (SASS) alias of Jim Finch, and for purposes of discussion here, Jim would be the “jockey” in our analogy from above. A seven-time SASS World Champion, Jim has a long backtrail in competition, with roots originally in bullseye and silhouette events that later evolved into the shooting irons of CAS, with over 20 years of both shooting those guns and working on them. Mostly self-taught SPECIFICATIONS with help from a natural mechanical aptitude, Jim started out small and eventually opened up a shop that’s since grown into a full-service, threebody operation dealing with single-action revolvers and lever guns Caliber: .357 Mag/.38 Special of the Old West variety. Barrel: 4¾ inches It goes without saying, OA Length: 10½ inches • Weight: 39 ounces but I’ll do it anyway: You Grips: Checkered walnut • Sights: Fixed • Action: Single-action just don’t take home the World Champion title Finish: Blued, casehardened • Capacity: 6-shot • MSRP: $635 seven times without knowing what works,
in its Cattleman line. As it comes from Italy, the El Patrone is chambered for the .357 Mag and the .45 Colt, both popular in CAS matches, with either 4¾- or 5½-inch barrels; checkered walnut grips; a lowered, wide-spur hammer; the Uberti in-hammer safety block and two-position cylinder base pin; your choice of a casehardened blue or stainless finish; wide and easily visible sights; and “El Patrone” laser-engraved on the barrel. Inside, Uberti uses American-made Wolff springs for a lighter action, along with
Long Hunter Deluxe El Patrone
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the now-standard, Ruger-style coiled handspring and a piano-wire bolt spring. What differentiates the out-of-the-box Uberti El Patrone from the Long Hunter El Patrone is what the shop does to the gun before it ships to a customer, and believe me, there is a difference. The rear of the barrel face/forcing cone is squared and trued, which creates a uniform gas pressure all the way around each bullet base as it passes from the chamber into the cone. If one side or the other is off square, uneven gas pressure can affect the angle of the bullet slightly as it enters the barrel, which can affect accuracy. The forcing cone is opened up to an 11-degree angle, a common modification for lead bullet use that typically also helps a revolver’s accuracy. The hammer notches and trigger/sear angles are re-cut or reset as needed for a cleaner pull, and the mating surfaces are polished and honed for a smoother pull. In line with the smooth action work, the lighter and more durable springs already on this model from the factory are further tensioned by the Long Hunter shop, and this combined polishing and spring work adds up to what the company’s website lists as a 2.5-pound trigger pull, though it actually measured about 2.25 pounds on my test sample. Timing is always important; the bolt that locks the cylinder in line with the barrel is
-“
The Patrone should make a great choice for CAS competition, and it can handle
FULL-BORE .357S on the trail for
�more serious use.�
-“
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GUNS OF THE OLD W ES T
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L O N G HUN T E R E L PATR O N E
The Long Hunter El Patrone comes with checkered walnut grips (left), highly visible sights and an easy-to-reach hammer (center, right) for fast shooting on the range.
squared, reshaped and polished to maximize it. That turn line you see around the cylinder of many older Colts and newer clones is caused by a gun not properly set up; you shouldn’t see one on a Long Hunter gun. After a Long Hunter tune-up, the bolt drops into the cylinder notch leade, right where it should. The test sample here shows all of the above, and the shop is capable of going further on request, but this is the version that makes up about 60 percent of the Long Hunter El Patrone sales, and it gives a good introPERFORMANCE duction to the outfit.
Long Hunter Deluxe El Patrone
Range Time At the range, the El Patrone put on a good show with three mild, lead .38 Special cowboy and two full-power, jacketed .357 Mag field loads, running five-shot groups off a rest at 25 yards. The trigger was by far the best I’ve worked with on any Uberti single-action; it had a light pull, a crisp break and zero overtravel. The sights on this revolver are built to actually be seen, and they’re infinitely better than the 22 G U N S O F T H E O L D W E S T
original skinny sights on the classic Colt Peacemaker. Other major departures from the Colt are a mixed bag: the low and wide hammer spur is a natural in my hand, and saying I like it would be similar to saying ducks like water, but I could put a lot of happy miles behind me without the two safety modifications dictated by import requirements. Those are, however, long established in Uberti single actions; they do not interfere with the revolver’s operation or reliability, and they’re only mildly bothersome from the “Roy and Hoppy didn’t use ’em” purist viewpoint. In use, you don’t even notice them, and they do offer a better overall safety system in the old design than the Colt. The balance, as .38s with more steel in the barrel often exhibit, was a shade more muzzleheavy than a comparable .45 Colt, which was not a bad thing. The El Patrone was slick to run with all the loads tested, its accuracy was better than expected, the checkering on the grips was perfectly done
Load
Velocity
Accuracy
Black Hills 125 JHP
1,322
1.13
Winchester 158 Super-X JHP
1,245
2.38
Black Hills 158 LN
741
1.81
PMC 158 Lead Flat Point
791
2.00
Winchester 158 Cast Lead
757
2.44
.357 Mag
.38 Special
Bullet weight measured in grains, velocity in fps by chronograph, and accuracy in inches for best five-shot groups at 25 yards.
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with no border overruns, and the only hitch in the Patrone’s “gitalong” was the sight regulation, which was low and left with all rounds fired. Checking with Jared at the shop, he said they no longer test for sight regulation before sending out a single action; it got too complicated with customers varying too much in how they held a sight picture. Another factor is that Uberti uses the same-height front blade on all barrel lengths, which doesn’t produce the same elevation results on paper in all barrel lengths. So, in the test sample’s case, the blade can be easily filed down to raise the point of impact, and the barrel can be turned slightly or the rear sight channel widened slightly on the right side to correct for windage. Uberti and Long Hunter leave that to the buyer, who can either return it to Long Hunter’s once they figure out where they want the sights to print, or handle it locally.
Final Notes The Patrone should make a great choice for CAS competition, and it can handle fullbore .357s on the trail for more serious use.
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One of the best bargains in a tuned Peacemaker replica, the six-shot Long Hunter El Patron is also a competition model that’s just as much at home in a working holster.
With dependable wire springs and better-fitted parts for a longer life, along with a durable, non-chemical casehardening process, considering the work that goes into these and the end result, I see the Long Hunter El Patrone as a bargain at $635 in blue and
$735 in stainless. If you’re looking for a new competition or carry single action, get with Long Hunter Shooter Supply. The money’s worth it, and you can expect to work this boss long and hard. For more information, visit longhunt.com or 806-342-0000. ✪
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GUN
TEST ★★★★★★
★★★★★★
G I B Y HENR EXTRA ★★★★
Traditional Old West style meets modern, fast-handling updates! BY SCOTT W. W A G N E R
The brass-framed Henry Big Boy lever action in .44 Magnum is highly maneuverable for off-hand shooting, even on horseba ck.
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★★★★★★
★★★★★★
G A M 4 B O Y .4 66 ★★ ★★ AU GU ST 10 , 18
— Doc Holliday ely as flies follow the herd.” ict follows wrongdoing as sur
“Confl
The Henry Repeating
original Henry rifle can be had in its American-made form from Henry Repeating Arms. While the Big Boy bears the styling cues of its famous ancestor, it is clearly a much different and more
Under the leadership of Anthony Imperato, the company has adapted to modern times with state-of-the-art, 100-percent American manufacture and is now the leader in American-made leveraction rifles. The company’s current inventory includes Western-style rimfire rifles in both lever-action and , gallery-style pump versions an updated AR-7 semiautomatic survival rifle and several lever-action cen e terfire rifles. The centerfir lever gun lineup includes the focus of this piece, the Henry Big Boy .44 Mag. The Big Boy .44 Mag rifle is a striking piece of the gun-maker’s art. The first thing one notices about it , is the bright brass frame which recalls the or igi r nal .44 Rimfire Civil Wa lever action. In fact, for the first time in 150 years, the
advanced arm.
Arms Company, located in both Bayonne, New Jersey, and Rice Lake, Wisconsin, is one of the great American manufacturing success stories.
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Gun Details
The Big Boy .44, as well as its stablemates in .357 Mag and .45 Colt, is not a reproduction rifle. Reproductions copy with great exactness existing and often out-of-production firearms designs. The Big Boy is a “retro” firearm. Retro firearms contain features and styling of other older designs, maybe multiple designs, and incorporate them into a modern piece with modern features and
ma nu fac tu rin g me th od s that strongly recall the original. Think of the highly successful retro Ford Mustang or Dodge Challenger automobiles. The Big Boy .44 is much like those in terms of retro concept. They appear much like the originals on the outside, even in much of the interior, but underneath are full of modern improvements. And, they can be driven anywhere at anytime—they aren’t reserved
for shows or parades. While the Big Boy is a retro gun, it is close enough in original design and spirit to be permissible for use in Cowboy Action Shooting. This says something for the attention to detail lavished t upon the Big Boy .44 tha keeps the Old West spirit
RATING There is no SMOOTHER-OPE tried LEVER ACTION that I have rimfire than that of the Henry—in s to or centerfire versions. It ha TED! be TRIED to be APPRECIA
“
”
alive in it. It is nothing like the “space age,” internal” hammer “le ver ac tions once offered by Ruger and Winchester that are no lon ger in production. So, what is it about the Big Boy .44 that keeps it c Cowboy Action authenti and harkens back to the original Henr y and other period designs? First is the , aforementioned brass frame the defining feature of the original Henry and the 1866 Winchester “Yellow Boy.” Besides giving the Big Boy a distinctive and unique look, the use of brass for the frame t eliminates corrosion for tha part. Sure, it will need to t be polished eventually, bu no rust will attack it. Don’t worry about strength, either. The brass used by Henry Repeating Arms is plenty strong enough to handle the .44 Mag and like car r tridges, since the chambe e itself is made of steel. Th same bright brass used for the frame is also used for the barrel band and buttplate. The second feature that keeps the Big Boy “Old
GUNS OF THE OLD W ES T
25
HEN RY BI G B OY . 4 4 M A G
makes for a very safe rifle without a manual safety. This keeps the overall look very traditional and makes the gun quick to operate. The main retro feature of the Big Boy is the loading system, which is based on the tubular magazine loading system found on .22 rimfire rifles, including Henry .22s. This time-proven system works just as well on centerfire Henry rifles as it has for a century or more on .22 rimfires. To load the Henry Big Boy (and all their other centerfire arms with the exception of the Original model), push down slightly and turn the knurled magazine tube knob to the left, and withdraw the brass tube either West” is the heavy octagonal barrel, which past the loading port or all the was once a very popular style on period way out. Insert up to 10 rounds lever guns. It is elegant, and makes the Big of .44 Mag ammunition base Boy look more authentic than the modern The special brass first and let the rounds slide round-barrel lever guns currently available. used for the receiver is strong enough for down the tube. When you have The heavy barrel in part accounts for the .44 Magnum loads, inserted all of the rounds you overall weight of the gun—8.68 pounds— and the bolt is steel. intend to shoot, reinsert the which turns even hot .44 Mag rounds into tube into the magazine and soft-shooting pussycats. Third, the lever itself, as well as the other The forend is wider than traditional “splin- gently allow the spring to compress as you main action components, including the ter” forends and allows for a more comfort- close it. Then turn the knob to lock the tube back into place. While this system may not be hammer, are blued steel and of the tradi- able purchase at the front end. The last Old West characteristic of the as fast as loading from a loading gate, note tional style. Most Henry lever guns are available with a Hollywood-style “Rifleman” large Big Boy is also a characteristic of a retro that the loading gate system is not fast either, lever loop, which may be of value in Cowboy gun—the lack of a manually operated safety and if you don’t insert the cartridges in a loading gate system just right, they will hang up and require a bit of fiddling to complete the process. The Henry also unloads more smoothly than gate-loading guns. Simply pull the tube forward or out and let the cartridges slide forward, out of the loading port. The Big Boy rifle sports an octagonal, blued steel barrel and a brass bead front sight. There’s no need to cycle the action. Clearly, I prefer the Henry tubular magazine system. Action matches or when wearing gloves. button or lever. But on the retro side of While I prefer the traditional lever style, things there is also no “half-cock” safety Range Time this is one of the benefits of a retro gun—it notch for the exposed hammer. Henry uses a I found three loads to test in the Henry at doesn’t have to be a historically period-correct patented transfer bar mechanism on the Big the range. It must first be said that the tubular piece. It is designed to be used and enjoyed. Boy that eliminates the half-cock notch and bolt of the Big Boy action, which glides in the brass frame, is incredibly Fourth, Henry uses SPECIFICATIONS smooth—the two dissimnothing but American walnut for the stocks— ilar metals produce less friction than the steel-onno “hardwood” or synsteel construction of other thetic stocks are availcompeting brands. There able. The butt of the is no smoother-operating stock is curved and, as mentioned earlier, covlever action that I have Caliber: .44 Mag • Barrel: 20 inches ered with a brass butttried than that of the OA Length: 38½ inches • Weight: 8.68 pounds • Stock: American walnut plate. While a curved Henry—in rimfire or cenSights: Bead front, semi-buckhorn rear • Action: Lever butt is not known for terfire versions. It has to be tried to be appreciated! Finish: Blued/brass • Capacity: 10+1 • MSRP: $899.95 comfort on heavy-recoiling calibers, it is not an The loads were the issue with the .44 Mag. Blazer .44 Mag, alumiThe Big Boy has a high-quality American walnut stock with a curved butt, reminiscent of period pieces, and a brass buttplate. The design proved comfortable to shoot.
Henry Big Boy
26 G U N S O F T H E O L D W E S T
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num-case 240-grain JHP, the Blazer .44 Special, aluminum-case 200-grain Gold Dot JHP and the Winchester .44 Special 240grain, lead flat point (LFP) Cowboy Action load. Interestingly enough, Henry does not recommend aluminum-case ammunition in its rifles (no explanation as to why is given in the manual), but I had no choice but to try the Blazer rounds because that was the only .44 Magnum ammo available, and one of only two .44 Special loads that I could find. I worked slowly with the ammo at first. The .44 Mag Blazer worked just fine, smoothly cycling through the action. Moving onto the Winchester Cowboy Action loads presented a problem, and the problem is with the Winchester .44 Special ammo, and not the Henry Rifle. For some reason the 240-grain LFP bullets are much shorter than the standard 246-grain, round-nose, lead bullets that used to be the standard for the .44 Special round since its inception. The overall length of the Cowboy Action rounds threw off the timing of the magazine feed cycle, causing those .44 Special rounds to jam in the
The Big Boy .44 would make a fine companion arm for a .44 Magnum revolver when longer-range shots are needed. SPRING 2015
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HEN RY BI G B OY . 4 4 M A G
magazine tube and not feed up the elevator. In checking with Henry, the company was not aware of this issue and had not tried the Winchester loads in the .44 Big Boy. This is a shame, since the Big Boy is a Cowboy Action-certified rifle. If you are planning on shooting .44 Specials, make sure you check (as the Henry manual advises) to make sure the rounds you are planning on using cycle through the gun. The .44 Special Blazer GDHP rounds, even though their bullet weight is 40 grains lighter than the Winchester rounds, cycled
The Big Boy chambers both .44 Special and .44 Magnum rounds, and the top of the receiver is drilled and tapped for mounting a scope. Note the semi-buckhorn rear sight.
“ While the Big Boy bears the styling cues of its famous ancestor, it is clearly a MUCH DIFFERENT and MORE ADVANCED arm.
“
and adjustable rear sight were easy to pick up even at my age, and were perfectly zeroed from the box. Recoil, especially with the .44 Special rounds, was insignificant. I should mention that the Big Boy is capable of having a scope mounted on it, but I wouldn’t do it. In my humble opinion, a scope would detract from the classic retro beauty of this piece. Besides, the .44 Mag, though quite a powerhouse, isn’t a 300-yard rifle cartridge. Those irons should be able to handle any situation within the capability of the .44 Mag/Special rounds with aplomb. Were I a deer hunter, I wouldn’t hesitate to take this rifle into the woods, despite the brass receiver. In Ohio, this is now a possibility, as the statehouse passed a new law finally allowing the use of rifles for deer hunting as long as they are chambered for a straight-
flawlessly despite their aluminum cases. I wouldn’t hesitate to keep the Henry stoked with either of these loads. As a side note, I have used aluminum-case Blazer ammo ever since it was created for PERFORMANCE law enforcement training or personal use and have never had a problem with them. I can’t directly tell you to use Load Velocity Accuracy them yourself and am officially advising you to .44 Magnum use brass-case ammuBlazer Aluminum Case 240 JHP 1,234 1.25 nition if it is a choice between the two since .44 Special the Henry manual advisBlazer Aluminum Case 200 GDHP 1,084 1.50 es against it. Shooting the Henry Bullet weight measured in grains, velocity in fps by chronograph, was a blast, even with and accuracy in inches for best five-shot groups at 25 yards. the magnum loads. The brass bead front sight
Henry Big Boy
28 G U N S O F T H E O L D W E S T
walled cartridge like the .44 Mag. If I were a Cowboy Action aficionado, I would favor the Big Boy for competitive use due to its slick and reliable action, and remember that the .357 Mag Big Boy is also an option.
Final Notes The Henry Big Boy is a great rifle— period. It harkens back to the Old West and the original .44 Henry, yet it features modern improvements that really are improvements. It can be used to defend hearth and home with its 10-round capacity and the big .44 caliber slugs it throws downrange. If I lived in an area of deep woods where large, unpredictable animals capable of eating or stomping me roam, this rifle, not a puny 5.56mm AR, is the gun I would keep at hand. It would also be capable of dealing with the two-legged predators as well. If fact, the shiny brass frame and large bore would surely get the attention of the two-legged variety in short order. With a bit of practice, one can rapidly sling serious lead downrange—and maintain a big smile the entire time while your imagination and your Henry take you back to the cowboy days of old. For more information, visit henryrifles.com or call 201-858-4400. ✪ S PRI NG 2 0 1 5
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GUN
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At the start of the Civil War, the Colt’s Patent FireArms Manufacturing Company was the largest and most successful arms-marker in the country
with an entire range of revolvers (and revolving rifles) from small-caliber pocket pistols to .44 caliber Dragoons, the highly regarded .36 caliber 1851 Navy and the new .44 caliber 1860 Army. Although Colt may have perfected and patented the design for the mechanically operated revolving-cylinder pistol, he was not alone in the American firearms business. Instead, he was the catalyst for an emerging industry that flourished throughout the Civil War. After the Colt patent expired in 1857, E. Remington & Sons in Ilion, New York, introduced the 1858 Remington-Beals Navy and Army model revolvers chambered in .36 and .44 calibers, respectively. Unlike the open-top Colt design, Remingtons featured a solid 30 G U N S O F T HE O L D W E S T
★★
LEE
★★
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� S C I S S A L C tates S e h t n e e w t of the War Be
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ADLER BY DENNIS
Here are eig Civil War ht of 12 reproducti on g sent the m uns chosen to rep reost signif icant mod used by U els nion and Co forces. C ounterclo nfederate ck top left: a n engrave wise from d .3 Uberti Co lt 1851 N 6 caliber avy, a .44 caliber P ie Model Ar tta Remington New my, a Henry D a Colt 1860 Army , elu 40, a Chia xe engraved .44ppa Spen c and Piett a’s Dance er .56-60 , LeMat a Griswold nd .44 calibe r revolver s.
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C I V I L WA R CL A S S ICS
Regarded as one of the finest rifles of the Civil War, and well into the 1870s, the Spencer rifle was a sturdily built, seven-shot repeater that provided exemplary accuracy in battle as well as for hunting. This 30-inch-barreled Chiappa in .56-50 is a superbly crafted reproduction.
topstrap and a threaded barrel, providing greater strength and ease of operation compared to Colt’s wedge-pinned barrel. One could change a Remington cylinder in seconds without having to remove the barrel. This was a distinct advantage in combat.
Popular Colts Colt has often been accused of “staying too long at the fair,” building open-top revolvers for decades when it had long been established that a revolver with a solid frame and threaded barrel was a stronger design. Remington knew this when it introduced its first revolvers. Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson knew it as well when they unveiled their first small-caliber cartridge revolver in 1857. Why then did Colt continue to manufacture open-top revolvers until 1873? There are Made in the U.S. by Henry Repeating Arms, this Deluxe engraved model is not only the most authentic reproduction of the famed Civil War lever action, but the first U.S.-built Henry in over 150 years. (Holster by Bianchi's Frontier Gunleather)
32 G U N S O F T H E O L D W E S T
two answers. First, they didn’t, and secondly, sales of established models, such as the 1849 Pocket Revolver, Third Model Dragoon and 1851 Navy, were so lucrative by the 1860s that only a fool would dare tamper with their success. And Samuel Colt was nobody’s fool. He was one of the most gifted designers and marketing entrepreneurs of his time. And he had the government contracts to prove it. The Civil War changed it all. Ordnance Department demands quickly pushed Colt to its production limits on the 1851 Navy and 1860 Army as well as fulfilling military orders for Third
Model Dragoons—all while trying to maintain its lucrative civilian market. Of course, many of Colt’s clientele were soldiers or their families purchasing the maker’s popular .36 caliber pocket pistols, to which Samuel Colt had added the Police Model in 1862 and the soon-to-be-introduced Pocket Navy Model. This was to be the last revolver designed by Samuel Colt, who passed away on January 10, 1862, leaving control of the company to his family and chief of operations, Elisha King Root, who became president of Colt for the duration of the war. With Colt’s production divided between pistols and long arms, the latter for the military, it was only a matter of time until the dam would burst, but rather than a flood of manufacturing problems, Colt suffered quite the opposite fate: A fire on February 4, 1864, destroyed the original structures erected by Samuel Colt in 1855. Tragically for Colt and the government, among the buildings lost was the factory where revolvers were manufactured and completed for delivery. Colt’s newer factories, located behind the original structure in the form of a capital “H” and dedicated to manufacturing U.S. Model 1861 rifled muskets, were unharmed. The shortfall in handguns, however, would shift the balance in favor of Remington and a handful of smaller U.S. arms-markers.
Remington’s Role In 1861, the Ordnance Department purchased 3, 950 Remington-Beals Navy revolvers. Between August and March of the following year, 7,250 Navy models were ordered and in June the Ordnance Department
contracted directly with Remington to supply another 5,000 Navy models and 15,000 Army revolvers. As the Civil War continued into 1863, Remington was asked for “all the Army .44 revolvers you can deliver within the present year,” resulting in 18,902 guns being produced. This was followed by an order for 64,900 Army models in November. Within a year Remington had delivered 57,003 guns from that order, an average of 4,750 guns a month! With Colt’s handgun production severely hampered by the February fire (only 3,000 1860 Army and 5,000 1851 Navy revolvers were produced in 1864), the Ordnance Department turned to Remington for another 20,000 Army models to be received between January and March 1865. Needless to say, the Ilion, New York, manufacturing facilities were bustling until the end of the war. The net result was that Remington was second only to Colt
in arming the U.S. military. Final production totals showed 12,251 Navy and 115,557 Army revolvers of all model variations produced for the U.S. between 1861 and 1865.
Starr Power A distant third behind Colt and Remington, but no less in demand during the war, was the Starr, a uniquely styled handgun patented in 1860 by New York arms-marker Ebenezer T. Starr. His original .36 caliber revolvers featured a double-action trigger and a distinctive top-break design for changing cylinders. The Ordnance Department initially purchased 1,810 guns for trial. They performed well enough to generate a demand from the War Department in 1862 to produce a .44 caliber version for use by the Army. Sadly, Starr’s innovative revolvers were misunderstood by a great majority of enlisted men
who found the double-action design difficult, if not downright confusing, to operate since the trigger was actually not the trigger but a “lifter” used to rotate the cylinder and cock the hammer. The hammer was released by depressing a small curved lever on the frame that was struck by the back of the lifter when pulled fully to the rear. The gun was intended to be fired as rapidly as possible by continually pulling the lifter, but it could also be fired by using the lifter to only cock the gun, then letting off, taking precise aim and pulling the lifter the rest of the way. One could also let the trigger finger slip behind the lifter and touch off the hammer release, which actually required less effort. This is what really confused most soldiers who had trained with single-action Colts and Remingtons, and worse, trying to thumbcock the Starr could easily cause it to jam. One officer in the 12th Kentucky stated, “The
CHIAPPA’S SPENCER .56-50 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
In June of 1863, a 23-year-old Union captain named George Armstrong Custer was given a field promotion to brigadier general and placed in command of the Michigan Brigade consisting of the 1st, 5th, 6th and 7th Michigan Cavalry regiments. Custer’s Michigan boys were armed with the full complement of weapons, including the Spencer repeating rifle. Unlike many cavalry regiments that would later carry the Spencer carbine into battle, Custer’s men were armed with the longer, 30-inch-barreled, three-band, full-stocked rifles. The carbines would not be in general use until October, and Custer’s success at Gettysburg on July 3 during mounted and dismounted engagements with Confederate forces east of Gettysburg was due in part to the accuracy and rate of fire from the Spencers. Custer’s cavalry were the only mounted troops to use Spencers at Gettysburg. Many historians believe Custer’s actions at Gettysburg, including an unprecedented cavalry charge against Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart’s position, thereby stalling Stuart’s crucial offensive during Pickett’s Charge, contributed to the Confederate’s defeat in the battle. To test the Chiappa’s finely crafted reproduction of the Spencer three-band rifle, I asked my friend, noted North-South Skirmish Association (N-SSA) competitor and Civil War gun collector Dr. John Wells to handload .56-50 centerfire cartridges specially fitted to the Chiappa Spencer. Test rounds used 35-grain bulk Goex black powder, a 350-grain Lyman cast bullet (bullet mold 51539) and Federal No. 215 magnum large rifle primers. For the Chiappa Spencer, bullets were set 0.02 inches deeper in the case than normal to improve feeding. The rifle was sighted in at 25 yards, with groups fired off-hand at 25, 50 and 100 yards. The best five-round groups measured 4.5 inches at 50 yards. The Chiappa functioned smoothly throughout the entire test, and like the original, the rifle’s action lever must be worked smartly to prevent hang-ups when ejecting and chambering rounds. Overall, this is as close to an original 1865 Spencer rifle as you can get, and the Chiappa, priced at $1,790, is well worth the investment for this historic Civil War repeater. For more information, visit taylorsfirearms.com or call 540-722-2017. —By Dennis Adler
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In 1855 the U.S. military adopted the Colt Model 1851 as the standard-issue sidearm. The guns were used by both Union and Confederate soldiers during the war. Many examples were engraved, and the styles have been copied by modern day makers like Pietta and Uberti. The blued gun by Pietta is all hand engraved. The original 1851 Navy shown with a Civil War-era holster (reproduction holster by Frontier Gunleather).
man who sold these pistols to the government and the contractor who bought them ought to be hanged as traitors.” Like I said, misunderstood, so much so that Starr was asked to make the gun into a single action, leading to the next model introduced in 1863. The more traditional SA version also came with a longer 8-inch barrel (the DA models had 6-inch barrels). This third variation became the most prolific Starr model, with production reaching 25,000 by the end of 1864. The greater advantage of the Starr was its top-break design. The topstrap was mortised to fit over the standing breech, thus giving the guns incredible strength and ease of reloading with another cylinder by simply unscrewing a large knurled crossbolt that passed through the frame between the recoil shield and hammer, then breaking open the action and replacing the cylinder. The Starr did not use a conventional cylinder arbor; instead, a long ratchet shaft on the back of the cylinder seated directly into the breech. At the front of the cylinder, a conical bolt locked into a corresponding recess in the frame when the action was closed. This took only a matter of seconds unless one was unfortunate enough to drop and lose the threaded crossbolt! The gun could also be loaded conventionally using the traditional under-barrel rammer. Although it built quality handguns and rifles (Starr also produced an equally innovative breech-loading .54 caliber carbine), when the war ended the company was unable to compete with larger manufacturers like 34 G U N S O F T H E O L D W E S T
Winchester, Sharps, Colt and Remington. After giving it a good go for two more years, Ebenezer Starr finally closed the doors to his Yonkers, New York, factory in 1867.
Rifles & Muskets When it comes to long arms, outside of the single-shot Sharps, a favorite of Confederate and Union snipers, the Henry and Spencer repeating rifles are unparalleled for their firepower. Designed by Christopher M. Spencer and first patented in 1860, the seven-shot Spencer rifles and carbines were carried by thousands of Union troops and cavalrymen. Spencer started working on the design in 1857. A year later he fashioned a prototype and in 1859 presented a working sample for his patent application for the “C.M. Spencer Self-Loading Fire Arm.” Built to withstand heavy use, the heart of the Spencer was a rotating block that could feed a cartridge into the breech each time the action lever was operated. Rounds were stored in a spring-loaded magazine tube that fit inside the buttstock. Each time the action lever was lowered, a chambered shell was extracted and a new round carried into the breech by closing the lever. All that remained was to fully cock the hammer, take aim and pull the trigger. While not as fast as Benjamin Tyler Henry and Oliver Winchester’s lever-action design, which automatically cocked the hammer on the backstroke of the bolt, the Spencer was less prone to damage in the field with its cache of seven cartridges safely carried inside the rifle’s stock,
rather than exposed to the elements in an open magazine tube like the Henry. Granted, the Henry packed more than twice as many cartridges, but the .56-50 Spencers were nearly as powerful as a .58 caliber musket ball. Spencer rifles were made to fill orders for both the Navy and Army and were produced with 30-inch barrels (three-band rifles with full stocks) and 22-inch barrels (carbines with saddle rings). In 1863 Custer’s 2nd Michigan Cavalry regiment carried the Spencer rifles rather than carbines into battle at Gettysburg. The Henry rifle was one of the most admired and feared weapons in the hands of U.S. troops, and one of the most coveted prizes for any Confederate soldier (assuming he found cartridges as well). The U.S. War Department never purchased Henry rifles for federal troops in significant numbers; instead, individual soldiers and units purchased them at their own expense. It was the soldiers in the field who recognized the value of the 16-shot repeater in a firefight. A trained marksman armed with a well-cared-for and smoothly operating Henry could inflict more damage to an enemy skirmish line in less than a minute than any man armed with a rifled musket.
Southern Guns “Southern guns” in this article refer specifically to arms manufactured in the South after the start of the war and, like all of the makes and models thus far mentioned, are reproduced today. Among the most famous Confederate revolvers is the Griswold & Gunnison. The company was established in 1862 and immediately contracted with the new Southern government in Richmond, Virginia, to take its entire production. Using various Colt models as a basis, the general shape of the Griswold was similar to an 1851 Navy but with an octagonal-to-round barrel and a frame made of brass rather than steel. Griswold & Gunnison produced around 3,500 guns during the war. When you compare that to the number of guns produced by Remington in the same period, the Griswold pales in comparison, but for the South it was a significant contribution to the war effort. One of the more distinctive-looking Southern revolvers was the Spiller & Burr. These guns were originally manufactured by Edward Spiller, nephew of James Henry Burton, lieutenant colonel of the Army, and David Burr, a respected Richmond, Virginia, industrial engineer. Together they formed Spiller & Burr in 1862, receiving a contract to produce 15,000 S PRI NG 2 0 1 5
revolvers in two and a half years. The company had manufacturing problems from the start, and very little was actually accomplished in 1862. By the following year the course of the war had changed—the Confederacy had suffered great setbacks at Gettysburg and Vicksburg— and the need for more arms prompted the Confederate government to purchase Spiller & Burr in January of 1864 and move production from Atlanta to Macon, Georgia. Guns produced in both Atlanta and Macon were also known as the “Whitney” model because of their similarity to the 2nd Model revolvers made by Eli Whitney, Jr., at the Whitneyville armory in Connecticut. The estimated number of Spiller & Burr revolvers made is 1,450, with production divided between Atlanta from 1863 to 1864, and the arsenal in Macon through 1865. Among the smaller but more memorable makes copied from Colt designs was the Leech & Rigdon, which added another 1,500 revolvers to the Confederate effort between 1863 and 1864. Afterward, another 1,000 models were produced by Rigdon, Ansley & Co. in Augusta, Georgia, before General William T. Sherman and the Union Army’s historic March to the Sea in November and December of 1864, which left everything from Atlanta to the Savannah coastline under federal control. The most famous of all Southern handguns was the LeMat. Bold in its design and more so in its appearance, being a nine-shot, .42 caliber revolver with a lower “shotgun” barrel cylinder arbor, this massive one-man arsenal was the work of Dr. Jean Alexandre Francois LeMat, and his cousin by marriage, U.S. Army Major Pierre-Gustave Toutant Beauregard, the very same Beauregard who would lead the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter in 1861.
Both sides used Remington Navy and Army models, and engraved examples were not uncommon. The Pietta (blued) and Uberti (nickel) New Model Army revolvers are both hand engraved. Remington presented the original New Model shown to General George Armstrong Custer. SPRING 2015
When it came to manufacturing arms for the Union during the Civil War, coming in third was not bad, at least for Ebenezer Starr, whose innovative break-top revolvers were carried by thousands of Union troops from 1861 to 1865. Pietta reproduces the examples shown with antique finishes.
The first examples of the LeMat were manufactured in Philadelphia by gun-maker John H. Krider. Though designed and prototyped in America, and initially presented to the U.S. military for evaluation by then Major Beauregard, events would lead to the LeMat being manufactured in Europe for the Confederacy. Production of the LeMat revolvers began in Liège, Belgium, then the biggest arms-making center in the world. LeMats were also made in Paris in 1864, while others were shipped in the white and completed in London. The Paris LeMats consisted principally of those models regarded as the Navy variation with round triggerguards. Never produced in large quantities, there were two principal LeMat models: the Cavalry or C.S. Army
version manufactured in Belgium with a spur triggerguard, lever-type barrel release, crosspin barrel selector (primary nine-shot cylinder or lower shotgun barrel) and swiveling lanyard ring; and the Navy variation with a knurled pin barrel release, spur barrel selector and round triggerguard. Both versions are perfectly reproduced today by Pietta.
Rebel Long Arms While the South was unable to manufacture the U.S. Model 1861 rifled musket or its later 1863 or 1864 iterations, captured arms added considerably to the South’s inventory. In Firearms of the Confederacy, Fuller and Steuart wrote, “It has been estimated on good authority that the Battle of the Wilderness netted 35,000 small arms, Second Manassas 20,000, Harper’s Ferry 11,000, Fredericksburg 9,000, Antietam and Shiloh 15,000 and the Tennessee campaign of late 1862 netted them around 27,500 small arms, totaling around 117,000 arms. Chancellorsville and Chickamauga added another 35,000 to this so that by the middle of 1863 there were quite likely more arms of this model [1861 rifled muskets] in Confederate service than any other kind.” Even with that, however, there remained an imbalance in the number of arms available to the South. While many small manufacturers answered the call to make revolvers, the manufacturing of long arms was a far greater task. At the forefront was the C.S. Richmond Armory in Richmond, Virginia. The armory was charged with building new .58 caliber percussion muzzleloaders of the U.S. Model 1855 configuration and the later Model 1861 variation, as well as reconditioning and rebuilding older muskets. Richmond was also home to C.S. Robinson Arms Manufacturing, which produced a very accurate copy of the Sharps Model 1859 carbine. Chambered in .52 caliber, the 21-inch-barreled breechloaders were manufactured through 1865. These two, along with a number of accurately copied Confederate-style and Southern-marked rifles and muskets are reproduced today by Chiappa and Pedersoli. While this only scratches the surface of guns used in the Civil War, the vast number of contemporary reproductions has made many rare and very collectible models available to the general public, guns that otherwise would only be seen in museums or in private collections. ✪ GUNS OF THE OLD W ES T
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GUN
s n ’ o r r a im TEST
C
h t i W n a M
9 9 p 9 e e k o t 9 s n r u t 9 e r n o i s 9 r e v n o 9 c t l o C 9 8 3 . ndie’s Blo
N
ot many revolvers can claim the fame that the Cimarron Man With
BY ROBERT A. SADOWSKI
that fixes the barrel to the frame, as on all Colt percussion revolvers, while a few
No Name conversion can. The Man With No Name is
features common to cartridge-firing revolvers were added,
a replica of a Colt conversion revolver that propelled
including a loading gate in the recoil shield, a firing pin fixed in
Clint Eastwood to fame and made The Good, The Bad
the hammer, cylinder chambers bored out to accept metallic car-
and The Ugly an iconic spaghetti Western. Just like the film in
tridges and an ejector rod. Basically, Colt’s conversion revolvers
which it appeared, the Cimarron Man With No Name bends the
looked like percussion revolvers with some parts bolted on and
facts a bit. But who really cares, since it’s just like Clint’s gun.
others left off. Oddly, the Cimarron Man With No Name lacks
The fact is, in the early 1870s, Colt could not produce a
an ejector rod and instead has a loading lever. Original Colts
metallic-cartridge revolver because Smith & Wesson held the
came from the factory without the loading lever since there was
patent for metallic-cartridge revolvers. Metallic cartridges at that
no need for it. The conversion allowed for the use of metallic
time were the latest technology in weapon design. In 1871, Colt
cartridges, and the loading lever was used to load loose black
employee Charles Richards was awarded a patent for converting
powder and lead balls into a percussion revolver’s chambers.
Colt open-top percussion models to fire metallic cartridges. A
This is where that truth starts bending.
year later, another Colt employee, William Mason, improved the
Italian director Sergio Leone’s vision of the Old West in The
Richards design, and from then on Colt began producing open-
Good, The Bad and The Ugly takes place during the Civil War.
top revolvers to fire metallic cartridges using the Richards-Mason
Leone used a cast of American actors—Clint Eastwood, Eli
conversion. When the patent expired for Smith & Wesson, Colt
Wallach and Lee Van Cleef—and Italian and Spanish extras on
introduced the Model 1873 Single Action Army. But Colt conver-
a movie set that was located in the south of Spain, not far from
sion revolvers were very popular with cowboys and settlers, since
the Mediterranean Ocean. In the film Eastwood wields a Colt
they cost about a third that of the newer Colt Model 1873.
Model 1851 Navy Richards-Mason conversion about 10 years before Colt conversion models were actually available. Of course,
Gun Details
the Civil War lasted from 1861 to 1865; the Richards-Mason con-
Originals, like the Cimarron replica, are a hybrid of features
version was introduced in 1872. Call it poetic license or movie-
from percussion revolvers and cartridge revolvers. These open-
making magic, it’s up to you. The truth was then bent a little
top revolvers—no topstrap on the frame—utilize a wedge pin
further, as Clint’s revolver still has the loading lever installed.
36 G U N S O F T H E O L D W E S T
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e m a N No
0 9 ! y a b 9 t a Y L G 9 U E H 9 T d n a D 9 A B THE The Man W ith No Nam e Special is a functionin in .38 g , highquality rep lica Eastwood u of the gun Clint ses in The Good, the Bad an d the Ugly.
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CIMARRON’S MAN WITH NO NAME
Movie guns in the PERFORMANCE 1950s through the ‘70s required require what is call, “suspension of belief,” or “suspension of reality” meaning the prop man or armorer Load Velocity Accuracy performed a bit of movie Federal American Eagle 130 FMJ 827 2.62 magic an left the loading Winchester Cowboy 158 LFN 768 1.52 lever on the revolver so the the gun looked like Winchester WinClean 125 JSP 791 2.12 a cap-and-ball revolver Bullet weight measured in grains, velocity in fps by chronograph, yet could be loaded with and accuracy in inches for best five-shot groups at 15 yards. cartridges. The loading lever made Clint’s gun look like a cap-and-ball revolver circa the Civil War. Cimarron left that exudes the steely nerve and lethal coolthe loading lever in place, too, to faith- ness Eastwood portrayed in his character in fully reproduce the movie revolver. the film. You can almost hear the movie’s Cimarron actually took some liberties soundtrack playing in the background—wah of its own and chambered the Man With wah wah—when you pick up the Cimarron. The Man With No Name has a quality No Name conversion in .38 Colt and .38 Special. The .38 Special was designed in casehardened finish on the frame, hammer 1898. Original 1851 Navy conversion revolv- and rear section of the loading lever. The ers were chambered in .38 rimfire. In this barrel and cylinder are a dark blue and, case, bending the truth created a revolver as with original Navy 1851s, a naval battle
Cimarron Man With No Name Conversion .38 Special
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scene is engraved on the six-shot cylinder. Also like originals, the triggerguard and backstrap are made of brass with the latter housing a solid walnut grip. As mentioned, one of the other distinguishing features of the Man With No Name is the silver inlay of a rattlesnake coiled and ready to strike on the grip. Colt Navy 1851s are some of the most well-balanced revolvers ever made. The 7½-inch, octagonal barrel on the Cimarron gives the pistol some heft. It weighs about 3 pounds.
Range Time To see if Cimarron succeeded in merging fact and fiction, I would’ve liked to test the Man With No Name at high noon, under a blazing sun, while facing off against desperadoes. But, here in the real world, I tested
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Loading a conversion revolver is the same as loading a Single Action Army revolver— through a gate on the right side.
the pistol on an overcast day at the range at around 3:30 p.m. For gun leather, I paired the Man With No Name with a Classic Old West Styles (COWS) Ruff Rider 1973 holster rig. The belt, holster and bullet slide are made of top-grain brushed leather with a silver, squared buckle. The leather has a suede finish with the rough side out. The Man With No Name chambers both .38 Special and .38 Colt, and because there is no internal safety system, loading cartridges is similar to any SAA revolver. Fill one hole, skip the next hole, then fill the remaining chambers. I tested the revolver with three loads: 130-grain Federal American Eagle FMJs, Winchester Cowboy 158-grain LFN rounds and Winchester’s 125-grain WinClean JSPs.
SPECIFICATIONS
Cimarron Man With No Name Conversion
Caliber: .38 Colt/.38 Special Barrel: 7½ inches OA Length: 13¼ inches Weight: 48.8 ounces Grips: Walnut • Action: SA Sights: Fixed front, adjustable rear Finished: Blued, casehardened Capacity: 6-shot • MSRP: $817
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CIMARRON’S MAN WITH NO NAME
The COWS Ruff Rider rig complemented the No Name. The belt, holster and bullet slide have a suede finish with the rough side out.
The high-quality grips feature the silver inlay of a snake poised to strike, adding to the Man With No Name’s authenticity.
The balance of the Man With No Name conversion was splendid and, like the original Colt 1851 Navy, it’s a natural pointer. At 15 yards, it was easy to group clusters of holes using one hand, as required in the SASS Duelist category. With two hands I was as deadly as the gunfighters in the movie. Because of the revolver’s weight, recoil was nil, making follow-up shots as fast as I could thumb back the hammer. The skinny trigger broke at a crisp 3 pounds. Like most wellmade single-actions, it shot to the point of aim, so there was no need to estimate windage or elevation. The front sight on the Man With No Name consists of a conical brass bead that is aligned in the shallow rear sight mounted on the rear of the barrel, which can be adjusted for windage. It shot dead on. The Cimarron Man With No Name is beautifully manufactured and performed well. It would be a valuable part of any Western movie buff ’s collection. For more information, visit cimarron-firearms.com or call 830-997-9090. ✪ 40 G U N S O F T H E O L D W E S T
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EL
E D O M NEW GUN
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Kit Car son
B. CODY
S N A EV
TEXAS JACK With it s somew round, 30-inc h h was 47 at awkward-l barrel, the ooking ¼ inch es long Evans 9.5 pou a n capaci ds unloaded nd weighed ty w , bu perform as a boon fo t its 26+1 rW ers and cowhan ild West ds alik e.
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44
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y r a n o i t u Revol fle i r g n i t a e p e r s 0 8 18 ds n u o r t s o m e h t d l he ! s s a l c s t of i
BY TODD G. LOFGREN
LET’S TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF 19TH CENTURY REPEATING RIFLES CIRCA 1860 TO 1875: WHICH REPEATING RIFLE HAD THE HIGHEST MAGAZINE CAPACITY DURING THAT TIME PERIOD? Some of you might immediately think of the Spencer repeating rifle, whose buttstock-fed magazine was, indeed, high-capacity for its day but actually only held seven rounds in reserve. Others of you, I’m sure, thought of the Henry rifle, that “damned Yankee rifle they load on Sunday and shoot all week” that came with a full-length magazine integral with its 24-inch barrel that held seventeen .44 caliber rimfire rounds at the ready. A good choice—but no cigar. Another reasonable choice would be one of the long-barreled, custom-ordered Winchester Models of 1866 and 1873, whose magazine tubes most often ran to the end of these longtubed lever actions whose barrels occasionally reached some 34 inches in length. All good guesses and getting closer, but still wrong. The record for the rifle having the highest round count held in reserve—not only during this time period but up until the development of the high-capacity, detachable box magazine—goes to a little-known rifle produced from 1873 until 1879 called the Evans. In its first iteration released in 1873, this .44 caliber centerfire rifle, whether in its “Sporting Rifle” version, with barrels running from 26 to 30 inches in length, or in a carbine offering sporting a mere 22-inch barrel, could hold an extra 34 (some of the earliest examples were reputed to hold even more) rounds of ammunition in reserve in its unusually designed buttstock magazine. How could this be? Read on.
Evans Origins Developed by two brothers, Warren and George Evans, a dentist and a self-taught mechanic, in the early 1870s, the Evans rifle used a rather odd but very effective buttstock-fed magazine that operated via an Archimedean screw-type arrangement of sorts, a system that harkens back to the third century B.C. or perhaps even earlier. Originally developed in ancient times to move water for irrigation purposes or for draining land, the Archimedean screw consisted of a helical surface surrounding a central shaft, which was situated in a hollow tube or pipe. When turned, by hand or with
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Kit Carson, Jr., who used them during their performances and who provided testimonials as to their effectiveness. It’s been documented that a number of highly engraved and customized Evans rifles were provided to various foreign government officials in certain South and Latin American countries in attempts to garner sales. Unfortunately, the depressed economy in the U.S. of the late 1870s, coupled with the company’s misguided over-expansion during this same time period, led to its financial failure, and by the fall of 1879 the Evans Rifle
Each activation of the Evans’ lever ejected a fired case and introduced a new round into its chamber. Fully loaded, New Models could do that 26 times before running out of ammo.
windmill power, this internal shaft or screw the dusty conditions often scooped up water at its bottom end and encountered in the world moved it upward and out its top, feeding of the 1800s. A few guns the irrigation system or moving the water were sold to the Turkish from one location to another. The Evans’ government and used by magazine system operated in a similar man- Turkish troops during the ner; its cartridges were introduced through Russo-Turkish War of 1877, a trapdoor in its buttplate, where they were and this subsequently aroused some Russian Manufacturing Company was out of business captured in separate cells created by the interest when some of these rifles were cap- with an estimated 12,000 and 15,000 total screw system in four separate rows and tured by Russian troops. However, no sub- guns being produced during its short lifespan. advanced forward with each activation of stantial military purchases from Russia or the rifle’s lever. anywhere else abroad ever materialized. The Basic Models In its earliest commercially offered Evans rifle did experience some mild popuDuring the brief years of its producmodel, the Old Model, this magazine held larity when they turned to commercial mar- tion, the Evans rifle was made in two basic 34 rounds, while a later version, the New kets both here and in Canada, where guns models, plus a transitional gun that resulted Model, that fired a slightly longer, more were marketed in the U.S. by Merwin and when changes were instituted, morphing powerful cartridge, held 26. Unlike the Hulbert in New York and up north by Ralph the Old or First Model into the Second or spring-powered tubular magazines of the H. Kilby of Montreal. New Model arm. day, where cartridges rode with bullet tips In order to try to promote their popularThe First Model rifle was produced from resting on the next round’s base, the Evans ity, Evans rifles were given to some of the 1873 to 1876. It fired a proprietary .44 calisystem kept individual rounds separate and better-known Wild West performers of the ber centerfire cartridge that became known apart from each other, precluding any pos- day, like “Texas Jack,” “Buffalo Bill” Cody and as the .44 Evans Short that had a case approximately 1 inch in sibility of an unintended discharge that could, and length and fired a 215SPECIFICATIONS occasionally did, occur grain, .419-inch, flatwith the tubular system. nosed bullet propelled by 28 grains of black Although designed powder. This produced and intended as a milia velocity in the 850-fps tary weapon, the Evans range. The Old Model brothers found little Caliber: .44 Evans Long • Barrel: 30 inches Evans could hold 34 of interest, either here or OA Length: 47½ inches • Weight: 9.5 pounds (empty) • Stock: Wood abroad, in their arm due these original cartridges to its rather weak action in reserve in its buttstock Sights: Front post, adjustable rear • Action: Lever • Finish: Blued • Capacity: 26+1 and its propensity to magazine. Besides its jam when subjected to chambering, this model
New Model Evans
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differed from the later New Model primarily in that the Old Model had no lower wooden buttstock—the magazine tube was exposed along the bottom of the butt. There were approximately 500 Old Model arms produced, of which some 300 were octagonal-barreled sporting rifles with tubes running from 26 to 30 inches; an estimated 50 were 30-inch, round-barreled muskets and around 150 were carbines with short 22-inch round barrels. In early 1876, Evans instituted improvements to the Old Model by adding a second, lower wooden attachment to the buttstock along with an improved buttplate that not only protected the magazine tube from damage but improved the balance and feel of the rifle as well. The caliber remained the same on this transitional arm, with some 1,750 examples produced. Most were long, octagon-barreled sporting rifles; however, a few military-configured muskets, several hundred carbines and a rare Canadian-marked model were also produced in this variation. The New Model Evans was the result of requests for a more powerful arm. Incorporating a more robust receiver and sliding dust cover, the resultant rifle cham-
At some point, the front sight on the author’s test New Model Evans was changed from the original style to this globe setup.
bered a new, proprietary Evans-designed round that had a case length of 1.5 inches that could now hold some 40 to 43 grains of black powder and propel a heavier 275to 300-grain bullet to almost 1,200 fps—a marked increase in power and performance over the older Evans cartridge. This longer round reduced the magazine capacity of the New Model Evans rifle to 26 shots in reserve. Between 1877, when the New Model was introduced, and 1879, when the company went bankrupt, about 10,000 rifles, muskets and carbines were produced. Of these, 3,000 were estimated to be long, octagonalbarreled sporting rifles, 3,000 were military muskets and 4,000 were carbines. Many of the round-barreled, military-configured muskets were later converted to sporting rifles. After the company’s sale through bankruptcy, an unknown quantity of Evans rifles were assembled from parts and sold on the open market, and those encountered are usually found with 30-inch, round musket barrels to which a short forend had been attached. It’s interesting to note that Old Model Evans guns were serialized while, for whatever reason, New Model guns were not.
Gun Details
The rear sight assembly offered several options for long-range sighting, including a four-position V-notch and tangent system. SPRING 2015
I was fortunate to be loaned an Evans rifle that looks to be one of the guns converted to sporting rifle configuration or assembled after the company’s demise. It is a New Model arm chambered for the .44 Evans Long and has the 30-inch, round barrel that would have been originally slated for use on a rifle-musket. Its bore is in remarkable condition for an arm of its age, showing strong rifling and absolutely no pitting whatsoever. It has a short 10½-inch checkered forend that ends up in a Schnabel tip that is held in
place by a single screw. Although probably configured at a later date, the walnut in the forearm matches the wood comprising the upper and lower portions of its buttstock quite well. A single sling swivel is present on the bottom front portion of the frame, giving further credence that this gun started out as a rifle-musket. No second or forward swivel is present, because front swivels were originally attached to one of the two barrel bands found on a military-configured arm. The barrel is marked on its top just in front of its rear sight assembly, “Evans Repeating Rifle – Mechanic Falls, ME – Pat. Dec. 8, 1868 & Sep. 16, 1871 – U.S.A.” Other than a couple of single-letter stampings, no other markings appear on this gun. The rear sight on this particular Evans appears to be the same assembly that was used on the New Model Military Musket. It has a four-position, V-notched blade that flips up to become a vertically adjustable tangent system having both a V-notch and peephole in its slide. The front sight on this particular gun appears to be one that was added later and is of the globe type utilizing a single, very fine post. Still retaining much of its original finish, both on its metal and wood, leads one to believe that this was either one very wellcared for firearm or it saw very little use by its former owners.
The Cartridge Although called a .44, the bullet utilized in this cartridge actually measured only .418 inches in diameter. I know this because, along with the gun, I was provided with not only an original factory round but a second factory round that had been disassembled for examination and measuring. The original, solid-based RNFP lead bullet measured .418 inches, weighed 277 grains and had been seated over 42 grains of black powder, which looked to be FFG in granular size when compared to some modern Goex black powder I had on hand. I found the bullet diameter of the factory Evans cartridge to be interesting, as a slug driven through the bore of my test arm measured .4305 inches across its widest two points, making this factory bullet quite undersized for its solid-based design. The measurement of this single factory bullet did closely agree, though, with data for this round published in the 11th Edition of Cartridges of the World, which listed the bullet for the .44 GUNS OF THE OLD W ES T
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Evans Long as being .419 inches in diameter. I can only assume that an undersized bullet was used by Evans for this cartridge to allow for and accommodate the blackpowder fouling that accumulated when rapidly firing up to 26 of these rounds in a row. If you’ve got an Evans and want to shoot it, Buffalo Arms Company offers reloading dies and reformed brass for both the New and Old Model guns. Its brass for the Evans Short is made by reforming .44 Special cases, while Cartridges were loaded through a trapdoor in the buttplate (left). On the New Model, the magazine was surrounded by both upper and lower wooden buttstock attachments (above).
the Long round is made from reconfigured .445 Super Mag brass. If you’ve never heard of the .445 Super Mag, it’s a wildcat cartridge designed by Elgin Gates back in the heyday of handgun metallic silhouette shooting by lengthening the .44 Magnum case by some 0.38 inches to accommodate more powder and heavier bullets. As far as I know, only Starline Brass has and still makes this case. Loading up some test rounds for my loaner Evans was greatly simplified by the
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fact that this gun had been modified by its owner and a savvy old gunsmith many years ago to accept unmodified .445 brass loaded with correct bore-sized bullets of .430 diameter. This was accomplished by opening up the Evans’ chamber slightly with a .445 reamer to provide enough space to accept this assemblage of components. This allows the use of any appropriately sized and lubed RN or RNFP .44 Mag bullet in the 240- to 300-grain weight range, and
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the rounds can be assembled on appropriately adjusted .44 Mag reloading dies. Since my benefactor also loaned me brass, bullets and dies with the Evans, it took little effort to fabricate enough test rounds to see how this 135-plus-year-old repeater could perform. My load consisted of a 235grain, commercially cast, .430-sized, leadcast RN bullet lubed with SPG blackpowder lubricant loaded over 40 grains of Goex FFG powder and sparked by a large pistol primer. I loaded my test rounds to the same overall length as the factory cartridge in the hope that they would function smoothly through the Evans’ mechanism.
Range Time With my targets set out at 50 yards and my chronograph positioned 10 feet in front of the Evans’ muzzle, I loaded three of my test cartridges into its magazine. Twentythree actuations of the lever later, the first of these cartridges tried to make its way into the Evans’ chamber. After a slight stutter, the round chambered. Those first three rounds fired from a clean bore found the upper left edge of my bullseye target and formed a group that measured 1.4 inches center to center. The velocity of those three rounds averaged 1,292 fps. A second group at this same yardage, fired after drifting the Evans’ front sight to correct for windage and using a little Kentucky windage to correct for elevation, formed closer to the center of the target, with all rounds hitting within 2.17 inches of each other. A single threeshot group fired at 100 yards measured a respectable 4 inches, which is not bad for a 135-year-old oddball relic of the Old West. Although short-lived, the Evans repeating rifle was a truly unique firearm whose use of the Archimedean screw in its magazine’s design allowed it to claim the highest round count in reserve of any repeating firearm of its day. Unorthodox in appearance, ungainly in its handling qualities and somewhat delicate of design, it was nonetheless another milestone in the firearms development that was rapidly occurring during the latter half of the 19th century. Although we give little thought to round count today, what with our ultra-high-capacity, quick-detachable magazines, having a firearm capable of firing multiple shots without reloading in the mid1800s was revolutionary, as survival often depended on “he who had to reload the least probably survived the longest.” ✪ SPRING 2015
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�
PROFILE
Who was the better WILD WEST SHARPSHOOTER at the turn of the century?
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For centuries, women have been an integral part of the firearms community. But in recent years, the female shooting population has grown exponentially, due in part to several pioneers who cultivated this genderdiverse market. These women were vastly different—never intentionally conforming
The history of firearms is not solely a man’s story.
to preconceived stereotypes. Instead, each retained her own unique disposition. Historically, however, these various personalities have fueled intense competition. In the late 19th century, sharpshooters Annie Oakley and Lillian Smith embodied these tensions as their contradictory temperaments were forced to collaborate in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. Oakley and Smith were both talented shooters, but their personas ultimately influenced their legacies. Oakley’s softer image complemented
Annie Oakley (1860-1926) was born Phoebe Ann Mosey in Darke County, Ohio, and was one of seven children. In 1865, her family was struck with tragedy, when their father died unexpectedly from pneumonia. As a means of providing for her family, Oakley learned to hunt and
Little Sure Shot
her abilities, launching the markswoman into stardom, while Smith’s brasher image worked against her, precipitating her downfall.
BY ASHLEY HLEBINSKY
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trap by age eight, selling game to local businesses. Due to her family’s unfortunate circumstances, Oakley was unable to attend school regularly, so in 1870, she and her sister were sent to the Darke County Infirmary to learn a trade. By age nine, Oakley was contracted to work for a couple who promised to educate and pay her $0.50 a week. In reality, the couple often refused her compensation and severely abused the young Oakley. Thankfully, she was reunited with her own family two years later.
�LILLIAN SMITH�
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A N N I E O A KL E Y VS . L IL L IA N S M IT H
This Winchester Model 1892 lever action rifle, with its extensively engraved receiver, was presented to Annie Oakley as a gift. Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming; Gift of Dorothy Stone Collins in memory of her father Fred Stone, actor and friend of Annie Oakley and Frank Butler.
By the age of 15, Oakley had become a local celebrity. She quickly found that her skills as a markswoman could not be limited to simply hunting for subsistence; in fact, her shooting abilities helped pay off her family’s mortgage. And on Thanksgiving 1875, her skills would further launch her into the limelight. Acclaimed marksman Frank Butler had been traveling throughout the country challenging local shooters to compete. When he
entered Ohio that Thanksgiving, he did not expect anyone to beat him, let alone the fivefoot-tall, teenage Oakley. Her victory, however, did not disgruntle the famous shooter; it intrigued him. After their encounter, Butler courted Oakley, marrying her a year later. Butler typically performed with another male shooter, but in 1882 his partner’s illness caused him to perform solo. During that
exhibition, Butler was not shooting well and a spectator proclaimed, “Let the girl shoot.” Annie Oakley did, and she astounded the audience. After this performance, Phoebe Ann Mosey transformed herself into “Annie Oakley,” the name by which she is forever remembered. With her new stage name, the couple performed together until she joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show in 1885. Throughout her time with Buffalo Bill Cody, Oakley amazed vast crowds and even royalty, such as Queen Victoria of England and King Umberto I of Italy. These and other
These ads depict Lillian Smith and her shooting prowess in various environments. Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming; Gift of Mr. and Mrs. George Strobel.
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performances earned her the nickname “Watanya Cicillia,” or “Little Sure Shot.” In addition to her shooting ability, Oakley was known as an advocate around the world. She promoted the use of female soldiers and loaned several of her firearms for traveling exhibits that aided in the sale of war bonds. Throughout her entire life, Oakley was known for being an amazing shot, a charitable woman and a devoted wife. In fact, she and Butler remained married their entire lives, with Butler passing away shortly after Oakley.
utes of fame were confined to a few short years. The decline of her success began in 1887. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show was touring in England, and she shot poorly at a show in Wimbledon. When she returned to the United States, the press, who initially praised her capabilities, had turned on her. Her disappointment in England eclipsed her nearly flawless shooting record. She was even accused of being a trick shot, one who had cheated during her previous performances. In the wake of scandal, Smith left the show in 1889. She attempted to reinvent herself and changed her stage name to “Princess Wenona, The Indian Girl Shot.” She performed in several Wild West shows, including those put on by the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch and Pawnee Bill. Smith would continue to be a record-setting sharpshooter for 13 years. However, she would never again receive the acclaim she once had. Her shooting ability was marred by her public persona. Her first marriage to
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West headliner Jim “Kid” Willoughby ended in divorce amid rumors of extramarital affairs. Smith then remarried several times, gaining a reputation as a shameless flirt. These perceived flaws influenced her credibility in the public eye, and no number of shooting records could revive her career. She retired in 1920 and passed away 10 years later in Oklahoma.
The Rivalry
Little Sure Shot and the California Huntress were polar opposites. Oakley was perceived as demure, feminine and reserved, while Smith was seen as flirtatious, brash California Huntress and boastful. Despite their differences, they Lillian Smith (1871-1930) was born in both were initially well-liked by the public. Coleville, California, and certainly was not In the beginning, their rivalry created coloryour “stereotypical” girl. Unlike Oakley, she did not grow up in familial hardship, but ful fodder for the press. But as it worsened, she did begin shooting around the same the media was forced to choose a side. Some age. At seven years old, she asked her father argue that they were equally accomplished for a rifle. By 10, she was performing as shooters, but nonetheless this feud left room a competitive and exhibition shooter in for only one to emerge unscathed. San Francisco. At the age of 15, she joined Initially, their rivalry was relatively superBuffalo Bill’s Wild West ficial. Smith was 11 years show, where she became Oakley’s junior, and many known as “The Champion believed that her youth California Huntress.” threatened the elder shootLike Oakley, Smith was er. Perpetuating this theory, thrust into the spotlight at Oakley began claiming she When a man hits a target, they a young age. She initially was six years younger than received commendation for her actual age. Additionally, call him a MARKSMAN. When I her shooting ability and, Smith was often heard despite her public rivalry bragging that Oakley’s time hit a target, they call it a TRICK. with Oakley, was often porin the spotlight was over. Whether age, attitude or a trayed fondly by the press. combination contributed to Unfortunately, her 15 min-
“
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A N N I E O A KL E Y VS . L IL L IA N S M IT H
Here you can see an Annie Oakley disc, a token from one of her shooting performances, as well as her Smith & Wesson top-break revolver and gloves. Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming; Gift of Elsa L. Schaffner, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William Self, Gift of Dorothy Stone Collins in memory of her father Fred Stone, actor and friend of Annie Oakley.
the budding rivalry, the disdain for each other was evident. Furthermore, Oakley found that the press held her at a double standard. She was criticized for her actions more harshly, while Smith, who was prone to immaturity, went without reprimand. For example, on the tour of England, Oakley was vilified for shaking the hand of Prince Edward’s first wife. Smith also shook her hand, but received no negative press on the matter. Tensions continued to build between them, but William F. Cody did nothing to assuage the feud. He essentially made issues worse by publicly praising Smith while downplaying Oakley’s achievements. His refusal to intervene and Smith’s persistent antagonism forced Oakley to leave in 1887. In the long run, the rivalry served as a catalyst for Smith’s journey into anonymity. Her antics affected her life and the legacy she left behind. On the other hand, Oakley, who rejoined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, set a course for historical longevity. Many of her rifles, shotguns and handguns are on display 52 G U N S O F T H E O L D W E S T
at museums around the country—perpetuating public memory—while a significantly smaller number of Smith’s artifacts remain.
Cautionary Tale
This saddle belonged to Annie Oakley. Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming; Gift of Dorothy Stone Collins in memory of her father Fred Stone, actor and friend of Annie Oakley and Frank Butler.
Annie Oakley once said, “When a man hits a target, they call him a marksman. When I hit a target, they call it a trick.” Throughout history, women periodically have been at a disadvantage in this maledominated industry. Even Annie Oakley, the darling of the shooting world, encountered adversity. Still, a question remains: If Lillian Smith adhered to the moral standards of the time, would she have had the same success that Oakley enjoyed? There may not be an answer, but it allows for larger discussions regarding the precarious balance between public image and actual ability. Smith’s demise stands as a cautionary tale for all shooters. It serves as a warning about the ways in which petty rivalries have historically overshadowed ability and that history, when has a habit of repeating itself. Find out more by visiting centerofthewest.org ✪ S PRI NG 2 0 1 5
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TEST
lry er Cava ong k a B t r The sho a favorite am was men, shotgun erate cavalry han Confed General Nat . e) ng includi Forrest (abov d r Bedfo
EMF� BAKER CAVALRY � � GA 20 -—— CONFEDERATE DOUBLE-BARREL SCATTERGUN returns as a high-quality replica!
B Y “ L A V I S TA” B I L L B E L L
DURING THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES, as Lester Horwitz wrote in The Longest Raid of the Civil War, “standardization as far as what Confederate troops wore was practically nonexistent…even more serious was the shortage and lack of uniformity of weapons. Colonel Morgan’s cavalry preferred the medium Enfield and the Sharps and Spencer rifles, but most of his men made do with a miscellany of shotguns, sporting rifles and relics of the Mexican War.” A man who later became a brilliant Confederate general, Nathan Bedford Forrest, was quoted as saying, “the most efficient cavalry officer in this department, informs me that the doublebarrel shotgun is the best gun with which the cavalry can be armed.” By the midpoint of the war, most cavalry units in the North and especially the South had pretty much abandoned the saber and other such obsolete weaponry. As had been demonstrated years earlier by the Texas Rangers, from the back of a horse, the Colt revolver was “bad medicine” for Comanche warriors. It worked out that way for military
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E M F BAKER CAVA L RY 20 G A
sure that, as experience was gained cavalry units, too—along with and the war progressed, barrels short-barreled musketoons and, became shorter, as fowling pieces later, breechloading carbines like sporting 28- or 32-inch barrels the Sharps and Spencer, among would have been quite unwieldy in several others. In the South, cavclose-quarters combat. alry units like that of Colonel John Hunt Morgan or partisan outA modern-day example of this fits like Mosby’s Raiders worked type of shotgun is called the 1850 under the necessity of “use whatcha Baker Cavalry percussion shotgun, brung.” And one weapon that could made by Davide Pedersoli of Italy be found hanging over fireplace and imported into the U.S. by the mantels or behind the door of rural EMF Company. This 20 gauge, Southern homes was a shotgun. percussion, side-by-side smoothOne hundred and fifty years bore is a reproduction of a similar later, the ubiquitous scattergun is gun made in 1850 by Ezekiel Baker, still in the arsenal of U.S. military a London gunsmith. If the Baker units. It’s hard to beat a name rings a bell, that’s weapon that can fire anybecause Ezekiel was the man responsible for thing from a single heavy the famous Baker rifle projectile to multiple that armed five British smaller projectiles and rifle regiments like the even specialty munitions 95th and several light like less-lethal chemical companies of the King’s and impact rounds. It’s German Legion during also a “point and shoot” the Napoleonic Wars. weapon, with its multiple Baker, who operated his projectiles not requiring business out of Whitechapel, also produced the precise marksmanship required of carThe EMF Baker Cavalry has real sidesporting guns for civilian use, and as Great bines or rifles. Many of these same qualilock actions and a single trigger, all color casehardened. Its expertly polished and Britain had long-established trading ties ties endeared the shotgun to Civil-War-era blued 11¼-inch barrels contrast nicely with with the South both before and during the troops. The shotgun, especially the doublethe other metal furniture and walnut stock. war, it’s within reason to believe that some barrel variety, could be counted on to proof his product ended up on a ship bound for vide fast, lethal shots when the fighting was up close and personal, which was nor- comprised of members both genteel and Norfolk or Savannah. mally the case during cavalry engagements. homespun. The individual’s background A formal or improvised sling or tether would usually accounted for the type of weapons Gun Details allow the shotgun to be retained after use, carried early on. No doubt, the finer the famI recently tested the Baker Cavalry shotfreeing the cavalryman to transition to the ily, the finer the weapons and accoutrements. gun from EMF with barrels cropped to 11¼ percussion revolver, which in the South was Therefore, it would not be out of bounds to inches, which would’ve been a likely modifioften a Colt Navy or a knockoff. see quality American and European arms in cation if it were in the hands of one of John In both the North and the South, espe- the hands or across the saddle pommels of Singleton Mosby’s Gray Ghosts. A oncecially early in the war, militia organizations gentlemen Southern cavalrymen. I’m also over from front to back and top to bottom were formed in towns showed the high quality and counties, usually by of workmanship in the SPECIFICATIONS one of the more wellshotgun’s manufacture, fit and finish. The barheeled or politically rels are nicely blued, with active members of the a plain rib running the community. A Southern length between them cavalryman generally and a brass bead affixed provided his own horse, at the muzzle end. Twin tack, clothing and weapGauge: 20 • Barrels: 11¼ inches nipples are mounted ons. Later, this could OA Length: 27½ inches • Weight: 5.75 pounds into the barrel’s breech, be supplemented with Stock: American walnut • Sights: Bead front • Action: Percussion which mates with cupitems taken from those Finish: Blued, casehardened • Capacity: 2-shot • MSRP: $1,375 shaped shields in the captured or killed. These juncture where the baroutfits, whether regular rels meet with the action or irregular/partisan, were
EMF Baker Cavalry
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-“
With an overall length of just
27½ inches and an empty weight of
5.75 pounds, this handy shotgun would’ve
-“
been just what the doctor ordered for a Confederate cavalryman. side locks. These shields are part of the tang that extends back from the breech into the wrist of the stock. The steel on this component is color casehardened and tastefully engraved; four screw-heads are blued, giving a nice color contrast. The lock faces and mule-eared hammers are also color casehardened with blue screw heads and pins, plus the hammers are engraved and checkered on the spurs. The single trigger—which fires the left barrel first and then the right—is blued, and the triggerguard is color casehardened. The forend is tipped with color casehardened steel and forms a thimble for the wooden ramrod that’s nestled beneath the short barrels. Just behind this hardware is a wedge or key that retains the barrels to the stock. At the butt of the stock is a color
casehardened steel buttplate. The stock itself is one piece and made from American walnut with the appearance of an oil finish. With an overall length of just 27½ inches and an empty weight of 5.75 pounds, this handy shotgun would’ve been just what the doctor ordered for a Confederate cavalryman. Despite the short barrels, when the gun is shouldered it points naturally, and I found it fast and easy to get on target. The twin hammers almost form an aperture or window for the brass bead front sight. The stock’s length of pull and comb height were just perfect for my use and helped with the overall “pointability.” Being a back-action, side-lock shotgun with external hammers, there is no safety. The hammers do have a half-cock setting, but this should only be used
Nathan Bedford Forrest, known as “The Wizard in the Saddle,” fought mostly in his home state of Tennessee, and a raid he made on Memphis late in the war diverted Union forces. SPRING 2015
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E M F BAKER CAVA L RY 20 G A
when placing percussion caps on the nipples. Threading for the nipples is 1/4x28 in case replacements are needed, and they accept #11 caps. The barrels have cylinder bores, so there are no chokes to speak of. This shotgun is actually modeled after a Civil-War-era shotgun found by Davide Pedersoli that used a single trigger to fire both barrels.
Range Time There’s not much out there in the way of information on a shotgun such as this, so I came up with my own formulation for a combat shotgun load. Beside the #11 cap, the first ingredient was Goex FFg black powder and, based on some recent experience with percussion muskets, I settled on a load of 65 grains. Next I obtained some plastic shotgun collars with built-in piston/wads at the base, such as those used in modern shotshells. Inside the collars I inserted 00 buckshot. The collars would only take five pellets, and that left such a gap in between that I found I could also mix in five pellets of #4 buckshot to take up the space and add more lethality to the load. To keep everything in place I used large greased wads made with cotton cloth and Crisco shortening. I measured out the powder and dumped it down each barrel, then followed this with the loaded shot collar/wad, which was rammed to the bottom of the barrel and followed by one of the greased patches. With CCI #11 caps in place, I was ready to shoot. To pattern the Baker Cavalry shotgun, I put up a Shoot-N-C B-27 silhouette target 58 G U N S O F T H E O L D W E S T
The author tested the Baker Cavalry by engaging a swinging steel plate at about 7 yards (above) and shooting patterns at 10 yards (right). The results were pretty good considering the barrel length and open choke.
center so that the results of my test could be readily observed. The distance was 10 yards, which I felt would be a realistic range for a man-on-man cavalry engagement once the two sides closed during their charge. I used the X-ring as my point of aim and brought the hammers to full-cock, pulling the trigger twice. About half of the pellets went into the X and 10 rings. The rest were nines with one eight-ring hit; at least three pellets went outside of the target. There were also two oblong holes where the shot collar/wad had struck. Not too bad. This performance would have definitely spelled doom for an opponent wearing the Union blue. Like most blackpowder long guns, the recoil was more of a strong push back into the shoulder, allowing rapid recovery for the second shot. The large puffs of white smoke were quickly dissipated by the prevailing wind at the outdoor range I was using. For some “practical shooting,” I again loaded up the Baker shotgun using the aforementioned process and made ready to shoot at a swinging steel plate target. I moved up a few yards and fired each barrel at the centermass of the plate, and the shot charges really made that plate dance on the end of the thick rubber strip that it hung by. I did this a couple more times with the same result, and S PRI NG 2 0 1 5
it appeared that most, if not all, of the buckshot was striking the plate. As anticipated, the shotgun handled well and was easy to control in rapid fire. Of course, the loading process is quite tedious, but I have seen diagrams of pre-manufactured shot “cartridges” that could have been used to speed up the process. I’m sure that in a hand-to-hand type of engagement, two quick shots would probably be all you would get anyway before transitioning to the revolver. Nothing went amiss during my testing, and I even began to formulate some ideas as to how I could use this gun in a Cowboy Action Shooting event.
Using a mix of 00 and #4 buckshot encased in a plastic shot collar/ wad and propelled by 65 grains of FFg black powder, the Baker Cavalry shotgun would have proven formidable in the hands of a Rebel cavalryman.
Final Notes As the war entered its fourth year, many locations like Richmond and Petersburg saw siege and trench warfare. The rifled musket finally became the king of the battlefield and was used as it should have been earlier in the conflict. Cavalry tactics also began to change. While horse soldiers continued to be the eyes and ears of field commanders, increasingly units on both sides began to skirmish dismounted, using lever action rifles and carbines like the Maynard, Burnside, Spencer and a host of others. A few stalwarts clung to the shotgun as ammunition could be readily obtained or made up.
After the war, short-barrel shotguns became the preferred arm of stagecoach guards, express messengers and lawmen, but that’s another story. For more information, visit emf-company.com or call 800-430-1310. ✪ Editor’s Note: Guns Of The Old West staff would like to congratulate author “La Vista” Bill Bell. Bill recently retired from U.S. Customs and Border Protection after
38 years of outstanding service. Along his travels, Bill has found the time to become one of Harris’ most steadfast contributors to Guns Of the Old West as well as several other Harris Publications titles including Combat Handguns, Guns & Weapons For Law Enforcement and Special Weapons For Military & Police. We look forward to having him in our contributor stable for many years to come. Congrats, Bill!
Known as the “Gray Ghost,” Colonel John Singleton Mosby (center) led his partisan cavalry on many raids in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. SPRING 2015
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ROUND
‘EM UP
GET A GRIP! Gussy up your single-action six-shooter with custom grips. BY ROBERT A. SADOWSKI
Revolvers back in the Old West reflected their owners’ personalities as much as they do today. Ivory, pearl and jigged grips are natural enhancements to any six-shooter. Most of these custom aftermarket grips require some hand fitting since there are slight differences in Colt SAA grip frames as well as differences in grip frames for Ruger single-action revolvers. The fitting required is minimal at most depending on the material. Here are 11 options to ponder when you want to gussy up your old shootin’ iron.
Buffalo Brothers Finger Grooved Grips
Ajax Pearlite Grips
C&C Global SAA Pearl Grips
The Pearlite grips from Ajax are made to look like genuine mother of pearl with a deep black or white color and a light natural grain. The high-polish luster will give your Ruger Vaquero single action or Colt SAA a custom look. Because it is polymer, it is rugged and will stand up to hard use. These grips will need some slight fitting. Brass screw ferrules come preinstalled in the grip panels. For more information, visit ajaxgrips.com.
C&C Global makes grips for both second- and third-generation Colt Single Action Army revolvers. The simulated pearl grips are made of a durable plastic polymer for long use. These two-piece sets include brass screw ferrules and are available with or without the inset gold Colt medallion. Some minor fitting maybe required, since SAA grips are all slightly different. For more information, visit grips4guns.com or call 858-997-5138.
Altamont Aged Ivory Grips
Classic Single Action Real Ivory Grips
Altamont makes factory grips for some of the best-known pistol and knife manufacturers. The company makes Aged Ivory grips for Ruger’s single-action New Vaquero. These grips are machined to look like aged ivory with striated age lines. Lone Star medallions are inset into each grip panel. Even though these are new grips, they have a vintage look. For more information, visit altamontco.com or call 800-626-5774.
Ivory has to be worked slowly so it won’t warp or crack later, says Joe Perkins, the owner of Classic Single Action. It takes more than a month to work ivory grips. Ivory can never get hotter than 135 degrees when being shaped. This requires about 12 to 15 hours of work over a period of at least 30 days. Perkins crafts pre-ban ivory grips to within 0.005 inches so that they fit the revolver perfectly. For more information, call 520-8886799 or visit classicsingleaction.com.
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Got a Ruger Vaquero in need of some faux ivory? Buffalo Brothers makes faux ivory in a variety of colors that match aged ivory—from Old Ivory Antique to White Ivory. Finger Grooved grips feature either a left or right panel with three finger grooves molded in for a better grip. They’re available in Streaked, Antiqued, Heavy Antique or Plain finishes over an OId Ivory, White, Ivory or Black color. For more information, call 480-9867858 or visit buffalobrothers.net.
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Mark Quigley photo
Heritage Manufacturing Eagle Grips
Ruger Smooth Bonded Ivory Grips
Gussy up your Heritage Arms Big Bore Rough Rider SAA or Small Bore Rough Rider SAA revolver with these polymer grips made to resemble ivory. A fighting eagle is engraved on both the left- and right-side panels. The grips come complete with brass screw ferrules and screws for easy installation. For more information, visit shopheritagemfg. com or call 305-685-5966.
These smooth, bonded ivory grips fit Ruger’s single-action New Vaquero and 50th Anniversary Blackhawk revolvers. No fitting is necessary. Just remove the standard factory grips and install these bonded ivory grips. The grips include the Ruger logo and come with a black screw so installation is fast, letting you get back to your fast draw. For more information, visit ruger.com.
Hogue Black Pearl Grips
Tombstone Gun Grip Kits
Hogue’s black pearl grip panels have a distinct look, especially when installed on a bright stainless steel revolver like the Ruger New Vaquero. The grips also fit Ruger’s Blackhawk revolvers. The left and right panel come with brass screw ferrules installed. For more information, visit hogueinc. com or call 800-438-4747.
Tombstone makes generic and 90-percent finished grips out of a tough epoxy resin and can match just about any color. So if you want those B-Western jigged-style grips, the company has a kit so that you can hand-fit the grips exactly to your revolver’s frame. The 90-percent-finished kit includes three pieces: the left and right grip panels and the center spacer so you can create a one-piece grip on your Colt or clone SAA. For more information, visit tombstonegrips.com.
NC Ordnance Classic Ivory-Like Grips
Vintage Gun Grips
NC Ordnance is an official grip-maker licensed by Colt because of the company’s exceptional quality. The Classic Ivory-Like Grips feature a relief-sculpted eagle clutching an American flag on both the left and right panels. The ivory-like grips have a slight aged look. This two-piece grip set is molded from polyurethane and includes the brass mounting screw, nut and escutcheon. All grips need to be hand fitted, as they are made slightly oversized and will fit Colt first-generation SAAs. For more information, visit gungrip.com or call 252-237-2440.
The ivory-like grips from Vintage Gun Grips feature a Colt-style eagle with a shield and the rampant Colt logo in relief. The rest of the grip wears a checkered texture. Made from hard urethane plastic, these grips fit later-manufactured second- and all third- and fourth-generation Colt Single Action Army revolvers. Some minor fitting may be necessary. For more information, call 619-232-2066 or visit vintagegungrips.net. ✪
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COWBOY
NEWS
NEW for A look at what’s “new” in the If you’ve grown up reading about cowboys, outlaws and lawmen in books, or watching their exploits on TV or movie screens, you probably get pretty excited to see a gun from the Old West in action. Over the years, Old West aficionados and participants in Cowboy Action Shooting (CAS) have also helped spark the classic firearms manufacturing world. Companies regularly resurrect old warhorses and turn them into fine replicas with modern manufacturing techniques and materials—and many times in popular chamberings still commercially available today. Here are some of the best new Old West guns that have recently been introduced for 2015.
Billy Dixon Trapdoor Carbine Cimarron has introduced the Model SH150, an Officer’s Model 1873 Trapdoor Carbine, the same model carried by American scout and buffalo hunter Billy Dixon. Chambered for the .45-70 with a 26-inch barrel, this firearm was manufactured by Pedersoli in Italy for Cimarron. Not only is this an iconic cowboy gun to shoot, but it is also a reproduction ripe with historical Western context from the Texas Panhandle. (cimarron-firearms.com; 830-997-9090) 62 G U N S O F T H E O L D W E S T
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Mark Quigley photo
2015 OLD WEST!
BY WILLIAM BELL & ASHLEY HLEBINSKY
Chiappa Model 1892 Take-Down In 2014, Chiappa released the Model 1892 TakeDown rifle, a gun specified for Cowboy Action Shooting, hunting and sporting. The Take-Down is color casehardened, has a 24-inch, octagonal barrel and a checkered walnut stock. It is chambered for the .45 Long Colt. (chiappafirearms. com; 937-835-5000)
Colt Model 1877 Bulldog How could you have a list of Western guns without the Gatling? Colt is releasing a 10-barrel Bulldog, an upgrade from its five-barrel predecessor, in .45-70. You may not be able to use this for Fast Draw competitions, but you can certainly use it for rapid fire. Specs and further information on this firearm will be unveiled in the coming months. (colt.com; 800-962-2658)
El Paso Saddlery 1930 Austin Holster El Paso Saddlery has many fine holsters, including this 1930 Austin holster suitable for most semiautomatics as well as single- and doubleaction revolvers. It is a classic Texas Ranger holster that highlights traditional design with a present-day flair. It has a suede lining with a full back flap sewn to the holster body. It can be customized to fit a range of barrel lengths from 2 to 7½ inches. (epsaddler.com; 915-544-2233)
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NEW FOR 2015
EAA Bounty Hunters Navy Arms European American Armory Corp (EAA) has a range Winchester of single-action revolvers in various calibers, barrel lengths Model 1873
Hogue Grips
Enhance the appearance of any of your six-shooters with custom grips from Hogue. The company offers a line of grips for traditional single-action revolvers that include Colt and Ruger products, including the Bisley model. Two-piece grip panels are available in Micarta, Pearlized and Ivory polymer. The Ivory-like grips also can be had with laser-cut “schrimsaw” in several designs, including a full-color American flag and Western designs like a boot or steer’s head. Each grip panel is hand finished to a brilliant shine, with no spray-on finishes that will peel or crack. Each grip is made to the exacting fit Hogue is famous for. (hogueinc.com; 805-239-1440)
IAC Model 97 Shotgun
After an absence of several years, Interstate Arms Corporation (IAC) is planning a late spring reintroduction of its replica Model 1897 pumpaction shotgun. Like the original Winchester riot gun it will have a short 20-inch barrel and is just the ticket for Cowboy Action Shooting; especially the “Wild Bunch” side matches that require the use of a Model 97 shotgun. Features include a pistol grip buttstock, an exposed hammer, a ribbed forend and a brass bead front sight. This 12 gauge chambers 2¾-inch shells. (interstatearms.com; 800-243-3006)
Magtech Ammunition
Not every Cowboy Action shooter is prepared or interested in cartridge reloading, so for those who would rather use factory ammunition, one choice would be Magtech. This outfit offers specially boxed ammunition for cartridges like .45 Colt, and you can get other cartridges that are difficult to find in odd calibers for older original handguns. Pocket pistol side matches are resplendent with hinged-frame revolvers in .32 S&W, .32 Long and .38 S&W, and Magtech lists them all on its website. Plus there’s perennial favorites like .38 Special, .357 Mag, .44-40 and .44 Special, to name a few. (magtechammunition.com; 763-235-4000) 64 G U N S O F T H E O L D W E S T
This Navy Arms Winchester Model 1873 reproduction lever-action rifle is an outstanding product that resulted from three major companies working together: Navy Arms, Winchester and Turnbull Restoration. This lever action has a Deluxe Grade 1 American walnut stock, Winchester checkering, a “Winchester Red” finish and a short-stroke kit. It has a Model 71 checkered steel buttplate, which can be good for quick mounting. Turnbull completed the impressive color-casehardened receiver and furniture. Available through Navy Arms and its distributers, this firearm can be chambered for either .38 Special/.357 Mag or the .45 LC, with either a 20- or 24¼-inch barrel. (navyarms.com; 304-274-0004)
Pedersoli Old West
Pedersoli is releasing a new lever action aptly named the “Old West.” This Model 1886 leveraction rifle is a variant on the classic. It has a 26-inch, octagonal barrel and full-length magazine tube. The firearm has an extended lever and harkens back to a more traditional model. It is available in .45-70 and comes with a blade front sight and adjustable rear sight. (davide-pedersoli.com)
Pietta Model 1851 Navy Yank Pepperbox
In 2014, Pietta introduced this twist on a classic, the 1851 Navy Yank Pepperbox. This unique-looking firearm is a .36 caliber single action with walnut grips. Going back to the early days of revolvers where pepperboxes still remained on the market, this firearm is a unique fusion for your Western interests. (pietta.it)
“ If you’ve grown up reading about
cowboys, outlaws and lawmen in books... you probably get pretty excited to see a gun from the OLD WEST in action.
“
and finishes. The Bounty Hunter, made by Weihrauch, is an affordable six-shooter on the market. It is available in .45 LC, .44 Mag, .357 Mag and .22 LR/.22 WMR. They are available with walnut grips and several finish options, including a casehardened receiver and blue barrel, a nickel finish or a blued finish. (eaacorp.com; 321-639-4842)
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Tippmann Armory Rolling Block
Tippmann Armory is now making a reproduction of the Rolling Block in .357 and .44 Mag. It has a blued finish on the barrel and action, with a walnut buttstock and forend. Standard is a full buckhorn adjustable rear sight and a blade front sight mounted in a dovetail. The trigger is set at the factory for a 4-pound pull weight. It’s a well-built and rugged rifle that will appeal to fans of the Old West and should prove fun to shoot as well. (tippmannarmory.com; 800-671-1498)
Uberti Competition Model 1873
Uberti began offering Model 1873 rifles and carbines specifically built for competition, with short-stroke actions. The short stroke, which allows for quicker and easier manipulation, is a popular trend in many other products seen this year. The Model 1873 rifle and carbines are available in .45 Colt, .357 Mag, .44-40 and .44 Mag. (uberti.com; 301-283-6981)
Winchester Model 94 Short Rifle
Winchester has released a new Model 94 Short Rifle. This model has always been a popular gun—it’s quick to shoulder and lightweight. Chambered for the .450 Marlin, the Model 94 is more compact with a 20-inch, blued barrel and a straight-grip walnut stock. This firearm is drilled and tapped for scope mounts and has a hammer spur extension included. It’s a perfect firearm to put in your scabbard or shoot at the range. (winchesterguns.com)
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GUN
TEST
A classic frontier lever
WINCHES RETURN
In the West, it was common for cowboys to carry a rifle and pistol that used the same ammo. For those who enjoy firearms from that period, it’s still not a bad idea.
When shooters think of the Old West, they think of singleaction sixguns and lever action rifles. 66 G U N S O F T H E O L D W E S T
More specifically, they think of the Colt Single Action Army and the Winchester Model 1873. Colt still manufactures its 1873 sixgun, which is also known as the Peacemaker. Winchester stopped making the 1873 lever-action rifle in 1923. For the mathematically challenged among us, that was 91 years ago. During that 50-year span, more than 720,000 1873 rifles were manufactured. Since then, if you wanted an 1873 Winchester, you had to search the used market, going from gun shop to gun shop or, more recently, by spending eye-bugging hours on the internet. For a long time, those looking for 1873s were collectors, but in the 1980s Cowboy Action Shooting began to take hold, and those antique 1873s became highly sought after, not by collectors but by shooters. The problem was that most of those old rifles were just plumb shot out; original blackpowder cartridges had corroded the bore like old age and wind wrinkle a cowboy’s face.
is back, and it’s better then ever before!
ESTER’S� TO ‘ BY RICHARD MANN
73 Enter Uberti, an Italian manufacturer who began to specialize in building firearms made famous in the American West. The Cowboy Action Shooting crowd essentially kept Uberti in business by buying its 1873 rifles at a fantastic pace. Of course, those same folks who wanted to be cowboys still had a deep desire to own and shoot an 1873 that was roll-marked “Winchester.”
1873 Reborn Original 1873 Winchesters were available in three cartridges, and those cartridges became staples of cowboy kit. They were the .32-20, .38-40 and .44-40 Win. It’s no surprise that Colt chambered its famous sixgun for all three of these cartridges so that cowboys could carry a rifle and a revolver that used the same ammunition. As popular as all these cartridges were, they have been supplanted by more modern GUNS OF THE OLD W ES T
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WINCHESTER’S RETURN TO ‘73
There are not many real cowboys left, but there are a lot of shooters who have a cowboy’s heart. Winchester’s new 1873 is just the heart treatment the doctor has ordered for those so afflicted.
cartridges like the .38 Special and .357 Mag. When Winchester decided to bring back the 1873 lever-action rifle in 2013, the company decided to chamber it for the .38 Special/.357 Mag. Now, this might seem to be an extreme deviation from the original, but try to buy a box of .32-20, .38-40 or manufactured: Italy or Japan. The main dif- ’73 is the Sporter, and it has a 24-inch barrel even .44-40 ammunition down at your local ference is that the Japan-made rifle will have but is only available in .38 Special/.357 Mag and .44-40 Win. It also has a color-casehardWal-Mart. At the same time, the modern “Winchester” on the barrel. cowboy—whether he is playing a cowboy at Winchester is offering three versions of ened receiver. I’m what you might call one the range or actually working as a cowboy on the new 1873. Two are what was known of those new-age cowboys, so I chose the the other kind of range—has changed with as “Short” rifles and have 20-inch barrels. color-casehardened version of the Short rifle the times. By this I mean that they might They are available in .38 Special/.357 Mag, in .38 Special/.357 Mag to take for a ride on still be carrying a single-action sixgun, but but for 2014, Winchester has added two the modern range. there’s a good chance it’s chambered for the new cartridges, the .44-40 Win and .45 Colt. .38 Special/.357 Mag. (Original ’73s were never chambered for the Extreme Quality Aside from the cartridge, Winchester’s .45 Colt.) One of the new ’73 Winchester When the rifle arrived, its beauty stunned new 1873 is an exact replica of the origi- Short rifles is all blued steel, and the other me. The bluing was as deep and dark as wet nal. Well, almost an exact copy; the new has a color-casehardened receiver. The third coal, and the wood was to die for. There was figure and curl in the 1873 is manufactured walnut stock, with chocin Miroku, Japan. This SPECIFICATIONS should not come as a surolate and gold colors like I’m not used to seeing on prise, as FN/Browning a 21st century gun rack. owns Winchester RepeatThe color-casehardened ing Arms, and many receiver, lever, nose cap Browning rifles are also and buttplate were done manufactured there. Now, to perfection. The best like me, you’ll probCaliber: .38 Special/.357 Mag • Barrel: 20 inches way to describe this rifle ably turn your nose up OA Length: 39 inches • Weight: 7.25 pounds (empty) • Stock: Walnut is to simply say it’s a at the idea of owning Sights: Marble bead front, semi-buckhorn rear • Action: Lever work of art. It’s not often a Winchester made in Finish: Blued, casehardened • Capacity: 10+1 • MSRP: $1,580 you see a rifle so exquiJapan, but if you want a site that you feel like it new 1873, you have two should not be touched, choices as to where it is
Winchester Model 1873 Short
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but that’s the feeling I got when I looked at the new 1873. The devil on my right shoulder ignored the angel on the left, and I grabbed the Winchester with one hand and some ammo with the other. Admittedly, I’m not an 1873 expert, but my friend Johnny Walker—yes, that’s really his name—is. When I showed him the rifle, his immediate response was, “I’m buying that gun.” After he looked at it and shot it, continually commenting positively on the workmanship, fit and finish, I expected him to ask about the price. He never did; he just repeated over and over that when my testing was complete, the rifle was going to be his. Over the last dozen or so years, Walker has owned a handful of original ’73s and had become despondent that he could not get any of them to shoot very well. The ability to smack snuff cans off-hand at 50 yards and the beauty of the new Winchester was all that was needed to convince him to crack open his wallet. So how much cash did my friend have to shell out? Uberti 1873s run about $1,100 depending on the model. The new Winchester
The rear sight on all three of the new 1873s from Winchester is a semi-buckhorn unit that is adjustable for elevation and drift-adjustable for windage.
The new 1873 from Winchester comes with a tall front sight that is finished with a brass bead that is easy to see in any light.
The attention to detail on the 1873 is spectacular. Note the hammer’s checkering and the notches on the dust cover’s edges.
The wood-to-metal fit on the new Winchester 1873 is expertly accomplished, as is the color casehardening on the metal furniture. SPRING 2015
has a suggested retail of between $1,300 and $1600 for the Short rifle and about $1,700 for the Sporter. Considering that well used, original ’73s sell for about the same and that most will struggle to hit a barn door much past 50 yards, that’s not bad. If you find an original 1873 in excellent condition, it might shoot reasonably well, but you’d be better off to buy a used truck—they’ll cost about the same.
But no original ’73 will shoot as well as this new one. I tried a variety of loads in the rifle, just whacking steel plates out to 100 yards or so, mostly because it was fun. After several boxes had been consumed, I’d yet to experience a malfunction of any sort, and that was with a mix of .38 Special and .357 Mag loads. Next I stepped over to the bench and conducted some serious accuracy testing. Several of the five-shot groups, fired with three different loads at 50 yards, measured less than an inch, but the average for all 15 five-
With Grade II/ III walnut, the wood on the new Winchester 1873 will warm your soul. GUNS OF THE OLD W ES T
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WINCHESTER’S RETURN TO ‘73
Just like original Winchester ’73s, the new version has a dust cover that protects the internals from dust and grime when the rifle is not being fired. Like original 1873s, the hammer has a half-cock position for safety.
Two of the three new Model 1873s from Winchester come with color-casehardened steel. This includes the receiver, lever, crescent buttplate and nose cap.
shot groups was a respectable 1.5 inches. Keep in mind that these groups were fired with iron sights.
Deer Season
will tell you is that this new version has a firing pin block that prevents the firing pin from striking the cartridge primer unless the trigger is pulled. This was a common complaint with the original 1873; folks were afraid the thing would go off if they dropped it. I should also probably mention that the new rifle has a semibuckhorn rear sight that is adjustable for elevation and drift-adjustable for windage. And, there is a brass bead front sight that shows up well in most any light. The tang is also drilled and tapped for a tang sight.
As if that was not enough testing, Walker asked if he could borrow the ’73 for deer season. He has a number of folks who hunt his farm, which is overrun with whitetails, and he wanted to see how this rifle worked in the timber. By the end of the season, the ’73 had accounted for six deer with just as many shots. His comment when he returned the rifle so I could take PERFORMANCE some photos: “This thing is death on deer at any distance inside 100 yards.” By the way, for those of you who might Load Velocity Accuracy be wondering, they used .38 Special Federal’s 180-grain JSP load on all the deer they Remington 130 FMC 1,137 1.90 took with the ’73. .357 Mag I won’t bore you with detailing a rifle that’s Federal 158 JSP 1,917 1.40 design is well over 100 Speer 125 Gold Dot 2,275 1.30 years old; if you are interested in Winchester’s Bullet weight measured in grains, velocity new 1873, you are probin fps by chronograph, and accuracy ably fairly well versed in inches for five 5-shot groups at 50 yards. in the rifle’s history and how it operates. What I
I’d like to say one of Winchester’s new 1873s is living at my house, but that’s not the case. Walker insisted I sell it to him and, well, when a good friend asks a favor, you comply, even if it almost breaks your heart. Of course, in reality, this was the right thing to do. Walker is much more of a real cowboy than me; I gave up horses a long time ago when I realized an ATV was cheaper to feed and that you did not have to worry about them when you were not riding them. And, sometimes having a good friend that owns a gun you really like is not a bad thing. They get to write the check, and you get to borrow it anytime you get the urge. If you have any cowboy in you at all, pick up your own new Winchester 1873. On the other hand, you could always convince your buddy to buy one. The thing is, you never know, the West might need winning again, and if it does, I doubt your buddy will give up his ’73. That’s something a real cowboy would never do. For more information, visit winchesterguns.com or call 800-333-3288. ✪
Winchester Model 1873 Short
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HISTORIC
GUNS
CFRONTIER OLT S
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LEGACY
72 G U N S O F T H E O L D W E S T
THE PATERSON REVOLVER and the Balance of Power on the American Frontier! BY DENNIS ADLER, WITH JEFFREY RICHARDSON
IN 1836,
the American frontier was populated by Native American tribes that had been visited upon by an endless horde of adventurers and explorers seeking their fortunes, farmers, ranchers and businessmen heading west to take advantage of the vast open plains, and by emerging republics such as Texas, one among a handful of territories longing to become a part of the great experiment that was the United States. To achieve that goal, in March of 1836 Texas fought its most famous battle for independence from Mexico, and a newly patented firearm known as the Paterson revolver might well have turned
the tide in favor of Texan volunteers during their ill-fated stand at the Alamo—fought with cannon, rifled muskets and single-shot pistols by less than 200 men engaging a vastly superior force. Unfortunately, at the time of that heroic confrontation, Colt pistols and revolving rifles were not yet readily available. However, by December of 1845, when the Republic of Texas was granted statehood, Paterson revolvers had earned a reputation in the hands of Texas Rangers engaged in protecting the Republic’s disputed borders with Mexico, and defending ranchers, property and border towns from marauding Comanches and hostiles. It was a time of perpetual conflict that would culminate in the MexicanAmerican War shortly after the annexation of Texas by
the United States. During the war, which lasted from 1846 to 1848, Paterson revolvers and Colt’s new .44 caliber Model 1847 holster pistols would prove themselves in establishing the balance of power on the American Frontier. That history, and the story of Samuel Colt’s role, is part of a sweeping new exhibit at the Autry National Center of the American West in Los Angeles, California. With a generous donation from renowned Colt collector and arms historian Dennis A. LeVett, visitors to the Autry can explore the history of the revolutionary Colt Paterson. Paramount is the part Patersons played in a decisive 1844 clash between 16 Texas Rangers and approximately 70 Comanche warriors. Through this pivotal battle, the installation tells the story of a weapon that could keep
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1 and 2) The Balance of Power on the American Frontier installation at the Autry showcases the LeVett collection in the display cabinet at left. 3) The Model 1839 carbine pistol conversion, with its side loading lever, is among the guns from the LeVett collection on display at the Autry. 4) After the failure of Colt’s first venture in Paterson, New Jersey, his largest investor and company treasurer, John Ehlers, purchased the remaining assets at auction, most of which were unfinished pocket models. He had them updated with round-shoulder cylinders and loading levers and sold them as “Colt’s Repeating Pistols With the latest Improvements.” Photos courtesy Autry National Center, Los Angeles
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CO LT ’S F R ON T IE R L E G A CY
Colt’s No.2 Ring Lever revolving rifle featured a barrellug-mounted loading lever. Colt actually produced rifles before introducing his first No. 1 pistols. Photo courtesy Greg Martin
pace with the bow and arrow —a development that forever shifted arms superiority on the frontier. The exhibit features 16 guns and related artifacts from LeVett’s collection.
LeVett & Gene Autry Dennis LeVett, the largest private collector of Paterson Colts in the world and co-author with R. L. Wilson of The Paterson Colt Book, grew up in Iowa Falls, Iowa, and like thousands of other little boys across the country, his favorite cowboy was Gene Autry. When he was nine years old, his boyhood dreams came true when he met Gene and his horse Champion. LeVett still recalls Gene saying, “Howdy, little cowboy,” and wearing two Colt .45 single actions. That
was the year LeVett started collecting guns. Throughout his adult life, he has focused his collecting efforts on the Paterson Colt series of firearms, studying them and traveling the world to find rare pieces and meet other collectors. When asked about his fascination with the Paterson Colts, he explained that “It is a combination of their beauty, mechanical ingenuity and extraordinary history.” LeVett’s generous gift to the Autry includes seven cased revolvers, six long arms, two pistols and rare Paterson Colt ephemera, including the only known period photograph of a soldier armed with a Paterson Colt. Jeffrey Richardson, the Autry’s Gamble Curator of Western History, Popular Culture and Firearms, noted that the centerpiece of the gift is the exceptional Cased No. 5 Holster Model pair with 9-inch barrels, one of only two such examples
“It’s hard to know the history of some of these early Paterson pistol conversions,” says LeVett. “It is very clear that someone felt that the Paterson carbine would make a better pistol. The three shown are fitted with pistol grips and barrels cut down to anywhere from 9-5/8 inches to as long as 10-7/16 inches, creating a large-caliber revolver at a time when they did not otherwise exist. The shotgun pistol is chambered in 20 gauge.” 74 G U N S O F T H E O L D W E S T
Renowned Colt Paterson collector Dennis LeVett holds one of his rare Paterson carbine pistol conversions, regarded among the various designs that paved the way for the 1847 Walker.
known to exist. With LeVett’s gift, the Autry now has examples of every Paterson Colt model, allowing the museum to explore in detail these revolutionary firearms. At the opening of the exhibit The Balance of Power on the American Frontier, LeVett said, “I am very proud that my guns are a part of such a significant keeper of our Western history and culture.” The Autry National Center in Griffith Park, originally the Gene Autry Museum of Western Heritage, was co-founded by Gene and Jackie Autry and Monte and Joanne Hale. With the opening of the museum in 1988, Autry, America’s favorite singing cowboy, realized his dream “to build a museum which would exhibit and interpret the heritage of the West and show how it influenced America and the world.” For more information, visit theautry.org or call 323-667-2000. ✪ S PRI NG 2 0 1 5
Photo courtesy Autry National Center, Los Angeles; 2012.38.23
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1) This is an early Paterson powder flask for the 1839 shotgun model.
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2) A rare Paterson No. 1 or “Pocket Model” with large vine scroll engraving, German silver bands and a silver-plated frame. Though an early .28 caliber gun, it has the later (circa 1840) round shoulder cylinders. 3) One of the best-known examples of the No. 2 Model is Dennis LeVett’s large vinescroll-engraved revolver with a 5-inch barrel. This gun exhibits the excellent engraving seldom seen on early Patersons. This example also has the rare silver-plated frame. 4) This cased pair of 9-inch-barreled No. 5 Holster Models is one of only two cased sets known to exist; the other is in the Hartford Museum. This is a very early set with square-backed cylinders. No. 5 Models such as these were the guns used by Capt. Jack “Coffee” Hays, Samuel Walker and the Texas Rangers in the famous Comanche Indian battle of 1844.
Photo courtesy Autry National Center, Los Angeles
5) The display includes records, in Samuel Colt’s own hand, of his earliest business activity in 1836 and 1837.
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rned Evidently striped patte ester clothing and ‘73 Winch of the rifles were the order d their day when these two ha oto studio. photo taken in this ph e reveals Nonetheless, the imag olen two popular, heavy wo est— W d hunting shirts of the Ol front and the pullover with a fly irt—both the laced “electric” sh ed collars. with permanently affix
Herb Peck Jr. Collection
This 1880s cowbo y is dressed for town in his “b oiled” cotton dress shirt, with its starched false collar and cu ffs. Having fashioned a necktie from his silken neckerchie f, he even brought his riding gauntlets, and packs either a Co lt Peacemaker or a ‘75 Remington . Herb Peck Jr. Collection
BOILED COWBOY
NEWS
Frontiersmen wore these BY PHIL SPANGENBERGER
IN THE OLD WEST, frontiersmen sought apparel that was comfortable and durable, and in warmer climes lightweight, collarless (often called “collar band”) cotton shirts were common. Historically, this type of shirt was among the popular designs of the mid to late 19th century 76 G U N S O F T H E O L D W E S T
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on
zigShirts with the n the zag lacing dow etimes front were som lectric” advertised as “e ived a shirts and rece popularfair amount of ers. ity with Western
These pistol-p acking men have adorned their clericaltype collars w ith silken ties in order to giv e the looks of respectabil ity—despite brandishing lo ng-barreled Colt six-shoote rs. Herb Peck Jr. Co
llection
llection
SHIRTS Erich Baumann Co
lightweight shirts all week long before boiling them clean! and up into the early 20th century, and it
more from a practical application rather
often called. It was the vest that provided the
saw lots of use in the West for both work
than simply as a mere fashion statement.
needed pockets. Such shirts were made with a separately attached collar for “full dress”
and dress affairs—not just by cowhands, but by men of all occupations. However, many of the shirts worn by the citizens of
Collared & Cuffed At that time, dress shirts had been made
affairs. They could sport pleated fronts, fancy ruffles or, more commonly, were left
that bygone era were slightly different
without pockets and collars for generations.
plain. Generally, the narrow collar band
than many of today’s replica offerings.
Such attire was intended for wear under-
(narrower than today’s replicas) was
Further, the original collarless design stems
neath a vest, or “waistcoat,” as vests were
separately sewn and made of white cotton
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B O I LED S H IR T S
(Left) Shirts with permanently affixed roll collars were more common than some modern Cowboy Action Shooters and Old West clothing suppliers believe. These cowboys from John Slaughter’s ranch in southern Arizona are wearing shirts with attached collars. (Below) This late 19th century image clearly reveals the stiffly starched clerical and wingtip style of false collars, along with the equally inflexible false cuffs. Despite the cocked Colt Peacemaker, these Monett, Missouri, lads are having a friendly game of chance.
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Gents’ Furnishings The cotton shirt itself, which cost anywhere from around 50 cents to about $1.50, according to Bloomingdale’s 1886 catalog and Montgomery Ward’s 1895 catalog, was generally constructed of a lightweight muslin or percale cotton, although more expensive, dressier varieties could be obtained in silk or linen. To give one’s shirt that extra look of class, some formal dress shirts used separately attached studs, rather than buttons, down their fronts, while a number of them actually buttoned in the back of the shirt. Interestingly, in the 1993 movie Tombstone, recognized by Western aficionados for its authentic costuming, Kurt Russell (as Wyatt Earp) wears such apparel while wooing Dana Delany (as Josephine Marcus). In addition, these dressy shirt fronts might contain a sewn-on placket that fashion dictated should be heavily starched—until it was as “stiff as a board.” Garments of this ilk were sold under the name of “laundered” dress shirts. As these dressy items of clothing eventually wore out and were no longer
Al Fleming Collection
but wore out quickly due to perspiration and other factors of normal wear. Celluloid collars (a form of early plastic) only ran about 10 to 15 cents per copy—highly flammable and hazardous to a smoker—were slightly more expensive but lasted a bit longer—as long as they were kept away from any incendiary. Lastly, washable linen collars were the best, and they were often heavily starched to keep their shape. Although they were a bit more expensive, costing about a dollar or so each, they were worth the investment. If one were going to a formal
Herb Peck Jr. Collection
(rather than of a matching color, as with most of today’s replicas). This white collar had buttonholes sewn into it—one at the rear of the neck for attaching a “false collar” and two at the throat—to overlap. These buttonholes were for attaching small metal studs, known as “collar buttons,” in order to button a false collar to the shirt body. False collars that matched the shirt were sometimes sold with the shirt, but these separately attachable collars could also be purchased individually in a vast variety of styles. Generally speaking, false collars were made in three distinct styles: fully folded over, known as a “stand and fall” collar; partially folded, such as the wing-tip type with the folded collar points; or fully standing, like those of the clergy. Collars were either given stock numbers or stylish names, such as “Royal,” “Brighton,” “Sterling,” “Ajax,” “Clerical,” or some other impressive-sounding moniker. Separately attachable cuffs were also available for these shirts to dress them up, or in some cases they were sold with the garment. These “false” cuffs were made to fit over the shirt’s regular buttoned cuff. Attachable collars and cuffs were produced in a trio of materials. Inexpensive models were made of a stiffened cardboard-type paper and were meant to be disposable. By the turn of the century, such accessories only cost a few cents and looked good when new
or dressy affair, then a collar and/or cuffs of some sort were definitely in order—preferably quality goods of starched linen!
Sporting gauntlets, leather cuffs and a necktie over his flannel, roll-collared shirt, it seems that this young cowhand wants to stay as neat and clean as possible. Pullover shirts of this type were quite popular in the West. In fact, full-button plackets—shirts that buttoned down all the way in the front—were not introduced until the late 1890s in mail-order catalogs. S PRI NG 2 0 1 5
Al Frisch Collection
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In January of 1882, a version of the “electric” shirt was patented with concealed buttons under the laced placket. This illustration appeared in the Bloomingdale’s 1886 catalog.
considered in suitable condition for special occasions, they would often be relegated to the status of work shirts, and would then be used for everyday wear by the laboring class. Ordinarily these “gents furnishings” tended to be all white, or have a pinstriped or tiny polka dot pattern, although pale colors such as pink or light blue were also offered. In those days before wonder detergents, dry cleaning and all of the other modern laundering wonders, the best way to clean such clothing was to boil it. Thus, the shirt became popularly known as a “boiled” or “fried” shirt. Since townsfolk commonly wore this sort of apparel, the term “city shirt” was also sometimes applied to identify such a garment. Thus, it was only natural that as many of the immigrants who trekked westward to settle in remote regions of the frontier, such apparel was put into service as everyday outdoor work wear, rather than be set aside for those rare dressy occasions. Nevertheless, not all of these so-called “city” shirts were of the collarless variety. Work and sporting wear, in what was then retailed in some catalogs as “men’s negligee shirts” or “negligee overshirts” and were also intended for use as “lawn sport,” “tourists’,” “boating” or “cycling” shirts (period terms used to undoubtedly denote a more casual form of upper wear) of the mid to late 19th century were mass-produced by the large Eastern mills. These were norSPRING 2015
Herb Peck Jr. Collection
mally sold via mail-order catalogs or through a local “dry goods” store. Such manufactured apparel was regularly turned out with small rolled collars, perhaps with a single patch pocket on the breast. While shirts specifically made for work or the outdoors were mostly made of heavier cottons or flannels, the sportier variety could usually be found in cotton and linen—sometimes with silk front plackets—for wear in sporting activities or warmer climates. Furnishings of this nature offered the frontiersman an excellent selection of garments from which to choose. Shirts of the era were generally pullovers and, for work purposes, were favored in darker colors like indigo blue, black or gray, so as not to show the dirt as quickly as would a white or light-colored shirt. These shirts were usually produced with calico patterns or with tiny polka dots, small plaids, pinstripes or checkered designs. The most common shirts I’ve found in museums and private collections of Old West memorabilia are of indigo blue cotton with either tiny white polka dots or thin white pinstriping. Regardless of style, cowboys would include some lightweight cotton or linen “boiled” shirts in their war bags for warm weather. In fact, it was a common saying among drovers that you could “work in one of these shirts all week long, then boil it clean for Saturday night in town.” Regardless of whether the shirt was of the collar-laden work type or of the “full dress” style, it would normally be worn buttoned to the throat in the proper Victorian manner, without a collar.
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Another form of upper wear that attained a fair degree of acceptance in the Old West was a pullover shirt that incorporated a string-laced front placket This gent’s braid-trimmed “collar band” shirt appears to be made of a linsey-woolsey type of material, a common fabric in the 19th century. From the looks of his heavy clothing, cap and gloves, it looks like he could be taking his 1855 Colt revolving shotgun hunting, possibly in hostile country.
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★ GUNS OF THE OLD W ES T
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B O I LED S H IR T S
This page from the 1895 Montgomery Ward catalog shows several typical collarless shirts that could be used for dress or work occasions. Such shirts sold for as little as 60 cents at the time, and were sometimes retailed with one or more separately attached collars and cuffs.
garment—with one breast pocket—in an array of colors including “navy blue, electric blue, gray, brown, green, etc.,” for the price of $2.25 per copy! It wasn’t until the late 1890s that full-button plackets (shirts that button all the way down, rather than a pullover) appeared on the scene, as far as mail-order clothing was concerned. Nonetheless, they did not become very popular with cowboys until around the first decade of the 20th century. By this time, most work shirts were being made of flannel materials rather than muslin cotton.
These DeWitt, Iowa, backwoods muzzleloading hunters have each put on what might be considered a hunting shirt over their regular shirts. The wearing of two shirts, or a loose-fitting overshirt, was a common practice in the 19th century. The rifleman at left wears a homespun gingham-checked collarless shirt under his overshirt, while his pal’s shirt has a small roll collar.
Photos Don’t Lie
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Herb Peck Jr. Collection
Historically, the lightweight cotton work shirts with collars were probably more often used by cowhands and other outdoorsmen than the collarless shirts made for “dressy” attire. Oftentimes the dressy apparel was so thin it would be impractical and probably wouldn’t last Al Frisch Collection a single day on the open range. Any study of period photo(much like shoe lacing), rather than but- graphs of working cowboys, miners, hunters tons, for closure. Possibly because of the and other frontier types bear this out. With flashy, lightning-appearing zig-zag pattern this in mind, I would love to see more of this lacing created, such furnishings were these small, roll-collared cotton, linen, flansometimes advertised as “electric” shirts. In nel or raw silk shirts offered by today’s Old January of 1882, a version of this shirt was West outfitting suppliers, who currently tend patented with concealed buttons under the to produce the collarless versions in excess. laced placket. This unique fly-front design Besides inspecting period photographs, one allowed one to put on and take off the shirt can purchase reproductions of catalogs from without having to go through the lengthy such firms as Sears and Montgomery Ward process of lacing or unlacing the shirt’s and see exactly what was advertised and how string-decorated front. This attire also per- it was described. Besides, they’re fun to look mitted one to wear the permanently affixed at—but don’t expect to buy any at the prices collar outside, in the normal fashion, or quoted in these vintage publications! turned in, forming a yoke to the shirt, so a Whether made with or without colwhite, starched dress collar could be put on. lars, “boiled” shirts got lots of use during Bloomingdale’s 1886 catalog offers such a the heyday of the Wild West—both in
These frontier settlers are wearing the simple collarless “boiled” shirts of the mid to late 19th century. The man at left, holding an 1866 Winchester rifle, uses white shirt buttons, probably made of glass or ocean pearl, while his pard at right, holding a Sharps Model 1874 “buffalo gun,” keeps his neckband closed via a small brass or copper collar stud.
town and on the open ranges. More than a simple fashion statement, such garments offered comfort, versatility, economy and hard wear—all-important factors to the frontiersman of the American West. ✪ S PRI NG 2 0 1 5
Keep ’Em Clean (continued from page 9)
some nifty cleaning patch and Q-tip alternatives for the shooter. A division of Super Brush, a company that’s been developing and manufacturing high-tech foam swabs, applicators and synthetic-tufted brushes for use by the medical, cosmetic, aerospace and electrical markets (to name a few) for the past 60-plus years, Swab-its launched its Bore-tips and Gun-tips firearms lines some three years ago, and its pull-through Bore-Whips in 2014. Bore-tips are bore-cleaning swabs, made from tough, tight-celled foam formed over a threaded plastic stem, that are caliber-specific and sized to provide a tight-fitting, 360-degree contact with the chamber and bore, providing superior cleaning and lubricating qualities. Designed to screw onto standard cleaning rods with 8-32 threads [the rod threading for the shotgun Bore-Tips is 5-16], they are currently available to fit six rifle and pistol and three shotgun bore sizes. These include .22, .243, .30,
.357, .40/.410, .45 and 12 and 20 gauges. Simple to use and clean, they are reusable for several cleaning sessions and take the place of quite a few throwaway, clothcleaning patches in the process. I’ve used them in a couple of cowboy rifles and pistols and my Winchester Model 97 12 gauge, and they do provide a tight fit in the bore and chambers, requiring less passes of the cleaning rod. Being made from foam over a plastic core, they are easy on metal surfaces, are lint free and provide 360-degree cleaning and coverage. Gun-tips are foam-tipped swabs available in a variety of shapes, sizes and lengths, and they are perfect for cleaning and lubricating those hard-to-reach cracks and crevices found on most all firearms. They utilize the same foam found on the Bore-tips, so they won’t shed or leave any lint behind. They are economical, washable and reusable. Both Boretips and Gun-tips are easily cleaned by washing them in a mild, grease-cutting
detergent or by immersing them in mineral spirits and blotting them with a paper towel. Like Bore-tips, Gun-tips are available directly from the company or through most sporting goods outlets. Although I don’t see myself getting rid of my jags, cleaning patches or Q-tip swabs anytime soon, I do see a place for and will include both Bore-tips and Guntips in my gun-cleaning arsenal. ✪ i
FOR MORE j
INFORMATION
CONTACT: Lyman
800-225-9626 lymanproducts.com
Swab-its
413-543-1442 bore-tips.com
Colt’s 1851 Navy (continued from page 11)
The .38 caliber Long Colt 1851 Navy models were offered in either rimfire or centerfire versions, both with 7½-inch, octagonal barrels. There were two styles of conversion rings, one with an internal spring-tensioned loading gate and a second using an external spring. Both variations were seen on rimfire and centerfire models, and those with the external springs are easily recognized, as the spring leaf extends downward from the loading gate and is screwed into the side of the frame. During the early 1870s, the Hartford factory handled approximately 200 original 1851 Navy percussion revolvers returned by private individuals for conversion to metallic cartridges. The price of this service is not known, however, conversions to either .38 Long Colt rimfire or .38 centerfire (the latter around 1874) were offered. In nearly all such conversions, the percussion parts were reused and modified to work with cartridges. The percussion portion of the cylinder was turned down, a new ratchet cut and the chambers bored
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terfire cartridges. For the military conversions, all repaired surfaces had to be machined and polished to blend in with the original metal of the barrel and the entire gun was reblued One of the most handsomely engraved Navy models, or nickel plated, depending this example built around 1856 is an early Third Model upon the order. On any con1851 Navy with the elongated, ovoid-style triggerguard. version Colt would supply new It is the only example known with a gold-plated triggergrips for an extra 75 cents. guard and backstrap. It was engraved by Colt Master Between 1871 and 1878, Engraver Gustave Young in the donut scroll motif with a more than 6,000 Navy models wolf head in the circle on the frame and hammer. (1851 and 1861) were concompletely through. The right side of the verted to .38 caliber rimfire and centerfire. barrel was milled to accept the cartridge One of Wild Bill Hickok’s friends, Joseph ejector, the loading lever channel and “White Eye Jack” Anderson, said that Bill screw hole filled (the plunger hole, how- had replaced his pair of percussion pistols ever, was left open), the loading lever catch around 1875 with a brace of 1851 Navy removed, the dovetail filled and the frame .38 Long Colt conversions. The number modified to receive the new breechplate. of Navy models converted in the field by In addition to conversions for indi- gunsmiths following the Mason patent is viduals, the U.S. Navy Ordnance Bureau unknown. What is known, however, is that returned 2,097 Model 1851 and Model well into the 1880s, when the West was 1861 Colt Navy percussion revolvers to being won, a lot of the winning was being Hartford for conversion to the .38 Colt cen- done with a Colt 1851 Navy. ✪
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a AIR COWBOY b
UMAREX COLT PEACEMAKER Umarex and Colt team up to build an 1873 Single Action Army BB six-shooter! B Y D E N N I S A D L E R
n the world of firearms there has always been a natural progression to things, and sometimes that process even works in reverse. Going retro from its groundbreaking BB-cartridgeloading, six-shot Colt Python, S&W M&P and 327 TRR8 revolvers, Umarex and Colt have joined forces to produce a BB-cartridge-loading Single Action Army revolver that has the look, feel, weight, balance and operating features of a real .45 Colt Peacemaker! This is likely to become the most sought-after BB gun since the “official Red Ryder, carbine action, twohundred shot range model air rifle.” And you won’t have to wait until Christmas to get one. I am not only amazed at the engineering that has gone into making this all-metal sixgun, but also how accurately all of the Colt’s features have been incorporated into what is a 21st century reprise of those wonderful old Mattel “Fanner 50 Shootn’ Shell” SAA cartridge-loading cap pistols; only this one shoots Museum Commemorative model) Colt .177 caliber BBs propelled by CO2 instead of Single Action Army. The nickel version, with a spring-loaded plastic bullet powered by a lightly aged-looking ivory micarta grips Greenie Stick-em cap. Imagine if CO2 BB car(shown), is a dandy of a gun that will open tridge technology would have been developed up whole new avenues for Cowboy Action in the 1950s! Well for those of us who had Shooters to practice quick draws and shoota Fanner 50 and miss it, here is your second chance at an affordable and very authentic six- ing from the hip, pistol handling and target gun compliments of Colt and Umarex. shooting at close range without the expense A little lighter, at around 33 ounces, than SPECIFICATIONS a real 5½-inch-barreled Colt Peacemaker, the Colt Umarex has the same looks and, except for the addition Caliber: .177 of a manual safety hidden Barrel: 5½ inches under the frame just forward OA Length: 11 inches • Weight: 33 ounces (empty) of the triggerguard, at first Grips: Plastic • Sights: Fixed • Action: SA • Capacity: 6-shot glance this looks exactly like Finish: Blued, nickel or antique • MSRP: $120 a blued, nickel or antique finished (U.S. Marshals
(Left) It might be hard to tell at first glance, but this Colt SAA is a BB gun. The new Umarex Colt has a 5½-inch barrel, loads six BB cartridges and operates identically to a real SAA. (Holster by Chisholm’s Trail)
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(Below) The SAA BB cartridges are about the size of .32-20 Winchester rounds, and the .177 caliber steel BBs load into the back of the cartridge case where primers usually go.
or cleanup of blackpowder or smokeless-powder .45 LC rounds or wax bullets. Dimensionally, the BB gun is nearly dead on. The rebounding hammer feels different, lighter, as there is no actual Colt-style mainspring and the hammer sits slightly back from the frame at rest. Cocking the gun follows normal single-action operation by rotating the cylinder to the next chamber while preparing the gun for the CO2 capsule stored inside the grip to release a single charge sealed to the back of the BB cartridge and send the .177 caliber round downrange at around 410 fps. Unlike some of the BB cartridges in use, the Colt loads the BB in the base of the cartridge (where the primer would usually go), so the air pressure does not have to travel the length of the cartridge case before sending the BB downrange. The brass bullets also look more authentic, though not .45 LC in size, more like a .32-20 Winchester round, which Single Actions were chambered for beginning in 1884. The gun is accurate, fits any SAA holster, and even has to be oiled and cleaned (moderately after every 1,000 rounds) with an available Umarex cleaning kit. The Umarex Colt SAA should be available from Pyramyd Air and other air gun retailers by the time you read this. For more information, visit umarexusa.com. ✪
Umarex Colt Single Action Army
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Cartridge Revolvers & hand guns
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Fancy Checkered Walnut Grip 5 ½” .45LC or .357 Mag., Blue Color Case-Hardened. Manufactured with forged frame.
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Exclusively from Taylor’s & Co., The Smoke Wagon is a second-generation, stagecoach-style, singleaction revolver. It boasts a low-profile hammer and widerstyle sights, which allow the user to acquire sighting faster, without cocking the pistol. It also features a blue finish with a case-hardened frame and a thin, richly detailed, checkered grip for comfort and improved aim. All of the previous features are available on both standard and deluxe edition models. The deluxe edition model also includes custom tuning; custom hammer and base pin springs; trigger pull at three pounds; jig-cut, positive angles on all triggers and sears for crisp, reliable action; a coil-loaded hand; and wire bolt spring. Manufactured with forged frame.
Checkered White PVC Grip 5 ½” .45LC or .357 Mag, Blue Color Case-Hardened. Manufactured with forged frame.
Features a larger Army-sized grip. Choice of smooth walnut grips, or laser checkered grips. Manufactured with forged frame. Custom Deluxe Tuning available by request
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SAFETY NOTE: Always wear ear and eye protection when shooting frearms. (Images shown are for marketing purposes only and are not intended as safe frearm handling examples.)