Archives for “guns”
In my first book, Touch of Texas, the heroine’s defense weapon of choice was a double-barrel shotgun. In the interests of research–and because I wanted to shoot one — we added a double-barrel shotgun to our Cowboy Action Shooting collection. Shotguns come in all barrel lengths. The Stoeger side-by-side we shoot is modeled after the [...]
Well–I did it. Or, I should say, we did it. My husband and I joined The Single Action Shooting Society, or SASS. It is an organization full of folks who love the Old West and want to relive just a little of it while making and enjoying new friends. Last Saturday was our first “shoot.” [...]
Arguably the most famous of revolvers is the Colt Single Action Army Model 1873 – the Peacemaker. Once the Rollan White patent giving Smith & Wesson the exclusive right to manufacture a bored-through cylinder which allowed cartridges to be loaded from the rear ran out, Colt cialis online no prescription set its designers loose creating a weapon [...]
The Springfield 1873 Trapdoor Rifle is one we’ve probably seen in photographs and in Hollywood movies, but I doubt many of us realized the impact this rifle had on warfare of the period. A redesign of an earlier trapdoor system, the Springfield 1873 was the first standard-issue breech-loading rifle adopted by the US Army. It [...]
In 1856, a New Orleans doctor, Jean LeMat designed and created a truly unique weapon: a pistol that was both revolver and buckshot weapon in one. The original LeMat revolver was 13¼” long with a 6 ¾” barrel, weighed 3 pounds-8 ounces, and sported a .44 caliber nine-shot revolver. Other calibers were later produced, primarily [...]
Did you know that, without Eli Whitney, extraordinary mechanical engineer and inventor of the cotton gin, there would be no Colt “Walker” revolvers. In fact, there’d probably be no Colt firearms at all. From a young age, Whitney showed an amazing aptitude for all things mechanical. That’s how he paid for his Yale education–by fixing [...]
When I heard the name “Griswold” while watching Hell on Wheels, I was instantly intrigued. It’s a familiar word in our household due to Chevy Chase, aka the hapless Clark Griswold Years ago, when I saw the pull-down attic stairs that ensnare him in Christmas Vacation, I yammered so much and so often about a similar [...]
While on vacation recently, my husband and I spent a morning visiting the Arizona Cowboy Shooters Association in action. Every second Saturday, enthusiasts of period weapons, dedicated to preserving and promoting the sport of Cowboy Action Shooting gather together to talk history, weapons and shooting. The Single Action Shooting Society–SASS–is for folks who “…share a [...]
From a distance, you might think one cowboy looks pretty much like another, but on closer inspection, you’ll find that though their gear contains the same staples, a cowboy finds a way to make his equipment truly his own. From the type of horse he rides, to the tool work on his saddle, to the [...]
Good Morning! Going along with a similar message from my last post, I thought we might continue on in the same vein as we did a couple of weeks ago — survival. With droughts in the south and midwest, flooding in our farmlands and northern states and with grain elevators gradually reduced to only about [...]
A Gunfighter’s Rules to Live By Bring a gun. Two is even better Stand with the sun at your back Shoot first and don’t miss There’s no such thing as fair play In a gunfight take your time in a hurry If you’re not shooting you better be loading Okay, I admit it; where [...]
Who doesn’t love it when a town or a family is revisited in a sequel? It’s like seeing old friends again or coming home for a stay. It’s always fun to set up a character in a previous book, and then give them their own story. Readers who enjoyed The Preacher’s Wife and asked about [...]
Winchester (U.S.) Model 1866 Lever Action Rifle (repeater/ breech-loading/ black powder/ cartridge ammunition) Last time we discussed the Winchester 1873 Repeating Rifle. Today, I want to introduce the precursor to that rifle – the Winchester 1866 Repeating Rifle, aka The Yellow Boy. The Yellow Boy got its name because of the shiny brass frame. The design [...]
Several different weapons, both rifles and handguns, have been dubbed “the gun that won the west.” Like the Colt 1873 Peacemaker, a .45 caliber six-shot revolver; the Winchester Model 1866 “Yellowboy” lever-action repeating rifle, so named for its shiny brass frame; or today’s focus, the Winchester Model 1873 lever-action repeating rifle. Some believe the Winchester [...]
In 1847, Colonel Samuel Walker, Army commander and a Texas Ranger in John C. Hays’ company, approached Sam Colt to make a new, stronger, more powerful revolver. Colt took the order–but had no factory. He turned to Eli Whitney, Jr., son of the famous inventor of the cotton gin, who had a factory in Connecticut [...]
Oliver Winchester bought the remains of the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company, started the New Haven Arms Company, reorganized it as the Winchester Repeating Arms Company in 1866, and manufactured some of the most famous firearms ever created. Today we’re going to look at one of their most revered rifles: The 1876 Winchester Centennial Repeating Rifle. [...]
Now that we’ve talked about a bunch of itty bitty pocket guns, let swing to the opposite end and take a look at one of the longest rifles ever produced: The American Longrifle. “From a flat bar of soft iron, hand forged into a gun barrel; laboriously bored and rifled with crude tools; fitted with [...]
I thought I’d give you one more “little gun” post before the end of the year. This time we’re going to take a look at the Break Top Revolver. The first revolvers–and the ones we are more used to seeing had fixed cylinders. That means you had to push out each spent cartridge individually, reload, [...]
Today, we’re going to take a look at another pocket revolver, the “Swamp Angel” rim-fire revolver. The original “Swamp Angel” was an 8-inch 200-pounder muzzle-loading rifled artillery weapon used extensively in the Civil War. The Swamp Angel earned its name when, in preparation for the bombardment of Charleston, South Carolina, in August, 1863, Major General [...]
No, not that kind of bulldog. Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer is believed to have carried a pair of British Bulldog revolvers, short-barrelled and double-action revolver that was made in pocket and small belt-sized. According to a report given by Brigadier-General (then Major) E.S. Godfrey on January 16, 1896, Custer carried “two Bulldog self-cocking, [...]
Colonel Jean Alexandre François Le Mat was a Paris-born aristocrat–and Creole physician–who designed firearms in his spare time. On October 21, 1856, he was granted United States Patent No. 15,925 for a unique design of the first multi-shot percussion revolver with an 18-gauge grapeshot barrel fixed beneath it. The lower barrel was 5 inches [...]
With the popularity of the “Baby Dragoon”, Colt made a name in the pocket revolver market. Their next step was the slightly larger pocket Navy. The “New Model Pocket Pistol of Navy Caliber,” or “Pocket Navy” is, in essence, a Baby Dragoon modified with a .36 caliber barrel and rebated cylinder on the .31-size frame. [...]
We’ve had such fun looking at pocket pistols and revolvers, I thought I’d share another I ran across: The Colt 1848 “Baby Dragoon.” Many consider this to be the first true hideout gun. The Colt Model 1848 Baby Dragoon Revolver was manufactured in Hartford from circa l847 through to 1850 with a total of about [...]
The Philadelphia Deringer is a small percussion handgun designed by Henry Deringer and produced from 1852 through 1868. The term derringer is actually a misspelling of the maker’s last name. Kind of like kleenex (with a small k), the term derringer is now used to describe any pocket-sized pistol. The original Deringer pistol was a [...]
I had such fun in my last post with the Chicago Palm Pistol, I decided to introduce another small weapon today – the PEPPERBOX. The four-shot, breech loading, version of this pistol is considered “a true gun of the Old West, used by gamblers, ladies of the evening, and as a hide-out gun for both outlaws [...]
