Hatfield&McCoy History channel

I assume the guns changed as the movie progress as the feud ran a span from 1863–1891. I kind of assumed the cartridge belt was for his rifle and not the early pistol he carried but really don't know.

I did enjoy the show however even with a few questions on the times some of the guns appear.

I was surprised, or not, that IMFDB did not have a entry.

On one hand it is a high publicity miniseries, on the other it's only been three days.

That (creating an IMFDB entry) does take screen capture, positive ID, correlation with existing file images and entries on the guns, etc. It's more work than it appears, I guess.

This call to help an IMFDB entry I feel is different from the existing thread about the series and history itself at http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=655044&highlight=Hatfield

Not sure that Remington conversions used a loading gate, more than likely just switched cylinders.

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I'd assume guns would change since the feud spanned 3 decades. Plus, it's Hollywood, they will have mistakes.


I noticed Costner made some pretty accurate long range pistol shots in the beginning of the show. lol.


Plus, I'm sure it will take IMDB awhile before they can watch the film, get pictures of the guns, and get that page out.
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I have only been able to see bits and pieces of it.



How do you rate it from 1-5 stars?
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This is entertainment based on history. The guns used are whatever the props department could find that was appropriate for that time period. They only have to be authentic enough for public consumption. Experts in ANY subject can usually find plenty of errors in movies based on history. The clothing, saddles, lanterns, you name it, somebody knows more about these subjects than the props department and wardrobe people do and it is a real pain to watch a movie with them.

I think I notice the period correct clothing more than the guns. I do know that all pants of the 19th century where suspender type as men fashion stayed pretty much with that till early in the 20th century when the military added belt loops and belts to their uniforms. Till then only baseball uniforms had belts and loops. Shirts where usually pull over as well with 4 button fronts.

You have to remember too though this was not a typical big screen film, it was shown on the History channel which generally makes sure the movies/shows are historically accurate.
And while I don't know (yet ) I would think Kevin Costner would try to get the firearms correct based off of whatever info/pictures he had. He did a pretty good job on Dances with Wolves.

But if you look at another thread on here there are some original pictures and they are hard to make out what EXACTLY the guns are. So being accurate to the period maybe as far as they can realistically take it.

I don't think I'll get into picking at the details given the post-civil war period of bizarre weapons use and modification and as noted the span of years covered in the movie but I would like to ask this:

In the third installment, when Cap tripped and fell in the big river battle - what fell off his rifle to be fairly significant to him yet he was still able to shoot long distance very effectively? Did a round jump out, a dust cover or a rear sight?

Ryanxia said:

And while I don't know (yet ) I would think Kevin Costner would try to get the firearms correct based off of whatever info/pictures he had. He did a pretty good job on Dances with Wolves.

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I agree Costner is pretty adamant about avoiding anachronisms in his films and is detail oriented about them.
What I got to see of the series I thought it depicted the time frame well and would be surprised if there were glaring mistakes.
We should also remember that in that part of the country money was tight and if they had a firearm that worked they would be loathe to replace it just because something new fangled came along. I would imagine there were a number of muzzle loading weapons in use well into the early 20th century simply because they still worked and were good enough for Grandpa so they are good enough for me.

ApacheCoTodd said:

In the third installment, when Cap tripped and fell in the big river battle - what fell off his rifle to be fairly significant to him yet he was still able to shoot long distance very effectively? Did a round jump out, a dust cover or a rear sight?

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I assumed he broke off his rear sight.

I didn't think he actually hit anything. I was laughing during the entire "Battle of Grapevine" I saw a lot of shooting, and a lot of shooting at point blank range and not a lot of hitting. Until the boy was shot at the end I figured there would be no casualties in the battle.


I was also wondering how the McCoys planned to hit anything with a scope they just slapped on their rifle without even bothering to shoot the gun with the scope first....not to worry, they never even got to shoot it.



The only guns I actually paid much attention to were Henry's and an 1873 trapdoor Springfield used during a shooting competition. I did have to wonder about the turkey gobbling and strutting in what appeared to be the middle of winter though.

My wife and I thought about the scope issue as well. We're thinkin' since neither of the fellas seemed to really know much about it that they probably thought you just slapped her on and commenced to shootin' "a hunert yards jess like it was a twenafayve."

I thought Cap got off at least 2 well placed and relatively distant shots after the mishap...

What I picked up from the Civil War centennial period (lots a lore passed around 1961-1965 true and false) is that the South made a lot of cap'n'ball revolvers with bronze or bell metal frames, and the North had the iron or steel framed cap'n'ball revolvers, so it would be historically correct to see a mix of the types of revolvers, and cap'n'ball revolvers used along side cartridge types in the 1870s and 1880s.

Folks who bought catridge guns after keep their cap'n'ball as a backup or side arm.

That "Bad Phillips" sure had a nice rig and toadsticker.

In the third installment, when Cap tripped and fell in the big river battle - what fell off his rifle to be fairly significant to him yet he was still able to shoot long distance very effectively? Did a round jump out, a dust cover or a rear sight?

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They showed him using an adjustable peep sight throughout. After he tripped it was no longer there.

You know it just popped into my head, I remember when Devil Anse is about to go "fishing" with Jonsey and his wife is asking him about it making sure he doesn't intend to do him harm. Kevin Costner is seen pulling the harmmer pack slightly and rotating the cylinder of his pistol up close. You can clearly see the nipples on the cylinder, and they don't have any primer caps on them either.

I think it was part 2 but possibly part 3 where one of the Hatfields mentioned 'their Winchester's'.

When "Cap" dropped his rifle, the rear sight broke off, they show him pick it up and look at the broken piece. After that he missed several shots trying to aim without the rear sight.

Costner's Remington had a metallic conversion cylinder in it once the story line progressed into the 1870's early 1880's.

The cartridge belt across his chest was for his rifle, which looked like a Winchester 1886 to me.

The guns were pretty cool IMO, I love that era of U.S. History, partly because there was such a cool mix of guns from the cap-n-ball days to metallic cartridge (rim and center fire) and interesting conversions and mixes of both.

I think I read some where that the first conversion units didn't have a hammer type firing pin but replaced the nipples with firing pins. They also according to what I read is you filled the cylinder then put it into the gun.

I know I'm nit pickin and I know why they don't give actors ammo, But I noticed Jim Vance's (Tom Berringer) henry has an unloaded magazine when they was surrounden the McCoy house.

I saw a recently made DVD of the Outlaw Josey Wales which had an interview with Clint Eastwood now about the movie. Eastwood pointed out that the pistol was a conversion version due to his fear of cap and ball pistols. He refused to use them in his movie due to the first time one was demonstrated to him on a set it cross fired from one cylinder to the other. As he also pointed out even though they never use loaded guns in the actual filming they do expect the actor to have some knowledge of it. He did point out that the time frame was only 3 years before they actually where available.

I did have to wonder about the turkey gobbling and strutting in what appeared to be the middle of winter though.

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May not have been mid-winter. As a native Appalachian hillbilly, I've seen snow on the ground as early as mid-September and in late April.

1911Tuner said:

May not have been mid-winter. As a native Appalachian hillbilly, I've seen snow on the ground as early as mid-September and in late April.

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Ayup... Where my people are from (Madison County, NC) I've seen snow just about every month of the year except July and August.