Hickok, Tutt and Wikipedia

[GENTLEMAN OF THE CHARCOAL]

Nate 1778, good evening..Yeah, you're sort of right. I have been given to understand that he walked on all fours and left 5 prints in the sand....

 

[Nate1778]

I can say this, if the Younger boys were anything like my wife, man I don't know how Jessi put up with it. They had to be one hard headed, stubborn group of guys............."Are you sure were going the right way" or "can't you just stop for directions".........

 

[GENTLEMAN OF THE CHARCOAL]

Nate, yeah my wife was the same way. After years and years of it you get sort of used to it..Those were some good ol' boys, Nate. The Younger Brothers, Frank and Jesse, the Daltons, all of them and their families. They all stuck together and tried to help each other. Tried to help other folks outside their families to. My Grandparents hunted wild horses for a living. They shared their campfire and supper with a lot of them boys here and there along the way. Not Cole or Jesse in particular but boys that came up out of the same kind of circumstances....

 

[J.T. Gerrity]

Lots of problems with this painting, but two stand out almost immediately: Hickok resting the gun on his left arm, and the gun in the right holster, indicating (erroneously) that Hickok used a cross-draw; to be accurate, the right holster should be empty. Hickok was a master of the "reverse", or "twist" draw where the pistol is worn butt forward and the hands are turned under to grasp the butts with the thumb over the hammer spur. The gun is then pulled from the holster and is twisted around as it is brought to bear, the weight of the gun causing the hammer to cock. No cross draw involved, and very fast when used by an expert. Keith Carradine did an excellent job demonstrating this draw in the series "Deadwood". Old Fuff is right (as usual); the artist relied on legend and speculation when creating the painting.

 

[crstrode]

You folks ought to read the books by those that knew JBH, Several of his contemporaries have stated in no uncertain terms that he did indeed use the "crossdraw" as well as from the natural side. that is the very reason he wore his revolvers butt forward - to afford more than one way of pulling his pistols instead of whistling Dixie - - - unlike some posters on this forum. ;-)

 

[Ginormous]

All of this is rather like "unlearning" Pluto as the ninth planet, and accepting that eight planets now make up our solar system. Perhaps a certain amount of resistance to the concept is to expected?

This is definitely an interesting discussion.

 

[J.T. Gerrity]

I think it's pretty well established that Hickok used the reverse draw fairly predominantly... I'm sure he used whatever was necessary given the circumstances. It's doubtful that he used the slower, more cumbersome cross draw method of "slapping leather" when speed was required.

The reverse, or Prairie draw derived from the practice of wearing the guns butt forwards due to their unfortunate tendency to go off unexpectedly, and was fairly common during the early days of percussion revolvers.

 

[Macgille]

Journalism in the 1870s was not about accuracy any more than it is today. It was about money. Specifically selling papers and books. The more lurid and colorful the article the more it sold. Just like today.

When I was in college studying journalism, I was taught that a jounalist had a duty to be correct and accurate. When I got out into the field, I found that I had ruined my career by writing for Guns and Ammo Magazine while in College. I found that no newspaper would hire me with that on my resume. Even though I had won statewide awards for my writing in college.

So I became a commercial pilot. C'est la guerre.

 

[BHP FAN]

The reverse draw is generally known as the cavalry draw.