cluttonfred
Member
While Hollywood would have us believe that everyone in the Wild West had a Colt Peacemaker and a Winchester lever gun of one sort or another, I find it hard to believe that those guns were as ubiquitous as all that.
For example, I have read that for a couple of decades after the Civil War, percussion revolvers converted to cartridges and open-top cartridge revolvers still using many percussion revolver parts were very popular for the simple reason that you could buy them for less than half the cost of a new Peacemaker. There are also the many small-caliber revolvers that were likely for more common than we see in films. I also suspect that simple, rugged, cheap single-shot rifles and single-barrel shotguns of various types were a lot more common than our image of the West would suggest.
Does anyone know of a source that would provide actual numbers on the types of guns used in the Wild West period, say 1866-1899? Maybe there exist somewhere the actual sales records of a large western general store or something like that, recording the numbers and types of guns actually sold?
For example, I have read that for a couple of decades after the Civil War, percussion revolvers converted to cartridges and open-top cartridge revolvers still using many percussion revolver parts were very popular for the simple reason that you could buy them for less than half the cost of a new Peacemaker. There are also the many small-caliber revolvers that were likely for more common than we see in films. I also suspect that simple, rugged, cheap single-shot rifles and single-barrel shotguns of various types were a lot more common than our image of the West would suggest.
Does anyone know of a source that would provide actual numbers on the types of guns used in the Wild West period, say 1866-1899? Maybe there exist somewhere the actual sales records of a large western general store or something like that, recording the numbers and types of guns actually sold?