Guns of the Old West Winter 2023

Guns of the Old West—that is what this magazine is all about. One of the publication’s original goals was to feature firearms that were suitable for use in Western Action Shooting. While there are lots of “Old West” guns out there, some make the grade and some don’t. Much of it depends on what WAS organization you’re affiliated with. The Single Action Shooting Society (SASS) has a Cowboy Action Shooting Shooter’s Handbook. Section 6 is titled “Firearms Covenants.” This covers all the rules and regs for “legal” revolvers, rifles and shotguns. SASS recognizes the desire to enhance the performance of firearms, but only approved modifications enumerated in the handbook (HB) are allowed. Per the SASS HB, “All firearms must be designed to fire by use of an impact mechanism such as…

Over the years, much has been written about Billy Dixon, most of it centered on his unbelievable shot during the Battle of Adobe Walls on June 26, 1874. For readers unfamiliar with this remarkable piece of history, Billy Dixon and 28 others were attacked by a massive group of Indians at daybreak. Dixon and his group were vastly outnumbered. Wellarmed and fortified, they engaged the attackers, resulting in significant Indian casualties over the first two days of battle. On day three, a group of Indians regrouped on a plateau some distance from the Adobe Walls settlement. Dixon shot one of them out of his saddle with a single shot from a Sharps rifle in .50 caliber. These are the “facts” of the story on which most historians and campfire re-tellers agree.…

I recently returned from a trip to Deadwood, South Dakota, where I participated in the 20th Anniversary Cowboy Fast Draw (CFD) U.S. National Championship. This was part of Deadwood’s annual Wild Bill Days celebration. Cowboy Fast Draw was founded in Deadwood 20 years ago by Brad Hemmah, who is Cowboy Fast Draw Association life member number one. At the time Brad, currently retired, was manager of Deadwood’s First Gold Hotel and Casino and the first CFD shoots were held across the street from the First Gold, as was the 20th Anniversary National Championship. So how did we make Cowboy Fast Draw history? Simply by competing in what turned out to be the largest shoot in the entire history of CFD. The 20th Anniversary CFD U.S. National Championship had a total attendance of…

In 1866, Remington began producing a two-shot, over-and-under, .41 Short Rimfire caliber derringer for a New York dentist named William H. Elliot, based on the latter’s original 1865 patented design. Sometimes called the Remington-Elliot derringer, it was more famously marketed as the Remington Double Derringer and least famously as the Model 95. The practical, if uninspiring, Model number nomenclature was applied to it by the company in 1922, so nobody living in the Old West would have ever called it that. Regardless of what you call it, it is the gun we all instantly associate with the word derringer in the Old West context because it is ubiquitous in Western genre film and television. History Lesson In the first year of production, Remington secured the patent rights from Elliot and manufactured it…

THREE DAY WE WELCOME NEW WESTERN GUNS WITH OPEN ARMS. But “new” is a relative term when everything that makes Western guns so desirable is in fact old, and some of it very historically significant. Case in point, the two models featured here, one a striking copy of a factory-engraved Colt 1860 Army presented to General Ulysses S. Grant, and the other a modern interpretation of a design created in the late 1860s by E. Remington and Sons—their short-lived but highly regarded Remington Model 1863 (1858) metallic cartridge conversion. General Grant’s 1860 Army This was a new model from 2022 whose design was firmly rooted in an original 19th century presentation pistol. Not only is this Cimarron F.A. Co. model an exclusive from Pietta, it is copied from the original factory engraved Colt 1860…

BY THE CLOSE OF THE Civil War, muzzleloading percussion firearms had become obsolete. Long arms and handguns firing self-contained metallic cartridges had been perfected and were replacing the weapons firing loose powder and ball. As events heated up out West, with increased Native American uprisings, a new handgun was sought to replace the Colt 1860 Army. The U.S. Army ard took a Ordnance Bo look at the Colt Model 1872 Open Top .44, but was not impressed. However, a few months later Colt introduced the Single Action Army (SAA), which featured a solid frame with a topstrap and a 7.5-inch barrel and was chambered for the .45 Colt cartridge. The frame was color casehardened, the barrel and cylinder were blued and the solid one-piece grips were oil-stained walnut. It was officially…