100 year old gunfighting manual by Bat Masterson FOUND and online free!

right click on the "here" in the bottom sentence 'click here to read'
choose 'save link as'
save it to your pc somewhere.

worked for me.
 
Well yeah, he apparently wrote it under contract for Savage. But there are VERY few gunfighting manuals available from the actual "old west" period. This may be the most detailed available.
 
Ya...I've just started to read this thing and...good Lord, I hope he gets to the good part?

Yikes.

See...Bat was a funny character. Really rode both sides of the law at various times. Hell, at the Adobe Walls fight, everybody present with white skin was poaching buffalo on ceded land to the Kiowa and Cheyenne...who by that point were so close you might as well have called them one tribe. Anyways. Rather than seeing that fight as "civilized whites versus savages", the tribes were acting in a very proper role as game wardens. :rolleyes:

So. Another funny Masterson story I've heard is that in retirement (well into the 20th Century) he had a cool way of making some extra cash. He'd go to local pawn shops or the like and buy crappy old guns and resell 'em with a "letter of authenticity" to the effect of "OWNED BY BAT MASTERSON, FAMOUS FRONTIER GUNFIGHTER AND LAWMAN!!!1!" or whatever. Yup. Since just last week in fact :D.

So...if the rest of this is as bad as the first 1/3rd...sigh...oh well. :)
 
But it's period drivel. ;)

It's advertising, and it's interesting to compare it with the way self-defense guns are marketed now; things haven't really changed much.

Start by stressing how awful the competition is: "...the generally known unmanageableness of the revolving pistol, or ordinary revolver."

Note that this is the very latest technology: "... a new automatic magazine pistol that so far outclasses the all the other pocket firearms that there can be no fair comparison."

Claim that it will instantly make you an expert, with no actual work on your part: "With a few minutes' practise a beginner can shoot it quicker and at the same time straighter than a six-shooter was ever shot by the cleverest gun expert the old frontier ever knew."

Heck, you don't even have to aim it: "... you can't help but point it straight, just as you can't help but point straight instinctively with your finger."

Finally, nothing sells like sex and violence: doesn't that picture of the lady in her boudoir fending off the "predator" coming though the window conjure up images of what might have happened if she hadn't had a Savage to protect her? :eek:

Not much has changed, it seems, except the hairdos.
 
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In between the advertising for that lunker of a .32, there are a few practical bits about the importance of rapid point-shooting at close distances, extensive practice, and such.
 
So the advertizing hasn't changed all that much. It just got condensed:

"Perfection"

You all know who uses that line, now don't you? :D

Bart Noir
 
Not much has changed, it seems, except the hairdos
Click to expand...
Yep.

No woman who has the Savage Automatic need be afraid. Shoots straight without aiming and every crook fears it.
Click to expand...

Replace "Savage Automatic" with "pump shotgun," and I hear that exact phrase several times a day. :rolleyes:

Yeah, it's adspeak hyperbole, but it's a neat piece of history.
 
It is however, Very interesting and thanks for the link. I just scanned through it.

It is however, a piece of corporate advertizing. The emphasis on point shooting, unflattering comparisons of single and double action revolvers and the Savage automatic pistol, really creates a question in my mind just how “realistic” the text and the advice. When articles and books are commissioned by advertizing bureaus, don’t expect the message to be anything but an advertisement, and don’t expect plain unvarnished truth either.
 
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