Cowboys and guns in the 19th century

Not that I'm any expert, but Nat Love also appears to have a Thunderer or Lightning stuck in his belt in cross-draw fashion. I can't see the grip very well (which would tell me for sure if it was on of these early DA revolvers), but the trigger guard looks like it's one of those. IMHO anyhoo.....:confused:
 
Another thought......if we get back to the Texas cowboys heading up to Kansas on the trail drives, although they didn't get paid much- it all came in at the end of the trail. It must have been a fair amount of cash because of all the gamblers, dance hall girls, and other souls in various states of grace that showed up in such places to rid the cowhands of their hard earned pay. In any event it seems that they must have had enough cash to buy a nice revolver if they wanted to. Some revolvers had better grips, engraving, etc- probably more for the trail boss, etc.
I think the same can be said about the famous "$100 saddle on a $20 horse". The cowpokes were likely pretty easy with the cash when they got their hands on it.
I think both Colt and S & W have company historians. You send them $10 or whatever it is these days and they tell you Grandfather's Colt or S & W with serial number XYZ was shipped to Smith's hardware, Silver Cliff WY Terr 18XX.
In any event the amount of guns shipped West versus the population in the West could probably be compiled to get an accurate count on how many guns per person were in the area.
In the 1900-1910 period even my Grandmother went around with a small handgun for self defense. I think it was pretty common in those days.
 
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In any event the amount of guns shipped West versus the population in the West could probably be compiled to get an accurate count on how many guns per person were in the area.
Click to expand...

And you could add a pretty fair number of eastern and mid-"western" addresses to those as well. The settlers and cowhands had to come from somewhere, and they likely planned ahead.

P.S. Colt factory letters on SAAs run $100+ these days.
 
well i come from a long line of farmers and ranchers (my family was in western Nebraska before 1880) and it seems logical that most westerners would have had working guns. Its already been pointed out a couple times but the possibility of getting thrown from a horse and having a foot stuck in the stirrup is a very real event. In fact i grew up on a ranch in northern Wyoming and i know for a fact that at least one man was drug to death in one of the pastures as late as the 1950s. Now the practicality of being able to draw a pistol and shoot the horse while being drug would be extremely difficult but people have done more extreme things when its life or death. I also now several people who use guns to work difficult cattle, my dad used a 22lr with shot shells regularly to work the bulls and ive heard other stories of sawed off .410 shotguns to work problem cattle. However my grandpa owns several rifles and a couple of shotguns but he no longer owns any pistols (he used to have wore out broken revolver that must have got lost along the way). I am no historian but from growing up in the ranch lifestyle it makes sense to me that a lot of cowboys would have had a rifle for hunting and a pistol for emergencies. Now that being said i doubt that there where many large caliber guns. In fact most of my grandpas guns are 22lr that they shot 22 shorts in because it didn't tear up rabbits as bad.
 
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