Did Cowboys Carry Pistols?

"The 357 magnum was created during the 1930's at the request of LE agencies after some high profile failures of common rounds of the day including 38 Special, 44 Special, 45ACP and 45 Colt."

Actually, no.

The primary drive behind the .357 Magnum cartridge was a sporting round.

The men who pushed for the .357 were Phil Sharpe and Elmer Keith.

S&W had answered the call of police in the 1920s with the .38-44 Heavy Duty round, which proved to be more than capable of fulfilling the needs of police at that time.

Remember how the .357 revolver was introduced -- as a custom shop, largely hand made handgun that came with a registration certificate.

It was nearly double the cost of an N frame in .38-44, meaning that it was WELL beyond the means of virtually every law enforcement officer in the country.

Some police organizations did purchase .357 Magnums prior to World War II, but they were very few, and very far between.

It wasn't until after World War II that S&W began pushing the .357 toward police forces with the Model 28 (a less expensive version of the Model 27) and the Model 19, but fact is, very few police forces ever wholesale adopted the .357 Magnum-chambered revolver.

Until the last gasp of the police revolver in the 1970s with the advent of the wonder 9 revolution, the .38 Special revolver ruled the roost.
 
It was nearly double the cost of an N frame in .38-44, meaning that it was WELL beyond the means of virtually every law enforcement officer in the country.
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Howdy Again

I will agree with just about everything you said about the early 357 Magnum revolvers; custom made, designed for sporting use, registration certificate, etc., except the price.

According to Roy Jinks, the official S&W historian, in his 1977 book, History of Smith and Wesson, the 357 Magnum had "a retail price of $60 -$15 above the selling price of any other handgun offered by the firm".

This was of course 1935 dollars.
 
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http://thechive.com/2015/08/20/15-of-the-most-infamous-and-deadly-gunslingers-in-history-15-photos/
Supposedly this is a picture of Wyatt Earp with guns and horse. Not sure what year.

Thanks DJ - pic removed.

What are your thoughts on the Wyatt Earp photo - real of actor?
 
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I think the correct answer to the original question is that some did and some didn't. There was a lot of variation to the cowboy experience from right after the Civil War until the early 1900's. In the early days, it was a wide-open frontier, unfenced, untamed, and yes, there were hostile Indians. Initially, it wasn't about ranching. It was about rounding up feral cattle in Texas that belonged to no one, and driving the herd north across a territory inhabited by nomadic warriors that you hoped to avoid, to get to a railroad served town in Kansas like Hays, Abilene, and Dodge City, and selling the herd for hopefully a handsome profit. If you did happen to encounter a sizable group of less than friendly Indians, the prospect of trading off a few head of cattle in exchange for an unopposed transit though the territory would be a lot more likely if you were prepared for the alternative. By 1868, those tribes were well armed and eager to fight. Can you imagine a cattle drive in that era with no guns? Later on, after the Indian question was settled and the buffalo were nearly extinct, the coming of barbed wire and the formation ranches, the world of the cowboy was different too. Confined to a working ranch, with no Indians to interfere, there might be little if any need for a pistol. But just when it looks like you don't need guns anymore, a range war erupts. And y'all have heard the saying: "If you ride for the brand, you fight for the brand." Here is a link to an article with a list of guns used in the Johnson County Range War: http://www.thefirearmsforum.com/threads/johnson-county-war-wyoming-article-1892.94380/
The list is dominated by two brands: Winchester and Colt.
 
Hollywood has, I believe, has largely created the image of the heroic cowboy dripping with 6 shooters shoved in highly tooled holsters and bound in silver.

I think the actual reality is FAR different.

I have no doubt that handguns were worn on drives and while "riding the range," but working cattle or horses (branding, gelding, etc.) while wearing a handgun was a recipe for injury or death if it got snagged by a rope. It would also be very much in the way during strenuous activities.

One also has to remember the cost of a Smith, Colt, Remington, etc., large frame revolver was significant -- up to a month's salary, or more.

I think it likely that most cowboys owned guns, just not the guns that Hollywood likes to make us think they owned.

If they owned a handgun, I think it likely that it would have been one of the small, cheap, moderate power guns like a S&W, H&R, etc breaktop in .32 or .38 or a similar solid frame model by Colt, F&W, or the like.

I own my Great Grandfather's cowboy gun. He worked as a cowboy in the Dakotas in the 1890s and early 1900s. His choice of gun was an H&R breaktop in .32 S&W.

I think it's far more likely that a cowboy would have owned either a rifle or a shotgun, something that would have been a lot more useful.
 
Regarding photos of "cowboys," there are actually very few photos of cowboys actually working.

The nature of camera equipment at the time, and the speed of the films, made action shots very difficult.

It's thought that most of the "action" shots that were made were in one way or another posed.

Studio portraits aren't a very good indicator of reality, as the photographers often kept a large number of props to be used by people sitting for a portrait. I forget where I read it, but a large collection of 1880s-1890s glass negatives from a Plains studio survived, and they were being examined and in some cases printed. One of the conservators noticed that in quite a few of the photos the same knife and long gun (both distinctive, the rifle apparently due to some sort of decoration on it) kept showing up, but being held by many different people, in at least one case even a woman.
 
I'm noticing in this threat that we have a VERY wide definition of what constitutes a cowboy.

I think the original poster was asking in terms of those individuals who actually worked with cattle and the like -- ranch hands.

Yet the conversation quickly skewed towards all sorts of NON cowboys -- lawmen, frontier settlers, gunfighters, etc.

Not every person in the old west was an actual cowboy.

Of course peace officers and gunfighters are going to have handguns. Sort of a tool of the trade.

But they're not cowboys.
 
"I have a well worn 1903 Colt SAA 4 3/4" in 32-20 that came off a ranch in Texas and certainly did not spend it's days languishing on a peg in the gun cabinet."

No one's saying that these guns languished anywhere. Languishing infers only very limited use.

What is being said, though, and as Jim makes a good point of it, some of these ranches issued firearms when there was a need for them to be carried, just like they issued saws, branding irons, and other tools necessary to the smooth functioning of a working ranch.
 
"A whole lot of civil war veterans had cap and ball revolvers.
Not every "cowboy"gun was a Colt Peacemaker.
By 1892,the US Gov't had purchased 37,000 SAA's.Production was 144,000.
First Gens ceased production 1940,with over 357,000 produced."

Smith & Wesson made a similar number of their No 3 revolvers in all frame types, but most of those went to foreign military contracts.

M&H made somewhat a lesser number.

All told, it's very likely that large frame classic "cowboy guns" of the kind we envision a cowboy carrying totaled about 1 million produced during the classic cowboy era, from about 1870 to say 1910.

By contrast, I don't think it's at all out of the question that the production of small frame revolvers -- from the crappiest "suicide special" to the best breaktop S&W -- numbered WELL into the millions, possibly over 10 million, during the same time frame.

Add in the single shots and Remington double deuces, and you've got truly staggering numbers.
 
I am more curious about the holsters that were actually used when wearing a firearm. I do not expect they were "quick draw" by any means.
 
The majority of holsters were designed to protect the firearm and enclosed most of it.

If the excellent book "Packing Iron Gunleather of the Frontier West" is any indication, little more than the grip of the sixgun showed and most trigger guards were nearly covered.

The leather also "hugged" the gun to keep it in place.
 
The majority of holsters were designed to protect the firearm and enclosed most of it.

If the excellent book "Packing Iron Gunleather of the Frontier West" is any indication, little more than the grip of the sixgun showed and most trigger guards were nearly covered.

The leather also "hugged" the gun to keep it in place.
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They also didn't have straps or hammer thongs to keep guns in place. Another reason not to wear one while working. The low slung buscadero or fast draw rig with leg ties didn't exist.
 
I have always sort of assumed that there weren't as many high noon shoot outs as believed. Even the ones that did happen are exaggerated. I read an article about the bill hickock "duel" in Missouri. He supposedly drew and fired, nailed the bad guy in the heart at an extreme distance. What's more amazing is that he corrected for wind and elevation to make that three inch hit with one hand. Would the writer embellish facts?

I really like the stack of dimes story. As if someone would really throw away five dollars.
 
I have always sort of assumed that there weren't as many high noon shoot outs as believed. Even the ones that did happen are exaggerated. I read an article about the bill hickock "duel" in Missouri. He supposedly drew and fired, nailed the bad guy in the heart at an extreme distance. What's more amazing is that he corrected for wind and elevation to make that three inch hit with one hand. Would the writer embellish facts?

I really like the stack of dimes story. As if someone would really throw away five dollars.
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It wasn't exactly a fast draw deal. he braced across his left arm. Nobody knows what kind of gun he used but some say it was a Dragoon which would have made making the shot easier. The dimes story is bogus.
 
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