Did Cowboys Carry Pistols?
- Thread starter Old Bill Dibble
- Start date
I can't verify it, either, but biographer W. T. Hagan in Charles Goodnight: Father of the Texas Panhandle, supports the parts about drinking, swearing, and fighting.
However, he also reports that Goodnight himself described his employees as "(his)...bunch of good men, well armed and good shots."
Goodnight himself, per the same source, was responsible for sending along to their reward an unspecified number of bad actors in his day.
"The very fact of owning and riding a horse makes one automatically superior to the mere pedestrian-to-be-regarded-as-a-lesser-being."
Maybe, but that didn't apply to many "cowboys" who often didn't own their horses or much of anything else. Many were "drifters", who got around by train, or hitching rides on wagons. (In a later era, they would be called "hobos" or "vagrants".) When they got work on a ranch, they would be sold an outfit or clothing as needed, cost to be docked from future pay. They didn't usually own a horse; the horses belonged to the ranch. They were put on the line in the morning by the hostler and the cowboys took the next in line as they got ready to ride out. (For a modern comparison, my HVAC company works the same way with its trucks.)
Many ranches banned carrying handguns of any kind, except under very unusual circumstances. Rifles would be issued to line riders who might be expected to need them. Again, the weapons belonged to the ranch, not to the individual "cowboy". If a man got a job on many ranches, he turned in his gun; it would be returned when he left.
Jim
Maybe, but that didn't apply to many "cowboys" who often didn't own their horses or much of anything else. Many were "drifters", who got around by train, or hitching rides on wagons. (In a later era, they would be called "hobos" or "vagrants".) When they got work on a ranch, they would be sold an outfit or clothing as needed, cost to be docked from future pay. They didn't usually own a horse; the horses belonged to the ranch. They were put on the line in the morning by the hostler and the cowboys took the next in line as they got ready to ride out. (For a modern comparison, my HVAC company works the same way with its trucks.)
Many ranches banned carrying handguns of any kind, except under very unusual circumstances. Rifles would be issued to line riders who might be expected to need them. Again, the weapons belonged to the ranch, not to the individual "cowboy". If a man got a job on many ranches, he turned in his gun; it would be returned when he left.
Jim
stonewall50
New member
Yea. And that's what I'm talking about. Relativity. A farmer could probably decide if he needed to take a gun with him out to the edge of the fields and so on. The cowboy didn't get they luxury. He pretty much had to have one as part of the tool kit.
Both had guns. Why wouldn't they? One just didn't always need it right on him lol.
Sent from my grapefruit using smoke signals.
Pathfinder45
New member
Here, y'all; right out of the horse's mouth, an eye witness account of the cowboys and their gear, with revolvers, on Theodore Rooseveldt's ranch in the early 1880's; just read pages 10-12 to stay on topic: https://archive.org/details/huntingtripsranch04roosrich
Driftwood Johnson
New member
Thanks for posting the book by TR.
OldMarksman
Staff
As Mike Irwin has opined, the on-the-belt "tool kit" of someone roping, notching, branding, and rounding up cattle on the open range would be inconvenient enough without large belt pistols.
My uncle knew no one who carried them in open range New Mexico. There are none in any of the photos.
Add fencing maintenance and one would see even fewer.
Pathfinder45
New member
Keeping in mind that the West has mostly been made civilized for somewhat more than a century, now, those who work livestock from the back of a horse haven't had much to worry about in the realm of marauding Indians, rustlers, or range disputes lately. At least not to the point where the choice of not carrying a weapon on horseback would have any measurable effect on the likelyhood of it being a life-or-death decision. It's simply an unneccesary impediment to an otherwise hard enough job. But in the days before the frontier was settled, being armed was much more of a neccessity, even if it was sometimes inconvenient. Sleeping with a loaded revolver right in your bed?!?!? Why, yes, in a dangerous world, it's a comforting thing. Really.
Mike Irwin
Staff
"Here, y'all; right out of the horse's mouth, an eye witness account of the cowboys and their gear, with revolvers, on Theodore Rooseveldt's ranch in the early 1880's; just read pages 10-12 to stay on topic: https://archive.org/details/huntingtripsranch04roosrich"
Once again, NO ONE in this thread is saying that cowboys NEVER carried handguns!
It is obvious that they did.
What IS being said, however, is that that the vision many of us have of cowboys as being armed no matter what they were doing -- riding, roping, eating, sleeping, drinking, screwing or -CENSORED--CENSORED--CENSORED--CENSORED-ting -- IS A MYTH.
For God's sake, it is NOT a black/white, yes/no, on/off, 1/0 issue.
Once again, NO ONE in this thread is saying that cowboys NEVER carried handguns!
It is obvious that they did.
What IS being said, however, is that that the vision many of us have of cowboys as being armed no matter what they were doing -- riding, roping, eating, sleeping, drinking, screwing or -CENSORED--CENSORED--CENSORED--CENSORED-ting -- IS A MYTH.
For God's sake, it is NOT a black/white, yes/no, on/off, 1/0 issue.
johnwilliamson062
Moderator
I don't know how you've lasted this long around here with an attitude like that
FrankenMauser
New member
I, for one, appreciate this commentary.
I'm a veterinarian who, now in my older years, has a dog and cat practice, but when younger also did horses and cattle, and when still younger did a fair bit of ranch work. I have little expertise in history, but my own experiences tell me that having a gun on the saddle, or on one's hip during a day in the saddle, would be a lot easier to take than having a heavy revolver on one's hip for a day of hands-on work with the stock, fence work, or any of the other less romanticized aspects of ranch work. I personally have a hard time believing that there weren't different approaches to different tasks back then.
The cartoons were funny. I don't remember if it was the same artist or not, but I saw one once in which one cowpoke asked another, "If someone gave you a million dollars, what would you do?" The reply: "I reckon I'd just keep ranching until it was gone."
The cartoons were funny. I don't remember if it was the same artist or not, but I saw one once in which one cowpoke asked another, "If someone gave you a million dollars, what would you do?" The reply: "I reckon I'd just keep ranching until it was gone."