If famous gunfighters existed in the modern day, what would they choose?

hmm please elaborate....
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Good guys and bad are products of their environment. In days of yesteryear, each town had it's own law. They simply hired a sheriff or town marshall who needed to be as tough or tougher than the outlaws, and weren't regulated by the county or state (or territory) to the extent they are today.

Neither were US Marshals, Texas Rangers, etc. where deadly force and treatment of outlaws was concerned. A trail boss could hang a cattle or horse thief from the highest cottonwood and chances are he'd answer to no one.

Obviously, todays LE has all kinds of regulations to obey. Federal, State, County and even City. Even department regulations.

All have one thing in common. Law enforcement did, and does, arm themselves with modern weaponry.
 
Think they would carry a card with the number of a very good lawyer?!
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Yep. I remember reading some of Charlie Askins' books and thinking that he wouldn't last a week in the current legal climate.

The world has moved on, and the gunslinger isn't glamorized like he was in the past.
 
Most real "gun fighters" were about accuracy more so than many random shots. Guns of the day also had a lot of power, I think you would see lots of 1911's, P-220's etc etc. Things with a lot of power, low to medium ammo capacity but good accuracy.
 
Makes no never mind what they carry. The difference between them and you is that they had absolutely no compunction about killing someone. By the time you made up your mind what you were going to do, you would have already been shot.
It's all a matter of mindset. How you kill them is just a matter of what is handy. A short barreled shotgun saw a lot of use back then. Some famous gunfighter was quoted as saying that "I looked him square in the back, and shot him dead." It's all mindset.
 
I think they would obtain a weapon system appropriate for the expected tasks / situations.

Then they would choose to become intimately familiar with it and practice.
 
I got a laugh out of some ones post. Saying how law enforcement use new age weapons. I work for a small town sheriffs office. We still have issued defender 1200 shotguns, 3 of the 6 deputies use smith m and p model 10's. Two use series 70 colts that if you shook to hard the slide would fall off. And I carry a kember 1911. Not a single ar, 870, or other fancy up to date guns. We go by one saying at or office. Don't fix what isn't broke. Haha
 
"I got a laugh out of some ones post. Saying how law enforcement use new age weapons. I work for a small town sheriffs office. We still have issued defender 1200 shotguns, 3 of the 6 deputies use smith m and p model 10's. Two use series 70 colts that if you shook to hard the slide would fall off. And I carry a kember 1911. Not a single ar, 870, or other fancy up to date guns. We go by one saying at or office. Don't fix what isn't broke. Haha"

It sounds like your agency does not provide handguns or if they do they are sub standard! Sounds like you carry a quality "KIMBER" but not to many others on your department.

I can just about guarantee that after being involved in just one shooting and surviving you will carry the best weapon money can buy and also have at least one backup and the best vest!!
The majority of the old west gunfighters bought their own hardware!
 
modern gunfighters

There are some "modern gunfighters". Jim Cirillo comes to mind, as does Charles Askins. Texas Ranger Hamer, and his crew who ambushed Bonnie and Clyde were gunfighters. The FBI had a heavy squad that was charged w/ stopping the Dillinger "automobile bandits".

Their hardware is pretty much a matter of record and makes for interesting reading.
 
I'm guessing that the old time gunslingers would NOT chose a Hi-Point or a Judge...LOL!!!!
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On the contrary, they would all choose Hi-Points because it is common knowledge that they will all shoot 50,456,738 rounds before anything breaks.:D
 
One thing y'all are forgetting is Wild Bill died in 1876. He carried Colt 51 Navies. .36 caliber cap and ball revolvers. He had newer guns for sure but he always carried those. They were elaborately engraved and had carved Ivory grips but were still cap and ball. Some sources say when he killed Tutt he used either a Dragoon or a S&W .32 which I find unlikely.
 
Since Hickock died in 1876 (same year my grandmother was born), and the Colt Single Action Army came out in 1973, it shouldn't be imagined that every hardware store and gunsmith from St. Louis to San Francisco had them for sale. There were so-called transitional arms that were used and some guns were also converted, or so I am led to believe, and there were competing makes as well. Nevertheless, it is a fact that some early gunfighters were quite conservative in their armament. Many lawmen carried single actions down into the 1940s, some skipping double action revolvers entirely, going directly to automatics long before they were as popular as they are today. The automatics were invariably Colt Government Models.

I think it is interesting that some early modern day students of gunfighting went back to the early Western gunfighting to study their techniques. Some of the early ones were still around in the 1930s, too, same as many who went west before the Civil War in wagon trains on the Oregon Trail. But now, even those early students are all gone. Rex Applegate did his research over 60 years ago.

Who are today's gunfighters anyway?

OK; it was supposed to be 1873. How many even noticed?
 
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He means there's plenty of punks runnibg around killing people.

How many people did these gunfighters of yesteryear kill? I'm sure that we have plenty of punks who have killed as much or more as Billy the Kid or whomever.

I think that if billy the Kid were here, he'd carry a stolen Glock with no holster.
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I agree. The gunslingers of yesteryear were notable because they killed openly, which was a rare occurrence. Today, they would be un-noticed among the Mexican mafia, Colombian drug cartels, Bloods, Crips, and other whacko gangs that are out there.
 
Yankee Doodle said:
Makes no never mind what they carry. The difference between them and you is that they had absolutely no compunction about killing someone. By the time you made up your mind what you were going to do, you would have already been shot.
It's all a matter of mindset. How you kill them is just a matter of what is handy. A short barreled shotgun saw a lot of use back then. Some famous gunfighter was quoted as saying that "I looked him square in the back, and shot him dead." It's all mindset.
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Exactly, the whole notion of the "gunfight" is romanticized clap trap. Two steely eyed men facing each other down at high noon.:rolleyes:

Just examine the very term gunfight a fight with guns? Sounds like you could get seriously injured or dead in a hurry participating in one of those.

I'll submit that the vast majority of shootings, then and now, are just that shootings. Just as so called knife fights are in fact stabbings and/or a slashing. You know what the law refers to as assaults and homicides, justifiable. or not as the case may be.

One of the gurus of martial arts wisdom ( i can't remember whom) stated that "people don't use weapons to fight, they use them to win". So my vote is: they would use whatever weapon they thought they could win with; just like they did back then.
 
TWO of the best gunfighters this country has ever produced are still alive today. The youngest of the two put 33 bullets in men. He survived at least two assassination attempts and killed all four of the perps, two at a time.
Since it appears no one here reads anymore we have the title of this string to deal with.
 
Today's gunfighters use : M-4
M-9
M-203
M-16A2
and various LAW rockets, .50 cals, etc...

Thanks to the gunfighters who are working at this very minute in Afghanistan, Iraq, and several other unknown locations!

More to the OP's point.... probably the most efficient, modern weapons that suited each individual's tast.... but I like to imagine it would be a quality 1911-type weapon, with a subcompact glock for backup!
 
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