It is the 1800's, what are you carrying?

That sounds like a person with a bad disposition, especially at the card table. Everyone else has heavy duty weapons and you got a sword cane and a pocket pistol!

I like that because it scares me for some reason.

Why, thank you sir. You are obviously a man of thought and distinction to have such elevated thinking. Please, set down and have a drink, my treat. Let's just sit here and watch these others give away their hands, shall we? ;)

(heh heh heh) :D

The Doc is out now - and a survivor. :cool:
 
It's 1800's what I'm carrying is:

Well, I've been a Cowboy since I first started ridin' my own horse at about age 10. During my first cattle drive from Abilene, north to Kansas, I agreed to watch over the herd at night while the rest of the crew slept. I was paid a little extra for that work and saved up and bought a used Colt Single Action revolver with a 4-1/2" barrel, a few months later I bought a second used Colt that matched the first one. It was almost another 6 months before I was able to save enough money to buy a rifle. The rifle I choose was a used Winchester 73. Before I bought it, I made sure it used the same cartridges my two revolvers used. Sometime after buying that rifle I got a small double shot deringer, I couldn't buy one this time that used the same cartridges as my other three guns. Something else about this deringer, it was brand new. After the cattle drive I returned home to find a letter from my mother who lived in Nebraska. My father had died and left an almost new double barreled shotgun, with it was a box of shells that had only three shells missing. I continued watching livestock at night for several of the ranchers in and around Abilene. I enjoyed the work and was able to prevent some rustling from two different ranches. These two ranchers talked to other ranchers and soon they wanted to hire me to watch for rustlers. They talked the local Sheriff into giving me a deputy's job while they paid my wages. From that point on I was able to save up a great deal of my pay check, most of the ranchers wives were happy to feed me and I always had a decent place to spend my days. Shortly after the new lever action Winchester shotguns became available in 1887, I bought a brand new one. When the new Winchester pump shotgun arrived I bought the first one to arrive in our town, it was a beaut, the year was 1897. I'm darn old now, and looking back, I guess I'll have to say life was good, I got to do what I wanted to do. I made a lot of money for being just a Cowboy, most of my money I spent on guns and women, the rest I just wasted.

Nite Ryder
 
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drlaw
"Why, thank you sir. You are obviously a man of thought and distinction to have such elevated thinking. Please, set down and have a drink, my treat. Let's just sit here and watch these others give away their hands, shall we?"

I will take that offer sir. Always appreciating good drink bought by another feller. Especially a man with a mind like yourself.

They always say "Don't bring a knife to a gunfight." But you got to wonder about the man that brings a knife anyway, even though he knows the sayin.
 
I know it's the movies, but...

They always say "Don't bring a knife to a gunfight." But you got to wonder about the man that brings a knife anyway, even though he knows the sayin.

In the MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, James Coburn does fairly well in the gunfight with his switchblade. A blade was a handy thing to have in the olden days, even though most gunfights were from people shooting from behind or otherwise in ambush. The 'showdown' was pretty much a thing of Hollywood invention with the exception of William Hickock's Springfield, Mo. shooting.

Yes, sir, we shall watch the others and know what they are carrying as we sit, backs to the wall, enjoying whatever rotgut is being served and a genteel game of chance.

The Doc is out now. :cool:
 
Caliber 44-40 (Texas tradition)

On me - two blue Colt SAA revolvers 4 5/8 barrel - engraved with ivory grips, and a Bowie knife with ivory scales.

On my horse - Winchester 73, some type of double-barrelled 12 guage, extra SAA in the saddle bag.

And I'd be a lawman of some sort, of course.
 
There is also an Abilene in Texas
that's great. but from your link
Described as "the Future Great City of West Texas," Abilene was established in March 1881 upon the completion of the Texas & Pacific Railroad.
Abilene Kansas would have likely been his destination on his first cattle drive.
quoted from wiki

However, as soon as 1867, a cattle shipping facility was built west of farm country around the railhead at Abilene, Kansas, and became a center of cattle shipping, loading over 36,000 head of cattle that year.[5] The route from Texas to Abilene became known as the Chisholm Trail,
 
Abilene Kansas would have likely been his destination on his first cattle drive.
quoted from wiki

True, Abilene, KS would likely have been his destination from Texas. But what he said was,
During my first cattle drive from Abilene, north to Kansas,

So Abilene was the starting point, in Texas, going to Kansas.
 
So Abilene was the starting point, in Texas, going to Kansas.
OK fine if thats the case then I'd like to know why the heck you would drive cattle from Abilene TX to Kansas when Abilene TX has a railroad to it from day one.
I was trying to point out a mistake in his story you guy's arguing that his statement is correct is making him just look stoopid.thanks guys.
 
In reality on early cattle drives very few cowboys even had them new fangled repeters.and none would have '73 winchesters let alone a brace of used ones.
were I a cowboy on a late 1860s cattle drive I'd want a Henry although I'd easily give up a little firepower for a harder hitting Spencer in 56-50 and I'd do what I could to get my hands on one or the other but until then I'd be happy with my Sharps carbine that had been converted to 50 govt.
as for revolvers whatever colts or remmy cap and balls I could scrounge I'd prefer 44s maybe after the first couple drives I could save enough to have them converted to 44 colt.
 
1871 was the last big year for cattle in Abilene Ks. 1885 saw the last trail herd of Texas cattle to Dodge City so that would be feasible. Also in 1885 Kansas legislature banned all Texas cattle from the entire state of Kansas.
 
nice story,But you might change that to Austin as Abilene is in Kansas.
I'd say it's rather rude to interrupt a man's dream with nitpicking. Admit it, you didn't know there was an Abilene in Texas until this thread. ;)
 
Admit it, you didn't know there was an Abilene in Texas until this thread.
No I didn't,I just know quite a bit about the cattle drives and knew Abilene Ks. as the end of the Chisolm trail.
It took about 2 minutes to realize that Abilene Tx was established as a railhead which makes it silly to argue that "1885 saw the last trail herd of Texas cattle to Dodge City so that would be feasible."
Because Abilene Tx already had a railroad why would you drive cattle all the way to Dodge city Ks to put them on the railcars when you just had to go to the edge of town.
the drives in the 1880s were mostly from the panhandle of Tx north of Amarillo where it was closer to Dodge than the other railheads in Tx. or thes drives ended in Wyoming and such.
 
Yeah well, in my fantasies I'm 180lbs of muscle, look like Brad Pitt and shoot like Bob Munden. Wouldn't want anybody to interrupt me with the truth while I was daydreamin'! ;)

To answer the original question, the romantic in me would want an 1860 Richards-Mason or Transition model cartridge conversion .44Colt and probably an 1873 Winchester .44-40 or maybe a `66. Or maybe I'd want a true rifle and tote a big `76 .50-95 in my scabbard.

The realist in me says that my life depends on these guns and would want a 4¾" Single Action Army and Winchester `92 for state of the art weaponry. Both in .44-40, or an `86 instead.
 
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