modern Fighting men vs Cowboys Gunslingers of the old west?

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mr bolo

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What would happen if a group of former Special Forces / Delta Operators went back in time to the Old West during the height of the gunfighters era

with the modern fighting man's experience, survival skills , hand to hand combat techniques and training, what would the old timers from the old west do? would they stand a chance?

even a common bar room brawl, the former SF / Delta / SEAL would probably take them down into submission with ease

it would be kind of like in the movie the Magnificent seven but worse
 
OK, I'll play.

Most of the gunfighters of the old west were actually assassins from ambush. They had the ability to coldly murder another man, and would do so at the first chance they got. I think a shootout across a faro table in Abilene would have been a fair fight for any of them.

Now, how about a crate of Garand rifles at the Alamo? Well, two crates.

Or, Custer sending one of his Gatling's across the river with Major Reno and taking the other Gatling with him along the ridge, the guns delaying his arrival at the battle site by one day when Gibbon arrived from the north.
 
-0- contest if you include the SF situational awareness capabilities, and stand-off attack capabilities.
 
One only needs to look to the irregular fighters that both the Soviet Union and the United States faced in Afghanistan for some idea as to what might happen.
 
"What if the man from uncle took a sherman tank to the battle of the little bighorn" SNL

A tank crew go back in time to the little big horn and leave their tank behind. Twilight Zone.

I'm betting our special forces guys will head to NYC and make a killing in the stock market.
 
Just an off- the- cuff opinion but the old west gunfighters might have been slightly less hesitant to resort to lethal violence. That said, Modern tactics and firearms clearly give the overall edge to modern warriors.
 
Modern tactics and firearms clearly give the overall edge to modern warriors.
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You'd think so, wouldn't you? Certainly the Special forces types are going to have a clear edge in combat, twofold, actually. They will have an advantage because of who they are, and what they know how to do (combat training), and they will have an advantage with the modern arms they bring with them. At least, until their ammo runs out.

And that's something likely to happen fairly rapidly, unless they can break from their training enough to not burn through their limited ammo supply in a single fight, or two...

Also, how are they getting around? Modern fighting men, even the cream of the crop are not, as a group well experienced with horses. Certainly not to the lifetime's experience level that nearly everyone in the "gunfighter era" was.

Sure, they'll learn pretty quick, but the curve will be steep.

Also, just for snits and giggles, why not replace your small group of SF warriors with a squad of 1973 draftees? How do you think they would do?

I think it more likely that they, as others have mentioned, would simply "melt into obscurity", and use their modern knowledge to become wealthy.

one Sci-fi book I read, so long ago I no longer recall the title or author, but do recall the bulk of the plot went like this; Rich oil guy's company accidently discovers time travel. Oil guy recruits mercenaries to go back and prevent the fall of the Alamo (and thus Mexican oil lands will be in rich oil guy's family). The kicker is that the time travel is only one way, for living things (cellular replacement - too much time in the past, come back to the present with parts missing)

The Mercs are not told this, they are told they will be retrieved, and well rewarded. One of the lab techs that accidently got sent back with the mercs tell them the truth. They do defend the Alamo, with M14s and M60s. After the fight, and the Mexican army withdraws, the mercs try to figure out what to do.

(this is the point of my telling the story) - One of them says "I'm going to change my name to Sutter, and go to California!" (Alamo 1836, CA goldstrike 1849...) get the point?

And just FYI, in the book, Santa Ana comes back a couple days after the mercs leave, and takes the Alamo. (he is convinced to return by a staff officer who is a "time cop" sent back from further in our future to correct things).

Net result in modern times, the date on which the Alamo fell is a couple days different in the history books than it was before the time travel. And that's all.

its fun speculation.
 
Even WW2-era Airborne types armed with revolvers, lever-action rifles and double-barrel shotguns would devastate the old "gunfighters".
 
I really doubt most gunfighters had the level of training

Modern shooters that train for competition put hundreds of rounds downrange a day. Most western gunfights not even close.
 
"Even WW2-era Airborne types armed with revolvers, lever-action rifles and double-barrel shotguns would devastate the old "gunfighters".


I'm sure that's what the Soviets thought when they rolled into Afghanistan.

Or the US thought when it decided to pick up the French banner in Vietnam.

Didn't work out so great...
 
the modern day SF guys would have to adapt and use the same weapons & technology of the times, no modern day weapons allowed just the highly trained soldiers, they would have to improvise and use what was available
 
mr bolo said:
with the modern fighting man's experience, survival skills , hand to hand combat techniques and training, what would the old timers from the old west do?
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A well-trained modern fighting man would probably be able to win the barroom brawl as long as the old timer didn't have enough friends around.

Afterwards, based on the circumstances of the vast majority of shootings in the west, the old timer or one of his buddies would blow the modern fighting man away by shooting him in the back or from ambush in an alley and that would be the end of it.
 
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At least, until their ammo runs out.
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Yep. Do any of them know how to reload? If we thought it was hard to find small-rifle primers in 2013, imagine finding them in 1886 :p

Other things our time travellers might take for granted would be simple staples like gasoline and antibiotics.
 
I'd think they'd rush off to the patent office and patent their weapons. Make a fortune that way.
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sorry to burst your bubble but

1: are the materials avaible?

2: the machines to make the material?

3: the machines used to make the weapons.?

even if they knew their guns they probably don't know anything about those things...
 
kilimanjaro said:
Go ahead, shoot Wyatt Earp and get lynched for it
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Both Morgan Earp (killed) and Virgil Earp (severely wounded) were shot from ambush and no one lynched the shooters, why do you believe that anyone would get lynched for shooting Wyatt?
 
I dare say Wild Bill Hickok or John Wesley Hardin could out-shoot any of us. They were the root'n'est, toot'n'est gunslingers this side of Appalachia
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I thought Hardin was the backshooter type.

But Hickock.... sheesh. That dude shot a man through the heart at 70 yards while under fire with one shot from a cap and ball revolver.
 
I agree, the bad men of the Old West weren't shooters, they were killers.
They would not give your modern weapons and honed skills an opening.
Doesn't matter how good you are if you are shot in the back at dinner, or your rooming house burned down over your heads, or if your dance hall girl is paid to take a straight razor to you as you sleep.

I have read a good number of the time travel and interplanetary derivatives of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Even with the author playing both hands, some times it works and some times it doesn't.
I recall the post apocalyptic character looking at his digital watch and thinking that when the battery ran down, he would be back to sundial and sand glass.
 
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