The Rifle(s) That Won the West

Death Hunt...

Mike,

Funny you should mention the movie, "Death Hunt." I was just visiting with a buddy this past weekend about the real story that the movie was based on. My buddy is an outfitter, and packs a .303 Savage, M99, in his saddle scabbard when working with his clients. Open sighted, he says it's the best and slickest thing for use on a saddle. Yup, Bronson had one in the movie.

A Savage M99 was the last center-fire rifle Albert Johnson owned (if that was indeed his name). It was in 30-30 cal. The R.C.M.P. pursued this man for a month and a half, in some of the most rugged country in North America back in the early 1930's (NW Terr. and the Yukon). The Mounties finally had to submit to using a plane to help bring the fugitive to bay, ending in his death in a real shoot-out. That manhunt is still considered the most famous (if infamous) in all Canadian history. Bronson did a good job playing Albert Johnson in the movie (IMO).

Albert Johnson was known as "The Mad Trapper of Rat River." It truly is an unbelievable story of a man who was the epitome of human survival and stamina. Besides being wanted for murder, he was considered a lunatic, and I'm sure that worked in his favor as he outfoxed the Mounties for a month and a half in the dead of winter in 1932.

If you don't know the story, this is pretty good;

www.dyingwords.net/tag/albert-johnson
 
Sorry...I got the titles of Breakheart pass and Death Hunt mixed up. Death Hunt was the movie I was thinking of with the Savage 99. Great movie..
 
My buddy bought a Shilo Sharps in 45-90. He gave me a sticker that came with it that says" The recreation of the gun that made the west safe for Winchester". I hate to tell him but the Hawken and other big bore front stuffers made the west safe Sharps.
 
Funny. But most of the "big Sharps" rifles came along after the Winchester. You know, Winchester 1866, Winchester 1873, Sharps 1874 . . .;)
 
In the real world, "the gun that won the west" was a trapdoor Springfield, slung over the shoulder or on the saddle boot of a U.S. soldier, one of a long line of men riding or marching westward, the force of an expanding empire.

Jim
 
For a lot of people, the term "winning the west" meant ridding the west of hostile Indians. Repeating rifles played a big role in said extermination. I'm pretty sure General Custer and his crew would have liked to have had a few more Winchesters on their side at the US Army's 1876 "Waterloo".
 
I'm pretty sure General Custer and his crew would have liked to have had a few more Winchesters on their side
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His outfit had turned in their Spencers for Trapdoors. I am sure the repeaters would have been a great help but they were wearing out and the company was out of business, bought up by Winchester to eliminate a competitor and pick up some machine tools cheap.
 
Just out of curiosity since I inherited one I really need to slug the bore for where does the Remington Rolling Block come into the West?
 
There were a few USGI Rolling Blocks but the Army went with the Trapdoor because it started out as a conversion of muzzleloaders and even when new made used a lot of common parts and machinery.

Cattleman Nelson Story armed his drovers with Remingtons but the timeline suggests they were the early "Split Breech" carbines in .56-52 Spencer rimfire, not the Rolling Block .50 usually described.

There were Remingtons among the buffalo hunters and the Remington Creedmoors shot alongside the Sharps in competition.

But Remington's main customers for the Rolling Block were foreign armies and most of what you see now are in various metric calibers from Latin America and Egypt.
 
It shows here the Sharps predated the Henry/Winchester rifles. Bit I still don't think the "Won The West" for Winchester..........His patent date was 1848 and that beats the Henry by several years.
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Howdy Again

The early Sharps models used a paper cartridge and a percussion cap. This was the type that was used in the Civil War. The first Sharps rifle that used metallic cartridges was the model 1869, nine years after the 1860 Henry. (Yes, Henry production did not actually start until 1862, but still earlier than the first Sharps cartridge rifle.) The most commonly recognized Sharps, the one manufactured by most of the replica companies today, was the Model 1874, which actually first appeared in 1871.

And I say again, the phrase 'The Gun That Won The West', was an advertising slogan dreamed up by Winchester about the Model 1873 lever gun. Whether it is true or not, it was just an advertising slogan.
 
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It's hard to say which specific rifle/s won the West as there so many available.

If one had the money to purchase back in the mid 1850s a Springfield musket could be considered.
 
The early Sharps models used a paper cartridge and a percussion cap. This was the type that was used in the Civil War. The first Sharps rifle that used metallic cartridges was the model 1869, nine years after the 1860 Henry. (Yes, Henry production did not actually start until 1862, but still earlier than the first Sharps cartridge rifle.) The most commonly recognized Sharps, the one manufactured by most of the replica companies today, was the Model 1874, which actually first appeared in 1871.
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No matter if its a paper or metal cartridge. A Sharps is still a Sharps. Cabelas used have the Pedersoli made Sharps that took the paper cartridge. I sorta wish I would have bought one back then. They may still carry them but I have stopped buying rifles.
 
We should know the rifle that won the west was the model 92 Winchester from before the civil war to the early 1900's. I know because I've seen all the movies.
 
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