Your Gunslinging Heroes

J

JarYetz

New member
Hey folks!

I'm curious...who does the black powder community look up to as the greats, and why? If not the community, who do you look up to personally? I don't care if they're modern or historic, characters (Clint Eastwood) or real (Wild Bill).
 
Lucas McCain. He did what he said, and said what he did. Lucas always tried to do what was right, and never backed down when he knew he was right

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But my real-life heroes are racers, a dead Scotsman named Jimmy Clark, and an American named Dan Gurney
 
John Johnston, aka "Crow Killer" Johnston, the real-life mountain man the movie "Jeremiah Johnson" was loosely based on. Smart, tough, adaptable, and he knew when to say "Enough".
 
Historical-Confederate Cavalry General J.E.B. Stuart with his pair of LeMat Revolvers.
Modern- Clint Eastwood as The Confederate Guerrilla Josey Wales with his pair of Walkers.
 
Clint Eastwood, of course.

He and his movies have done more for the emergence and availability of replica weapons than any other factor. Without those movies, I doubt any of us would own replica BP guns now.

The pistols in his spaghetti westerns were commissioned from Italian gunmakers because actual antique pistols were too expensive. The Italian guns were so good that it created a whole industry when people realized they could afford those guns.

His movies, especially the later ones, paid much more attention to historical accuracy (in guns) that previous movies didn't do. Some were BP converted to cartridge, but still accurate otherwise.
 
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (September 8, 1828 – February 24, 1914) was an American college professor from the State of Maine, who volunteered during the American Civil War to join the Union Army. Although having no earlier education in military strategies, he became a highly respected and decorated Union officer, reaching the rank of brigadier general (and brevet major general). For his gallantry at Gettysburg, he was awarded the Medal of Honor. He was given the honor of commanding the Union troops at the surrender ceremony for the infantry of Robert E. Lee's Army at Appomattox, Virginia. After the war, he entered politics as a Republican and served four terms of office as Governor of Maine. He served on the faculty of, and as president of, his alma mater, Bowdoin College.
 
Hickok and the Younger boys, partly cause I married a Younger.........



Clint does rock tough I love a good spaghetti western
 
Nate,

You married a Younger what? A younger than you girl? Sorry, but could not pass that by.

I don't think the BP community, per se, looks up to anyone. Why would you, or we? The firearms of the day you seem to be asking about were the best they could attain. They were no more heroes for what they did with the firearms available to them than today's gunhandlers are when they do something "heroic".

I say that because we have cops with 15 shot semis, 3 or more of them, shooting at the same perp, and they shoot 40 or more rounds at a stationary target, that poor fool who looks like he's dangerous, and they hit him 7 to 10 times. From FIVE YARDS!!!

Back in the day, look to the Gunfight at the OK Corral, samey same. 30 shooters and hundreds of rounds shot and what was the outcome? Half a dozen shot.

Same in a saloon fight. Draw and shoot and after 3 shots no one can see any one to shoot at. They keep shooting, and at the end, 2 guys got a thumb or toe shot off.

I don't look up to many people. They are mostly ordinary. You don't NEED heroes. Did you not WANT them, we might not have ALL the doping the athletes have been doing, etc. We need 1800 homeruns to be hit sometime in the future, because records are made to be broken?

And, be they druggies, screw'm, them I would look DOWN on, NOT up.

Shooters, if that is your point, be careful what you look for. You may find your hopes dashed. Often the real deal is less than the story you have heard.

I DO like "Quigley Down Under", Tom Selleck. "The Edge" with Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin.

No heroes. They all had feet of clay.

Cheers,

George
 
WOBBLE: good point but let's get the timeline down- the spaghetti westerns were made during the mid-1960's

BP C-B repro pistols started being made much earlier, in the early-mid 1950's

the spaghetti westerns did popularize the cartridge conversion/CB guns- but not back in the 1960's- the movies are replayed on a regular basis, and cartridge conversion repros are a recent trend that began with custom guns being made by specialty 'smiths in the 1980-90's and right up until today

now, real-life gunslingers that come to mind would be Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, Jesse James, Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid, and the Wild Bunch, Buffalo Bill Cody

the best of all IMHO, the "real deal", was WILD BILL HICKOCK- he continued using an 1851 Colt Navy cap/ball years after the cartridge conversions came out, until his death in 1876. He was one of the few real gunslingers who faced his opponents out in the street man to man, not sneaking up behind the other guy or ambushing him

unfortunately, someone else did that to him

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Bill_Hickok

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No heroes. They all had feet of clay.
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I look up to a few people, some living, most dead.
Those who stand when most others kneel.
Those who fight when others run.
Those who hold on to their beliefs in spite of what others might think.
I still have heros, sorry for your loss
 
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