Shootin’ Shot

More than any six-gun or rifle, the shotgun could easily be called the “gun that won the West!” Despite the acclaim given to the six-guns and rifles of the Old West, when it came to getting the job done, whether it was used to control a boisterous, hell-bent crowd, protect (or take) a gold shipment or for hunting, the smoothbore shotgun was the Westerner’s hands-down favorite. With  the discovery of gold in California, thousands of eager fortune seekers surged out of the eastern