The U.S. Cavalry’s first official-issue saber—the Model 1833, although graceful and handsome, was disliked by the troops. Considered altogether too...
Old Wrist-Breaker
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Shooting from the Hip
Colts For the Other Buffalo Bill
When we hear the name “Buffalo Bill,” the first person we think of is Buffalo Bill Cody, the famed frontier scout and Wild West showman. However,...
Hollywood’s Six-gun Fakery
If you’re an Old West gun buff, and enjoy Western flicks from the Golden Age of Hollywood films, roughly 1930 through the late 1960s, you may have...
Old West Reproductions — the Devil is in the Detail
Among the very best companies offering replicas of mid-to late-19th-century assorted cowboy gear is Old West Reproductions, Inc., in Florence,...
A Real Western Colt in the Reel West
It’s a firearms collector’s dream to find a gun that is well documented to have been owned or used by someone famous, or was involved in a...
Hollywood’s Flintlock Fakery
Movie making is all imagery, or as Hollywood calls it, “movie magic,” or the “suspension of belief.” After all, you don’t really think the actor you...
A Texas Dance For Johnny Reb
Of all of the Confederate-made revolvers, perhaps none stirs the imagination like those six-shooters manufactured by the J.H. Dance Bros. of Texas....
U.S. Cavalry’s First Bolt-Action Carbine
The more ammunition you give a soldier, the more he’ll use!” Despite their continued post-war use of the seven-shot Spencer repeater, this was the...
A Frontier Favorite Lever Gun
All 1873 Winchester rifles have octagonal barrels and the carbines have round barrels, right? Well, no, as a special option about one out of every...
America’s First Cavalry Blade
In 1833, the U.S. Army formed its first official mounted regiments, the First and Second Dragoons. These soldiers rode to battle, then dismounted to...
Wild West Six-gun Goes to War
True or False? General George S. Patton was the only top-ranking American officer to pack an 1873 Colt Single Action Army (SAA) revolver as a...
Red Ryder BB Gun
Years ago, at a friend’s 50th birthday party, I gave him a Red Ryder 50th Anniversary, special edition BB rifle. Despite his being showered with a...