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...
Red Ryder BB Gun
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Shooting from the Hip
Buffalo Bill’s Saddle Pals
Although Buffalo Bill Cody used a number of guns and horses throughout his colorful career, there was one special rifle and one amazing horse that...
Colt vs. Schofield
Arms enthusiasts often ask which government-issue .45 revolver was the best during the Indian campaigns of the late 19th century—the 1873 Colt or...
Armchair Gun Show
How would you like to go to a gun show with me without getting out of your comfortable seat? In recent months, there have been some colorful and...
Colt’s Paterson—the Foaling of a Legend
Firearms buffs generally associate Colt’s Paterson revolver, the first truly practical revolver, with the year 1836, when this revolutionary handgun...
Hell on the Buffalo Range
Life on the buffalo range was hard, dangerous work, often accomplished in extreme heat or freezing conditions, sometimes under the watchful eye of...
The Sideways Grip—Cool or Crazy?
Hollywood loves the catchy, visual “piece of business,” as moviemakers like to say. One thing that has caught on big-time with modern films, and in...
A Pistoleer Goes Semi Auto
While we generally think of the Wild West as the era of the revolver—and it certainly was—the last decade of the 19th century and the dawning of the...
A Pistol For Dragoons
With the adoption of the U.S. Dragoons on March 5, 1833, the U.S. Army found itself woefully lacking in pistols for a mounted unit. Handguns at that...
Virgil’s Sixgun
Although the infamous Gunfight Near the OK Corral is arguably the best known and most written about shootout in the Old West, little is known about...
The Shoots Far Gun
American Indians called the Sharps buffalo rifle the “Shoots Far Gun,” or the gun that “shoots today and kills tomorrow,” and for good reason. In...
On the Hunt for Geronimo
Five thousand against 140! With Geronimo’s breakout from the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona on May 17, 1885, the U.S. Army conducted the most...