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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Phil Spangenberger
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...
Princess Wenona
While Annie Oakley is well known as the demure darling of the lady sharpshooters of the Wild West shows of old, only the more ardent Western...
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...
Guns, Indians and the West
In his scholarly study, Thundersticks: Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,...
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 Western Dynasty: Winchester
Firearms enthusiasts know of Winchester’s role in the development of the repeating rifle, yet few have knowledge of the personal dealings involved...
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...