Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Guns of the Wild West by Susan Horsnell

"Unsurprisingly, the American "Wild West" was tamed by nothing other than the gun"

This month I thought I would take a look at some of the guns found in the "Wild West".

First up we have the Deringer Pocket Pistol

 used by John Wilkes Booth in the Abraham Lincoln Assassination.

A deringer is generally the smallest usable handgun of a given calibre. They were frequently used by women, because they were easily concealable in a purse, a muff or, in their stockings.
Derringers are not repeating firearms, this would have added significant bulk to the gun, defeating the purpose of easy concealment.
The original cartridge derringers held only a single round, usually a pinfire or rimfire .40 calibre cartridge, with the barrel pivoted sideways on the frame to allow access to the breech for reloading. The famous Remington derringer design doubled the capacity, while maintaining the compact size, by adding a second barrel on top of the first and pivoting the barrels upwards to reload. Each barrel then held one round, and a cam on the hammer alternated between top and bottom barrels. The Remington derringer was .41 short calibre and achieved wide popularity. The .41 Short bullet moved very slowly, at about 425 feet per second. It could be seen in flight, but at very close range, such as at a casino or saloon card table, it could easily kill. The Remington derringer was sold from 1866 to 1935.

Next is the Colt Single Action Army

Commonly known as the "Peacemaker."
Large numbers of look-alikes have never been able to replace the real Colt.

How about a gun that won't fit in your pocket or a holster?
The Gatling Gun


This one's a rifle -
The Burnside Carbine

In 1857, the Burnside carbine won a competition at West Point against 17 other carbine designs. In spite of this, few of the carbines were immediately ordered by the government, but this changed with the outbreak of the Civil War, when over 55,000 were ordered for use by Union cavalrymen. This made it the third most popular carbine of the Civil War; only the Sharps Carbine and the Spencer Carbine were more widely used. They saw action in all theatres of the war. There were so many in service that many were captured and used by Confederates. A common complaint by users was that the unusually shaped cartridge sometimes became stuck in the breech after firing.
By using ordnance returns and ammunition requisitions, it has been estimated that 43 Union cavalry regiments were using the Burnside carbine during the 1863-1864 period. Additionally, 7 Confederate cavalry units were at least partially armed with the weapon during this same period.
Five different models were produced. Toward the end of the Civil War, production was discontinued when the Burnside Rifle Company was given a contract to make Spencer carbines instead.

There are many more guns which were used. These are only a very small sample.

Until next month.

Stay Safe,

Susan Horsnell - Western Romance Author

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Jacquie Rogers said...

Nice summary. Thanks, Sue!

Chad said...

Terrific Tidbit! Enjoyed this!

D'Ann said...

Great post! Very informative!