Cowboy Time Machine

The Buffalo Bill Center of the West houses five museums, but I was there to check out the Cody Firearms Museum.

Opening a newly arrived box at my local FFL dealership inspired a couple “Wow!” responses – one of them my own. The 1860 Richards Transition Model Type II nestling therein sports eight glorious inches of gleaming blued steel barrel, a beautifully figured walnut grip, and a very nice color-casehardened frame.

The cap and ball revolver, also known as the percussion revolver, is a sophisticated weapon of war. Even though those wars were in the 1800’s, the cap and ball remains an interesting and effective handgun. Taylor’s & Company is keeping these legends alive by producing classic firearms made famous by soldiers, cowboys, lawmen, and outlaws.

When the 1873 came out it was a paradigm shift. A repeating rifle that was as reliable and capable as it was practical. However, it was still a pistol caliber carbine. For real rifle work, you had to go to something like an 1869 Sharps, a Ballard Perfection rifle, or a Remington Rolling Block. That’s what buffalo hunters used. What these long range, big game guns had in common was that they were all single shot firearms. The Winchester Model 1876 changed that forever.

The 1873 Winchester sported a steel receiver along with proper metallurgy in its barrel that allowed the gun to handle the relatively high performance of the .44 WCF round. Various barrel lengths and contours, engraved variations, and rifle, carbine, and musket versions kept things spicy.

Cimarron Firearms, known for their solid replicas and popular Cowboy Action guns, is producing a limited edition run of Walker replicas with a special aged finish.

There is an old adage that “there are bold gunfighters and there are old gunfighters, but that there are no old, bold gunfighters.” Bat Masterson was one of the few exceptions. Long after Dodge City was behind him Bat kept the legend alive, not as a gunfighter or lawman but as a journalist; proof perhaps, that the pen is indeed mightier than the sword, or the gun!

By the time William Barclay “Bat” Masterson received the handsome, nickel plated and hand engraved six-shooter pictured, he was already a legendry lawman, as famous as his friends Wyatt Earp, Charlie Bassett and Bill Tilghman.

When I was cowboy shooting at SASS matches back in the mid-90s, my holy grail cowboy gun was the Winchester 1887 lever action shotgun. It never made any sense to me that the most competitive shooters used a ’97 pump gun, and up until I found an ’87, I shot strictly side by sides. Sure, [...]