Gun Digest 2011. Dan ShidelerЧитать онлайн книгу.
the old-timers would even bang out a poem or two. Charles N. Easton contributed this one to the September of 1916 issue of Outers Book.
Despite Thomas’ qualified insistence that the proper function of the firearm of the West was grossly overplayed, the mainstream of Outdoor Life’s readership refused to accept the apparent heresy. Guns, after all, had been fixed in the minds of so many as being as closely associated with the true old-time Westerner as the cowboy was to the horse. Journalists, armed with their creative licenses, had seen to that. None of the readers of the outdoor magazines appeared to have an interest in hearing tales of the instruments of farming, ranching, railroading, mining or any of the truly genuine components of Western history, but they were entranced by the notion of the guns and had a special fascination with the rifles and revolvers that certainly must have seen use on the plains and in the mountains.
By about the year 1908, the real Old West was a not-too-distant memory in the hearts of the men who had lived it. Even at this late date, some gloomy die-hards rejected the thought that their West was gone, and refused to let it be relegated to the past. They embraced the futile hope that the old West hadn’t been buried just yet.
About this time, a distinct and unique episode in the history of sporting journalism began to unfold. Some of the gray-haired men sent to magazine editors descriptions of their old guns. In many cases they provided anecdotes that shed a genuine and captivating light on weapons that had been to points West under a variety of circumstances. Reminiscent Western gentlemen recalled past nineteenth century experiences and described the guns that had tagged along. Many submitted photographs. This habit, apparently encouraged by the publishers, marched to the dreaded drumbeat of progress throughout the Edwardian era. It lasted through the outbreak and duration of the War in Europe and a little beyond, until the old geezers eventually died out, or belatedly stepped into the twentieth century.
Taken as a whole, the contributors were not spinning rambling yarns. Most accounts were concise and direct treatments describing a weapon or artifact. An overview of this trend, and a sampling of a few examples, may be as useful and entertaining to modern day readers of the New Millennium as our gun crank predecessors found it a hundred years ago.
Most likely, this old Westerner did not write his own caption. A sharp-eyed reader of Recreation magazine noted that the rifle was not a Ballard, but a Maynard.
In the Spring of 1911, the editor of Outdoor Life allowed 10 valuable pages for a feature article that author and artifact accumulator Don Maquire was pleased to title “Frontier Weapons.” Mr. Maquire, incidentally, seems to have initiated the popular, but far too infrequent, mass exhibitions of Old West guns and relics. His presentation is the first of its type that I have noticed. Other collections may have varying levels of appeal, but they paled to Maquire’s 50-item display.
Don Maguire’s collection of western artifacts and weapons as profiled in the June, 1911 issue of Outdoor Life.
In the years that went by between 1870 and 1900, Don Maquire spent his time in various places in the West. His collection of Indian artifacts was extensive and important. The assembly included an assortment of lances, scalping knives, peace pipes and claw necklaces – and, of course, guns of all sorts.
Maquire’s collection of long guns included a representative gathering of pioneer and immigrant guns of the common sort. Some of these had seen their first service in foreign lands. One such was a matchlock brought over by a naïve Chinese merchant who must have had no idea what to expect on the plains but recognized the need for a gun of some type. A Swiss Army rifle, the .41 caliber Vetterli, and other out of date European military weapons were also included.
There were others. American guns were represented by the Jennings, the rare Colt Model 1855 revolving rifle, the proven and ever-present Remington Rolling Blocks and the .45 caliber Springfields which were cheap, plentiful and frequently seen in the company of a pioneer family. No worthwhile collection of Western items is complete without a Sharps rifle, and Maquire’s was an early conversion to fire metallic cartridges. Confederate and Union rifles that had made their way westward with discharged or deserted veterans were reminders of these guns in the overall picture of the American West’s settling. Maquire didn’t consider the shotgun to be deadly enough for “men of our class,” but one specimen merited a place in is collection. This was a double barreled hammer gun carried by Niel House, who used it to ride Express guardsman for Wells Fargo to Virginia City from Sacramento in the early days.
Several other accumulations of Western artifacts were profiled during this period. One of the more significant was the 47-year weapon collection of George Shull. In 1873, Shull’s collection started as an innocent gathering of working guns and wound up as an assemblage of remnants of the Western tradition. His guns included Civil War battlefield pick-ups, brass framed Winchesters, Spencers, even Evans rifles and the rest, totaling nearly 50 reminders of better times. A white-goateed Mr. Shull posed with his assortment of mementos for a picture taken at his Iowa home, and it was published in the January, 1920 number of the Magazine of the West.
Jas. N. Sterling submitted a photo and brief descriptions of his 30-year gatherings in December of 1917. In the collection were three Sharps rifles, the first a bona-fide killer of bison. Chambered for the massive .45-120-550 case, it tipped the scales two ounces over 17 pounds. The aristocratic brother of the Sharps buffalo gun and champion at the thousand-yard line was the Sharps Creedmoor. Mr. Sterling’s elegant example sported a wind gauge front sight, and two vernier rears, one of which was mounted on the rifle’s heel for use in the supine, or back position.
Among the quality relics of buffalo days were two Remington percussion revolvers and a pair of .44 caliber cap and ball Colts. There were a couple of Spencers, one of which was a dazzling long-barreled factory sporting rifle. The lever action was represented by the 1866 Model Winchester, and a Henry nice enough to command six figures on today’s market.
An entire page of the January 1916 Outer’s Book was devoted to a stunning photograph of the Colt collection of Charles W. Parker of Concord, California. Nearly every model and every variation of sixgun and revolving rifle that was ever assembled at a Colt plant was represented. Sadly, only the photo was published. For the Western history buff, missing were the details of individual pieces and how they might have figured in the struggle to win the West.
The muzzle loader of the Kentucky class got its fair share of attention and exposure. A fair number of readers furnished reports on the gunsmith crafted flintlock and cap lock arms they had manage to retain, inherit, or acquire. During this era, many guns made by artisans such as Jas. Golcher, Simon Miller, John Shell, Isaac Palm, all famous in their time, were brought to the attention of the readers across the pages of Outdoor Life and the other outdoor magazines. Mark Woodmansee, as one example, submitted a delightful photo of his five Kentuckys, together with their accouterments for his fellow enthusiasts to enjoy. One of these was retrieved from where it was dropped by one of Pickett’s Virginia rebels at the Battle of Gettysburg, July 3, 1865.
However, all the wishing in the world wouldn’t bring back the frontier conditions of the early West or its spirit. A Missourian who chose to sign his namee “L ‘Encuerado” shed some interesting light on the use of the Henry rifle, both in the Civil War and on the plains of the West. In April of 1908, he furnished Outdoor Life readers with an anecdote involving a tiny band of steely-nerved Rebel veterans and a larger group of Indians being exposed for the first time to the repeating rifle. The incident took place somewhere in the Northwest.
At one of their camps, they were attacked by a band of hostile savages who feigned a charge, hoping to draw the fire of the white men. The Indians intended to rush them before their guns could be reloaded. They succeeded in drawing the anticipated fire, and charged the defenders furiously, only to be met by a murderous and rapidly successive fire at a range close enough