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WyomingWhitetail · February 16, 2011, 08:29 PM

well i come from a long line of farmers and ranchers (my family was in western Nebraska before 1880) and it seems logical that most westerners would have had working guns. Its already been pointed out a couple times but the possibility of getting thrown from a horse and having a foot stuck in the stirrup is a very real event. In fact i grew up on a ranch in northern Wyoming and i know for a fact that at least one man was drug to death in one of the pastures as late as the 1950s. Now the practicality of being able to draw a pistol and shoot the horse while being drug would be extremely difficult but people have done more extreme things when its life or death. I also now several people who use guns to work difficult cattle, my dad used a 22lr with shot shells regularly to work the bulls and ive heard other stories of sawed off .410 shotguns to work problem cattle. However my grandpa owns several rifles and a couple of shotguns but he no longer owns any pistols (he used to have wore out broken revolver that must have got lost along the way). I am no historian but from growing up in the ranch lifestyle it makes sense to me that a lot of cowboys would have had a rifle for hunting and a pistol for emergencies. Now that being said i doubt that there where many large caliber guns. In fact most of my grandpas guns are 22lr that they shot 22 shorts in because it didn't tear up rabbits as bad.

February 16, 2011, 08:29 PM	#67
WyomingWhitetail Senior Member Join Date: January 12, 2011 Posts: 221	well i come from a long line of farmers and ranchers (my family was in western Nebraska before 1880) and it seems logical that most westerners would have had working guns. Its already been pointed out a couple times but the possibility of getting thrown from a horse and having a foot stuck in the stirrup is a very real event. In fact i grew up on a ranch in northern Wyoming and i know for a fact that at least one man was drug to death in one of the pastures as late as the 1950s. Now the practicality of being able to draw a pistol and shoot the horse while being drug would be extremely difficult but people have done more extreme things when its life or death. I also now several people who use guns to work difficult cattle, my dad used a 22lr with shot shells regularly to work the bulls and ive heard other stories of sawed off .410 shotguns to work problem cattle. However my grandpa owns several rifles and a couple of shotguns but he no longer owns any pistols (he used to have wore out broken revolver that must have got lost along the way). I am no historian but from growing up in the ranch lifestyle it makes sense to me that a lot of cowboys would have had a rifle for hunting and a pistol for emergencies. Now that being said i doubt that there where many large caliber guns. In fact most of my grandpas guns are 22lr that they shot 22 shorts in because it didn't tear up rabbits as bad.