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The problem with "Wild West Tech" is that they do not necessarily present the whole, or even accurate, story.

stash wrote:You all want to read two real good novels that give some insight into carrying of handguns in the old west, read Appaloosa and Resolution by Robert B. Parker. Heck, some towns apparently had rules that you had to turn in your handgun when you came to town. If I remember correctly they used the term "heeled" or something like that to denote that you were carrying. I don't normally read westerns but these two are excellent. If you read them you should read Appaloosa first.

Stan

I'm not sure how a novel, which is, by definition, fiction, would give one insight into much of anything. Is the author some sort of acknowledged expert on "old west handgun carrying"?

My family has a couple of long generations, my great grandfather served in the War Between the States, and stayed in the Army until the late 1890s. My grandmother was born in Santa Fe in 1879 and lived at Army posts all over the "wild west", knew Annie Oakley, met Sitting Bull when she was a child, and met Geronimo several times, along with many other famous, infamous, and non-famous indians. She knew Buffalo Bill, and a variety of other personages too.

My grandmother used to scoff at the westerns, that was where she grew up, Ft. Davis, Ft. Stockton, and others up and down west Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas. My Great Grandfather was an officer in the Ninth, Tenth, and Seventh Cavalry, including "The Battle at Wounded Knee" as she called it, and other places until he retired in 1898. He was an "indian fighter" and she grew up in those places.

My grandmother carried a variety of guns in her lifetime, I wish I had the picture of her in full cowgirl rig with a Colt on her hip, but being the black sheep of the family, I didn't get any of the family memorabilia, and she lectured me many times on how "polite people" just didn't go around carrying guns that way, but they did carry them. She had a "purse pistol" a little .32 S&W that she carried at such dangerous places as West Point and Ft. Snelling and was an accomplished shot, once even chasing off a "dangerous" Wallaby in Canberra Australia when she and my grandfather lived there, with their two young sons.

Anyway, she was there, she brought fascinating tales of the times to the ears of a rapt young boy who just worshipped her, and she told me that the west wasn't all that wild, and she was more afraid in Philidelphia, Boston, and NY than she ever was in "Indian Territory." So it just kind of riles me a little when someone uses that term.

If you're interested, my Great Grandfather John S. Loud's Arlington remembrance: http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/jmloud.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And a treaty he signed as a Captain of the Niinth Cavalry in Wyoming: http://www.easternshoshone.net/1896-cession.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Both of my grandfathers are buried there, and their wives, and my great grandfather , and his wife, Arlington is kind of a family cemetery.