Cowgirl Corner: 1911 accuracy check and some thoughts

[Sir Henry]

I would like that book.

I guess I think cowboy when I think lever actions and cowboys were only around for 20 years. A cowboy to me is a person that moved cattle to market. Cowboy was later used as someone that worked a ranch.

Western era lasted up until the Great Depression. ???

[Mistered]

I guess I think cowboy when I think lever actions and cowboys were only around for 20 years.

Yea it really wasn't a long time - and very sparse and scattered up through probably the early to mid 30's anyway - and mostly gone by WW2 - but that ended a lot of early, and traditional endeavors when the majority of younger people enlisted to fight the war.
Call me cynical (probably more 'semantical') but I hate it when lever action rifles and single action pistols are referred to as 'Cowboy Guns'.
These guns were not designed specifically for 'cowboys' and were most likely owned by vastly greater numbers of people than just 'cowboys' (and over a greater time period) but heck we couldn't have had nearly a 100 years of Western movies based on anything else so I guess this misnomer will always be with us!

[Henry88]

I think cowboy had a derogatory implication originally? People that would come in dirty and bust up towns.

Sort of like the cowboys portrayed in the movie "Tombstone"

[Mistered]

Here is a website that might be interesting to some.
It is of the Fort Rock Museum in Fort Rock, Oregon.
Fort Rock was sort of the 'epicenter' of the area and this area was land originally owned by Rube Long (the author of the book I mentioned) and he deeded it to the state and now it is a State Park.
The museum is made up of all real buildings and artifacts that were either scavenged or donated by people from the area. The area is still an unincorporated community with probably a couple hundred residents.
http://www.fortrockoregon.com/

[North Country Gal]

Even up here, after the great logging era of the late 1800s, there were entrepreneurs who tried selling this as farming country, trying to get people to settle in the area because of the cheap land. Of course, most of it was a scam, since this is not farming country, other than some scattered potato and cranberry farms.

Read somewhere that the most common gun on the western frontier was definitely not a lever gun or a Colt revolver, since those were very expensive and very few cowboys or settlers could afford them. Nope, the most common gun, accordion to historians, was the more affordable and all around useful shotgun.

[Mistered]

Nope, the most common gun, accordion to historians, was the more affordable and all around useful shotgun.

I can agree with this.
In the late 1800s - early 1900s many European manufacturers were flooding the US market with cheap, Damascus, double barreled shotguns.
These were sold by many retailers for pretty cheap.
I have an early Belgium made double that is one of these and has the words on the barrel rib 'Fine Twist' - which is indicative of it being Damascus made barrels.
Heck some of these weren't even safe to shoot when new - which was not unusual with many early guns.

[BigAl52]

To me if it came after the car or plane it isn’t cowboy.

Poor RR he doesnt get any respect. RR is our forum Cowboy and not every forum has a true cowboy.

[ESquared]

Hats off to RanchRoper!

[North Country Gal]

Well, as far as I'm concerned, RR is as real a cowboy as has ever been. He's darn near a page out of history.

[Sir Henry]

To me if it came after the car or plane it isn’t cowboy.

Poor RR he doesnt get any respect. RR is our forum Cowboy and not every forum has a true cowboy.

We can be a tough crowd sometimes.