Henry Rifle Forums

We have all seen cowboys wearing their gun belts low on their hips to draw and point the pistol far out in front of them. But I've heard the real fast ones wear the belt at normal belt height and don't point but rather flip the pistol up to shoot.

Anyone here with personal knowledge of how it's done?

I have lots of old west books and the low on the leg was a Hollywood thing. Almost all wore the high waisted and lots of cross draws. No 2 guns either. Movie invention or early wild west shows.

RanchRoper wrote:I have lots of old west books and the low on the leg was a Hollywood thing. Almost all wore the high waisted and lots of cross draws. No 2 guns either. Movie invention or early wild west shows.

Thanks. That is what I thought.

Maybe the CAS or SASS guys are different.

much of the commonly held beliefs about gunfights in the old west come from dime novels and subsequent Hollywood plots designed to sell movie tickets .... a pretty decent, short commentary can be found at this link -- http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-gunfights.html .... I fell just as hard for the myth as most and one of my jobs while in college was giving fast draw and shooting demonstrations at a Western Town tourist trap in the NC mountains .... really enjoyed those summers .. .. location of the holster is a personal thing but as a general rule it isn't slung low

RanchRoper wrote:Maybe the CAS or SASS guys are different.

Is that the sarsaparilla gang you are talking about?

Yup. They'll hurt your feelings and then ride out of town.

JEBar wrote:much of the commonly held beliefs about gunfights in the old west come from dime novels and subsequent Hollywood plots designed to sell movie tickets .... a pretty decent, short commentary can be found at this link -- http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-gunfights.html .... I fell just as hard for the myth as most and one of my jobs while in college was giving fast draw and shooting demonstrations at a Western Town tourist trap in the NC mountains .... really enjoyed those summers .. .. location of the holster is a personal thing but as a general rule it isn't slung low

Thanks that was a good read and I'm not done.

Sir Henry wrote: Thanks that was a good read...

X2. Thanks.

The movie Wyatt Earp with Kevin Costner has a gunfight scene early on that is likely very close to real. Wyatt is young and he and his friend leave the wagon train to go to town. In town there's a ruckus and a crowd spills out of a bar into the street. Wyatt watches as two guys gun each other down close up. Several shots fired, chaos, bad wounds, and guys bleeding out. Not much romance there...

Dying ain't much of a way to make a livin'.

The quick gunfight in the Tombstone movie where Creek Johnson and Texas Jack shoot a couple of guys in front of the saloon is probably pretty accurate too. Fast, up close and personal.
"It was a fair fight and we was legal. Law and order every time, that's us." says Creek.

In the real old west 99.9% the gun grips were above the belt in a holster so they could ride on a horse and most gun fights there was NO quick draws they face each other with gun in hand . A lot were shot in the back like Jeese James . Here a pic of me and my girlfriend and she is wearing the holster where it was wore in the old west .. . Our pic was taking 2 years before the movie came out .

Click on pics to enlarge

Amazing resemblance.

Nice picture!

Cool photo.

Great read thanks.

ArmyScout wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=999RqGZatPs

Great song.

We were talking about the Drop Loop Belts a few years back, what most call "Hollywood", but one night I went on a search for old west photos (late 1800, early 1900's) and I found 2 or 3 pictures with guns worn pretty low. They weren't really "Drop Loops" but were worn in a position pretty close to it. Therefore at least some like them low back then.