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Guns of the Wild West : A photographic tour of the guns that shaped our country's history
For those with an interest in American history and sporting, here’s a fascinating, authoritative look at some of the most famous guns of the Wild West, drawn from the collection of the Cody Firearms Museum of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming. Known as “the Smithsonian of the West,” this grand museum complex is home to many treasures related to the history, art, and ethnology of the American West. Following the success of our previous Courage title The Civil War Catalog, another copiously illustrated hardcover format focused on historic weapons and equipment, this beautifully photographed new volume showcases more than 50 of the actual weapons used by some of the most famous western legends, from Lewis and Clark to Buffalo Bill Cody, Theodore Roosevelt, and John “Jeremiah” Johnson.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published October 17, 2005
11 people want to read
About the author
David Kennedy
371 books16 followersDave is a guidebook writer/publisher turned novelist. He began rock climbing around 1984, which was a “logical” extension of hiking, camping and backpacking since boyhood. After his first article on climbing in San Diego’s back-country was published in Rock & Ice magazine, he created the San Diego County Climbing Guide, which proved extremely popular. Next came San Diego Adventures: Classic hiking, mountain biking and rock climbing. In 2007 he completed and published a second edition of the climbing guide, which vividly detailed over 2,000 routes.
Subsequently, he embarked on a fiction-writing odyssey, producing sci-fi novels and short stories “rather unsuccessfully” in terms of publication. He finally found his proper voice in 2017 when he wrote Ricochet, an intense modern-day thriller about a young female vigilante. Upon its completion, he learned about Acorn Publishing while attending the 2018 Southern California Writers’ Conference and was signed by them shortly thereafter.
David is also an accomplished horticulturist. He became interested in tropical plants called Bromeliads in 2010, which quickly turned into a passion. He is an active member of the San Diego Bromeliad Society, and has won “Best of Show” awards in their annual show multiple times. His Tillandsia collection is considered one of the best in the region. For many years he and his wife Debbie have been chief volunteer caretakers of the San Diego Zoo’s Kent Bromeliad Garden.
Becoming a novelist is the realization of a lifelong dream. David loves the process of storytelling, of waking up each day well before dawn and diving into the art of making words come together in a way that appeals.
Subsequently, he embarked on a fiction-writing odyssey, producing sci-fi novels and short stories “rather unsuccessfully” in terms of publication. He finally found his proper voice in 2017 when he wrote Ricochet, an intense modern-day thriller about a young female vigilante. Upon its completion, he learned about Acorn Publishing while attending the 2018 Southern California Writers’ Conference and was signed by them shortly thereafter.
David is also an accomplished horticulturist. He became interested in tropical plants called Bromeliads in 2010, which quickly turned into a passion. He is an active member of the San Diego Bromeliad Society, and has won “Best of Show” awards in their annual show multiple times. His Tillandsia collection is considered one of the best in the region. For many years he and his wife Debbie have been chief volunteer caretakers of the San Diego Zoo’s Kent Bromeliad Garden.
Becoming a novelist is the realization of a lifelong dream. David loves the process of storytelling, of waking up each day well before dawn and diving into the art of making words come together in a way that appeals.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 22, 2026
I was actually in the mood to read this finally, after owning it for years and never really wanting to read it, since I just read a book set in the west around this time.
It’s guns and their historical context. It’s about who used them, what they used them for, and any design flaws of rhetoric guns and the issues they caused. Battles could be won and lost due to the gun.
It was even more fitting that I read this after Buffalo Gal, because of the parts about Buffalo hunters and the near extinction and people realizing the Buffalo needed to be saved at the turn of the 20th century.
It was funny how he spoke of the stagecoach, and how all these plot lines develop around them, like new characters show up on the stage, ne’er-do-wells are sent packing on the stage, bandits rob it and the law sends out a posse to recover the strong box, and the hero can save the heroine as the runaway stage coach heads toward a ravine. And the main characters can share a ride, building a relationship that is of later use.
Colonists needed a gun to hunt for food and defend their livestock against predators.
1853 Sharps were shipped to anti-slavery forces in Kansas by abolitionists. The government outlawed this, which led to the guns being shipped in crates labeled Bibles, and causing the guns to be generically named Beecher’s Bibles after Henry Beecher, the abolitionist who raised funds for the purchase of the illicit arms.
Native American-owned guns received harsh treatment due to the lack of holsters or scabbards. The guns had little or no protection while traveling and many were wrapped with wire or rawhide around the muzzle to keep them together. They would often be carried while riding and the constant handling caused them to wear down and fall apart and be damaged.
Many decorated their guns by tying feathers and shells to the frame, marking the wood, and hammering brass tacks into the stock.
Firearms changed the way of life for plains tribes. They allowed them to kill their prey more effectively and efficiently. It gave them an edge when hunting and made it safer. The tribes would jockey for position within the good graces of the white father in order to receive the firearms, and sole tribes used this as an opportunity to impose their will on other tribes that weren’t armed.
To Native Americans, the firearm was a symbol of honor and status. The better the weapon, the better their chance to succeed in tribal life and combat. The decorations on the gun could tell a story about the owner’s experiences and his position in the tribe.
Stagecoach drivers and their assistants needed to arm themselves to protect against holdups. Stage holdups and highwaymen were a common occurrence in England. The term riding shotgun originated from the escalation of the 1850s Wild West criminals robbing stage coaches.
Railroad workers, bankers, store owners, women of various classes and many city dwellers owned small firearms for self defense.
The infection caused by the .22 or .32 revolvers was a longer and more painful death than the quick death from a .44 or .45.
Life in the west wasn’t easy. There were the animals, the weather, it could be too try or too rainy, wind that could destroy everything, people causing a problem, supply issues coming from living hundreds or thousands of miles away from the railhead. The people had to use ingenuity and come up with creative solutions to problems, especially when equipment broke.
It’s guns and their historical context. It’s about who used them, what they used them for, and any design flaws of rhetoric guns and the issues they caused. Battles could be won and lost due to the gun.
It was even more fitting that I read this after Buffalo Gal, because of the parts about Buffalo hunters and the near extinction and people realizing the Buffalo needed to be saved at the turn of the 20th century.
It was funny how he spoke of the stagecoach, and how all these plot lines develop around them, like new characters show up on the stage, ne’er-do-wells are sent packing on the stage, bandits rob it and the law sends out a posse to recover the strong box, and the hero can save the heroine as the runaway stage coach heads toward a ravine. And the main characters can share a ride, building a relationship that is of later use.
Colonists needed a gun to hunt for food and defend their livestock against predators.
1853 Sharps were shipped to anti-slavery forces in Kansas by abolitionists. The government outlawed this, which led to the guns being shipped in crates labeled Bibles, and causing the guns to be generically named Beecher’s Bibles after Henry Beecher, the abolitionist who raised funds for the purchase of the illicit arms.
Native American-owned guns received harsh treatment due to the lack of holsters or scabbards. The guns had little or no protection while traveling and many were wrapped with wire or rawhide around the muzzle to keep them together. They would often be carried while riding and the constant handling caused them to wear down and fall apart and be damaged.
Many decorated their guns by tying feathers and shells to the frame, marking the wood, and hammering brass tacks into the stock.
Firearms changed the way of life for plains tribes. They allowed them to kill their prey more effectively and efficiently. It gave them an edge when hunting and made it safer. The tribes would jockey for position within the good graces of the white father in order to receive the firearms, and sole tribes used this as an opportunity to impose their will on other tribes that weren’t armed.
To Native Americans, the firearm was a symbol of honor and status. The better the weapon, the better their chance to succeed in tribal life and combat. The decorations on the gun could tell a story about the owner’s experiences and his position in the tribe.
Stagecoach drivers and their assistants needed to arm themselves to protect against holdups. Stage holdups and highwaymen were a common occurrence in England. The term riding shotgun originated from the escalation of the 1850s Wild West criminals robbing stage coaches.
Railroad workers, bankers, store owners, women of various classes and many city dwellers owned small firearms for self defense.
The infection caused by the .22 or .32 revolvers was a longer and more painful death than the quick death from a .44 or .45.
Life in the west wasn’t easy. There were the animals, the weather, it could be too try or too rainy, wind that could destroy everything, people causing a problem, supply issues coming from living hundreds or thousands of miles away from the railhead. The people had to use ingenuity and come up with creative solutions to problems, especially when equipment broke.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review