SPURS N SIX GUNS GLOSSARY: COWBOY HOLSTERS (under construction)

Cowboy Holsters and Fire Arms of the Old West

I) HISTORY OF THE ANTIQUE GUNS

A) Breech-loading firearms were developed in the mid-19th century by European nations for their armies but attempts to invent and produce a successful breech-loading system for firearms date back to the earliest martial use of gunpowder in the West. First used in artillery in the 14th century, the earliest breech-loading cannons used removable chambers, individually charged with powder, which would be placed at the breech of the loaded barrel, firmly wedged in place, and then ignited through a touch-hole. Accounts of this type of artillery, which was usually quite light in weight, are found in both English and French sources during the Hundred Years War; the cannon so referred to became known by a variety of names, of which perrier is the most common. Leonardo da Vinci is generally credited with the earliest invention of one of the types of breech-loading system which persisted until the invention of the enclosed cartridge in the mid-19th century.



B) Match-lock Musket a type of early, heavy matchlock musket—with an unscrewing, or ‘turn-off’ breech. The concept of a breech and barrel assembly separated by simply unscrewing one from the other remained popular until the 19th century because it was the most efficient breech-loading system available, with the advantage that the ball, inserted at the rear of the barrel, could be slightly oversize. This made for a tight fit, less wasted combustion power for the gunpowder and thus greater range and—in the case of rifled barrels—greater accuracy than could be provided by muzzle-loaded firearms with their necessarily looser-fitting balls. The separately charged chamber system for breech-loading firearms existed at the same time as the turn-off breech or barrel system and, although it suffered from—generally—a poorer seal between breech and barrel than had the ‘turn-off’ system, its concept was the one which became eventually modified in the earliest bolt-action rifles. The earliest military breech-loading firearms are thought to be the pistol shields bought by King Henry VIII of England from Giovanbattista, a Ravenna gunsmith, in the mid-1540s. These were separately chambered matchlock pistols, the barrels of which poked through the centre of disc-shaped shields; they are thought to have been intended to arm the king's bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard. Experiments into the development of breech-loaders continued for the following century and a half but were principally aimed at the civilian market for sporting firearms; not until the early 18th century did a breech-loading system suitable not only for large-scale production but also for handling by soldiers attract the attention of military authorities.

Although a French engineer is generally given credit for the development of this successful system, its origins date back to the late 16th century in Spain. The system utilized a screw-threaded plug which, by being screwed and unscrewed vertically at the rear of the barrel, sealed and unsealed the breech for loading with powder and ball. Throughout the 17th century this system was experimented with in Germany, England, and Denmark but was finally developed with success by Isaac de la Chaumette in France in 1704. The inventor was a Huguenot, however, and fled to England subsequently where, in 1721, he took out an English patent to protect his invention.

For the next 50 years screw-plug breech-loading muskets and rifles were made in England as sporting guns but, in 1776, Capt Patrick Fergusion, a Scot, took out a patent for an improved version which he intended for military use. Subsequent trials of his rifle impressed British military authorities and it was made in a small quantity to equip a Corps of Riflemen to be led by him on campaign in America. Although successful at Brandywine in 1777, Ferguson's corps was broken up after he was wounded there, and his subsequent death at King's Mountain in 1780 ended Britain's experiment with military breech-loaders for the next half-century.


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II) AMERICAN MADE GUNS: REVOLVERS




A) In 1814, An inventer named Samuel Colt

III) RIFLES

IV) SHOTGUNS

V) MUZZLELOADERS

A) Civil War Black Powder Rifles to the Mountain Mans' Favorite

The Hawken .50 Muzzleloader
( Cap Lock Or Flint Lock)

Undoubtedly the most copied rifle in the history of firearms, the Hawken was designed for the American shooter. This is a top quality firearm that your great, great granddaddy carried across his saddle pommel or packed along on the wagon train. It captures the romance of the old west in the early 1800’s. Several gunsmiths copied the rifle specs because of the popularity of this rifle.








VI) KNIFES

A) The Springfield Bowie Knife



B) STAG HORN KNIFE
C)