# 19th century hunting firearms in the American West



## Tyrannohotep (Feb 20, 2014)

One of my new plot bunnies opens in 19th century Texas, and stars a young "mountain man" who makes his living as a small-game hunter and fur-trader. He stumbles through some kind of trans-universal portal into a tropical "lost world" populated with dinosaurs and pseudo-African tribal people. His main quest is to bag a Triceratops and sell its head for a fortune once he gets back to Texas.

Perhaps historical accuracy isn't a major concern for this type of story, but out of curiosity I want to inquire about the kind of firepower that mountain men in the Old American West would have utilized. I reckon that the best hunting weapon to use against a Triceratops would be an elephant gun, but would those have been available in the Old West? Most of the hunters would have been used to deer or bison after all.

In addition, if my hero were to find himself in a quarrel with the resident black warriors, could he use his hunting gun as a defensive weapon of war too?


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## stevesh (Feb 21, 2014)

Depends completely on when in the nineteeth century your story takes place. The Civil War was mostly fought with one-shot-at-a-time muzzleloading muskets. By the end of the century (just thirty-five years later), revolvers and repeating rifles were commonplace.

I'm not a reptologist, but I very much doubt that any small arm, in the nineteeth century or today, would bring down a T Rex.


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## Tyrannohotep (Feb 21, 2014)

stevesh said:


> Depends completely on when in the nineteeth century your story takes place. The Civil War was mostly fought with one-shot-at-a-time muzzleloading muskets. By the end of the century (just thirty-five years later), revolvers and repeating rifles were commonplace.


1840s would make the most sense as a setting since the "mountain man" population peaked during that period (just going by Wikipedia there).


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## Jake Creamer (Mar 6, 2014)

Maybe a necro...I think that the samuel hawkens plains rifle would be the choice of any mountain man of the 1840's. It could take down bison. Granted, bison aren't giant fanged monsters coming to eat your face off, but it's likely what a trapper or mountain man would be carrying. 
Yes, he could absolutely use his hunting weapon as a weapon of war.


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## tabasco5 (Mar 25, 2014)

https://user.xmission.com/~drudy/mtman/museum/guns/guns.html


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## Rowan (Apr 6, 2014)

Tyrannohotep said:


> One of my new plot bunnies opens in 19th century Texas, and stars a young "mountain man" who makes his living as a small-game hunter and fur-trader. He stumbles through some kind of trans-universal portal into a tropical "lost world" populated with dinosaurs and pseudo-African tribal people. His main quest is to bag a Triceratops and sell its head for a fortune once he gets back to Texas.
> 
> Perhaps historical accuracy isn't a major concern for this type of story, but out of curiosity I want to inquire about the kind of firepower that mountain men in the Old American West would have utilized. I reckon that the best hunting weapon to use against a Triceratops would be an elephant gun, but would those have been available in the Old West? Most of the hunters would have been used to deer or bison after all.
> 
> In addition, if my hero were to find himself in a quarrel with the resident black warriors, could he use his hunting gun as a defensive weapon of war too?


Wow you know how to pick your century don't you? More advances and changes were made to firearms (especially in America) during the 19th century than nearly any other. 

To break it down. 
1807 is when precussion caps were invented. This basically means any gun prior to this time would have been ignited with a fuse rather than the cap. It wasn't standard issue till about 1825 though. This is when they started using bullets as well instead of just a bit of lead with gunpowder. 
In 1830 the first back action lock was invented. This is the traditional setup we see today. The toy guns you got as a kid and you could pull it back and it "cocked". 
The first revolver (the colt revolver) was invented in 1835. But that wouldn't be a hunting gun. Just general info for you though. 
The next major revolution isn't till about 1850 which is when shotguns were invented. Guns with a similar function to shotguns were used prior (this was when they packed in several small beads into a musket or they would use a more brittle single piece of lead that would break apart) but this ist he first REAL shotgun that uses a slug in the maner we see today. This would DEFINITLY be used for hunting. It would have been state of the art at the time. 

A decade later in 1861 they invent the next (and one of the most important) innovations yet; the breech loaded gun. Breech loaded firearm is a gun that opens in the back of the barrel to load rather than putting the bullet through the exit end. Also state of the art at the time. 

There are several others that I didn't mention. The only other one that I feel is really historically important is the Winchester Rifle which was invented in 1873. 

Best of luck with your story. There is no shortage of resources on American guns at any time in history.


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## kilroy214 (Apr 6, 2014)

The only commercially available firearm of the 1800's that comes to mind that was available in the United States that could take down a Dinosaur would be a Sharps Big 50, chambered in .50-90 (that's a .50 caliber round with 90 grains of powder behind it) but it was not available until 1872. If you want this set in the 1840's, your man might have a revolver, more than likely a pepperbox revolver, even more likely a Kentucky pistol. Percusion cap rifles were available in a ton of different varieties, but mind you, they needed dry powder to work, which will be a challenge in a tropical environment.
Elephant guns were not very prevalent until the 1850's, were almost exclusively of European make, were expensive, would be pointless in the United States, or Republic of Texas (1836-1846) for there were no game big enough to justify the purchase of one (especially to someone who's killing small game to make ends meet), were slow to reload, and were dangerous to the shooter.

However, most firearms companies did special orders for people who wanted specific types of firearms, so it would not be too far fetched for your charactet to have a specially made sharps or winchestet rifle that might be a large bore, big game gun. He would have to make his own ammunition for the piece for anything that specific wouldn't be available in most general stores.

If it were me, I would suggest setting this piece 20 to 30 years after the 1840's, at least to the point of self contained cartridges. Firearm technology exploded during this time, and a lot more options would be available to arm your protagonist.  Besides, I can believe that a mountain man would be down on his luck 20+years after their time, rather than at their peak.


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