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Carrying Heavy Revolvers
- Thread starter Walkabout
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A bobbed Walker loaded with buckshot and a couple of slugs would be a 19th century Taurus .45/410 Judge. Quite formidable and bit handier.
Day in and day out carrying a heavy pistol bites it. I had left shoulder problems for years carrying my issue weapon in a shoulder holster add carrying a 25-pound camera bag, Radio and evidence bag for my job as a fire investigator. Never mind when I was carrying on apparatus with the same rig under uniform shirt add bunker gear and SCBA.
Heavy handguns get real old fast. I used the shoulder rig cause without a load bearing harness the gun, spare mags, pepper spray and radio pulled my pants off. [very embarrassing never mind lack of controlling the sidearm].
I still prefer a shoulder holster today unless it is the small unmentionable that lives in a front pocket.
Heavy handguns get real old fast. I used the shoulder rig cause without a load bearing harness the gun, spare mags, pepper spray and radio pulled my pants off. [very embarrassing never mind lack of controlling the sidearm].
I still prefer a shoulder holster today unless it is the small unmentionable that lives in a front pocket.
I seriously doubt anyone is going to be carrying a Walker or Dragoon every day, as one might do for their job.
MC One Shot
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A number of years ago while panning I came across a gent that had a gen 2 Colt Walker. He had a holster on his left hip with a adjustable wide leather strap that went over his right shoulder much like carrying a shoulder bag. He seemed very comfortable carrying the handgun that way.
A lot of the military who had handguns had that strap on their uniforms too. When I was a kid it took me a while to figure out why they had that strap too.
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I got one of the 2" Amish belts off EBay that's just a thick piece of bridle leather that you could probably use as a tow strap, and I put a Dragoon flap holster on it and wore it for almost a full day at my parent's property doing random stuff, just to do it, and it's like it wasn't even there
Agreed. The importance of a good belt cannot be overstated.
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TDM
Cannon
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I now, unfortunately, carry enough extra weight around all the time. I don’t mind an 1851 or 60 on the hip, but prefer a shoulder holster. And not for a Dragoon.
They're going to re-enact Josey Wales every day?
If your pants are falling down, you're doing something wrong or need better belts.
DixieTexian
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Rip Ford is not impressed with most of y'all.
TDM
Cannon
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Yeah, but those guys were the real deal and Tough! I'm just play acting and lazy.
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There was an everyday attitude in those days to "make do" with what you had and if it was all you can get, use it anyway. That form of thinking is not as prevalent today I imagine.
DixieTexian
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That photo was from about 1858 during his rangering days, so there were definitely lighter options available. He probably liked the bigger guns because they were better for shooting the horse out from under a Comanche or something like that. That said, those are clearly belt holsters (not pommel holsters!) and made for maybe a Walker and a dragoon. And the belt is pretty small looking, but maybe the rest is wider or the buckskins spread out the weight enough to be not painful.
One thought is getting a picture taken was a major project at the time. You had to stand perfectly still and barely breathe for up to three minutes. So usually everyone dressed up to the hilt to make it look good. They maybe staging it, Thus what we see in the old pictures back then may not be everyday stuff.
How he depicted his guns like that would make sitting, riding a horse o sitting in a buggy uncomfortable.
How he depicted his guns like that would make sitting, riding a horse o sitting in a buggy uncomfortable.
Le Carcajou
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For a bit more of the historical perspective, I found Randolph Marcy's passages in The Prairie Traveler interesting (published in 1859 as a guide for overland emigrants). He was a career frontier army officer and discusses the relative merits of the Colt's "navy" and "army" size revolvers - in the latter case he must be referring to a dragoon, since there's reference to the length of time which the army had used both types of revolver and the guide's pre-1860 publication.
He indicates his personal preference for the "army sized" revolver, despite its bulk, and, also writes, "many of our experienced frontier officers prefer carrying their pistols in a belt at their sides to placing them in holsters attached to the saddle, as in the former case they are always at hand when they are dismounted; whereas, by the other plan, they become useless when a man is unhorsed...."
I myself have a dragoon repro that I put in a Californian type holster on a 3" wide belt. The belt seems to work relatively comfortably but I have no need to carry it around for any length of time and I have some doubt whether such a wide belt would have been used (or at least commonly used) back in the day, not having myself seen any historical photos documenting a very wide belt with cap and ball revolver(s).
He indicates his personal preference for the "army sized" revolver, despite its bulk, and, also writes, "many of our experienced frontier officers prefer carrying their pistols in a belt at their sides to placing them in holsters attached to the saddle, as in the former case they are always at hand when they are dismounted; whereas, by the other plan, they become useless when a man is unhorsed...."
I myself have a dragoon repro that I put in a Californian type holster on a 3" wide belt. The belt seems to work relatively comfortably but I have no need to carry it around for any length of time and I have some doubt whether such a wide belt would have been used (or at least commonly used) back in the day, not having myself seen any historical photos documenting a very wide belt with cap and ball revolver(s).
when I was about 22yrs old I had a redhawk .44 mag stuffed in my belt under my sweater. I ran into a lady friend who had a ton of spunk. we hugged and she asked me if that was a pistol in my pants or are you just happy to see me? my answer was Both
back in the day a photograph was a really big deal. Not an every day thing like today. they absolutly dressed up in their best clothes and posed. very few if any candid shots of that era... it was even quite common to pose battlefield photos. . they did not have the ethics figured out because the technology was too new. In the height of modern photojournalism , WW11 through 2016ish you would get kicked out of the business for posing or altering a news image.
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