Hatfields & McCoys

[musketman]

Do you think any muzzleloading black powder arms were used in the famous feud in the 1860'-91?

You can clearly see the Colt percussion revolver that Ellison Hatfield is holding... (looks like a Walker)

The feud took place well into the cartridge era, but poor mountain folk may just hang on to their tried-and-true muzzleloaders...

In the group photo below, you can see a Henery rifle, although I suspect they kept their front stuffers as well...

What do you think?

 

[AgesofDays]

I think that it was a famous fight that the gun makers gave them the weapons to kill each other so that the gun makers would have braggin rights ....just my opinion also did you ever see the movie air america where those natives still had flintlocks and when the natives went to shoot the prisoners the rifles wouldnt go off cause of the rain what a hoot.....

 

[Stumpkiller]

The hogs was arn and no Kentucky McCoy showed otherwise.


Ol' Bill "Devil Anse" Hatfield

Great Grandfolks Levi & Sarah Pearsall

More than coincedence?

 

[TwoShadows]

Mousequite man....u kin probably see more gooder then I kin, but i'd swear thet Henry has a wooden forearm on hit. Yew don recon hit wud be a '66 er a '73 insted ? Also, most uv them folks wuznt too big, so tha walker might jest be a dragoon er sum sech.

 

[musketman]

Yea, it's a 66, I see the brass barrel band and the forearm now...

In the picture of Ellison Hatfield, there is no loading lever latch at the tip of the barrel, the lever comes to a point, this is why I believe it be a walker...

Oh well, I wonder if the descendants of the Hatfields and McCoy's ever made it to the Family Feud on TV?

 

[SquirrelsaurusR]

The History Channel did a series of specials
about famous feuds, the Hatfields & McCoys
being one of them. I recorded all of them
when they were on a couple of years ago.
The modern descendents of both families
are friends now and they get together
on a regular basis and have BBQ's and
talk about the old days. I don't remember
a whole lot, as I haven't watched it
in quite a while. I'll watch it when I
have a chance early next week (won't have
time over the weekend) and see if I can
pick out any details about the guns, although
I don't think it goes into any real detail
about that in particular. Any other questions
you want me to watch out for while I'm at it?

 

[musketman]

Any other questions
you want me to watch out for while I'm at it?

Just the firearms used, I think they would have stuck to the basics more-so than those new fancy shootin' irons...

Remember the Bug's Bunny cartoon "Hillbilly Hare (1950)", it spoofed the Hatfields & McCoys feud...

Only they were the Martins and the Coys...

They used flintlocks on the cartoon, a great source of historic reference... :winking: :haha:

 

Come on fellows, use some math!!
1860=muzzleloaders
1890=cartridge guns
The early photos are cap&ball revolvers, whatever their model. The big family photo has zero muzleloaders present. Every gun is a cartridge model repeater, including what appears to be a double action S&W held by a small child! The US Army wasd using the SS trapdoor Springfield at this time so the feuding families had better firepower than the military.
Families or people in imminant danger tend to go with the best shooting hardware possible, even if living in a cabin or covered wagon.

 

[musketman]

Come on fellows, use some math!!
1860=muzzleloaders
1890=cartridge guns

I have a 1838 musket that is still shootable, I would use it if I had to in a feud...

Chances are, they all do not have state of the art firearms and I really doubt that would discard their older gun...

It's more likely they would move the muzzleloaders to the back-up role, (IMO) I don't see them trading them in for a cartridge firearm because everyone in the country was trying to do the same and the gun shops were flooded with muzzleloaders.

What if they used Hatfield rifles? :winking: :haha: :haha: :haha: (I know, they weren't invented then)