Today I’m going to tell you about a gun that has cost me very little, at least to this point in my ownership of the piece. Years ago, a friend took possession of a Winchester Model 1873 in .44 WCF, A.K.A. .44-40 Winchester.  It’s the 24-inch version with an octagonal barrel and is stamped “King’s Improvement.”

The older we get, the more valuable family heirlooms and keepsakes we’ve accumulated over the years become. To most folks these things mean very little. However, many of these items are priceless to the current caretaker. A glance around the house reveals an assortment of things that once belonged to relatives that are now gone. It will come as little surprise to y’all that many of these cherished possessions are guns.

Pretty quick, Hayes hit a high trail that headed towards Chinati Peak. I figured he was planning to get lost in that broken canyon country north of the peak. He made quite a race of it but my old dun gelding was desert raised and we held our own. Just about the time we were going to catch up to him, Devil pulled his horse to a sliding stop and spun uphill, off the trail. As he did, I snapped a shot at him with my carbine and knocked him out of the saddle.

Some guns need a little tweaking to make them look “right.” A slight change to the grip frame or a more graceful hammer spur added to a single action or a figured piece of walnut bolted on a plain-stocked rifle and voila, perfection! Then there are a few guns that are ideal as-is from the factory. To my eye Colt’s Single Action Army is good from the get-go. Heck, I even like the plastic grips that come on them. The same goes for a 4-inch Smith & Wesson N-frame. Everything is

In the late 1800s, John M. Browning was on a roll. He designed the robust 1886 Winchester that was chambered for big-bore cartridges. Then, in 1892, he brought out a scaled down version that would handle various popular handgun cartridges. Later, we got the Model 1895 Winchester which was a whole new design for high-velocity ammo. But I think his crowning glory, where lever actions are concerned, was his Model 1894 rifle and carbine.

He pulled the old ranch truck with the stock trailer holding his buckskin gelding over to the side of the county road, not far from where all the squad cars were sitting. With his spur rowels jingling softly, he walked up to a young highway patrolman and asked what was going on...

In studying the gunfights of the Old West it quickly becomes clear that many of the most savvy shootists preferred using a rifle whenever they could get their hands on one quickly.  The handgun came into use when dealing with a surprise encounter or the rifle was not close at...

The Model 1886 Winchester was the first John Browning-designed repeating rifle to be manufactured by Winchester. The classic lines and...

I was just a big kid, horseback near the Nueces River, the first time I got a really close look at javalinas. I rounded a bend in the...

The country where I live in far West Texas has the only mountains in the state. They run from the Big Bend of the Rio Grande all the way...