The 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, liked guns, and he liked to shoot. He famously quipped: “I don’t know how to shoot well, but I know how to shoot often.” The architect of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation ...
The Sad Fate of the Man Behind the Legendary Colt Walker Revolver
Two of the most iconic words in the world of gun collecting are “Colt Walker.” Only 1,000 of the revolvers were ever made for the US military, and only 100 more were made for civilians. Of those, only about 10% survived. That scarcity has propelled ...
Hands-On Mountain Man History Lesson: DIY Tanning Beaver Tails
A few weeks ago, my landlord came knocking at my door on a Tuesday morning. When I answered, he said, “I’ve got a dead beaver out here. You want it?” What are you supposed to say to that? “Sure, I’ll take it!” The words fell out of my mouth ...
The Most Expensive Shotguns of All Time
The concept of a shotgun is fairly simple by firearm design standards. At its most basic, a shotgun is a hammer, trigger, chamber, a smoothbore barrel or two, and a stock. It's kind of amazing to think that a contraption consisting of little more ...
The Most Expensive Rifles Ever Sold at a Gun Auction
Recently, we published a story about the most expensive firearms ever sold at a gun auction. With a staggering total price of more than $14 million, the guns on that list are incredible, but they all had one thing in common: They were all handguns. ...
Lincoln Shot a Spencer Rifle With the Gun’s Designer on the National Mall
When Christopher Miner Spencer died in January 1922 after 88 years of life, he’d accomplished quite a lot. The inventor had filed multiple patents over his long career for a number of firearms, among other things. He even produced some of the ...
The Unceremonious Death of Samuel Colt
On Jan. 10, 1862, Samuel Colt passed away at his home in Hartford, Connecticut. He was one of the wealthiest men in America, with an estimated worth of $15 million ($413 million today). Death cares little about money, though. Colt died at the ...
Warts and Beauty Marks: The Homestead Act and the Making of America
The United States is referred to as “The Land of Opportunity,” and while “opportunity” has long been the focal point of that phrase, there was a time when “land” was the opportunity. On May 20, 1862 — smack dab in the midst of the Civil War — a piece ...
Washington Crossing the Delaware in 1776 Was a Last Resort
Emanuel Leutze’s 1851 painting, Washington Crossing the Delaware, is undoubtedly one of the most “America, fuck yeah!” paintings that depict any part of the American Revolution. In recent years, the painting of George Washington crossing the ...
Everything You Know About the Boston Tea Party is Probably Wrong
Everyone knows about the Boston Tea Party, right? King George III of England levied yet another tax on the American colonists, this time on the most basic and necessary commodity of tea. It was the last act before the kettle of revolution began to ...
Most Expensive Guns: The 6 Priciest Firearms Ever Sold at Auction
Most of us don’t buy guns to save or make money — it’s usually quite the opposite. However, if you have the financial means, firearms can be a really great investment, and that's been true for quite some time. For most of the 20th century, Colt ...
Oliver Winchester and Sam Colt: Innovators and Lousy Gunmakers
The Winchester name is one of the best-known firearm brands in the world. Its namesake, Oliver Winchester, oversaw the evolution of the lever-action rifle and its rise to fame as “The Gun That Won the West.” When the company’s patriarch passed away ...
Hiram Maxim: The Right Place, Right Time, Right Gun to Change History
The United States is often called the “Land of Opportunity,” but for Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim, that wasn’t exactly the case. This week marks the 105th anniversary of his death, and the story of his life is a remarkable one full of near successes and ...
Smith and Wesson Founded Their Gun Company 165 Years Ago, Not 169
Smith & Wesson is one of the oldest gunmakers in the United States, but exactly how old depends on who you ask. According to Smith & Wesson’s website and official story, the company began in 1852 when Horace Smith and D. B. Wesson decided ...
Photos: What Old West Life Was Really Like in Tombstone, Arizona
Thanks to television shows like Deadwood and every movie that falls under the genre heading of "Western," we have a particular version of what life was like in towns like Tombstone, Arizona, in our American pop-culture collective mind. Of course, ...
Annie Oakley: A Legend Who Taught Thousands of Women to Shoot
Annie Oakley learned how to shoot young. She developed it as a practical skill to help feed her family when she was 8 years old in 1868 and she was still known as Phoebe Ann Mosey. Oakley often repeated a story about that very first shot outside her ...
Horace Smith, Half of Smith & Wesson, Was Born 213 Years Ago
The names “Smith” and “Wesson” sound as natural together as Lewis and Clark or Tom and Jerry. The S&W brand has been a mainstay of the modern gun world practically since it began in the 19th century. It can be easy to forget the gun-building ...
Hunting History: How Firearm Tech Changed the Way Americans Hunt
Before the advent of firearms, humans used far simpler tools to kill game in the earliest era of hunting history. Implements progressed from knives, spears, and other primitive weapons made from stone, then bronze, then iron as the centuries ...
Mountain Man Seth Kinman: A Legendary Hunter with Presidential Pals
The early 19th century was an era of explorers, hunters, tall tales, and the mountain man. No one personifies all of that better than Seth Kinman. If you've never heard of him, sit back and get ready for a hell of a story about a legendary hunter, ...
What Happened to William Clark After the Lewis and Clark Expedition?
William Clark may be best remembered for his pivotal role as half of the team behind the Lewis and Clark Expedition, but the 30 years of his life that bookended his time with the Corps of Discovery were just as exciting. In addition to charting a ...
‘Rona Deer: USDA Study Finds COVID-19 in Whitetail Population
A disturbing number of whitetail deer are testing positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, according to a study done by the Department of Agriculture. So far, the CDC has not declared mask mandates for wildlife. Even though it ...
The Famous Winchester Model 1894 Was Born 127 Years Ago This Week
About 37,000 patents were approved in 1894. That works out to more than 100 per day. On Tuesday, Aug. 21, of that year, patent No. 524,702 crossed the desk of a clerk at the Old Patent Office Building in Washington, D.C., who probably thought nothing ...
How Western Legend Wild Bill Hickok Died in Deadwood
James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok is remembered for several things: his famous nickname, his proficiency with his signature nickel-and-ivory Colt Model 1851 Navy revolvers, and the final hand he was dealt in poker that directly preceded his coldblooded ...
