Observation on Westerns

Maybe you folks can answer this conundrum for me. In many Westerns, the cowboys ride or swim their horses across deep rivers. When they come out of the water on the other side, they immediately continue riding on their trip. It seems like to me being in water like that would fill their boots to the brim!:D Their six guns, rifles, and shotguns all got soaking wet. I guess back then, ALL their boots were made with holes in them for the water to drain out, and their firearms were made so they would drip dry immediately without damage!:rolleyes:
Larry
 
I liked it when ol Gabby started shooting he would throw the bullets at the bad guys. Start at the shoulder and flip the gun forward. There weren't no aiming...and lotsa double negatives
 
Something I noticed was that Indians never carried pistols. I was sort of stunned the first time I saw this picture. This is Geronimo's pistol, that he surrendered when he was captured.


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The only time I've seen an Indian with a pistol in a western movie was a modern Western called Thunderheart. Val Kilmer was a half Sioux FBI agent that was sent to the oglala reservation, where he meets Graham Greene, a tribal policeman. Greene rides a motorcycle, not a horse, wears blue jeans, a T-shirt and a leather vest, and under the vest there is a 1911 in a shoulder holster.


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Maybe you folks can answer this conundrum for me. In many Westerns, the cowboys ride or swim their horses across deep rivers. When they come out of the water on the other side, they immediately continue riding on their trip. It seems like to me being in water like that would fill their boots to the brim!:D Their six guns, rifles, and shotguns all got soaking wet. I guess back then, ALL their boots were made with holes in them for the water to drain out, and their firearms were made so they would drip dry immediately without damage!:rolleyes:
Larry



Many Westerns, old & modern, require a suspension of disbelief when watching. Much like cop shows & movies. Except Beverly Hills Cop, that was totally legit.............. :rolleyes:
 
Being a student of western history and culture, I have read many diaries, letters home, news accounts, military assessments. The native American carried handguns at every opportunity they had to acquire them. I have read many accounts of Indians going into battle with captured handguns. They just don't show it in the movies. Just read an account from Custer himself, recounting finding an elevated Indian grave and he listed of all the items "buried" with the man. Besides bow, arrows, spear, and other things that will be needed in the afterlife, he listed a rifle and pistol with the other possessions.
 
. This is a fact...I had a reservation cop that tried to buy a handgun from me. He couldn't pass the background check.
 
I was shocked...shocked I say... the first time I saw the outdated cultural depiction warning on a western...I had no idea!!! I thought EVERYONE west of the Mississippi shot Indians, beat their wives, and carried shovels everywhere they went to bury all the bodies they came across in their daily travels.
 
I liked it when ol Gabby started shooting he would throw the bullets at the bad guys. Start at the shoulder and flip the gun forward. There weren't no aiming...and lotsa double negatives

Slim Pickens shot a six shooter the same way. I was told that in real life in the era of cap and ball revolver this method was used where the fired caps would not fall back into the hammer opening and jam the cylinder ??
 
I was shocked...shocked I say... the first time I saw the outdated cultural depiction warning on a western...I had no idea!!! I thought EVERYONE west of the Mississippi shot Indians, beat their wives, and carried shovels everywhere they went to bury all the bodies they came across in their daily travels.

My buddy's mom went back to Baltimore in the '80s to visit relatives. They asked if she had indoor plumbing and much trouble with the indians. 1980's, by the way.
 
Slim Pickens shot a six shooter the same way. I was told that in real life in the era of cap and ball revolver this method was used where the fired caps would not fall back into the hammer opening and jam the cylinder ??


You are correct sir. Cap and ball shooters would do that with Colt revolvers to keep pieces of fired cap out of the action. And when they taught their children how to shoot they taught them the same way, even though by then they were using cartridge firearms.



When they started making movies, they needed somebody to teach the actors how to shoot, and that's how the teachers knew how to shoot so that's how they taught the actors to shoot, and that's why everybody did it in old westerns.



And these days everyone laughs about it. "What did they think they're doing? Throwing the bullet??" :p
 
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