Everyone knows the scene…a lone, rugged cowboy trudges across a dirt road with a pistol or two strapped into a beaten leather holster riding low at his waist. The image of a western gunslinger is popular in the media, but did you know that it was predominately created by the media? The Hollywood version of a gunslinger is vastly different from what we know to be historically correct.
During the 19th century, America was expanding and industry was growing along with it. It was a time of much chaos, since law enforcement couldn’t keep up. US marshals and county sheriffs faced the challenge of watching their territories expand beyond reason. There was too much ground to cover and not enough law enforcement officials for the job. Outlaws and bandits could easily outrun law enforcers by crossing state lines, and jails were often corrupt and easy to escape.
Authorities began offering rewards for those who brought in wanted outlaws, dead or alive. This created the rise of the hired gun, or bounty hunter. And because they would receive a reward on a “dead or alive” basis, many bounty hunters would kill their targets to minimize the danger involved. Then they would deliver the body and collect the reward.
Being a sheriff, marshal, or hired gun meant that you were skilled with a firearm and prepared to face hardened criminals. Not everyone was up for the job. This meant that many individuals who had been hired guns were hired as law enforcement officers due to their fearsome reputation. It was common for a town sheriff and a gunslinger to be one in the same, though perhaps at different times throughout their lives. These gunslingers were also hired by businesses and individuals to protect shipments, guard cattle, and any number of additional jobs that required their expertise.
This historic notion of a gunslinger paints a picture quite different from the quick-draw pistol duels you’re used to seeing in front of dusty saloons. In fact, anything resembling a European duel was extremely rare in the American west. The term gunslinger wasn’t even used back then; rather, it was a Hollywood creation that emerged in 1920. Hired guns of the time instead referred to themselves as gunmen, shootists, or pistoleers. And most of these men favored short-barreled shotguns or rifles over pistols, because the first two options offered more accuracy than handheld pistols. As outlaw Wyatt Earp said, “Fast is fine. Accurate is final.”
Tell us about your favorite film, book, or TV series depicting the Wild West. Commenting below will serve as your entry for our May giveaway. But remember to keep it classy; inappropriate comments will be deleted and disqualified. Submit your comment (one comment only please) by May 20, 2018. One winner will be randomly selected on May 21, 2018 to receive a Gunslinger 1 oz silver round from our exclusive Prospector series.
Good luck and aim true!
Have to be ” The Quick and the Dead” and “Tombstone”
Tombstone probably one of my favorite Wild West Movies
Legends of the Fall!
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly! Clint is Amazing!
Lonesome Dove is one of my favorite stories, and if you don’t have young ears around the HBO series Deadwood is an awesome series to watch.
I’d go with tombstone
Rustlers Rhapsody !!!! One of the all time best comedy westerns 🙂
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke with James arness was the best.
Steve Mcqueen in WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE is one of my all time favorite old Western show’s.And the movie SLIVERADO is one of the BEST movie’s.
The Rifleman, Chuck Conners was fast with that short-barreled. Winchester. He ws an honest, fair, protector that shoot
fast, and a bad Dude in a fight.
“A Fistful Of Dollars”
I watch Gunsmoke every day but can’t think of a bad western show or movie
lone ranger he set a good example for kids
I like the movies Tombstone, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Unforgiven. The book Doc Holliday by Matt Braun is good too.
When thinking about the Wild West, nothing but memories of me as a young musician playing ‘West Side Story’ come to mind. Even though I never saw the film, as an auditory learner, I didn’t need to: I just had to listen and imagine it. But perhaps the Hollywood version of “gunslingers” is too overrated.
We currently live in tense times with this political climate and at any minute it seems that our economy will slide as a world super power and we will be back in the days of gunslinging. When that happens, there will be looting, chaos, and uncertainty.
But in chaos comes order. And for those who prepared before the times of this coming second Wild Wild West? They will be greatly rewarded.
I can’t help but think about the reality of our world when reading about this silver piece. But that is why I began stacking: our fiat system has been pumped and propped up like a fat hog and will be dumped like no other fiat currency that has ever existed.
It will be up to the prepared people to decide whether they want to come together as a community to keep the bad guys from taking what doesn’t belong to them…
…or if they will just let the outlaws run our supposed broken society that we speak of in this scenario. Justice must always be served. We must prepare for everything and anything.
Food and water storage isn’t just for Mormons. Stacking silver and maybe a little gold isn’t just for crazy conspiracy theorists. And gunslinging now in these times of extreme gun control isn’t just for folks in the “Wild West.”
With the proper preparedness and training, our country will come together once again with God to bring prosperity to our world. And this is what I think about when I look at this piece.
Good will always prevail as long as we’re willing die for what’s right, regardless of your “reward.”
Unforgiven, all time Clint Eastwood classic!
Bat Masterson on tv was great
I like when tarantino recotextualizes the wild west aesthetic into different environments a la kill bill, etc
Tombstone is the greatest movie of all time
High Noon with Gary Cooper tackled lots of internal and external struggles..Here is the trailer https://youtu.be/UksD359WFT0
Big Jake – you can call me Jacob, you can call me Jake, you can call me father, you can even call me a SOB, but if you ever call me Daddy again, i’m gonna finish this fight !
My Name is Nobody!
Painless Potter an inept correspondance school dentist played by Bob Hope. Potter, and everyone else, is tricked into thinking he is a an amazing gunslinger who can take out the bad guys literally with his eyes closed. Jane Russell plays Calamity Jane, the steely-eyed heroine who plays Potter like a puppet for her own ends but ultimately the two fall in love. Action, adventure, and romance. Timeless classic still watchable today.
Who shot liberty bell., John Wayne
Paint Your Wagon!
With Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin nothing depicts the wild west like gold mining . Also one of the funniest movies ever
Eastwood’s “The Unforgiven” was groundbreaking in the way it blurred the lines between good and evil. It’s treatment of the characters left each of them flawed but fully formed. By far my favorite Western!
I’ll have to say Lonesome Dove, but it’s so hard to name only one, I love all westerns!
Loved Gunsmoke
Young guns
For me, it has to be Tombstone. Of course, any western with Sam Elliott is good.