King of the Scatterguns

The single best and most economical arm for hunting and defense in the Wild West was the double-barreled shotgun.

- PHIL SPANGENBERGER

This carte de visite shows two young Dewitt, Iowa, hunters, circa 1870, with all of the appropriate muzzle-loading accoutrements. The lad at left has a fullstocked, front-loading percussion rifle with double set triggers and an elaborate patchbox. His partner sports a doublebarrel caplock shotgun and slung over his shoulders are a shot pouch and powder flask. It's possible that the rifleman has loaded his smokepole with shot, turning it into a single-shot scattergun. Courtesy Phil Spangenberger

It the sign of trouble, the mere sight of a shotgun ready for business is more threatening than almost any other arm. As one stagecoach driver was quoted in Bodie, California’s Standard on July 20, 1881 said, “I have had a six-shooter pulled on me across a faro table; I have proved that the hilt of a dirk can’t go between two of my ribs;…but I was never really surprised until I looked down the muzzle of a double-barreled shotgun in the hands of a road agent. Why my friend, the mouth of the Sutro tunnel is like a nailhole in the Palace Hotel compared to a shotgun.”