I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man!
Johnny L.A.! Never thought you’d have the nerve to show your face in these parts again, not after the Daltons done run you off two summers back. Well, I guess you must be tired of livin’, or you just get bored smokin’ those senoritas down in Juarez? No matter, you’n I got a score to settle. You still packin’ that Smith ‘n Wesson Model 3? I be glad to take it off you right here and now, son. You got somethin’ to say, better spit it out!
-
Colt seems to have kicked off the revolver craze, starting around 1836. Dueling had largely ended in the UK already by 1840. By my estimation, from looking at the gap between years on this page, I’d surmise that it peaked in the 1800-1810 period and it was all downhill from there.
-
Here is a list of 18th century dueling pistols, simply the first 5 I was able to find which clearly stated whether they were rifled or smooth bore. (Note: I wrote this before searching.)
VERY FINE PAIR OF 18th C BURL ITALIAN FLINTLOCK DUELING PISTOLS (Smooth bore / Non-revolving)
File:French cased duelling pistols, Nicolas Noel Boutet, single shot, flintlock, rifled, .58 caliber, blued steel, Versailles, 1794-1797 - Royal Ontario Museum - DSC09477.jpg - Wikipedia (Rifled / Non-revolving)
Hamilton and Burr’s Dueling Pistols Are Coming to Washington, D.C. | At the Smithsonian| Smithsonian Magazine (Smooth bore / Non-revolving)
Pair of John Fox Twigg of London Flintlock Dueling Pistols Refinished Originals, MFD 1755-1788, Antique | Lock, Stock & Barrel (Smooth bore / Non-revolving)
https://www.gunauction.com/buy/14501480 (Rifled / Non-revolving)
- Duels were conducted, generally, so that each side took a turn. This is makes a revolver meaningless.
All this arcane gun knowledge is so adorable,
Moderator Note
I’m going to take this as a threadshit. No warning issued, but if you can’t contribute positively to a thread, don’t snark at others.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Rules? In a knife fight? No rules!
I recall story where Joe, in a second floor poker (or faro?) game, was told that Fred was waiting for him out in the street. Joe picked up his rifle, leaned out the window, shot Fred, and went back to his poker or faro game.
Duels were still a thing in the Old West, especially in the early years of what we think of as the Old West. For example, Mark Twain challenged another newspaperman to a duel in 1864, although the duel did not take place (partly because duels were illegal in Nevada in 1864).
However, these formal duels were entirely unlike the duels in Westerns. They were planned events subject to rules, and each duelist had a second. They generally were fought to avenge insults, not to see who was the faster shot.
Was this the one where a French guy carried the “fatal weapons” on hi key chain?
Always bringing a knife to a gunfight…
Fill your hand…
Is this a reference to something? Anyway, no.
Twain wrote an essay about being the Second in a duel. The dueling pistols were tiny, and the other Second had them on a key chain.
Twain’s account of his duel is at Mark Twain Autobiography: On Duels and Shakespeare - EveryWriter. According to the account there, Twain himself was not a good shot, but his second was excellent and his opponent was misled to believe that Twain had his second’s skill, leading to the duel’s cancellation. No mention of keychains.
This is the French duel in A Tramp Abroad.
Thanks, Marvin the Martian. The French duel is pretty obviously fiction (and, of course, was not held in the Old West). The Nevada duel account is from Twain’s autobiography and is something that actually happened (or, rather, failed to happen), although the details of Twain’s account are disputed. They both make good reading.
Thanks, Marvin. I could not Google it.
What’s this talk of duels? The cowpokes in Western movies had showdowns. Calling them duels would probably get you ridden out of town on a rail. Or shot. Then hanged.
Oh yeah? What about Duel at Diablo. You think James Garner was a wuss?