What kind of hand gun would a gal carry in the old west?

Question

some great feedback, great info. To elaborate on this "girl" she's actually modern, but, and this is where it gets tricky, she has a sort of, uhm, fairy god mother, lets say, who is trying to help her out. She needs the most stereo-typical lady-gun from that time frame, so, she's going to get the kind of thing that modern Gap-shopping, lower-upper class, professional women associate with the "wild west" and, it seems to me, the most common female figure is the 'salon girl'. So... If I haven't already completely confused you: I need the gun that the woman who'd never fire a gun would assume a woman had if she were stranded in the 'wild west' and it needs to fit down the back of her bootheel.

so, thanks again for the awesome info, I'm following the derringer trail right now, but if anyone has anything additional, feel free to give it to me.

Answer 1

If your modern gal were to carry a period garter-gun most likely it would be a Remington Derringer (over-n-under double barrel).  It would be the extremely underpowered .41 Rim-fire caliber really only effective for 'across-table' range.  These (as are even modern Derringers) not terribly reliable as sometimes one or the other barrel will fail to fire.  You have to **** the hammer for each shot.

H

Answer 2

I would think a bar girl would have a derringer for up close protection. Small and very concealable. A woman on a homestead would more likely have access to a muzzle-loader shotgun or rifle or depending on the time line a breech load shotgun or lever action rifle.  

Answer 3

many "ladies" carried a small derringer in their purse or "hand bag" usually a single shot, but small multi shot derringers were around. J allen, along with many others  made pepper box multi chambered pistols that were quite small, just for the ladies or a gamblers vest pocket. Colt made the #2 derringer and many other small pocket pistols. Even Sharps (of the buffalo gun fame) made a small 4 chambered pocket pistol. I have never seen an authentic Garter holster for them, but I have no doubt they existed. I have seen them carried in the colder weather tucked in side a hand warmer, sort of a fur cylinder with heavy lining that the ladies kept there hands tucked into. Fladermans guide to antique american firearms is full of photo's and examples.

As far as shooting them, they had little recoil, were usually of .22, .32 and even .41 caliber or larger. These were used as a close in weapon, many times the barrel was actually pushed against the "victim" which caused the gasses from firing to cause an even more devastating wound. Across a poker table was getting to be long range for them. Also, the name Derringer comes from a manufacturer/desginer by that name, and came to be the common name give  to all small firearms wether made by him or not. In that train of thought, the small pistol used to assasinate president lincoln was a "derringer".

You can google derringer, and get some examples, or be more particular and google a manufacturers name with derringer after it.

I've fired original colt derringers, and reproductions, as well as modern ones. they can be pleasant to shoot in smaller calibers, and black powder mopderls, but some of them chambered in modern calibers can really kick, and roll violently in your hand, requiring a very stron grip. I have even seen some on very large pistol calibers fly back and completly out of the shooters hands.

Hope this helped answer your question. If not, feel free to email me for more details or if you have more questions on specific derringers etc.

Shoot safe

Answer 4

The comments you have gotten thus far about the type of gun that she would carry have been pretty clear - either a period derringer (of which there are many that are single and multiple barrel) or one of the early small single action revolvers in one of .3x calibers. Generally if it is a boot heel gun you are going to have something in the derringer or other small single shot range.

However, it would appear that there hasn't been alot of commentary around what it would "feel like to shoot" so I'll try and give some sense of that.

First, if the pistol is a derringer, or any other type of boot size pistol the handle is going to be both short and narrow. Typical for that design, even for a woman's hands was to give no more than a 2 finger grip on the handle, plus index finger on the trigger. The stereotype, and the practicality will be that the shooting will be one handed. This type of gun typically had some sort of very smooth grip slabs so that it doesn't catch or stick in a boot. The gun would be relatively light weight compared to other full size period revolvers. most of these types of guns did not have trigger guards to aid in keeping the size down and had somewhat "heavy" triggers, meaning they were somewhat hard to pull (6 - 10 lbs) to prevent accidental firing. Sights (if any) might be a blade in front with a groove along the top barrel. However, many of these had no sights at all because of the assumption of keeping it smooth and easy to conceal. Finally, they might or might not have rifled bores depending on the model. Modern ones almost all have rifled bores, but at the time, because of the assumption of close range some did not.

So, this means there is very little control surface when you fire the gun, and to fire it, you have to pull fairly hard on the trigger, which in inexperienced hands often translates into a good hard yank.  When firing the gun, while in an absolute sense, the recoil might not be significant the gun would certainly move in the woman's hand. Particularly shooting one handed, if the woman does not have a tight grip the possibility of dropping the gun is not insignificant because of the movement. (I have seen this happen in person) In fact, to some degree they were designed to rotate in the person's grip so the exposed hammer would be in a better position to grip with the thumb to **** for a followup shot. Getting two shots off with a derringer of the period one handed would certainly take at least 2 seconds in a reasonably practiced hand possibly as many as 5 or more depending on how they handled the recoil or if they were inexperienced. (This is actually an eternity in gun fight - Master class single action pistol shooters today can clear 6 dinner plates at 30 feet in a bit less than 2 seconds from the draw. This approximates head shots but stationary ones.)

Accuracy - as mentioned by someone else - would be "table length". What does this mean? Typically it would mean that under practice conditions the person would be able to hit (say 3 out of 6) something like a dinner plate at 20 to 25 feet, and under some stress the same accuracy at 5 - 7 feet or closer. This implies the ability to aim the gun as opposed to shooting from the hip. If "instinctively shooting" that brings it in to 1 - 3 feet under stress and probably no more than 10 - 12 under practice conditions unless the person is quite good with the gun. I should point out that I have personally seen many novice shooters under relatively little stress miss with this sort of gun at 3 feet due to yanking on the trigger and pulling the gun down.

As an aside, this was actually one of the appeals of the "pepper box" style of derringer. Some of these were designed to shoot all 4 barrels at once and in smooth bore versions actually fired a sort of early shot shell, meaning something like bird shot, as opposed to bullets. This reduced the need for accuracy or skill.

Oh, last piece - any of the derringer style of pistols would likely be a "break top" design. Meaning that the barrels had a latch on the top that held the gun closed so it could be fired and then the barrels would rotate on a hinge that would expose the "breech" for reloading. This process is slow, even if you have ALOT of practice and many derringers of the periods did not have "extractors" to help get the old cartridges out. Therefore, these were "Shoot and Run" sort of guns. No gun fight reloads or anything like that as is sometimes seen with a revolver. In fact, even if someone were under cover (hiding behind the bar in the gun fight) this is a bit tricky and again would need a little practice to do without fumbling ammo and such.

Hope this is useful.

Answer 5

A prostitute would carry a derringer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derringer

Any small gun that probably is only one shot or has up to 3 capacity, they would keep it small.

Answer 6

Two shot nickle plated derringer.  Go to WESTERN STAGE PROPS and you can find a blank shooting one or a replica non firing model.  If she puts it in a garter she might not was a cold metal one; the non-firing plastic replica would feel better.  

Answer 7

Date would also make a difference. most metalic cartridge guns were post 1860. If your story takes place in the 1840's, or 1850's, your girl would most likely have had a single shot muzzle loading caplock pistol. these little single shot pistols were very light weight and concealable, but provided only one shot. they were usually of .31 caliber. this type of pistol is similar to the one used to assinate abraham lincoln.

  if your story takes place in the 1880s' then a remington double barrel derringer in .41 rimfire claiber would be the most recognizable gun for her to carry. another classy little pistol would have been a pepper box, or multiple barrel derringer like the henry 4 barrel 22 cal. ladies of the evening usually preferred the small easily concealed pocket pistols.

The recoil out of the remington .41 would have been mild, but because of the size of the bullet, would have caused the muzzle to jump in the ladies hand, thus requiring a firm grip.

the little henry 22 cal pepper box would have had very little muzzle jump, but the small size and power of the bullet might not have done the job if the target was a tough hombre. Firing for the face (unless he was undressed) would have been advisable.

cut down revolvers such as colt or smith and wesson would have been difficult to carry in a garter belt.

The following link should give you a variety of pistols that could have been used by your lady, along with the make and caliber.

Answer 8

Tucked away in her garter?  Most likely a Colt or Remington derringer.

Colt derringer

http://www.collectorsfirearms.com/admin/...

The two types of Remington derringers

http://www.gunsinternational.com/detail....

http://www.gunsinternational.com/detail....

In her pocket she might carry a Colt Root model, Colt 1849 Pocket .31 Revolver with the barrel cut down, or a cut down Patterson Colt.  The smaller Smith and Wessons were also popular.

Answer 9

Most likely your character would be carrying a 'derringer' pistol.  these are tiny (palm of hand-sized) single or double barrel pistols.  They have exposed hammers like larger "cowboy" pistols to prevent accidental misfiring.  

Answer 10

Bar girls, most likely a derringer.

woman on a farm or ranch would have a Winchester/Henry or shotgun.  Maybe a few colt/Remington six guns