If you have been a steady reader of my Dragonblade mystery series (and if you have not, why not?), you will recall that Lord Macdonald Duncan has been shot by an unknown man, who carried a gun not like those generally available in England at the time. Often, I have one of the characters remark how it looked like one a person might find on the American frontier.

Each of the five books in this series (Lyon in the Way, Lyon’s Obsession, Lyon in Disguise, Lost in the Lyon’s Garden, and Lyon on the Inside) start with the same scene: the shooting of Lord Macdonald Duncan by an unknown assailant outside of the Lyon’s Den, an infamous gaming hell. The scene is told from a different character’s point of view (the hero of that particular book), and the reader learns more details regarding the shooting – reasons for the attack, a description of the shooter, how he escaped, etc., etc., etc. It is a technique I also used in my award-winning REALM series.

One thing each of the heroes believe to be true was the gun used in the attack was likely one adapted from those used on the American frontier during the early 1800s. In my mind’s eyes, when I was writing the tale, I saw something more like the Hawkens Plains Rifle. I have a dear friend, actually my journalism professor from when I was an undergraduate. He lives some twenty miles from me, and we occasionally share a meal, etc. He also writes novels, but he prefers Westerns. Therefore, I sought out some of the sites he had suggested years ago when I, too, dallied with the idea of writing a family style saga on the American frontier. So, such is where I came across this information.

True West: History of the American Frontier, gives us an article called “Top Guns That Tamed the West.” Phil Spangenberger tells us,

Such is not to say that there were no such rifles or guns that fit the description given in my series. In fact, initially, the long firearm of choice on the frontier was the smoothbore musket, or trade gun, built in factories in England and France and shipped to the colonies for purchase. Gradually, long rifles became more popular due to their longer effective range. While the smooth bore musket had an effective range of less than 100 yards, a rifleman could hit a man-sized target at a range of 200 yards or more. The price for this accuracy was that the long rifle took significantly longer to reload than the approximately 20 seconds of the musket.

Though I had something in mind more to the idea of a holster pistol (see image below) or the half-stock muzzleloader, when reading this article, I set my sights on the Colt Paterson Revolver. “Despite not being a successful business venture for Samuel Colt, this five-shot, cap and ball single-action became the first practical “revolving pistol.” Although only around 2,850 revolvers were made, this was the handgun that revolutionized revolvers for all time. The Paterson (its name comes from the city in New Jersey where it was manufactured) was produced in a number of small calibers and model variations ranging from pocket-sized ‘Baby’ Patersons, to larger mid-powered belt revolvers. However, it was the long-barreled .36 caliber Texas Paterson version of this first Colt that was put to such deadly use against the Comanches by the early Texas Rangers.” [Top 12 Guns That Tamed the West]