The outlaw Josie Wales

[troyboy]

What firearms did Josie use?

[plmitch]

http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Outlaw_Josey_Wales,_The

[AlaskanGuy]

If you mean the film, they used a whole lot of converted colts it seems.... I dont think the original Josie had access to them..lol

[MBTcustom]

In the film, he had four Colt walkers on his saddle and a Sharps rifle in the scabbard. He carried two Colt walkers at his sides, an 1860 .44 in a cross draw holster, and a .36 in a shoulder holster.
In reality, you can figure that a guerrilla fighter such as him would have all his pistols being 1851ish model with brass frames oriented in similar fashion. The Guerrilla fighters of the civil war performed the same job as the modern attack helicopter. Loaded to the gills and designed for mobility to strike quick and put a bunch of disruptive firepower into the enemy.

So you figure 8 pistols that weighed 2.5 lbs each with the hammer on an empty chamber, so that's 40 rounds.
What those guys wouldn't give for just one 8lb Ar-15 with an extra magazine.

[Hickory]

I don't know if any of you guys have ever noticed, but in every scene where Clint Eastwood fires a gun, he closes his eyes. In other words, Clint has a flinch problem.

[AlaskanGuy]

Seems to be so.... Check out some of the Dirty Harry films where he is packing big iron....

[Kskybroom]

The Road Agents Spin
We got something' in the territory called the Missouri boat ride

[Airman Basic]

I don't know if any of you guys have ever noticed, but in every scene where Clint Eastwood fires a gun, he closes his eyes. In other words, Clint has a flinch problem.

"All the best cowboys have chinese eyes."

[GhostHawk]

I disagree, I don't think those guys would like the AR, small bullet, high velocity.

Now an SKS or AK is possible, but I suspect those guys would really freak for Garand's.

US made, bigger bullet, still has speed 8 shots semi auto, and shove in another clip and rock and roll.
Those boys would LOVE the 30-06. "If" they had a choice. For sidearms, its all glock baby.

[tomme boy]

I have owned a bunch of AK's and SKS's and AR's. Guess which one of them has never given me any type of problem. Not one!

While the Garand has hitting power, and that is it. The AR is the ultimate close range combat rifle. And that is what the majority of the raiders would have used.

[MBTcustom]

I disagree, I don't think those guys would like the AR, small bullet, high velocity.

Now an SKS or AK is possible, but I suspect those guys would really freak for Garand's.

US made, bigger bullet, still has speed 8 shots semi auto, and shove in another clip and rock and roll.
Those boys would LOVE the 30-06. "If" they had a choice. For sidearms, its all glock baby.

No way.
I agree with tommy boy.
I mean look at the choice of weapon that Josey Wales used. I grew up on a couple of those pistols, and I would challenge you to name me a less powerful weapon that was used in the civil war.
He chose to strap 44 revolvers all over his body and horse, because while they are anemic in comparrison to other civil war weaponry, nothing beat them for getting more shots down range.
Following that same line of thinking, had he had access to modern weapons, the AR or the AK would have been his choice, and leave not the MAG5-100's setting on the shelf outside the time capsule.

The object of all this firepower was to give the geurilla warrior the ability to charge through enemy ranks with his buddies in a surprise attack laying down as much lead as possible as they cut their swath, after which they would retreat to a position of relative safety and reload all those guns they emptied. (seriously, that must have taken 45 minutes!)
In that day, repeating firearms were just making their debut and this style of fighting was looked down upon, as being murder on the battlefield. They gave no quarter to men who would choose this cowardly and savage method of fighting over lining up like gentlemen sporting their coutries colors and blasting away at eachother with single shot rifles.
In truth, using artilary was a relatively new thing. It too was considered an uncouth and base practice that only seafaring scum would engage in. However, it was eventually considered as an acceptable (barely) and very expensive land war practice.
To put it in modern perspective, it would be like a country willy nilly using small nuclear weapons and pitching in with whatever country they happen to back at the time, giving the people who they were fighting for a very real edge while also making them the most hated people on the planet. Even the countries they had helped would think of them as total scum.
That's the way it was for the guerrilla warriors and the snipers in the civil war. Once the conflict was over, they were not well thought of.

[MtGun44]

Jose Wales was modeled on the border guerillas along the Kansas-Missouri border.
I have a friend that has family stories of great grandfathers hiding the plowing mule
and horses in a brushy ravine while Quantrill's raiders burned their barn and killed all the
livestock they could find. This was the famous Lawrence raid.

Dangerous times for civilians. His great grandmother was forced to feed the raiders, and
they left her alone. The great grandfather, plow mule and horse survived and the family
was able to still farm. Quantrill was shooting the men, boys and livestock. The family still owns
the same land today.

While the fictional Jose Wales seems to have carried mostly the HUGE Colt Walkers with some
1860s and smaller pocket pistols for backup, all my reading indicates they preferred the Colt Navy .36s.
in fact, Jesse James rode with the guerillas and they carried many Colt Navy .36s, up to 8 or 10 if
they could get them. Think of a mobile force sweeping down on a camp of regulars armed
primarily with single shot muzzle loading rifled muskets. The rifles can shoot up to 3 rds
per minute, but being shot at by horsemen at close range would slow that a lot. The
riders had up to 48 to 60 shots available, probably able to fire all in 2-3 minutes, themselves
presenting a moving target. The firepower advantage must have been the first real
"shock and awe" form of attack.

It would seem that 10-20 riders (with 500-1000 shots available in a few minutes time) could
seriously disrupt a group of regulars in camp that were maybe 10 times their size.

Few know that the wives and children of many of the Missouri border guerillas were rounded up and
held in a building in Kansas City. While they were held there, the building collapsed and killed
many of the wives of men that later became famous guerilla leaders, driven by the hatred
of those that killed their wives. So, the basic story of Josy Wales - a guerilla driven by revenge
for his wife, and people being shot and burned out of their farms all along the border by
Federal troops and guerillas, and revenge by Confederate guerillas - is all pretty much historical.

The James brothers, and the Youngers were all involved in this fighting and learned their
skills during the war, turning to bank and train robbing after the war.

Bill

[dtknowles]

.........So you figure 8 pistols that weighed 2.5 lbs each with the hammer on an empty chamber, so that's 40 rounds........

Are you sure the hammer is down on an empty nipple not between the nipples with all the chambers loaded. I can't tell anyone what the practice was at the time but that is how I carry my percussion revolvers, all chambers loaded and the hammer down between two nipples.

Tim

[oldred]

Believe it or not I watched this classic movie, along with "Pale rider", for the FIRST time about two months ago! I was not at all a fan of "Spaghetti" westerns which I had mistakenly associated this movie with, my wife bought it on DVD and after reading the reviews I sat down to watch it. I really enjoyed it! That is a darn good western and I can't believe that I waited so long to watch it, better late than never I suppose!

[Dan Cash]

In addition to what Tim said, most of the Colts and Remingtons had a pin between each chamber that was engaged by the hammer nose (Colt) or a notch that was engaged by the hammer nose (Remington) to make the gun safe with all chambers loaded.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

I read in one of the True West magazines that of all the movies that Clint made, this is his favorite. Now here comes the monkey in the wrench. The union army knew that the guerilla fighters were being supplied by there wives and other family members so they rounded up many of these women and locked them in a large two story building. Too many were forced up stairs to a room that was never intended to carry that much weight. The floor gave way, killing eighteen of the women. This precipitated the raid on Lawrence. If you want to see some real guerilla pillage and destruction, follow Sherman's ride across South Carolina and Georgia. Sherman said he thought it was humorous when he saw what some of his men chose to steal. They burned the homes of men whose Grandfathers signed the Declaration Of Independence. Arthur Middleton's for example. They even burned the city of Columbia S.C. I was surprised to find Andrew Jackson's home, The Hermitage was still standing. You may fire when ready Gridley.

[WILCO]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-KEnU9TBmQ

[WILCO]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TbtTaHrIHI

[WILCO]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV7eoIUpWLc

[seaboltm]

Are you sure the hammer is down on an empty nipple not between the nipples with all the chambers loaded. I can't tell anyone what the practice was at the time but that is how I carry my percussion revolvers, all chambers loaded and the hammer down between two nipples.

Tim

My understanding is that carrying with an empty cylinder became common with the introduction of cartridge revolvers. On cartridge revolvers there is no way to allow the hammer to rest between cylinders like the percussion revolvers do. So, I think they would have loaded all six and lowered the hammer between cylinders.