Narrow belts?

[Massive]

Not trying to start a trend here, but in the modern day, a gun belt tends to be 1.25-1.75 in width.  In the Frank James thread or picture discussion we had here recently, the belt shown was about the width of a 45 LC OAL.  or a little over 1.6" in.  Just wondering how typical narrow belts really were in the days of the wild west.  Today we see belts commonly an inch wider than that on western rigs.

[Cliff Fendley]

It has appeared to me from studying dated photos that the wider belts became more popular later in the period. Those wider ones were usually money belts.

[Trailrider]

In point of fact, military waist and sword/saber belts were 1-3/4 for officer's belts, and 1-7/8" for enlisted belts. Many officers elected to use the wider enlisted belts as they were generally made of a single thickness of approx. 8-9 oz. leather.  Before cartridge belt guns came into use, military and civilian wearers often used surplus military sword/saber belts to pack cap-n-ball sixguns. Cartridge conversions and later plain Colt's, Remingtons and S&W's were also carried on such belt widths. The width progressed to 2" wide, probably to accomodate available buckle sizes. These would accomodate both the holsters and pistol cartridges. In some instances, military belts even had cartridge loops that could handle .50-70 or .45-70 rilfe cartridges. Later, belts became wider to easily handle the buffalo rifle cartridges of the day. Wider belts, especially canvas military belts, came in when longer rifle cartridges did, and also because they looked neater, especially when Hollyweird got into the act.