Shotgun Question

[Harley Starr]

What shotguns would have been readily available in the Southwest from the years 1870 to 1873?

[Ottawa Creek Bill]

Muzzle loading shotguns....doubt very much that there would be cartridge shotguns in common use in that time period. Someone may have documentation to the contrary but I don't have.

Bill

[Harley Starr]

Any popular makes and models?

['Monterrey' Jack Brass]

Ridgeway – I agree with OCB that a muzzle loading shot gun would just as likely been used as a cartridge gun from 1870-73 and likely longer. And muzzleloaders were in common use well past the 1870s as is evidenced in period catalogs in my collection by the quantity of muzzle loading shot guns and related paraphernalia sold alongside their breech loading brethren.

Here is a sampling of some info from period catalogs that may be of use though it's not too much and doesn't quite perfectly fit your range of 1870-73. The implication of referencing period catalogs here in some measure addresses the idea of what shot guns were commercially available via at least a few mail order catalogs and perhaps 'common' or popular by virtue of this fact.

1864 Schuyler, Hartley & Graham catalog:
Muzzle loader = none listed in catalog
Breech loader = William Greener, LeFaucheaux, Poultney & Sneider

c1869 National Arms Company catalog:
Muzzle loader = brand names not detailed, sold 'English' and 'German' guns
Breech loader = Ethan Allen, Parker's, Whitney's

1871 J. H. Johnston Great Western Gun Works catalog:
Muzzle loader = sold as 'English', 'Belgian', 'American', only Greener is called out by name
Breech loader = Greener, Westley Richards, E. M. Reilly & Co

1874 P. Powell & Son catalog:
Muzzle loader = brand names not detailed, sold 'English' and 'German' guns
Breech loader = Greener, Wm Moore, W. Wellington, Thomas White, I. Hollis & Sons, Weston, Wm Monroe & Co, W.W. Forsyth, Alfred Woodhill, LeFaucheaux, Chas Daly, Charles Miller, J. Harris & Sons, Joseph Dexter

A great source of further info on target with your topic is a relatively new book called 'Arming the West' by Herbert G. Houze (2008). This excellent reference details bulk firearms sales from Schuyler, Hartley & Graham from 1868-1886. One thing to consider here – does an old surplus smoothbore musket count as a 'common' or popular shotgun of the era? Methinks it could and this is arguably supported in some measure in 'Arming the West'.

YMH&OS,

Brass

[Harley Starr]

Wow! Glad you came along when you did, Brass. I'm doing research for a Western novel idea and want to make each character as unique as possible, Thank you.
By the way, would it be much of a stretch if some of these characters sawed the barrels down on these muzzleloaders a wee bit?

['Monterrey' Jack Brass]

Ridgeway - It seems logical that barrel length would have been modified to fit the owner's needs though I can't speak to how common it would have been. Just thinking in terms of ease I'd say loading a shortened muzzleloading shot gun would be simpler (less barrel to work around). Form fits function I'd say, so if a shorter gun was needed for non-hunting applications that it would have been cut.

Writing a novel? Wow, that's super cool and something I wish I had the skills to do. But as one of Mr Eastwood's best characters once profoundly said "a man's got to know his limitations" so I know enough to leave writing to the experts like yourself. I wish you the best and am keen to see your finished product. Please post someplace on CAS City when you release the book, you'd have a lot of interested parties who would like to know.

Brass

[Harley Starr]

Ridgeway - It seems logical that barrel length would have been modified to fit the owner's needs though I can't speak to how common it would have been. Just thinking in terms of ease I'd say loading a shortened muzzleloading shot gun would be simpler (less barrel to work around). Form fits function I'd say, so if a shorter gun was needed for non-hunting applications that it would have been cut.

Writing a novel? Wow, that's super cool and something I wish I had the skills to do. But as one of Mr Eastwood's best characters once profoundly said "a man's got to know his limitations" so I know enough to leave writing to the experts like yourself. I wish you the best and am keen to see your finished product. Please post someplace on CAS City when you release the book, you'd have a lot of interested parties who would like to know.

Brass

[Harley Starr]

Would it be much of a stretch to include an 1869 Parker Brothers breech loading shotgun?

[Shotgun Franklin]

A lot depends on who you're arming? While most folks carried the cheapest they could get by with, if you made your living with a gun, like a RR Special Agent, Ranger or Shotgun Guard on a Stagecoach, you likely got the best you could get. If you were a butcher, baker or candlestick maker I'd imagine you got the cheapest you figured you could get by with.
You might wanna read W. W. Greener's, 'The Gun'. It'll tell you more than you ever wanted to know about shotguns.

[Professor Marvel]

By the way, would it be much of a stretch if some of these characters sawed the barrels down on these muzzleloaders a wee bit?

It was not at all uncommon for a local blacksmith, mechanic, or gunsmith ( or anyone skilled with metal working tools) to cut down a barrel for any of a variety of reasons. The most common reason (which you could work into your novel, should you so desire) was of course, a barrel rupture. The muzzle end of a smoothbore is susceptible to a variety of damage, including a burst due to an obstruction. An oft- repeated reference is the mention of the Blacksmith in Louis and Clark's party repairing a smoothbore with a burst muzzle (possibly obstructed  by mud if I recall correctly) by cutting the barrel back and filing it square. The smoothbore was then presented to one of the locals. I fondly remember a quote documented by a french trader in his memoirs: "The chief said that the Wasicu were all fools - they had not a single man with a brain amongst them, except for the worker of metal"

As muzzles became worn and thin by the rubbing of the loading rod, they would also be cut back, but usually in smaller increments, only enough to get past the wear. At this time chokes were not yet in popular vogue as they would become later, especially after the work done by Greener.

The first documented indication I found of "shortening by deliberate design" Was in the notes of Roger's Rangers. During the French & Indian Wars,  Colonel Robert Rogers studied the methods, tactics, and weapons of his adversaries and modifed the equipment and tactics of his Rangers accordingly: He discarded the brightly colored unifroms and adopted green-dyed fringed hunting shirts and breeches; He discarded the bayonets and adopted the rifleman's knife and tomahawk; most importantly he saw how the "Long Land Pattern" Brown Bess musketwith it's 46" barrel became hung up in the forests and brush and had them specially cut down for his rangers, to nearly as short as the Cavalry Carbine (26" barrel) .

The next documentation I found was for the ubiquitous "canoe gun". While there is little documentation that a trade musket was purposefully cut for ease of use in a canoe, it is a fact that they were used and the 20" barrel 20 ga trade gun makes a fine bird gun when hunting from a boat. It's cousin's the blanket gun and the Buffaloe Runner's Gun are also purposefully cut guns:
the Blanket gun was a severely sawed off shotgun, with perhaps a 14" barrel, hidden under a blanket, and was used in at least one fort invasion battle as a "hidden gun" to overpower gate guards. The buffalo runner was a flint trade gun cut down to horse pistol size and used to shoot buffalo from horseback, about 5 feet away.

Even into the "Wild West" cartridge days it was quite common for Native Americans to shorten both rifles and shotguns for ease of use; sufficient examples exist in collections for proof.

The phrase itself for short Coach shotguns came into popular use by Wells Fargo who, in 1858 issued short side-by-side shotguns to the coach drivers on their stagecoach service from Tipton, Missouri to San Francisco,  California. Anyone who saw them may very well have decided to have their "Long Tom" shotgun cut back for faster handling. Even with Black Powder cutting the barrels back to say, 20 inches would not have affected the short-range effectiveness too much.   

hope this helps your endevour
yhs
Prof Marvel