Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors Bonanza lever guns question

What model guns did Ben Cartright (sp) use on Bonanza. I like the ones with no forearm and the barrel and feed tube all the way to the end.

They look like 94's or 92's with the forend removed and receiver painted to look like the original brass receiver Henry. That is what they look like to me. But I'd be interested to know for sure if anyone knows the correct answer.

May well be. AFAIK the guns were all the usual prop room with 5in1 blanks but notice the setting was before cartridge guns - so the gun belts all have no cartridge loops - though the pistols are cartridge for 5in1 rather than front loading percussion.

Bonanza was set during the silver boom in Nevada, well into the cartridge era.

Depends in which part of the silver boom the TV series was supposedly set in?

Silver was discovered in the early 1860s, but the silver boom never really got rolling until the late 1860s/early 1870s. So it's a crap shoot on what firarms would've been proper for the era depicted? If it's the early to mid 1870s, then SAA Colts would be correct, but still of fairly recent introduction? Converted percussion revolvers would've been far more likely. Rifle-wise, brass framed Henrys or iron framed 1866 Winchesters, most likely? Then 1873 Winchesters.

Hollywood/TV can never be accused of being accurate depictions of life, or what firearms were available, although more recent productions tend to stick with historically-accurate firearms.

B Westerns and early TV westerns were notorious for "using" period incorrect firearms. No one really cared and most of the firearms available for rent, were six shooters and M92 Winchesters, firing the same blanks.

Bonanza used cap-and-ball revolvers in the early seasons, but then quickly switched to the SAA. As far as rifles, again, early seasons had Winchester 92s with the forearms removed and painted to look like Henry rifles, but then later just began using all manner of regular Model 92 rifles and carbines. One of my favorite shows of all time!

DeWayne

Correct, they transitioned to cartridge revolvers (in real life probably a lot of Richardson conversions) but the costume dudes forgot to transition the belts to cartridge loops. In early Bonanza episodes they even had a couple of gunfights where the boys were shown swapping out unloaded cilinders for loaded ones. On the rifles, what is mentioned above is exactly what they did, remove forearms and pretend they were Henrys. One episode where a kid asked Ben about his personal gun, Ben replied "this one was given to me by Sam Colt himself" and it's clearly an 1873. There were a couple of episodes dedicated to the Civil War era and the year preceeding the war as well as some during the war. Given the series went on for twenty two years the handguns are totally plausible. The rifles on the other hand, totally bogus. I don't recall ever seeing a 66 or even a 73.

Haven't watched an episode of Bonanza in many years, although I see it is still on some cable channels? Watched it as a kid, never really paid much attention to whether or not the firearms were "period correct" back then. Didn't become a pedant until much later. ;O)

Now and then I'll be flippin' around the dial and catch a few minutes of some old western. Always makes me chuckle when they're not using the right arms, but that's how it was in the golden years of TV and B movie westerns.

One a few months ago, had Randolph Scott as a government agent during the Civil War and IIRC, looked like all of the movie lead slingers were using SAAs. And just about every cavalry vs injuns flick back then, had the troopers using M92s. There were exceptions, though. Apparently some movie directors did elect to go with the right equipment.

Near's I can tell, it was mostly the spaghetti westerns of the late 60s/early 70s that saw more attention paid to period correct firearms?

Probably because they doubled as Uberti ads?

Got my first Italian copy of the .36 caliber 1851 Navy Colt, around 1970. Still have it and it still works fine.