Tombstone in the early 1880's was a dangerous place as depicted by this all too common site at that time. Mostly early in the morning and mostly with alcohol playing a role, many men went to their death in this manner. Boot Hill attests to this. About one person per day was Tombstone's claim on human life at that time.
A good shot (pardon the pun!) I like how the man stands out sharply against the smoky background. Great capture of the moment - with reflexes like that. you would have survived well back in those days! Lorinda in Australia
"History shows that the military of all nations have attempted to rationalise small-arms ammunition for a number of weapons in different roles so as to reduce the logistical effort required to support those forces in the field. Typical of this was the shared calibres of muzzle-loading weapons. With the advent of metallic cased ammunition, the roles in which the two most commonly used types of weapon, the handgun and rifle, had so dramatically altered that it was impossible to produce common ammunition. The power and range requirements of a rifle required an ammunition type not suitable for a handgun."
"It was a new type of warfare typified by guerilla or raiding parties that emerged within America in the 1800's that first allowed a single ammunition to be once again used by both light rifle or carbine, and a sidearm. The early American settler when faced with a hostile environment of unplanned small scale close range encounters, required weapons and ammunition suited for that type of task. This was remote from any military context at that time. This lent itself to the development of a compact ammunition to operate in both rifle and pistol."
"The result was the .45 Long Colt, introduced in 1873 as the calibre of both the Peacemaker single-action revolver and subsequently used in a number of the Winchester .45 Long Colt lever-action rifles. Once the .45 Long Colt became available in its original pistol application, other weapon manufacturers created short and long arms to accomodate the calibre. Hence a generic family arose. The .45 Long Colt was not the earliest or widest used American cartridge, pre-dated by the .44 Smith & Wesson in 1869, however, the .45 Long Colt was the first metallic cartridge to operate in a family of weapons. Despite this, the .45 Long Colt showed poor rifle performance due to the low power of the then black powder loads."
0 
