“american west”

Smith & Wesson's origins can be traced to 1850, when Horace Smith and D B. Wesson first became acquainted while working as subcontractors supervising the manufacturing of different firearms at the Robbins and Lawrence Company in Windsor, Vermont. Now, after more than 160 years in existence, the company created by their eventual partnership is one of the most well-respected of its kind. As you might imagine, a lot can happen—and be forgotten—during such an expansive history. With that in mind, here are 10 things you probably didn't know about Smith & Wesson.

Uberti has made a name for itself by reproducing a wide variety of classic historical firearms, particularly those of the American West. It's Silver Boy, chambered in .22 LR, is more of a re-envisioning, but it should catch your eye all the same.

It was 150 years ago that the name “Winchester” was first stamped on a rifle. But Winchester’s narrative began well before that, and it is a tale tied to the American West, to the wars of the 20th century, to big personalities such as John Browning and John Olin, and to the manufacture of billions of cartridges and millions of rifles and shotguns beloved by generations of Americans.

Everyone loves a lever gun. Here are five of the finest ever made.

Henry’s Big Boy Steel Carbine has traditional lever-action lines but retains Henry’s signature cutout in the magazine tube, through which cartridges are loaded and unloaded. Though somewhat unconventional in appearance and function, it makes the lever gun infinitely easier and safer to unload at hunt’s end.

Get a closer look at the Henry Big Boy Steel Carbine, the latest addition to our #SundayGunday series.

Tactics that work for whitetails back East may not cut it for deer of the plains and mountains across the West.

Ignore the movies. The real men who conquered the American West would not fit the John Wayne image. Perhaps the definitive case against that image is the life of Christopher “Kit” Carson.