OK Corral and coach guns

[Jim McDougall]

While my interests have always been focused mostly on swords, actually for me it is history in general and the weapons involved in particular events, periods etc. Along with the swashbuckling films of Flynn, Zorro and pirates which compelled my interests in swords.....there were also the westerns, and what boy never heard of Wyatt Earp and the OK Corral?

For some reason, the element of this legendary shootout that always intrigued me was the shotgun used by Doc Holiday to shoot Tom McLaury October 26,1881.

As usual, it has never been conclusively determined which make the shotgun was, but we know that Virgil Earp, the town marshal on the way to that fatal 'street fight' swung into the Wells Fargo office and grabbed a 'coach gun' (term from c. 1858).These were shotguns, double barrel (usually shorter) mostly 12 gauge (some 10) and were carried by the guard on stagecoaches who were known by the curious term 'shotgun messengers'. There can be little doubt what 'message' they were to convey with these 'street howitzers' (as Wyatt called them), but the western saying goes, 'if guns are at a confrontation there'll be a shootout; if theres a shotgun, there'll be a burying'.

Both Wyatt and Virgil were well acquainted with Wells Fargo, so the shotgun was quickly obtainable, but despite much lore, there was no standard type, nor markings etc. on most of these used. The one distinction was they were heavy gauge and shorter barrels.
As noted, these guards were term 'shotgun messengers'.....the first time anyone used the term 'riding shotgun' was Alfred Henry Lewis in his "The Sunset trail" in 1905.

I had always wanted to have one of these 'coach guns', but realized it would be a challenge at best, until one day, I happened upon one at a gun show.
I got it at a great price, and thrilled, the research began......and as often the case, for years.

This 12 guage double barrel coach gun has the shorter barrel of 18.5" (most were 18" to 24"). On the lock W RICHARDS NORWICH, CONN........
On the barrels GENUINE ARMORY STEEL and CHOKE BORE

There are no other marks, proof, serial etc.

The search for a W Richards of Norwich was fruitless, and all that ever came up was W Richards, London, which was Westley Richards, a famed British maker.......

Eventually I found that the terms Genuine Armory Steel and Choke Bore were used by a firm called Crescent Arms Co. (1892-1931) but there seem to have been changes in ownership quite complex......but they WERE in Norwich, Conn.

Apparently there was a complaint issued by the US Treasury Dept. in 1891,
"...it has been the custom of manufacturers to stamp fictitious names of individuals and other trade words, such as RICHARDS; western; US Arms Co etc upon the lock plates or on the ribs connecting double barrel guns imported at your port from Belgium; that in a number of recent importations of guns from Belgium there is a conspicuous absence of any words to indicate the country of origin, but on the contrary words have been found which represent to consumers that the guns are either of English or American manufacture".

By the 1890s, stagecoaches had of course become obsolete as railroads had become the key mode of transport.
Still, guards had the requirement for deadly arms for protection, so the 'coach gun' prevailed. By c. 1900, the move to barrels of 20"

While this shotgun, still a 'coach gun', may not have been an exact match to what I had hoped to align with my quest for the mysterious scatter gun used by Doc in 1881.....it is close enough Besides, nobody is really sure what make etc. he used and this still parallels the one he did use by virtue of still having the shorter barrel. Its funny, it does seem at various points in the research I had heard occasional references toward the shotguns in those times referred to as 'Belgian'. Perhaps well placed, as it seems these cheaper guns from Belgium were ubiquitous in much of the west in average circumstances.

Would be interested to hear comments or see examples of other coach guns of these 'wild west' days, especially anything with Wells Fargo provenance.