my old man was in WW2 and Korea, said the same thing about things he saw and did. Never talked about it.
Yep My Dad did a little over 20 years, WWII, Korea and Nam. I told him he should have wrote a book. He said why, I'm still trying to forget it.
my old man was in WW2 and Korea, said the same thing about things he saw and did. Never talked about it.
Thanks for the links to those very good articles on holsters. The thing to note is that quick gun draw fights were likely an invention of the nickle novels that became popular in the later 19th century. A working cowboy was going to be hindered a lot by a low slung strapped down firearm. The same was true of the military. Gambler, local thug, or other town bad guy might has some special set up like extremely short and modified guns and special ways of carrying them that often were concealed. Some like Hickok carried full size pistols in a slash.Always hate to say absolutes when it comes to holsters and dating them because so many holsters were local made without any form of record keeping and many times made & modified personal for the man wanting to carry. Also holsters are leather and much of its history has just rotted away.
But that being said below are a couple of nice quick reads that help me date holsters. And just for fun some of the great legionary gun battles were fought without holsters. IE Wyatt Earp at the Street Fight (as he would always call the Gunfight at the OK Corral) tucked his pistol into his pants for that long walk.
https://centerofthewest.org/2015/07/17/slapping-leather-handguns-and-holsters/
https://www.cochiseleather.com/western-gun-leather-history.aspx
And because holsters are so linked to TV shows here is a great sight that does a pretty good job of showing the various holsters used by those wonderful shows..
https://www.wmbrownholster.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=13
Wild Bill Hickok - Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wild Bill Hickok in 1869; the unsheathed knife is likely a photographer's prop.
Hmm Will have to research that knife thing.. Would not doubt it... but an interesting thing to track down..
Just for fun (well it's fun years later, it's tragic in the day and for the people involved) try to figure out how the bullet that killed Wild Bill was buried with another man years later..
https://truewestmagazine.com/the-ball-that-killed-wild-bill/