Old West saloons were, needless to say, pretty rough places. You combine whiskey, poker, cowboys, saloon girls, and situations could sometimes get pretty ugly. Tough times called for tough guns. The double barrel pistol, or the cut-down coach gun, was the perfect weapon to take care of business.
In one of my favorite western movies, Tombstone, this gun can be seen wielded by Wyatt Earp under the poker table. Johnny Ringo had come to the saloon to confront Doc Holliday, and Earp was at the ready with the under-the-table gun.
The 1881 Street Howitzer we offer at Replica Armory is a non-firing replica, and cannot be modified to fire.
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The Saloon Gun
The gun kept behind a saloon bar was usually a shotgun, not a revolver, and that is the detail most western displays miss. A short double barrel is intimidating at close range, needs no aiming and works in a corridor. The sawn off coach gun that appears in every western film is a fictional compression of a real idea.
If you are building a saloon vignette, the shotgun should be the centre of it, with a revolver on the bar and a bottle for scale. The replica coach guns in the catalog are solid and non-firing; they hang well above a bar back and they photograph better than a rifle because the wide twin barrels catch light.
Common questions
Is the coach gun a real period weapon? Short barrelled shotguns existed and were used for coach defence and close protection, though the very short barrels are more film than history.
Does the replica break open? The action opens and the barrels hinge, but it cannot be loaded or fired.