True West Magazine True West considers these the most significant workhorses of the frontier. Produced in St. Louis, Missouri, by the Hawken family, these heavy, large-bored, full- and half-stock muzzleloaders were designed for shooting dangerous Western game. More rugged than the earlier Pennsylvania rifles, the Hawkens were considered the best of the plains rifles. Hawken customers included mountain men Kit Carson, Jim Bridger, Mariano Modena and Jedediah Smith, among others. – firearm photo courtesy Rock Island Auction Company –
“The Gun That Won the West!” “Which gun was that?” you may ask, but, as any serious arms enthusiast would tell you, regardless of advertising or promotional rhetoric, no single firearm tamed the American frontier by itself. Rather, a number of different guns were significant in settling our western territories.