What 3 guns would you bring if you could travel back in time to the old west?

Ak-47
Glock 19
Lightweight .338 lapua with a night force scope. Match grade ammo.

 

Spring piston large caliber air rifle (for carrying a boatload of ammo).

1911

Since AK was mentioned, I'll take an SKS.

 

How about an Auto Mag, Ruger 10/22 and....... a 1911 of some sort.

Auto Mag's are beautiful. Start producing early and have a "heavy hitter" (with DEEP pockets) work out every bug to make them flawless.

The 10/22 because you can carry 1000's of rounds for hunting, fending, etc. There have been millions of 10/22 already sold. I'd like to be in on the negotiation for profits from the sales.

The 1911.... well, the same as the 10/22.

 

Three Browning Hi-Powers, what else?. lol dance.. because you're dead

 

Why even bother with the ghey? back in the dhey, you'd carry a double ten, and a couple .44-40's.. handgun and carbine.. probably,

 

S&W M1917
30-40 Krag
Colt 1911

Just so they could be built by the manufacturers of the day. Plastics had a ways to go back then before they could build a reliable Glock.

 

Sounds like this is straight out of Harry Turtledove's Guns of the South; time traveling right wing South Africans equip Jeb Stuart's cavalry with AK-47s and win the war for Bobby Lee.

 

This guy didn't need no stinkin modern semi-auto sporting rifle.

 

In 1850 we were still in the Percussion cap era with still a large portion of firearm being flint locks. To take a firearm back that jumps a minimum of 40 years (to smokeless powder) would not work out well. Heck even the machining processes didn't exist for any of the modern cartridge firearms.

I think the most likely result would be you get shot and robbed or just robbed of your magic new toys.

 

Ok, so are we humping these three firearms + ammo to the East coast or do we have horses/wagons? I i have to hump it, its a M4+ a G21 and forgo a 3rd. If i got a wagon, id add a M134 and all the 7.62 i can carry.

 

Plasma rifle, or a Laser sniper rifle, a 10/22, and a 1911.

 

This ^^

As I was reading the responses I could see that people were missing the fact that back then they didn't have smokeless powder and the black powder just won't work in a semi-auto.

If you are taking guns to a manufacturer, take blueprints with dimensions.

Bear in mind that the steel back then was nowhere near the quality of steel today, and neither were their machining processes. You are going to need to avoid parts in guns that have sintered metal parts or are only possible with investment casting or processes like that.

You would probably want to take firearm examples from the fifties and sixties.

You could take double actions, but simpler ones, not anything that is too fancy.

The barrel would be about 4 to 5" long, and a lightweight profile. I wouldn't mind that it would be something like my 329PD in Scandium with regards to weight. I know they would not have titanium or scandium alloys back then, but they wouldn't have our steels either - what they need are the dimensions and I assume a working model to interest them enough to where they would be willing to reproduce it. Otherwise, it would be in stainless, but with a dark metal treatment, preferably one of the treatments that is extremely corrosion resistant and has high lubricity.

You should get with a firearms manufacturing historian and find out whether leaf springs or coil springs were easier for the manufacturers of the time to make, probably the former, but if the latter, I would consider looking at a Ruger SP101 or a Ruger Redhawk or Super Redhawk - certainly the original Blackhawks would be one I would consider.

The double actions or single actions would probably be something in .45 LC or .44-40 although those didn't come around until about 1870 or so IIRC - maybe they wouldn't be too far ahead of the ammo tech at the time.

As I said, I would not consider anything like a Glock unless I was sure I would live into the 20th century and could wait that long for smokeless powder and the acceptance of a semi-auto handgun, and even then I would more likely consider something that was all steel.

The rifle might be something like a Marlin 336 in .45-70 - maybe a takedown. It would have a short octagon barrel - ported. The stock would be rubber overmolded metal frame with a hollow buttstock for various goody storage - I am sure that the stock makers of the day could copy that in wood.

The nice thing about the .45 LC and .45-70 is that in the 1870s you could get that ammo (maybe the modern ammo would last you that long if you were careful), while at the same time you could take modern ammo back with you that is a lot more powerful and accurate. The ammo could be reloaded with black-powder.

The third gun would be a .22 rimfire of some sort. Yes, the predecessor of the .22 rimfire was present back then, so you should be able to eventually get a manufacturer to make the ammo. It could use black-powder and reproduce adequate performance.

It would probably be a fast acting bolt action (maybe a straight pull back), takedown - something like the Marlin Papoose, but in a bolt action. It would have a lightweight strong rubber over molded stock - again hollow - but it would be a slim stock so that it would fit in a pack. I would like a variation of the AR-7 design such that the barrel front could be placed in the buttstock - the barrel being short enough to do that (no worry about NFA back then).

 

Suffice to say, this has been one of my favorite fantasies - not that I would last long back then, but that it is fun to think about to take my mind of other stuff.

 

Since the fantasy is a cross country trek at the turn of the century, I'm assuming this will be done with horses/mules/maybe a wagon.

M1A in .308 - walnut & steel, no plastic. Quicker to reverse engineer. Take a few cases of match grade BTHP rounds and a dozen 20 round mags - no body armor to worry about, hollowpoints will handle hunting man or beast.

Remington 870 - walnut & steel version. A case of low brass bird shot, a case of 00 buck, and a case of slugs - another gun that'd kill just about anything the wild frontier could throw at you.

A hi-cap double stack 1911 .45 - Para, Caspian or Springfield - take half a dozen 14 round mags and a few cases of 200 grain Hornady XTP (my preferred .45 defensive load)

Can I also bring back some vaccines and antibiotics to protect me against the pathogens that killed more folk than bears or bullets?

 

If this were possible. I would pick the oldest looking 22 based gun available. Spare parts and as much ammo as I could hold.

If I were to pick a "this is it I'm getting shipped off to the past" I would still go 22lr based. Probably semi auto though. Maybe a 10/22 and a 22/45. Both stainless. Then all the ammo possible. Mostly I just want something more accurate than the weapons of the timeline, however the with the pop of a 22 I would hope it wouldn't draw the attention of everyone compared to the firearms available of the giving timeline.

Fun idea. However I think a gun may not be the best thing needed. More like good camo and a mapping system. Stay hidden. Unless you want to be part of the ancient civilization. Then I would still try to be as low key as possible and get something more accurately advantaged.

 

I love these threads....

"This is my BOOM Stick"