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Originally Posted by potapych
Hi Kids,
Reading through this thread I was reminded that I have a similarly notched trigger guard. The weapon is a half-stock .54 Cal. Plains Rifle. I often wondered what their significance was and surmise they may represent grizzlies, anything else would have been too common a target in those days, (including, unfortunately, Native Americans...) Personally, I just don't see mountain men, people of the stature of Joe Meek, notching their guns to commemorate killing a fellow human.
Ray
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It's great to see this thread revived, thank you so much Ray! and very well observed on the rather unseemly and despicable thought of personal bravado at the expense of the loss of a human life. In most cases, I think this is the proper perspective, and even one of probably the most ruthless of the renowned gunfighters, John Wesley Hardin, we have seen that his actual weapons did not bear notches on them. This emphasizes the distinct licence used by enthusiastic writers to dramatize and sensationalize thier work.
As also noted earlier, Wyatt Earp, when asked about notches in his gun by one such inquisitive writer, became enraged at such a suggestion and roared, "only a tinhorn would do such a thing!".
Thank you for sharing the beauty of a Plains rifle! and for showing these curious triggerguard notches so clearly. I do believe these are likely marks for downing a formidable predator such as a grizzly, rather than a tally simply for game, in which case the stock removal from the guard would probably eliminate the guard altogether.
Now in the case of earlier mention of grisly (the other kind) tallies, in which certain frontiersmen counted scalps taken as trophies in combat against American Indian warriors, the unfortunate practice that was brought to them with European contact, I believe there were probably instances of this.
In these cases, the stock was tallied, not the triggerguard.
I believe that the marks centered on the triggerguard were placed there strategically as representation of something, and at the trigger location, it would represent the key instrument of the deadly achievement in use of the gun, the trigger.
It seems there have often been suggestions of notching or deliberate markings of this kind being measurement of some kind or indicators placed pragmatically for some now unknown use. One rather more elaborate example of such key marking were the scales found on usually Italian stiletto blades, later discovered to be measurements for powder charges for gunners.
Obviously that is not the case here, but mentioned only as illustration to describe such practices.
Do you think there could be any such value implied in trigger notches? I know little on guns and actual shooting, and would not know of any practice or function that would require actual marking for use, such as positioning of the trigger itself?
Thank you again Ray!
All the best,
Jim