Buffalo Bill Historic Centre-big pics

koldt

koldt

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First, sorry for the big pics:redface: .

Just got back from holidays that included a stop in Cody, Wyoming. This is the home of the Buffalo Bill Historic Centre, which is basically 5 museums. The firearms museum includes an extreme amount of historically significant firearms. They have on display approx 3000 firearms, and here are a couple of the highlites.

Most of the display showcases US made firearms, (of course) but they also include other countries as well.

The majority of the museum covers western and early US frontier type firearms, but did show an amazing amount of miliaria as well.

There are a lot of the SAA type firearms that were used in the various TV weekley shows, ie. Bonanza, Paladin, etc.

I've got some other pics, but thought these would be the most interesting for our viewers. Also included are the M1 carbine prototypes and some other stuff.

The main foyer that greets you:)
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This is in the basement area and is just an example of how it looked with most of the display cases. Note the Lee Enfield selection.
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One of the cases that covered the WW1 era, had the nicest M10 Ross I have ever seen. Basically unfired, with a slight bit of rubbing behind the bolt on the blue, other than that, looks like it came off the rack at the Ross Rifle Company. It is pictured at the far left of this case, along with a 1905.
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And this continued on through present day presentations. Just showing the mid50s case here.
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This was a cool note. As per the inscription on the plaque below this Gatling gun, this is the actual gun that was used in the 1940's and 50's to test and determine the feasability of an electrically driven gatling gun, which lead to the production of the Vulcan. This gun has since been converted and restored back to it's original configuration, which I like, but is neat to have seen the one that started it all.
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I've got some other pics I'll post later, but some of the more interesting things I saw was, in the first pic, there are some pistols in the display case. The fifth pistol down is a Dardick. It was one of the first and only commercial ventures to be sold that used caseless ammo. The 38cal "tround" has also become quite a collector's item.

I've only seen magazine articles on this pistol. And in real life it looks VERY cheaply made. Almost 'pot metalish'. It had a baked on typed of finish, and from what I read died mostly because of being unreliable. I'm still not sure if it was the ammo or the gun to blame.

It would be a long days drive to Cody, but with multiple drivers, I've done stupider drives.
 
Koldt- the Dardick wasn't caseless, it was a regular .38 special in a triangular ( sort of ) sleeve. I tried one out many years ago but I didn't buy it. One more for the list of guns I should have bought.
 
Yes, you are correct, I didn't use the correct term calling it "caseless".

The triangular plastic case did go around a brass case, with a primer, etc.

My mistake.
 
Nice, but if you want to see guns that would knock your socks off, try the Gene Autry museum in Kalifornia. They have Teddy roosevlt's rifles, and the WOOD MODEL that Colt made before he started making revolvers.
 
koldt said:
I've got some other pics I'll post later, but some of the more interesting things I saw was, in the first pic, there are some pistols in the display case. The fifth pistol down is a Dardick. It was one of the first and only commercial ventures to be sold that used caseless ammo. The 38cal "tround" has also become quite a collector's item.

I've only seen magazine articles on this pistol. And in real life it looks VERY cheaply made. Almost 'pot metalish'. It had a baked on typed of finish, and from what I read died mostly because of being unreliable. I'm still not sure if it was the ammo or the gun to blame.

It would be a long days drive to Cody, but with multiple drivers, I've done stupider drives.
Click to expand...

The Dardick, that was made by Johnson Automatics, as in the Johnson Rifle and Johnson LMG.

Post some lever action Winchesters too!!
 
The Gatling gun saw a re-emergence, however, in 1949 when a Model 1883 gun was used in an experiment. The problem was how to produce a gun that could fire a minimum of 1,000 rounds a minute. At that rate of course, barrels would wear out in no time: unless the fire was sustained through multiple barrels-such as the principle of the Gatling gun. After a series of tests, modifications and seven years of hard work, the M61, 20mm Vulcan Gun was created.
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http://www.military.com/forums/0,15240,79614,00.html

With permission from Colonel René R. Studler, Johnson was allowed to experiment with antique Gatlings in the Aberdeen Proving Grounds' Ordnance Museum. He was finally allowed to convert an 1886-vintage Gatling in .45-70 that had 10 barrels and a 103 round drum. For safety sake, black-powder ammunition loaded to original specs was used for the tests, but in spite of this, Johnson was able to achieve cyclic rates of 4,000 rpm and 5,500 rpm. Impressed with Johnson's report, Ordnance awarded General Electric a contract to develop a modern belt-fed model in June 1946. The goal was a five barrel, .60 caliber (yes, sixty caliber) design, with a minimum cyclic rate of 1,000 rpm per barrel. The design was later changed to include six barrels.

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In 1949, the prototype T45 was ready. It achieved 2,500 rpm, which was increased to 4,000 rpm by 1950. By 1952, GE had three different models: the .60 caliber T45, the 27mm T150, and the 20mm T171. After trials at Springfield Armory, the T45 and T150 were dropped from consideration, leaving the T171. In 1956, the T171E3 was officially adopted as the M61. In the same year, the 30mm T212 was introduced. (It is unclear as to whether any relationship exists between the T212, and the 1970s vintage GAU-8A "Avenger" developed for the A10 Thunderbolt - a/k/a the Warthog.) The rotary design was eventually scaled up for cartridges as large as 37mm in the T250 used by the prototype Vigilante Anti-Aircraft System.
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http://www.thegunzone.com/mgm.html

Looking for a pic, I've seen it out there someplace!

NS
 
Same holiday, different location. In south-west Montana.
We spent the better part of a day, and could have used at least another half.

Some lever action Winchesters.
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This goober took on a little bit more than what he could chew.
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And for his efforts, this is where he ended up.
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Oddly enough when the air farce put an electric motor on that hand cranked gatling, they could have saved a lot of trouble by just asking the navy, who had electricly driven Gatlings in 1898!!!! Or for that matter, they could have asked Colt, who built those navy guns. :D
 
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