The DEADLIEST GUN You’ve Never Heard Of (And Why It Was So Feared)

What if the most dangerous gun in the Old West wasn’t a sick shooter carried by a gunslinger or a legendary rifle that won the West? What if the deadliest firearm was one you’ve likely never heard of? It wasn’t the kind of gun that settled a duel or won a firefight. Instead, its lethality was measured by the sheer unbridled terror it inspired [music] and the way it fundamentally changed the course of history on the American frontier.
Most people think of the iconic Colt single-action army revolver or the Winchester repeating rifle when they picture the West. Today, we’re going to redefine what it means for a gun to be deadly by looking at three firearms that fit a more nuanced definition. Each one represents a different kind of fear, but only one can claim the title of the most lethal gun of all.
We’ll explore the gambler’s hidden secret, the monster of the battlefield, and finally, the professional’s tool that changed everything. All to prove that the most fearsome weapon was not always the one you saw, but the one whose legend you heard whispered in the wind. Part [music] one. When you think of a pocket pistol, you probably don’t think of something truly dangerous.
But on the frontier, the Remington Double Daringer was a gamecher. [music] This was the West’s answer to concealed carry, a compact twoshot pocket rocket [music] that could be a gambler’s last resort. Unlike the more famous singleshot Daringers that came before it, the Remington’s over and under design gave its user a crucial second chance in a close quarter showdown.
It was chambered for a low power41 caliber cartridge, but at close range, or as the old-timers used to say, at card table distances, [music] that was more than enough to get the job done. This wasn’t a gun meant for a standup gunfight or a duel in the street. It was a final line of defense, a hidden ace that could appear from nowhere to end a dangerous situation and let a man walk away.
The Daringers’s legend is deeply woven into the myths of the Old West. It’s the quintessential gamblers’s gun, the one you imagine being pulled from a sleeve or a vest pocket when the stakes were highest. The most famous story connected to the gun is its supposed use by the legendary gambler and gunfighter Doc Holiday, who allegedly died with a Remington Daringer in his hotel room.
But historical experts have since concluded that this tale is likely a product of a hyperactive imagination, calling the story a misfire rather than a historical fact. Even if the legend isn’t true, the Daringer’s fame was cemented by Hollywood, where it became a classic symbol of lastditch defiance. You’ll find it in movies and shows [music] from John Wayne’s hidden wallet gun end.
Shoot us to the fictional gunslinger paladin’s weapon tucked behind his belt buckle. The Daringer’s true power wasn’t its bullet, but its reputation as a weapon of surprise. A last resort that turned the tables when all seemed lost. It was a personal gun of intimate terror. But its small-cale fear was nothing compared to the next one.
Part two. On the opposite end of the spectrum from the discrete daringer was the layat grapeshot revolver, a true Frankenstein’s monster of a gun. This wasn’t a pistol you’d carry for personal defense. It was a weapon of pure audacious overengineering. Its most striking feature was its two barrel design, a nine-shot cylinder for conventional bullets that revolved around a secondary smooth boore barrel capable of firing a devastating blast of buckshot.
A shooter could select between the two with a simple pivoting lever on the hammer. The Limat’s fame came from its use during the American Civil War, where it was a favored sidearm of highranking Confederate cavalry officers, including legends like JB Stewart and Stonewall Jackson. In fact, Steuart was mortally wounded with his Limat in hand at the Battle of Yellow Tavern.
The gun’s inventor was even a cousin-in-law to Confederate General PGT Bogard, who helped fund [music] its production in Europe. Despite its association with such notable figures, [music] it never became a widespread weapon on the frontier, only around 1,500 of the approximately 2,900 manufactured were ever delivered to the Confederacy because of the Union blockade.
The Lamat’s deadliness was a paradox. It was [music] bulky, complex, and notoriously unreliable compared to popular revolvers like the Colt model 1851 Navy. Its ninehot capacity was a big deal at a time when most revolvers only held six rounds. But the real fear came from the threat of that shotgun blast from a sidearm.
The Lamat was a powerful tool in a specific battlefield setting, [music] but its mechanical problems, high cost, and low production numbers kept it from becoming a broadly feared weapon. Its impact was limited to the battlefield [music] and its specific high ranking owners. If you’re finding this deep dive into the deadliest guns of the Old West interesting, you’re in the right place.
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So, leave a comment with your thoughts on these unique weapons. Part three. [music] Neither the Daringer nor the Lamat can hold a candle to the true contender for the deadliest gun on the American frontier, the Sharps model 1874 rifle. This was not a personal sidearm, but a specialized professional tool of strategic worldchanging consequence.
Nicknamed Old Reliable, it was the rifle of choice for more than 20,000 buffalo hunters on the Great Plains. This large boore singleshot rifle was purpose-built for high power long range engagements. Its strong design could handle some of the most powerful cartridges ever developed for black powder rifles, and its heavy octagonal barrels and sophisticated sights allowed for a level of accuracy that was for the time nearly incomprehensible.
The legend of the Sharps rifle is anchored in one impossible shot. At the second battle of Adobe Walls in 1874, a buffalo hunter named Billy Dixon used a big 50 sharps to kill a Comanche chief from an officially recorded distance of 1,538 yd. [music] That’s over 7/8 of a mile away. The story goes that the warrior was shot off his horse before the report of the rifle that killed him was audible.
This moment showed a level of long range lethality and accuracy that was truly terrifying. But the real ultimate deadliness of the Sharps rifle [music] isn’t a single legendary shot. It’s its broader historical impact. The Sharps was the principal firearm used in the decimation of the buffalo herds on the Great Plains.
Its long range accuracy allowed professional hide hunters to methodically kill thousands of animals from a [music] safe distance, often without disturbing the remaining living animals. This industrialized slaughter, which took the buffalo population from over 20 million to near extinction in just two decades, destroyed the primary food source and a way of life for the Plains Indians.
Many historians consider it to be the death nail of Indian resistance on the frontier. The terror that the sharps rifle inspired in Native American tribes was so profound that it earned a chilling nickname, shoots [music] today, kills tomorrow. That phrase perfectly captures the psychological fear of a weapon whose power defied the known rules of warfare and physics.
The bullet arrived from an unseen location before the sound of the shot, turning the rifle into a silent, unstoppable harbinger of death. This wasn’t the fear of a personal confrontation, but of an unseen, [music] incomprehensible force that could wipe out an entire civilization’s livelihood from miles away. It was also prohibitively expensive, costing as much as $44 in 1878, which is a big reason it was a professional’s tool and not a gun you hear about in every western movie.
The Daringer’s deadliness was personal, a weapon of last resort for a card table dispute. The Lamat’s deadliness was tactical, its fearsome reputation a product of its overwhelming blast at close quarters. [music] But the Sharp’s rifle was something else entirely. It was a strategic weapon of geopolitical consequence [music] that facilitated the destruction of an entire ecosystem and by extension a way of life.
The fear it inspired was not of a duel or an ambush, but of an unseen all-consuming force. The chilling nickname shoots today kills tomorrow is the ultimate proof of its fearsome reputation. For these reasons, the Sharps rifle, [music] though largely forgotten by popular history, stands as the true deadliest gun of the American West.
If this kind of history piques your interest, be sure to give this video a like and subscribe to the channel to get more stories from the American frontier. We enjoy reading the comments and hearing what folks have to say. So, leave a comment below. What do you think was the deadliest gun of the American West and why?