Magnificent Seven, Steve McQueen, Gun Rig Copy.

[Forester]

Magnificent Seven, Steve McQueen, Gun Rig. Copy from the great film or as close as I can get it, couldn't find a similar buckle so went with a chap buckle.

[battlemunky]

Beautiful work!

[falcon45]

Fantastic job!

[fredk]

Looks most excellent

[alpha2]

I'd wear it!

Jeff

[Bolt Vanderhuge]

Very nicely done. 

[bikermutt07]

Nice rig.

[dikman]

Pretty close, although I think it should have been a little bit shorter and no tie down, Andy Anderson's rigs were designed to be fast draw without needing a tie-down.

Nice job on the belt stitching, that "gunfighter" stitching is a bit of a pain to do!

[plinkercases]

As always great work. And a great movie to work through all the gun and blade leather....

[bullmoosepaddles]

Sweet work. Thank you for sharing. 

[Dwight]

Darn good there, Forester, . . . 

My only complaint is not you, . . . but the prop man that gave him a gun belt with no spares on it.

Bonanza is like that as well, . . . one of my pet gripes, . . . just don't think it would ever have happened, . . . but I may be wrong.

Guys today carry a 5 shot revolver with no extra ammo.

May God bless,

Dwight

[Eddie Q]

Man, that's one big chunk of leather ! I really love how it came out. One of my all time favorite classic !!

[AA3JW]

Beautiful job! One of my two favorite movies. 

[plinkercases]

2 hours ago, AA3JW said:

Beautiful job! One of my two favorite movies. 

Now you have to tell us what the other movie is....

[AA3JW]

10 hours ago, plinkercases said:

Now you have to tell us what the other movie is....

Bullet.

 

[tearghost]

Very nicely done.

[Forester]

Hi All

Thanks everybody for the nice comments!

Regards Forester.

[Bajatacoma]

On 9/24/2018 at 10:35 PM, Dwight said:

Darn good there, Forester, . . . 

My only complaint is not you, . . . but the prop man that gave him a gun belt with no spares on it.

Bonanza is like that as well, . . . one of my pet gripes, . . . just don't think it would ever have happened, . . . but I may be wrong.

Guys today carry a 5 shot revolver with no extra ammo.

May God bless,

Dwight

Buscadero holster rigs were pretty much a Hollywood and fast draw creation.  Looking at old pictures, most folks wore their pistols up high or even stuck in their belt or sash so as to be out of the way but still accessible while on horseback. 

Bonanza was supposed to be set in the 1860s so the cartridge revolvers were anachronistic to begin with.  IIRC, they started with Remingtons and then switched to Colt 1873s but there were other cartridge guns used such as the Winchesters, some derringers, etc.  I vaguely remember reading something about the director not wanting the characters to appear as "gunfighters" as was typical in the westerns of that period.  

The Magnificent Seven was set around the 1880s so most of the guns would have been correct.  No idea why McQueen's character didn't wear a cartridge belt since most of the other actors did.  He had a second revolver stuck in the back of his belt for a lot of the scenes; it might have had something to do with his and Bryner's trying to one up each other as far as stealing scenes.  They had a feud that lasted years after the movie. 

[fredk]

Recent research has turned up several photos from the 1880s/90s of Arizonian Rangers wearing a Buscadero type belt and holster, plus several photos from Arizona/New Mexico from as early as the 1860s of men wearing their holsters low slung; one I can mind has his holsters as low as his knees!

I refer you to the latest editions of 'True West' magazine

PS. Bonanza is entertainment not a history lecture

 

[Bajatacoma]

Thread drift warning: You'll notice I said "most", not all.  The buscadero rigs as worn in Hollywood westerns aren't really seen in historical photos.  In the article you referenced (https://truewestmagazine.com/low-slung-guns-invention/), he's showing low slung holsters more so than a buscadero style.  Even the first picture of the Arizona marshal, while technically a buscadero style, is still worn at the same height, about hip level, as a regular holster on a gunbelt.  Remember that photographs were still pretty expensive and more of a novelty back then and that folks tended to dress up and more or less show off, a dandy if you will- what we'd call glamor shots today.  Sorry, I don't think the author really proved the point he was trying to make.   

If you've ever worn a low slung handgun you'll have noted that they tend to move around, bang into stuff, catch on things, etc.; it's why thigh holsters aren't particularly popular in the military or with law enforcement today.  They were used in the early part of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars due to the use of body armor but you'll notice that most got shortened (ex. the Safariland 6004 series usually had the top leg strap removed and the drop strap shortened) or soldiers started putting their issued handguns in magazine pouches or holsters on their vests (your own Prince Harry carried his P35 in the MOLLE loops of his body armor which was pretty common as well).  Unless the gun is well secured, a low slung holster will also allow the gun to fall out, especially with the rocking motion while riding.  I don't see a leather hammer thong securing a gun well enough for a working man, especially given a Colt was about $17 and a working cowboy was making $20-50/month (ammo was also quite expensive). 

Bonanza was entertainment and the reasons for the set and prop choices, which the other poster questioned, would have been director/producer's choice (which I mentioned having read an article about), ease of audience recognition (if you watch Hollywood almost everyone used a Colt or a Winchester despite there having been plenty of other firearm manufacturers at the same time), use of the common 3 in 1 blanks, what the prop department happened to have on hand or any number of other reasons for their choices.   I don't think anyone would consider it to be historically accurate.

[dikman]

I agree with Bajatacoma, those photos really prove nothing. If you look at many of the photos in Packing Iron, for example, it's obvious that they are staged studio shots, which I would say is the case here. Wearing guns that low is entirely impractical in the real world, particularly where horse riding is concerned!

[Sulring]

Are you making these Vin Magnificent 7 rigs for sale? Do you have a website?

 

Thank you

[noobleather]

Nice clean rig there, top work!

[JWheeler331]

Nicely done.