I have no documentation, I'm just using common sense. Lawman and outlaws had more money than the average person and I assume they had more ammo too! Just MHO
Greetings My Good Monsieur Miles -
Firstly I have to point out that if a lawman had more spendable income, he also had more responsibilities and bills... like a house and family,
"office expenses" and the fact that many had to supply their own equipment, horses, tack, guns and ammunition at their own expense ... and some even had to
feed prisoners out of their own pocket! Thus trying to discern what any one fellow would spend his money on back then is literally a guessing game.
Secondly, With all respect, "common sense" is ok for casual chat in a modern setting, but here we are in the CAS City Historical Society Subforum....
To dicsuss History seriously, We deal in provable facts, otherwise we are no better than the Stoopid Movies who throw actual history to wind for the sake of a story.
so, for Actual History, unfortunately, documentation and confirmed provenance are absolute requirements.
Otherwise we are merely speculating based upon our moderns ways and thoughts , not very different form "blowing smoke".
It's no different than the boys who use 2 part epoxy for historically accurate repairs, claiming "if they had it they woulda used it"
But "they didn't have it" , they used hide glue.
Speculation, Assumption, and attributing "modern thought" to people in the distant past have led many a scholar down the garden path
to being Utterly and Embarasingly Wrong.... :-)
A stunning example is the utter lack of basic hygiene. ACTUAL SURGEONS wore the same stiff and bloody leather aprons without cleaning
every time they cut open a patient, or performed amputations. They operated without even washing their hands and actually prided themselves
on how bloody their surgical apron was. It was not until ~1870 that Dr Joseph Lister ( yes, the Listerene guy) proved over and over that
washing hands, instrumants, and the patient's wounds in diluted carbolic acid virtually stopped all infections.
Even in 1873 the the medical journal The Lancet warned the entire medical profession against his progressive ideas, and he was openly
mocked as late as 1890.
It would be "common sense" from our perspective that any doctor "ought to have" at least washed his hands.... But documentation shows us
that none of them did!
No disrespect intended, merely attempting to shed some light on the matter.
So without any sunstantiated doco, no one can really say if a lawman reloaded or bought ammuntion or how much he shot or practised.
We DO Know that back in Washington the Generals considered live fire practice (and repating firearms) a waste of money and proveded little
funds for it. how do we know this?
from
https://armyhistory.org/the-springfield-model-1873-rifle/" most soldiers in the decades following the Civil War did not receive any significant marksmanship training. Most soldiers were only given ten cartridges a month with which to practice, and some units did not even receive that much. In 1877, Lieutenant Stephen Mills stated that ?target practice was practically unknown. I think the allowance of ammunition was twenty rounds a year.? By 1878, the state of marksmanship training had become so bad that the Department of the Pacific ordered .58 caliber muzzle-loading rifle-muskets to be taken out of storage so that troops could practice shooting."
and
from "The U.S. Army in the West, 1870-1880: Uniforms, Weapons, and Equipment By Douglas C. McChristian"
"The Springfield breechloader's power, accuracy, and sustained rate of fire made it an effective weapon for such conditions.
Of course, this was based on the premise that the troops would be trained as capable combat marksmen. In reality, most soldiers
serving in the 1870's were not good marksmen because of the lack of formal training and because of the severe restrictions placed
on the amount of ammunition used for target practice. "
Today, "Common Sense" would make it obvious that a soldier needed
1) an ammunition allotment
2) training
3) time for practice
Back Then the thinking was that all the above was a waste of money.
We DO know that there were pistol and rifle shooting clubs back east and in California, we have their records and newspaper stories.
We DO know that market hunters reloaded and engaged in casual competition from the news paper account and bills and recipets.
We don't know "how much" the average guy or Law Enforcement type practiced
The New York City police Department did not have mandatory pistol practice until 1895 when Teddy Roosevelt took over
see
http://nychistory.blogspot.com/2007/02/theodore-roosevelt-and-nyc.htmlBTW over here
https://libraryguides.missouri.edu/pricesandwages/1880-1889is the single best documented source of prices and wages I have ever found. Research Librarians are your Friends! Use Them Wisely!
I will do some esoteric looking and see if I can find anything useful to contribute
yhs
prof marvel