Somehow, it only posted part. Here is the whole post.
Today, we live in an age of consumerism, where things are made to be replaced rather than repaired. We always want the newest and best, especially when it comes to guns. I did, when I was younger, but as I got older it slowed some. My Glock 19 I have had for 26 years is a perfect example. I got it as a Deputy, and since then it has never malfunctioned a single time. I see no reason to replace it...
Back in the 1800s and early 1900s, we were not so much a consumer society. If it worked, we didn't replace it with a newer item. If it broke, and could be repaired, we fixed it and continued to use it. many percussion revolvers and rifles continued to be used until the turn of the century and beyond. I read an article a long time ago about a Constable, I think in the Texas Panhandle, that was still carrying a Richards Conversion of a Colt percussion in the 1920s.
Winchester continued to produce their ever so popular 1866 in .44 Rimfire off and on until 1896, which was the last run. That was 23 years after the 1873 in .44-40 was introduced, and even 4 years after the magnum strength 1892 was made. It was that well liked that it continued being in production, even after the "next best thing" came along! I really wonder how many 1860 and 1866s were still in active use after the turn of the century and beyond? The numbers must have been significant, as the ammo manufacturers produced .44 Rimfire until WW2.
Case in point:
My wife’s uncle Stanley was a true working Cowboy all his life. He worked cattle ranches in the Central Valley of California, and west slopes of the Sierra Nevada, from the 1920s into the 1970s. He once related to me that his favorite saddle gun when riding heard and working in the mountains at the line shacks was actually an old 1866 Carbine. He used it to kill deer for camp meat, and to kill mountain lion and wolves that threatened the heard. He really liked the little rifle, and did not see any need to replace it until .44 rimfire ammunition ceased to be available with the beginning of WW II.