Prior to the building of the transcontinental railroad, the area between the Missouri River and the West coast was largely uninhabited by settlers, but as this vast area became accessible to them, and as they pushed westward, the problems of violence on the frontier increased. Bears, wolves, and Indians no longer posed the greatest threat to pioneers; white clashed with white, the lawful with the lawless. And, of course, firearms played a major role in this drama.

This is the second volume of a two-part study of firearms in the nineteenth-century American West. It traces the development of the firearm from the close of the Civil War to the beginning of its modern era. Within this period, the authors have discussed all the important military and civilian firearms used in the settling of the West, as well as the guns favoured by Indians. Over five hundred photographs illustrate the weapons and the famous and now-forgotten men and women who used them.