A coach gun is a modern term, coined by gun collectors, for a double-barreled shotgun, generally with barrels from in length, placed side-by-side. These weapons were known as "cut-down shotguns" or "messenger's guns" from the use of such shotguns on stagecoaches by

shotgun messenger In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a shotgun messenger was a private "express messenger" and guard, especially on a stagecoach but also on a train, in charge of overseeing and guarding a valuable private shipment, such as particularly the ...

s in the American

Wild West The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...

. They came in 10 and 12 gauge blackpowder variants.

Origins

The terms "cut-down shotgun" or "messenger's gun" were coined in the 1860s when Wells Fargo & Co. assigned shotgun messengers to guard its shipments on stagecoaches in California. The company issued shotguns to its guards for defense. The guard was called a

although the phrase

riding shotgun "Riding shotgun" was a phrase used to describe the bodyguard who rides alongside a stagecoach driver, typically armed with a break-action shotgun, called a coach gun, to ward off bandits or hostile Native Americans. In modern use, it refer ...

was not coined until 1919. Shotgun messengers guarded express shipments, not stagecoaches. There was no single manufacturer for the traditional messenger's gun, as it was a generic term describing a class of shotguns offered in a variety of barrel lengths from (versus for bird hunting guns), either by the factory or from owners and gunsmiths cutting down the barrels.

Early manufacturers

These shotguns featured external hammers and were manufactured primarily by Remington Arms,

Ithaca Ithaca most commonly refers to: *Homer's Ithaca, an island featured in Homer's ''Odyssey'' *Ithaca (island), an island in Greece, possibly Homer's Ithaca *Ithaca, New York, a city, and home of Cornell University and Ithaca College Ithaca, Ithaka ...

Colt's Manufacturing Company Colt's Manufacturing Company, LLC (CMC, formerly Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company) is an American firearms manufacturer, founded in 1855 by Samuel Colt and is now a subsidiary of Czech holding company Colt CZ Group. It is the s ...

, Parker, L.C. Smith, and several Belgian makers. Contrary to myth, Wells Fargo shotguns were not purchased by local agents; prior to 1900 they were purchased from San Francisco gun dealers because Wells Fargo's headquarters were located in San Francisco. From 1908 to 1918 all Wells Fargo shotguns were made by Ithaca.

Use in the Old West

According to one account, Doc Holliday used a 10 gauge Wm. Moore & Co. coach gun to shoot

Tom McLaury Tom McLaury (June 30, 1853 – October 26, 1881) was an American outlaw. He and his brother Frank owned a ranch outside Tombstone, Arizona, Arizona Territory during the 1880s. He was a member of a group of outlaws Cowboys and cattle rustlers t ...

point-blank in the chest with buckshot during the

Gunfight at the OK Corral The gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a thirty-second shootout between lawmen led by Virgil Earp and members of a loosely organized group of outlaws called the Cowboys that occurred at about 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 26, 1881, i ...

in Tombstone, Arizona, on Wednesday, October 26, 1881. They stood in such close proximity that the town mortician was able to cover McLaury's wound with one hand.

Wyatt Earp Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp (March 19, 1848 – January 13, 1929) was an American lawman and gambler in the American West, including Dodge City, Deadwood, and Tombstone. Earp took part in the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral, during which l ...

also used both barrels of a 10 gauge coach gun to kill

Frank Stilwell Frank C. Stilwell (1856 – March 20, 1882) was an outlaw Cowboy who killed at least two men in Cochise County during 1877–82. Both killings were considered to have been self-defense. For four months he was a deputy sheriff in Tombstone, A ...

at a Tucson, Arizona rail yard and to kill "Curly" Bill Brocius point-blank the next year during the shootout at Iron Springs. However, according to another account, both men used Greeners.

Modern makers

Modern coach guns are manufactured by ER Amantino (sold as

Stoeger Stoeger Industries is a manufacturer and importer of firearms into the United States. The company's Stoeger Publishing division also publishes books and videos about firearms, hunting and fishing. Stoeger Industries' headquarters are in Accokee ...

) (Brazil),

IZH Izh may refer to; * IZh (Russian: ), a Russian automobile marque of the Izhevsk Machinebuilding Plant * Izh (river) (Russian: ), Udmurt Republic, Russia * Ingrian language Ingrian can refer to: *Of or pertaining to the region of Ingria *The Ingr ...

Baikal Lake Baikal (, russian: Oзеро Байкал, Ozero Baykal ); mn, Байгал нуур, Baigal nuur) is a rift lake in Russia. It is situated in southern Siberia, between the federal subjects of Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Rep ...

(Russia) (which is now being distributed by Remington under the name Spartan Gunworks), Huglu Armsco (Turkey), Khan (Turkey), Diamond (Turkey), and a variety of Chinese companies for US distribution through

Century International Arms Century International Arms is an importer and manufacturer of firearms that is based in the United States. The company was founded in 1961 in St. Albans, Vermont, with offices in Montreal. In 1995, the company headquarters and sales staff moved to ...

and

Interstate Armscorp The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. Th ...

Current usage

Modern coach guns are commonly encountered in

Cowboy Action Shooting Cowboy action shooting (CAS, also known as western action shooting, single action shooting, Cowboy 3 Gun, Western 3-gun) is a competitive shooting sport that originated in Southern California in the early 1980s, at the Coto de Caza Shooting R ...

competitions, among collections of

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

guns, as home-defense weapons, and even as "scrub guns" for

hunting Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products ( fur/ hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, ...

grouse Grouse are a group of birds from the order Galliformes, in the family Phasianidae. Grouse are presently assigned to the tribe Tetraonini (formerly the subfamily Tetraoninae and the family Tetraonidae), a classification supported by mitochondria ...

woodcock The woodcocks are a group of seven or eight very similar living species of wading birds in the genus ''Scolopax''. The genus name is Latin for a snipe or woodcock, and until around 1800 was used to refer to a variety of waders. The English name ...

, rabbit, hare, and/or wild pig in scrub, bush or marshlands, where the 24"+ barrels of a traditional shotgun would prove unwieldy. The modern coach gun can be had in a variety of configurations suitable for both Cowboy Action Shooting competition and hunting. Coach guns are similar to

sawn-off shotgun A sawed-off shotgun (also called a sawn-off shotgun, short-barreled shotgun, shorty or a boom stick) is a type of shotgun with a shorter gun barrel—typically under —and often a shortened or absent stock. Despite the colloquial term, ...

s but differ in that coach guns manufactured after 1898 are offered as new with 18" barrels and 26" overall length and meet legal requirements for civilian possession in the United States. Australia and New Zealand have slightly different laws for length, with NZ requiring a minimum overall length of 30" (anything shorter is considered a pistol) with no minimum barrel length and Australia requiring an 18" barrel and a 30" overall length. In the United Kingdom, however, shotguns must have a minimum barrel length of 24" to be eligible for ownership on a Shotgun Certificate, and shotguns with barrels under this length (which includes Coach guns) must be obtained on the more stringent

Firearms Certificate In the United Kingdom, access by the general public to firearms is subject to some of the strictest control measures in the world. However, fulfilment of the criteria and requirements as laid out by the laws results in the vast majority of fir ...

. Some modern coach guns feature internal hammers as opposed to the traditional external hammers.

Legacy

It is because of this gun and its usage that the term "

" came to be. Typically, a cut-down shotgun would be carried by the messenger sitting next to the stagecoach driver, ready to use the gun to ward off bandits. Today, in American and Canadian English, the term "riding shotgun" refers to the person sitting in the front passenger seat of an automobile.

Origins

Early manufacturers

Use in the Old West

Modern makers

Current usage

Legacy

See also

References

Further reading