Despite being one of the most gun-friendly states in the nation, Wyoming has been beaten to the punch in the race to name the Model 1873 Winchester, also known as “the Gun That Won the West,” as its official state firearm.
Idaho voters on Tuesday gave the Winchester Model 1873 the most votes in a nonbinding advisory question about which firearm should become the state gun. The Idaho Legislature would still have to pass a separate law to make the designation official.
If it does, Idaho would become the 12th state to designate an official state firearm.
Wyoming isn't one of them, but some lawmakers tell Cowboy State Daily they might be interested in starting the process — probably with a bill before the Legislature.
Rep. Andrew Byron, R-Jackson, noted one possible snag: Wyoming has so many firearms enthusiasts, could voters narrow it to just one, or even a shortlist?
“I don’t know if that bill would ever pass, because I don’t know if we could agree (on which firearms to choose),” Byron said. “And I say that with a smile on my face, because it would probably be one of the best bill debates I’ve ever been through."
Even so, he said he’s not opposed to the idea.
Rep. Jeremey Haroldson, R-Wheatland, has sponsored several gun-rights bills and said declaring a state firearm would reflect “Wyoming’s strong support for the Second Amendment.”
He added that introducing a bill during the 2027 session would hinge on how busy he is with other bills.
Haroldson said a firearm that people associate with family and the outdoors might be fitting.
Byron said he’s partial to Weatherby’s bolt-action hunting rifles, and the company is headquartered in Wyoming.
Besides Idaho, 11 states have designated official state firearms.
- Alaska, the Pre-1964 Winchester Model 70
- Arizona, the Colt Single-action Army revolver
- Arkansas, the shotgun
- Indiana, the Grouseland Rifle
- Kentucky, the Kentucky long rifle
- Missouri, the Hawken rifle
- Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania long rifle
- Tennessee, the Barrett M82 rifle
- Texas, the cannon
- Utah, the M1911 pistol
- West Virginia, the Hall Model 1819 flintlock rifle.
Texas also has designated the Colt Walker as its official state handgun.
Other Saddle Guns Up For Grabs
Bob Budd, executive director of the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust, was disappointed to hear Idaho voters had favored perhaps the most iconic lever-action rifle.
After all, Wyoming is the Cowboy State, and most people think of a vintage lever-action rifle in a saddle scabbard as the quintessential cowboy gun.
Even so, there are other fine lever actions from which to select, such as rifles made by Henry and Marlin, Budd said.
And other Winchesters too.
A Model 1894 Winchester rifle, chambered for the .25-35 Winchester cartridge, has been in his family for about as long as Wyoming has been a state, for five generations. His grandfather and father killed their first deer with it, as did Budd and his two sons.
Lever-action rifles might be a niche gun nowadays, but Budd recalls when they were all the rage in Wyoming.
“They were reliable and affordable. Everybody had one. Every truck had a gun rack with a Winchester rifle in it,” Budd said.
"You can’t find an old Wyoming family that doesn’t have at least one,” he added. “There are several in my family.”
The Johnson County Cattle War Rifle
Another Winchester that might serve well as Wyoming’s state gun is the Model 1866, said Evan Green, volunteer firearms historian for the Wyoming State Museum.
One drawback of the older Winchester models was that they weren’t quite sturdy enough to handle heavier calibers, Green told Cowboy State Daily.
Legendary gun designer John Moses Browning (1855–1926) addressed that limitation with the Model 1886, he said.
That made it capable of handling whoppers such as the .45-70 and .45-90, Green said.
Winchester rifles played a notorious part in the Johnson County Cattle War, he added.
Among the firearms surrendered by the invaders were Winchester Model 1873, Model 1876 and Model 1886 rifles and carbines.
They were a force of 52 armed men, including wealthy cattle barons, stock detectives, and 23 hired gunmen who launched an expedition into Johnson County in April 1892.
Old Scatterguns
In terms of historical accuracy, however, a Wyoming state gun might not be anything as fancy as a Model 1873 Winchester or Colt revolver, Green said.
Average people back in those days couldn’t afford such guns, he said. A Colt might cost a working cowboy an entire month’s wages.
Despite what the movies depict, most early Wyomingites weren’t running around with lever-action rifles and six-shooters, Green said.
Instead, they were more likely to have something like a single-shot muzzle-loading frontier trade musket.
Such gun designs dated to the 1830s, but some people were still using them “into the 1900s,” Green said.
They were smoothbores, usually in .60 caliber, “about the same bore size as a 20-gauge shotgun,” so they could double as shotguns, he said.
And basic, single-shot shotguns, that people could buy “for about four or five bucks,” were also popular among common Wyoming folks, Green said.
“You could load it with a slug for hunting big game, buckshot for medium game or self-defense, and birdshot for prairie chickens,” he said.
Even so, if Wyoming selected a dirt-cheap single-shot shotgun as the state firearm, “the other states might laugh at us,” Green said.
‘Let the People Decide’
Avid hunter and firearms enthusiast Vince Vanata of Cody told Cowboy State Daily that some sort of gun tied to Wyoming’s history would be fitting.
“We have a buffalo on our flag, so maybe a rifle that was used to take down buffalo in 1890?” he said.
Mark Jones of Buffalo, a national director for Gun Owners of America, said he’d also be partial to something associated with buffalo hunting, or another aspect of Wyoming’s early history as a territory, then a state.
But the choice should belong to all of the state’s residents, he added.
“I’d vote for the buffalo rifle. But I say, let the people decide. Put a bunch of choices on the ballot and let them choose. It would be a fun thing to do,” Jones said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
