According to the writing on the back of this 19th-century photograph these two men are deer hunters (not sure about the photographer) camped near Gum Boot Creek in Siskiyou County, Calif. Note the portion of deer carcass suspended from the bent sapling in the middle of the photo. At that time this was grizzly bear country (California grizzlies were extinct by the end of the 1920s), and A.P. Redding, the man with the Model 1876 Winchester (the seated man is unidentified), looks ready and able to take on any big bear with a nose for fresh meat. The Model 1876 was a heavier-framed rifle than the Model 1873 and shot bigger cartridges, making it popular with bear hunters. Despite all the other information given on the back of the print, no date is mentioned. But the photo most likely dates to the late 1870s or early 1880s. It is an albumen print, produced by a collodion wet-plate process invented in 1850 but losing popularity by 1890. The later-model 1886Winchester chambered even heavier rounds than the Model 1876, and its John Browning– invented locking-block action was considerably stronger than the toggle-link of the Model 1876. “Not many hunters were packing Model 1876s after the Model 1886 Winchester came along,” says Wild West special contributor Lee A. Silva, owner of the photo.
Originally published in the August 2012 issue of Wild West. To subscribe, click here.
