Guns of the West came into town

When the Pony Express Re-ride comes to town, so does a presentation by Nevada State Parks, Guns of the West.

On Wednesday, a shot rang out in Genoa, but it was just Park Ranger Jim Black of Nevada State Parks, showing the crowd how to use one of the 15 or so antique guns he had on display in Mormon Station State Historic Park.

"These are all representative of guns that would have been here in Nevada," said Black, "old frontier guns."

Black, who has been giving the presentation for five years, explained to the crowd of almost 50 people that some of the guns are his, some he borrows from friends, some are owned by state parks and "several of them are here from the Dangberg Ranch collection."

He picked up one from the Dangberg collection, a small fancy-looking revolver with a mother of pearl handle.

"This is a Smith & Wesson double action with nickel plating and it's factory engraved," said Black. "The nickname for it was 'the lemon squeezer.'"

Black said the revolver is "hammerless," meaning the hammer is hidden, and it had another safety feature too - the trigger won't squeeze unless a device is pressed with the palm of the hand while firing it.

Black's presentation begins with muzzle-loading black powder guns on up through flint-lock and percussion-type weapons.

"I show them the progression into cartridge and repeating weapons," he said. "It's a quantum leap in fire power."

Black said black powder is made of 75 percent potassium nitrate, 15 percent charcoal and 10 percent sulfur, which wasn't very effective in damp weather conditions.

"If it started raining you were done for the day," he said.

While most of his guns are originals, he does have some replicas which are a lot less expensive than the originals, he said.

"It's by no means a comprehensive representation," said Black. "We're covering a period here from about 1840 through 1900."

For more information about Guns of the West, call Mormon Station State Historic Park Supervisor Suzanne Sturtevant, 782-2590.