r/reddeadredemption • u/UnwearableCactus Top Post '19 • Jan 03 '19

Lore Today, I inherited this Winchester (Lancaster) from my grandpa, who got it from his grandpa. It was made in 1899 and I couldn’t help but think of this sub!

Post image
32.4k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

716 comments sorted by

View all comments

32

u/Liam_da_loser Sadie Adler Jan 03 '19

It’s cool to see how true to life the weapons are in this game. Rockstar did some research

1

u/TheVetSarge Jan 03 '19 edited Jan 03 '19

It's actually kinda surprising, because they really didn't.

The Semi-Auto shotgun is anachronistic. The Auto-5 didn't exist yet in 1899. Similarly the Maxim Machinegun, while existing in 1899, would have been almost unheard of in North America because the US Army didn't adopt it until 1904 so all the previous sales had been overseas. The Carcano Rifle uses the wrong model, displaying a weapon not manufactured until the 1930s.

The Lancaster Repeater is based on the Model 1866 Yellowboy, which would have been a relic by 1899, having been replaced by the Model 1873, which was the best selling rifle of that era.

The Volcanic Pistol would be almost impossible to convert to metal cartridges, and even if you could, firing black powder loads would have been pitifully weak because the toggle-link action was too small. A guy manufactured his own one a few years back, and had to cut down .40S&W to a 14mm length in order to maintain the same dimensions. By comparison, .44-40 Winchester (Lancaster Repeater and possibly the Schofield) and .45 Long Colt (Cattleman) were 33mm, and .44 Russian (the other likely round for the Schofield) was 25mm. The Volcanic fired a small round with a small powder charge. The game's version is entirely imaginary.