Saddle Rings on rifles

BUCKAWHO

Any old cowboys out there that can tell me the purpose of "saddle rings", and how they were utilized on horseback? Or are they just ornamentation that get in the way of a good cleaning? Buckawho?

rg666

Saddle rings were used to connect the rifle to the saddle so if the gun was dropped it didn't fall to the ground. A soldier or horseman could be shot, wounded etc & drop the firearm. It sure beats getting off the horse to retrieve the gun. They were used pretty much the way a lanyard is on a hand gun.

bgjohn

Rawhide looped through the ring and tied or looped to the saddle?
JM

41 nut

rg666 from what I've been told this is not correct. The saddle ring was used to fasten (tie) the rifle in the scabbard so that during rough travel it would not bounce out of the scabbard. When rifle was needed it was untied taken out of the scabbard and used without being attached. A rifle bouncing along under or along the side of a horse would sure panic it fast.

BHAVIN

I have been told the same thing as 41 nut. By a couple of old timers that carried them.

Bert H.

In the early days of the Cavalry and Horse Soldiers, the saddle ring was used to tie the firearm to the soldier... not to the horse, or to the saddle itself. It allowed the soldier to release the firearm and grab more ammo on the fly.

shooter10

When I was a kid (50 years ago), I many times witnessed my grandfather and father attaching their rifles to the scabbord on their saddle. The scabbords had leather ties that kept the rifle from popping out. In about 1946, my dad got out of the Air Force. He went back to the ranch and with a new .300 Savage. On one hunt his horse spooked and ran down the side of a steep hill. With the horse pitching and bucking all the way the rifle flew out of the scabbord. Because there were so many leaves he didn't find the rifle for 3 months. He had it rebarreled and used for used it til a Winchester 70 took it's place.

BigLoop22

Gents,

Exactly ONE of you got it right!

A CARBINE SLING was worn by the horse soldier. The hook on the sling was atatched to the SADDLE RING on the soldier's rifle. The muzzle of the rifle was held to the saddle by a CARBINE SOCKET.

Carbine sling:

http://www.rollanet.org/~stacyw/us_1885_carbine_sling.htm

Carbine socket:

http://www.andersonmilitaria.com/Web_Pages/belts_buckles/23BBL.htm

Carbine boot, similar to socket:

http://www.andersonmilitaria.com/Web_Pages/belts_buckles/29BBL.htm

Junior Doughty makes a modern sling that many people find quite useful:

http://www.castbullet.com/srsling.htm

glabray

Most firearms that had saddle rings were carbines (short barrel) not rifles (long barrel). Horse-mounted troopers carried the carbine using a wide strap over the shoulder and across the body. The large clip that attached to the saddle ring on the carbine is a scarce collectible today. Many units even late into the 19th century who were armed with the trapdoor single shots considered their saber as their primary weapon. Either the carbine or the saber was immediately available.

Saddle rings on civilian carbines were largely a holdover from the military usage. Yes, they were often used to tie the gun to the saddle or elsewhere but there were a lot of rifles (long barrel) that were used with scabboards on horseback and by and large they did not have saddle rings.

Saddle rings were not popular with hunters. They are noisy and responsible for spooking unknown amounts of game. Thus, many civilian carbines are found today with the saddle ring stud but no ring because somebody removed the noisy thing and tossed it.

v35

Right. The snap catch had a wide roller that ran on the inside of the belt. when the cavalryman shouldered his carbine, the roller just rolled up the backside of the diagonally mounted strap that looped over the left shoulder and down the right side to waist belt level. After he fired, he dropped the carbine and it slid down, captured by the belt and roller catch and hung at the cavalryman's side. He didn't have to lose time by fishing for the saddle mounted socket which was the scabbard at the time.

shooter10

OK BigLoop22

One thing I have definitely learned from reading this forum for the last couple of years is always read the question very carefully before trying to answer. BUCKAWHO says in this question "Any old cowboys...the purpose of saddle rings...and how they were used on horseback?" Not many cowboys carried the gear you are showing.

My granddad's parents and grandparents settled in Central Texas in the late 1800's with 900 head of horses. My grandad had a working ranch in Central Texas for 75 years. He was a Cowboy. Not a soldier.

Now I do not claim to be a cowboy but I know what I saw a real cowboy do with his Winchester 30-30. Maybe that old cowboy was misusing the ring? By the way, do a google search and you will find that all of these uses of the ring are discussed... and thus I think maybe we are ALL right. What a beautiful thing.

So BUCKAWHO ... what do you think?