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Bryant Ridge's Analysis: The Hawken rifle, generally shorter and of a larger caliber than the earlier Kentucky rifle, rose to prominence in the mid-nineteenth century. Although the name originally referred to rifles handcrafted by Jacob and Samuel Hawken of St. Louis, Missouri, it has since become a broader term used to describe various "plains rifles" from that period. Today, modern reproductions of the Hawken rifle are produced by manufacturers in several countries, including the United States …

Bryant Ridge's Analysis: The Nagant M1895 Revolver is a seven-shot, gas-seal revolver designed and produced by Belgian industrialist Léon Nagant for the Russian Empire. The Nagant M1895 was chambered for a proprietary cartridge, 7.62x38R, and featured an unusual "gas-seal" system in which the cylinder moved forward when the gun was cocked to close the gap between the cylinder and the barrel. Léon Nagant and his brother Emile were well known in the Russian Tsar's court and military …