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Does anyone else like to watch this show on the History Channel? Last year Keith Carradine was the host , but this year he was replaced by his brother David (Kung Fu).

I find some of the subjects quite interesting, like last night the subject was Massacre Tech. The main gist was the weapons used. They do cover things from transportation to city tech.

I enjoy the show and both Carradine brothers are no strangers to westerns.

I like it. The hosts are comfortable with the subject, and the other knolagable people ( Phil Spangenberger, for one ) know their subjects.
The re-enactments are usefull, and the writeing make  it a history show worth watching.

I've caught a couple shows. Will try to catch all of them sometime. For those who love the West and all that's included in Western History.

I caught an episode of this the other day. It was about killing machines, like the first machine gun, the first electric chair, etc. I enjoyed watching it, despite David Carradine's awful jokes.

Keith delivers those puns better than David does IMO (and I'm a bigger fan of David even), but the writer of them should be shot. I enjoy the show and have seen most of the episodes I think, but it's good marathon viewing on weekends and such. Glad when they spotlight forgotten moments and people, like Tom Horn. I never knew about his problems with a Luger when he attempted to escape before his hanging.

They do kind of stretch the "tech" parts at times, how many times can you explain how a Colt Peacemaker or any cap and ball revolver operate? How about highlighting some of the other kinds of firearms mechanisms developed during that time? Like how the bolt action supplanted the lever action, the box magazine vs. the tubular one, or even stuff like the old Krag-Jorgensen rifle with the side loading magazine. The one that dealt with mining technology was cool because it was an area I knew little about beyond that cyanide was used at times in the largescale goldmining process and a few other facts.

The sideshow episode had more odd, funny and interesting stories (Oopty Goofty and others) than technology but I enjoyed the lightning demonstration (even if it did go a little wrong). Have they done a whole show on cardsharps and card cheats, that would be great.

One of my favorites was the one about the big San Francisco earthquake in 1906 where the fires destroyed more than the earthquake.

They had a guy with a portable earthquake machine (basically a room furnished in antiques mounted on a gimbal where they can shake it around). They had David sitting in the room and they did a small one, then turned it up to about six or so, but Carradine stayed in his chair. He made a comment when they stopped it that "you'd never get Keith to do this".

I always thought the jokes were corny, but not much worse than the ones  Ermy does on Mail Call.

I freakin love mail call. I dont have cable anymore though so the only time I can catch it is in the exercize room of my apartment complex. The jokes are really bad, but Ermy is over the top enough to pull them off without looking completely stupid. I've never seen the Wild West Tech show, but I'll have to keep my eyes open for it next time I'm down there. It sounds pretty good.

I like this show and try to catch it whenever possible.
I've seen most of them.
I caught the "Massacre Tech" show the other day.
The machine gun they showed on it was a gun I'd never heard of before.
(the gun with the mechanism under the barrell that moves up & down fast)
Carradine unloaded on a row of pumpkins with it.

What was the name of that gun?  I forget.

Maby the first version of the Browning light machine gun? The "Potato digger" if i remember.
The lever under the barrel was part of the recoil mechinisim. Browning changed it, and it became the M1917 water cooled gun.



Post Edited (07-29-05 12:01)

Yep, the Browning Model 1895. The Potato Digger.

Really enjoy the show.  My favorites are the stuff about shootouts and escapes, stuff with the criminals.  I don't seem to be alone on this, as they're a significant number of the episodes.  The Massacre Tech one had some good stuff, depressing as well.  I rather liked the one where indians were planning to murder a bunch of white guys, and the white guys were planning to murder the same bunch of indians..  The white guys won thanks to doing it first.

So was that the triumph of technology or better scheduling?

I was watching last night and saw something I had never heard of before. The Hotchkiss revolving cannon. Basically it is a 37mm gatling gun with a ten round magazine, five barrels, and can shoot explosive rounds.  They let David Carradine fire the thing.

I Googled it this morning and found one for sale!


http://www.gunsamerica.com/guns/976613281.htm (http://www.gunsamerica.com/guns/976613281.htm)

I think you can see a Hotchkiss being used during the climatic charge in "The Last Samurai" along with some regular Gatling guns.

But one for sale? Man, I know too many rednecks where I live who would want one if they knew about it. And I thought the company I saw on "American Rifleman Television" that was selling replicas of some late 19th century twin barreled, water cooled, hand cranked machine gun in .45-70 (the name of the model has slipped my mind) was kind of out there. They had discovered a large supply of gun barrels in a scrapyard and decided to recreate the gun.