By Philip Bourjaily

Set in 1866, the new AMC TV series “Hell On Wheels” follows the town of Hell on Wheels (it moves, hence the name) as it travels with the construction of the transcontinental railroad across Nebraska. Tremendous effort went into capturing the look of the years immediately following the Civil War, to the point of building a period-correct train (see second video below), since there were none to be found anywhere.

It’s no spoiler to tell you that, as a western, “Hell on Wheels” has a lot of guns and gunplay. Prop master Ken Willis and armorer Brian Kent worked hard to get the guns of the period right and make the gunfights look real. Willis, a veteran of many westerns, spoke to me about it by phone from his home in Alberta, where the series was filmed.

“This is set in an interesting time period for guns,” he said. “The only cartridge gun we used was the 1866 Yellowboy. Everything else was a muzzleloader. Having to load all these old guns made everything take longer on the set, but blackpowder guns look great on camera because of the smoke.”

Not content to find guns that were merely authentic, Willis, Kent and their crew went the extra step to find unusual guns that give the show added visual interest. For instance, the main character, Cullen Bohannon, is an ex-Confederate soldier. He carries a .36 caliber Griswold revolver, an unusual gun of which only 3,600 were ever made and very few survive today.

By Philip Bourjaily

Save for a couple of European skull mounts I have never had any taxidermy done – until now.

The duck in the picture – a drake hooded merganser – just came back from the taxidermist. To me, the trophy part of any wild game is the meat, so having animals mounted never interested me, especially given the expense. The important part, I’ve always thought, lies beneath the fur or feathers, and it’s free.*

The one bird I always told myself I would have mounted is a hooded merganser. They are pretty much inedible due to their diet of fish. They also have the unfortunate habit of zipping past your decoys early in the morning, looking almost exactly like a tasty wood duck in the predawn gloom. I told myself if I ever shot a hoodie in a case of mistaken identity, I’d have it mounted so the bird didn’t go to waste.

Sure enough, one dark rainy morning in 2006 this drake came over me from behind, I reacted, and when my friend M.D.’s now departed lab, Maggie, brought it back, my “wood duck” had morphed into a merganser.

By Philip Bourjaily

There was a second new gun introduced at the Browning gathering where I saw the new A5 back in Septmber: the Citori 725.

Like some of you, I have mixed feelings about the new Browning A5. I like Browning semiautos and have a kneejerk fondness for the humpback receiver. On the other hand, I already own a Benelli Montefeltro and am not exactly sure why I need a Browning inertia gun, too. However, I have no mixed feelings at all about the 725. I just want one.

By Philip Bourjaily

The FieldandStream.com “50 State Guns” gallery is coming soon. As you’ll recall, the Utah and Arizona legislatures have named official state guns and we thought it would be fun to come up with suggestions for the other 48. Trying to come up with one distinctive gun to represent each state has been a challenge, even with all the good ideas you sent in.

Nevada, for instance, has been tough to figure out.

My latest, not very serious thought, was the Davy Crockett Nuclear Recoiless Rifle, which was tested at the Nevada Test Site, in the early 60s, with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy in the audience. The recoilless rifle fired a 51 pound shell containing a very small nuclear warhead to a maximum range of three miles.