Франсиско Вилья или Панчо Вилья — один из революционных генералов и лидеров крестьянских повстанцев во время Мексиканской революции 1910 - 1917 гг.
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Villa’s primary sidearm — the one that was “part of his person” — was a Bisley Colt. The Bisley was a target variant of the famous Colt Peacemaker, named for the Bisley shooting sports complex in England. Back in those great days, shooting championships were major sporting events. Sigh.
Anyway, The Bisley was introduced in 1894. Villa’s revolver was manufactured in 1912, in caliber .44-40. The handle dropped straight down as befits a target-shooting piece, unlike the plough handle of the Peacemaker, and it had a low-slung and broad hammer. The pistol came with hard rubber grips. Villa’s revolver was customized with fancy mother-of-pearl grips. It rests in the unbelievable Autry collection, which is worth seeing if you can get to the Autry National Center in Los Angeles. When I lived in SoCal, I haunted that place.
Villa seems to have carried several different rifles during his career. The famous shot with his sombrero’d and bandolier-festooned crew from early in the Revolution shows him with what is most likely a 1910 Mauser carbine. These carbines were ubiquitous in the Revolution and were short enough to be handy from horseback, a definite asset for Villa’s cavalry strike force.
In a group shot with his Dorados (Golden Ones — Pancho’s personal guard and elite cavalry shock force) Villa seems to be holding a half-stock rifle, probably some kind of sporting Mauser.
Bear in mind that the Villistas, at the height of the Division del Norte’s powers, traveled by train. Villa had his own car, so he could have packed along any number of rifles. I’ve never seen or heard of any evidence that he ever used a shotgun.
Villa was known to be highly skilled with his firearms and he practiced regularly. Even during his three peaceful years of retirement at a hacienda in Durango, he was never without a pistol holstered on his hip and a rifle in his hand or on his saddle. Pancho lived by the gun, and on July 20, 1923, he died by the gun, rubbed out in a hail of bullets in what was almost certainly a politically motivated hit. His last act as he drove his Dodge motorcar into an ambush and the bullets from multiple rifles tore into him was to reach for his constant companion — that 1912 Bisley Colt.