The Guns of 1923: A Yellowstone Origin Story
There's No Shortage of Firearms in Any of the Yellowstone Prequels
Take heart, Yellowstone fans — while the original epic family saga recently concluded with the second part of Season 5, there are new spinoffs on the way as well as continuations of the highly acclaimed prequel series 1923: A Yellowstone Origin Story, which tells the story of the Dutton family and the Dutton Yellowstone Ranch in Montana two generations before the family in the OG series. After three long years of waiting, the second season of 1923 is finally premiering on Feb. 23 on Paramount+.
Since it's set in the 1920s, the firearms in this series are different from the others — it's a really interesting time in gun history, with modern firearms like semi-auto pistols and WWI-era submachine guns mixing with older firearms still very much in use, like single-action revolvers and lever-action rifles. Think The Wild Bunch, but in Montana.
At the top of the family tree in 1923 is Jacob Dutton (Harrison Ford) and his wife, Cara, (Helen Mirren), along with their nephews Spencer, John, and John's son, Jack, who all live on the ranch. Let's check out the guns used by the main characters as well as their biggest enemies.
Jacob Dutton
S&W Model 10, Winchester Model 1894
Jacob (Harrison Ford) is the leader of the Dutton family in 1923, trying to hold the ranch together and defend it from various enemies who want the land for a variety of reasons. His regular sidearm is a fairly modern one for the time as far as wheelguns go and it would turn out to be one of the most popular handguns of the 20th century — a Smith & Wesson Military & Police revolver, which he carries in a crossdraw holster on a loose gunbelt.
The double-action K-frame revolver was chambered in .38 Special with a swing-out cylinder — part of the new standard configuration of revolvers at the end of the 1890s as single-action, fixed-cylinder guns became antiquated. It was first introduced as the Model 1899 Hand Ejector — the swing-out cylinder with a star ejector was new enough that S&W put the feature in the name. The U.S. Army bought a pile of them that same year in the doomed .38 Long Colt and it was renamed the .38 Military and Police Model.
While the .38 LC was a failure, the revolver wasn’t, and it was soon offered in the more powerful .38 Special, which would become its most common chambering. It was updated through the years and the third iteration, the Smith & Wesson Model Military & Police Model of 1905 in .38 Special was issued heavily through World War I.
Eventually, the gun became the S&W Model 10 and is still in production as such. It has been made with a variety of grip types, finishes, and barrel lengths in the past 126 years, and more than 6 million have rolled off the S&W lines, making it the most-produced handgun of the 20th Century.
In January 2025, S&W released a Classic Series No-Lock Model 10 that harkens back to the classic 1905 version with modern engineering and features. It was released along with Classic Series versions of the Model 36 J-frame revolver and, for Dirty Harry fans, a Model 19 in .44 Magnum.
It’s kind of an interesting choice for a grizzled old cowboy like Jacob Dutton, especially considering the younger Jack and John Dutton both carry Single Action Army revolvers. Maybe Jacob really likes the .38 Special, and it is a bit smaller of a gun to carry.
When it comes to long guns, he chooses a gun from roughly the same era, opting for a Winchester Model 1894 lever-action carbine, likely chambered in .30-30, though it’s tough to see clear shots of the rifle ammo.
In the Yellowstone proper TV show, the family uses a number of Winchester 94s, and it’s likely they were passed down.
Cara Dutton
Double Barrel 12 Gauge
Cara Dutton (Helen Mirren) is the materfamilias for this bit of the Yellowstone story. While she and her husband, Jacob, don’t have any children, they raised James and Margaret Dutton’s two sons, John I and Spencer, and built the landmark lodge house on the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch.
Like all the Duttons, occasionally she has to throw down. Her weapon of choice, and circumstance, seems to be a simple, no-frills 12 gauge hammerless side-by-side shotgun. She uses this shotgun in S2E3, “The War Has Come Home.”
Spencer Dutton
Various
While his brother and nephew back on the ranch in Montana carry Winchester rifles and Colt six-shooters, Spencer uses his firearms for far different applications and carries much different hardware.
First off, in the WWI flashbacks, we see Spencer using several common firearms of the conflict, including a Colt M1911 pistol and a Browning M1917A1 machine gun. He also uses a Winchester Model 1897 when defending his position, aka the Trench Sweeper that became infamous during the war for the devastation they could cause when slam-fired into a trench packed with enemy troops.
When he’s awakened on a train, Spencer pulls what appears to be the same M1911 from his dream, though it could be another that he picked up along his travels; they would have been common and fairly inexpensive so soon after WWI.
Spencer’s hunting rifle is intended to represent a British-made Holland & Holland double rifle, which would have been basically a prerequisite piece of gear for anyone hunting dangerous game in Africa. The gun used in the show is almost certainly some sort of a reproduction, but in 1923, such a rifle, if it was new-ish, would have most likely been chambered in .450 Nitro Express or .500/450.
He manages to save that rifle and use it during an elephant attack, a lion attack, and a shipwreck (he straight-up shoots some sharks), not to mention a couple of pretty intense hunts.
A cool little easter egg in Spencer’s hunting gear: In the first scene where we meet Spencer as he’s stalking a lion in the bush, we see a knife in a fringed buckskin sheath on his belt — it’s the same knife and sheath that Elsa Dutton received from Sam on the trail to Montana in the 1883 prequel.
Banner Creighton
Thompson M1921AC Submachine Gun
While the main villain in the series is certainly Donald Whitfield (Timothy Dalton), his hammer and the one who does the actual violence to the Dutton family is the sheep farmer Banner Creighton (Jerome Flynn).
He and his men execute an attack on the Dutton family as they make their way back to the ranch, setting on them with a number of horsemen armed with rifles.
Banner then approaches from the rear in a car and opens up with a Thompson M1921AC submachine gun, killing John Dutton I and severely wounding Jacob. It’s a clear signal that this is not the Old West anymore, and yet another reason the family so desperately needs Spencer to return to Montana.
The A in M1921AC stands for “automatic” and the C means the gun was fitted at the factory with a Cutts Compensator to reduce recoil and muzzle rise in the .45 ACP firearm.
The second season of 1923 premiers on Feb. 23, hopefully letting us know how the ranch war unfolds.