The Real Guns of Red Dead Redemption 2 (2026): Every Weapon Identified

Rockstar built Red Dead Redemption 2 around one of the most carefully researched arsenals in gaming. Almost every gun Arthur Morgan carries is a real firearm from the turn of the 20th century, right down to the loading gate and the ejector rod. The in-game names are changed to dodge trademarks, but the steel underneath is genuine history. Here’s the real gun behind each RDR2 weapon, a couple of anachronisms Rockstar slipped in, and where you can still buy a working version today.

Cattleman Revolver = Colt Single Action Army (1873)

The gun you start with and carry for the whole game is the most famous revolver ever made. The “Cattleman” is a Colt Single Action Army, the original “Peacemaker,” the six-shooter that armed lawmen, outlaws, and the US Cavalry. Rockstar nailed the details: the four-click hammer, the single-action lockwork, the loading gate you flip open to feed one cartridge at a time. Colt still builds the SAA today, and dozens of clones from Uberti, Pietta, and Ruger keep it alive. It’s the beating heart of cowboy action shooting, and you can find a modern one in our best revolvers guide.

Schofield Revolver = Smith & Wesson Model 3 (1875)

The “Schofield” is a Smith & Wesson Model 3, and it’s the SAA’s great rival. Instead of loading one round at a time through a gate, the Model 3 is a top-break: crack it open at the hinge and all six empties eject at once, so you reload far faster. Jesse James famously favored one. Rockstar even models the top-break reload animation correctly, which is a lovely touch most games would never bother with.

Volcanic Pistol = Volcanic Repeating Pistol (1855)

This oddball lever-action pistol is real, and it’s one of the most important guns in American history even though it was a commercial flop. The Volcanic used a self-contained “rocket ball” cartridge and a lever action in a handgun frame. It barely worked, but the company that made it was reorganized by two investors named Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson, and later taken over by a shirt-maker named Oliver Winchester. That failed pistol is literally the ancestor of both Smith & Wesson and Winchester. History doesn’t get much richer than that.

Semi-Auto Pistol = Mauser C96 “Broomhandle” (1896)

Late in the game you can get the “Semi-Automatic Pistol,” and it’s a Mauser C96, instantly recognizable by its broom-handle grip and the box magazine sitting ahead of the trigger. In 1899, the setting of RDR2, this thing was science fiction next to a cap-and-ball revolver. It’s a genuine period gun, though, first sold in 1896, and it went on to arm everyone from Winston Churchill to the fictional Han Solo, whose blaster is a dressed-up C96.

Lever-Action Repeater = Winchester Model 1873

The workhorse repeating rifle of the game is a Winchester Model 1873, “The Gun That Won the West.” A tubular magazine under the barrel, a lever to cycle it, and enough firepower that a single cowboy could lay down a wall of lead. RDR2’s various repeaters cover several Winchester generations, from the 1866 “Yellow Boy” to the 1873, and they’re the reason the lever gun still sells hard today. Modern versions from Henry, Marlin, and Winchester fill our best lever-action rifles guide.

Litchfield Repeater = Winchester Model 1886

The “Litchfield” is the big-bore brother, based on the Winchester Model 1886 designed by John Moses Browning. Where the 1873 shot pistol-sized rounds, the 1886 swallowed full-power rifle cartridges like the .45-70, giving it the range and punch to drop a bison or a bear. In the game it’s the flattest-shooting repeater you can carry, which is exactly right for the real thing. If you want that same big-bore lever feel today, look at a .45-70 in our lever-action roundup.

Springfield Rifle = Springfield Model 1873 “Trapdoor”

The single-shot “Springfield” is a Trapdoor Springfield, the US Army’s standard rifle after the Civil War. You flip the breech block up and forward like a trapdoor to load one big .45-70 cartridge, then fire, then repeat. It’s slow, but it hits like a truck and reaches way out there, which is why the game treats it as a hard-hitting long-range option. This is the rifle Custer’s men carried at Little Bighorn.

Rolling Block Rifle = Remington Rolling Block

The “Rolling Block” sniper rifle is a Remington Rolling Block, one of the strongest and most successful single-shot actions ever built. A block rolls back to expose the chamber, you drop in a cartridge, roll it forward, and it locks up solid enough for the heaviest black-powder loads. Buffalo hunters used these to take game at distances that still sound absurd. In the game it’s your first true long-range rifle, and that reputation is fully earned.

Pump-Action Shotgun = Winchester Model 1897

The “Pump-Action Shotgun” is a Winchester Model 1897, another Browning design and the gun that made the pump shotgun a household concept. It had an exposed hammer and, famously, no trigger disconnector, so you could hold the trigger down and fire a shell every time you racked the slide. The Army loved it enough to build the trench-gun version for World War I. Its descendants run our pump shotgun guide to this day.

The Anachronisms Rockstar Slipped In

For all its research, RDR2 bends the timeline in a few spots, and spotting them is half the fun. The “Bolt-Action Rifle” is a Mauser Gewehr 98, which didn’t exist until, well, 1898, so it’s right on the edge for an 1899 setting and flat-out early for the 1907 epilogue. The “Carcano Rifle” is a real Italian Carcano, but it wasn’t used as a scoped sniper rifle in this era, and most players know it only as the rifle tied to the JFK assassination decades later. And the “Elephant Rifle” double is a nod to British big-bore safari guns that a Wild West outlaw would almost never have seen. None of it breaks the game. It just means Rockstar prioritized fun over a perfectly rigid calendar, and honestly, good call.

That’s the beauty of RDR2’s arsenal: it’s a working museum of the guns that actually settled the frontier. Nearly every one is still made, still shot, and still buyable in a modern reproduction. If the game gave you a taste for iron sights and lever guns, start with our lever-action rifles and revolvers guides, then read up on cowboy action shooting, where people dress the part and run these exact designs in real competition.