Words By Cody J Fongemie
Nine times out of 10, when you ask somebody who the most American president is, it comes down to Theodore Roosevelt. He’s the adventurer, the Big Game Hunter, the Rough Rider, known for all these things and so much more; he’s arguably one of the presidents who shaped America’s Destiny more than anyone since Washington. But he didn’t get all these big names by just going out into the woods with a stick. He got it by doing hard things in hard places, and to do that, he needed to have a hell of an arsenal. It’s believed that Arsenal had somewhere between 50 and 100 firearms because there was never a real Inventory of what he owned, and it’s not like he was posting glamour shots of his safe and the White House on Instagram, like many folks do today. With that in mind, we know that many of those different firearms he owned were thanks to his writings and photos. It’s a sick collection, so here are a few of my favorites.
The Winchester 1876 Roosevelt’s Frontier Rifle
“A rifle should be as much a part of a man’s equipment as his saddle.”
Roosevelt kept a journal every single day of his life. And each journal entry, he would talk about
everything from what was going on in politics to the birds he saw outside. But on the day that
both his wife died during childbirth and his beloved mother died, something changed in them.
All he wrote in his journal was a huge black X and the words “The light has gone out of my life.”
The next thing he did was head to the snow-powdered hills of the Dakota Badlands with a
Winchester Model 1876 across his saddle. Chambered in .45-75, this was a true frontier repeater,
reliable, fast, and powerful enough for elk or thieves. In Hunting Trips of a Ranchman,
Roosevelt writes with real affection for the rifle. He used it to hunt pronghorn, elk, and mule
deer, and on one memorable night, to fend off a group of thieves in a boat along the Little
Missouri. He didn’t fire it, but the rifle slung across his chest spoke louder than words. He called
it “a good weapon, effective and handy.” That’s as high praise as a practical man ever gives a
tool. This was Roosevelt’s first real hunting rifle. Not a gift, not a showpiece, something he
picked for himself, and used until the barrel showed the wear of hundreds of miles.
The Springfield Model 1873 – Black Hills and Bears
The military trapdoor that still did the job in wild country.
Now, besides his Winchester 1876, he used several different rifles during his time in the west,
recovering from the loss of his wife and mother. One of those rifles was the Springfield Model 1873.
In The Wilderness Hunter, Roosevelt recounts bear hunts in the Rockies and long chases
through the forested hills of the Dakotas. His choice of weapon at times? A single-shot
Springfield Model 1873, the old “trapdoor” rifle used by the U.S. military. Chambered in .45-70
Government, it was slow to reload but devastating in a well-placed shot. Roosevelt used it in a
country where you might not get a second chance anyway. He wrote of one bear: “At the shot,
the great brute reared up on his haunches… blood pouring from his mouth.” The rifle had done
its job. It’s the kind of gun most men would leave behind for something newer. Roosevelt kept it
around. Trusted it. That says a lot.
The Colt Single Action Army Revolver
A six-shooter with a soldier’s weight.
The Spanish-American War gave him the chance he had been waiting for to prove himself on the
field of battle. TR got to pick all his gear because he was leading a volunteer unit. Before he left
for Cuba, he received a package from his brother-in-law, William S. Cowles, who commanded
the USS Fern, one of the first ships to arrive in Havana Harbor after the sinking of the USS
Maine. In that package was a New Navy Model Colt M1892 .38-caliber revolver, which was
recovered from the wreckage of the USS Maine. He would go on to carry this smokehammer on
San Juan Hill; it was with him in the White House, and later on, on his hip in Africa. When TR
passed in 1919, it would stay with his wife until her death, when it went to a National Park
Service location. In the 1960s, it was stolen and quickly recovered, only to be stolen again in the
1990s from the Simitiho, and subsequently not recovered by the FBI in 2006. Today, the pistol is
safe and sound at Sagamore Hill.
The Winchester 1895 in .405 Winchester
“My medicine gun for lions.”
If one rifle followed Roosevelt into myth, it was the Winchester Model 1895. Lever-action, box-
magazine, and chambered in .405 Winchester, the most powerful round the company ever
offered at the time. Roosevelt brought it to Africa. He trusted it more than any other for lions,
cape buffalo, and rhinos. “It is a splendid weapon,” he wrote, “and there is no better rifle for big
game.” He and Kermit carried two. They put down over 500 animals for scientific study — a
mix of conservation and Victorian imperialism that today reads as complicated. But back then, it
was part of building museums and understanding ecosystems. Roosevelt respected the kill and
the animal. He called the .405 “big medicine,” and it’s hard to argue with the results.
The Holland & Holland Double Rifle – Safari Steel
A gentleman’s rifle, used with a ranchman’s hands.
Later in life, Roosevelt would carry a Holland & Holland double rifle through the tall grass and
thornbush of British East Africa. A gift from friends before his 1909 safari, it was chambered in
.500/450 Nitro Express, enough punch to put down a charging elephant. And he did just that.
Several, in fact. Roosevelt wasn’t sentimental about his tools, but he respected them. The H&H
double wasn’t just for elephants; it was insurance. “If I miss with the right barrel,” he wrote in
African Game Trails, “the left barrel may yet save my life.” The gun was as British as tea and the
empire. But in Roosevelt’s hands, it became something else: an extension of his own belief that
life should be lived close to the edge, but never carelessly.
The Safe
Roosevelt’s rifles and revolvers weren’t just tools; they were chapters in the story of a man who
refused to live an ordinary life. Each weapon carried the weight of its moment: heartbreak in the
Dakotas, grit in the Rockies, courage at San Juan Hill, and curiosity on the African plains.
Together, they paint a portrait of the American spirit equal parts wild, disciplined, and restless.
Theodore Roosevelt didn’t just own fine guns; he earned them through a life spent pushing into
the unknown. In steel and walnut, you can still see the mark of a man who believed the frontier,
wherever it was meant to be faced head-on.
