From their founding in the 1820s up to the modern age, the Texas Rangers have shown the ability to adapt and survive. Part of that survival depended on their use of firearms. The evolving technology of these weapons often determined the effectiveness of these early day Rangers. John Coffee “Jack” Hays and Samuel Walker would leave their mark on the Rangers by incorporating new technology which allowed them to alter tactics when confronting their adversaries. The Frontier Battalion was created at about the same time as the Colt Peacemaker and the Winchester 73—these were the guns that “won the West.” Firearms of the Texas Rangers, with more than 180 photographs, tells the history of the Texas Rangers primarily through the use of their firearms. Author Doug Dukes narrates famous episodes in Ranger history, including Jack Hays and the Paterson, the Walker Colt, the McCulloch Colt Revolver (smuggled through the Union blockade during the Civil War), and the Frontier Battalion and their use of the Colt Peacemaker and Winchester and Sharps carbines. Readers will delight in learning of Frank Hamer’s marksmanship with his Colt Single Action Army and his Remington, along with Captain J.W. McCormick and his two .45 Colt pistols, complete with photos. Whether it was a Ranger in 1844 with his Paterson on patrol for Indians north of San Antonio, or a Ranger in 2016 with his LaRue 7.62 rifle working the Rio Grande looking for smugglers and terrorists, the technology may have changed, but the gritty job of the Rangers has not.

The New York Times bestseller! “Frank Hamer, last of the old breed of Texas Rangers, has not fared well in history or popular culture. John Boessenecker now restores this incredible Ranger to his proper place alongside such fabled lawmen as Wyatt Earp and Eliot Ness. Here is a grand adventure story, told with grace and authority by a master historian of American law enforcement. Frank Hamer can rest easy as readers will finally learn the truth behind his amazing career, spanning the end of the Wild West through the bloody days of the gangsters.” --Paul Andrew Hutton, author of The Apache Wars To most Americans, Frank Hamer is known only as the “villain” of the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde. Now, in Texas Ranger, historian John Boessenecker sets out to restore Hamer’s good name and prove that he was, in fact, a classic American hero. From the horseback days of the Old West through the gangster days of the 1930s, Hamer stood on the front lines of some of the most important and exciting periods in American history. He participated in the Bandit War of 1915, survived the climactic gunfight in the last blood feud of the Old West, battled the Mexican Revolution’s spillover across the border, protected African Americans from lynch mobs and the Ku Klux Klan, and ran down gangsters, bootleggers, and Communists. When at last his career came to an end, it was only when he ran up against another legendary Texan: Lyndon B. Johnson. Written by one of the most acclaimed historians of the Old West, Texas Ranger is the first biography to tell the full story of this near-mythic lawman.

Winchester Warriors: Texas Rangers of Company Dm, 1874-1901 is Number 6 in the Frances B. Vick Series.

Texas Iron: Guns of the Texas Rangers is the not only the most comprehensive books ever published profiling the guns of the Rangers, but it is also the only book to tackle the subject. Chapters on seldom printed Texas Ranger badges, commemoratives, documented Ranger guns and more. There are 142 historical guns featured in its 202 pages. The introduction is by famous Texas Rangers, John Aycock, and the late Joaquin Jackson. The first book to specifically address as a central subject the guns carried and used through time by the Texas Rangers, from flintlock of the colonial period to the Sig Sauers of modern times. It's a brief easy to read informative ground-breaking edition. This to be a must-have book for anyone interested in the legendary Texas Rangers, the guns they carried and their impact on Texas history.

The author recounts his six years of service with the Texas Rangers, describing such events as the Mason County War, the capture of Sam Bass, and the pursuit of Chief Victorio's Apaches.

If I told you that there was a person that was one of the early 1940s OSS (Office of Strategic Services) operatives and later worked under contract for the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), Atomic Energy Commission, Department of Defense, FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), Secret Service and the Department of Justice; trained at Shaolin during World War II, trained at the Kodokan in Japan after World War II, was a Grandmaster of Chin Na, 8th Degree Black Belt in Shinobi, instructor of units from the U.S. Army Special Forces and U.S. Navy Seal Teams, taught Bruce Lee joint locking techniques; an expert in firearms and explosives, and a watch maker you would think I was crazy or a liar. Sid was all of these things and more. This book is my memoir of my friend Sid Woodcock and Detonics the gun company he made famous. Sid's background insured that the Detonics Combat Master was a pistol fit for impossible missions. Sid and the pistol that he made famous were indeed Combat Masters.