All Comments on 'The Trail West Ch. 03'

very good chapter, keep up the good work, well written and holds your interest, thank you , galen

as A LIFETIME READER OF THE WILD WEST OF THE USA - this is as good a story i have read. Keep up excellent work and i will follow the story onwards. Well written with action and good people.

The Best! I now look forward each day for the next chapter. THANK YOU

I like the story, but I suggest you read up on your history... In 1862. there was no Oklahoma, nor any towns or cities.. it was known as Indian Territory and until the land rush of 1889, people other than native americans were not allowed...

Two suggestions: 1) leave out the sterotypical phrases "hell bent for leather" and several times a person rode like hell; you change POV quickly in several places so you can provide the inner dialogue of someone besides Josh (the wagon master, for example) and it is unnecessary. The dialogue would have had more punch without the additonal interior thoughts (show don't tell).

Your story is good reading and leaves me waiting for the next segment. You are a good writer and if entertainment is your goal, you are at 100%.

Thanks!

The characters hold my interest . When Red put in appearance I was afraid

that he found his home burned to the ground... Interesting how you can't tell the heros by the color of their hats...

Deckview, I suppose, instead of "hell bent for leather", you'd prefer "riding quite swiftly". I hate to be harsh but I have an extremely low tolerance for abject ignorance and that's exactly what your comment displayed.

As for you, woodmanone, don't ever change and, as usual, keep up the great work.

This author has a way of writing stories that I simply never want to end. I know it's just greedy of me, but I can't help but hope that someday he will revisit all of his stories and make his fans happy readers. Just for information to those who are not familiar with the firearms of the period, to load a percussion revolver you have three choices. You can load loose powder into each cylinder, then place one ball or bullet at a time in each chamber, ramming each down, then place percussion caps on the nipples one at a time. Next choice is to remove the cylinder and use a loader, a stand that holds the cylinder in place, which is a bit easier but then you have to put the cylinder back in the revolver. Last is the use of cartridges, which are just lose powder and a ball or bullet in a paper wrapping that has been treated with nitrate so that it will combust. You still have to put the percussion caps on one at a time though.

Complicated and slow no matter which one you choose. Many carried extra cylinders that were already loaded and capped so all that they had to do was trade an empty cylinder for a loaded one. That is why Colt peacemaker style revolvers were so valued when they came out, faster to load and more reliable. Even with self contained bullet, powder and primer you still have to clear each chamber of the cylinder and load one round at a time. Some still used extra cylinders if they could afford them and had a need for faster reloading. The point of this is not just to inform on the process but to explain why real people of that period did not go around shooting their guns without reason. If you wasted your rounds it took a while to reload and during that time you could end up dead. So while tales of rapid fire gunfights make for exciting reading in real life such foolishness mostly got you dead.

Repeating rifles were far more important than many authors realize, which is one reason that this author is one of my favorite authors. He understands that, while important, handguns were not the be all end all weapon of choice for those who lived or died depending on whether or not their weapons were loaded and useable.

Hell I'm having so much fun reading this I forgot to look at the posted date... A good story needs a good comment no mater how long ago it was posted.

This is good, true entertainment.

especially with the many references to events that happened in previous chapters.

It was informative and entertaining and I look forward to continuing the journey.

A bit slow. Not enough action, breakdowns, snake bites, rivalry

Highly enjoyable story!

Good story, but a bit slow, the buffalo section was very interesting though.

all the chapters are interesting and easy reading, full of adventure and strong morals. always between a solid 4 and 5 star rating. this is my 2nd time reading.

Some may think the story slow but look at the time line along with the distance travel. A good month or so. I liked the inclusion of day-to-day routine, which is close to the reality. This is a story of the life, times and people. This is their story and I feel lucky to be able to watch. The more so since I've been on three cattle drives and it feels like home watching this.