First there is a low whistling sound as if something thin and dangerous is cutting through the air. Then a sharp cracking, staccato-like report that is as loud as a Colt 45 discharging next to your ear. That is the unmistakable sound of one of the deadliest weapons used in the old west, the whip known as the Blacksnake.

Originally used to keep cattle under control during a cattle drive or to move some of the larger, meaner bulls from one place to another, they often became a deadly weapon in the hands of a skilled operator. The small diameter lash at the end of the whip, called a cracker, made the rifle-like sound of the whip cracking, by breaking the sound barrier as the whip reached the end of its trajectory before being pulled back, completing the cycle.

Actually the whips used in the image above are really bullwhips, being a whip with a short wooden handle that the whip itself is braided around, rather than a whip that has no handle just 6′ to 12′ or longer of flexible braided bull hide as supple and sinuous as the snake it is named after.

If you were hit by the lash it could lay open the skin as if you were cut by a knife. Many movies were made with the whip being one of the hero’s or villian’s primary weapons, along with their trusty pistols, with the most notable being Lash Larue who was famous for using a 18′ bullwhip. Many a villain was brought to heel by the expert use of his bullwhip. After a Saturday morning at the Bijou boys would go home and practice with a piece of rope trying to emulate their hero.

The whipmaster above is showing tremendous skill by using not one but two bullwhips to demonstrate the weapons unique characteristics. This takes enormous skill as the whip can strike the operator as well as its intended victim if it wasn’t kept under absolute control. It wasn’t unusual to see a vivid scar running across a beginners face as they tried to master the weapon.

Most of the altercations in Wichita were handled by the use of pistols or shotguns but occasionally you would hear the report of a different kind of weapon and that would be the Blacksnake. An exotic weapon to be sure but deadly none the less.