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I'm quite sure they are wrong. It's documented that when they first started the route, they carried a rifle and a pistol as well a water sack and a horn for alerting stations of their arrival... as time went by they slowly left more and more at the stations until they were just riding with the jacket on their back, a pistol and water sack. They did keep the horses running full gallop for about the whole route, which would have likely helped them escape danger... its always better to not have to use your gun.. but given the dangers involved its likely that none of the individual riders would have ever wanted to give up their pistol.
Their standard issue was the colt 1851, I took notes while listening to a presentation given at a Smithsonian by Pony Express historians... its when I first got the notion of thinking that it would be cool to own! :-) I'm also quite a history buff about that topic.
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