By the time the Lincoln County War came along, those main core members, referred to as the "iron clad", were all more experienced and closer to being actual "gunmen" than was McCarty.
The Lincoln County War began when a posse of three men, deputized by Sheriff William J. Brady, confronted and fatally shot English cattle and horse rancher John Henry Tunstall on February 18, 1878.
In the aftermath, some people "claimed that he was murdered in cold blood", while others "insisted he had been shot down while resisting arrest by a lawfully commissioned deputy sheriff of Lincoln County.
"[3] Tunstall's ranch-hands and other local citizens formed a group known as the Regulators to avenge his murder, and counter what they viewed as a corrupt territorial criminal justice system controlled by allies of Murphy, Dolan, and company.
William Bonney, aka Billy the Kid, never made any effort to become well known, or to be the main subject of news reports on the events taking place during the range war.
"[7] Ultimately, the Lincoln County War accomplished little other than to foment distrust and animosity in the area and to make fugitives out of the surviving Regulators, most notably Billy the Kid.
Gradually, his fellow gunmen scattered to their various fates, and Billy the Kid was left with Charlie Bowdre, Tom O'Folliard, Dirty Dave Rudabaugh, and a few other friends with whom he rustled cattle and committed other petty crimes while negotiating for an amnesty that would never come, and evading capture.