Wyatt Earp's Buntline Special

[MaryB]

Friend sent me this link, interesting read http://home.earthlink.net/~knuthco1/Itemsofinterest3/Buntlinesource.htm would love to find one of the originals!

[doc1876]

they are out there. there was an original wire stock on GB about a year ago, and if you go to the Colt show that is held once a year, there is usually one or more for sale. bring a lot of "0s" on your check book tho.
According to Wilkerson, they were first made in 1877, and serial numbers were 28800 to 28830.
Happy hunting!!

[MaryB]

Ohh way out of my price range, I may spend some big money on a long distance rifle next year but generally keep gun purchases under $500 or I accumulate parts a bit at a time until I have what I need. That is how I built my AR, bartered, waited for deals, took me over a year to get all the bits and pieces.

[doc1876]

you can build a buntline the same way. I know a guy who has built two or three. bet an old frame, clean it up, then a buntline barrel, and finish off the project. I would recommend a 1st or 2nd gen frame, as there are a lot of 2nd gen buntline barrels around. Still gong to be around 900-1500

[MtGun44]

Seems like I remember from his biography that Earp said his was dropped in a creek up in the
northern territory somewhere, like Yukon or Alaska.

I kinda wonder about all these old stories, life is pretty complex and thinking about my own life,
I often have trouble figuring out exactly what year some event happened. Usually I have to think
about whether it was before or after a certain other event which might somehow have a link to
fix the year accurately. Claiming that Earp had memory problems because he said a certain event
was in 1877 when it later was shown to be 1878 - gee whiz, they were talking to him in the 1920s
and he was looking back around 40-50 years!

Personally, I have some memories that stand out from 40 or so years ago, but a lot of that time
is a blur and if somebody wanted to write about it (no danger of my early years ever becoming
the topic of a book! LOL.) I'd have trouble pulling up more than a few highlights from each
year, and some general info like where we lived and generally what we were doing in those
days. Even if the old lawmen weren't trying to tell tall tales, memories
are pretty fuzzy things 40 or 50 years later.

Bill

[doc1876]

"Local gunslinger "Buckskin" Frank Leslie is known to have ordered one of the long-barreled weapons in January of that same year, possibly inspired by Earp's piece. While the 10-inch barrel was good for target shooting and busting heads, however, it was not handy in a gunfight requiring a quick draw, and it is most likely that Earp was using revolvers with the usual 7 1/2-inch barrels at the corral. Earp told Lake that in 1901 he gave his "Buntline Special" to Charlie Hoxsie, his partner in running the Dexter saloon in Nome, Alaska, and that Hoxsie subsequently vanished from the scene, along with the gun."
I read somewhere he dropped it in the bearing straight during a sailing trip.

http://www.historynet.com/did-wyatt-earp-carry-a-buntline-special.htm

[MaryB]

Thaks, I like reading the history of old weapons, one of the things I like about American Rifleman, they usually feature 2-3 older rifles and pistols.

[Multigunner]

Didn't "the Red Rider" of the TV series, the one Robert Blake was in as his young indian sidekick, carry a Colt revolver with quick change barrels and detachable butt stock?
Never saw a real quick change barrel single action till the 80's when a Colt clone marketed a few. Those didn't have butt stocks and barrels were in more common long and short pistol lenght. The main feature being a quick change from .45 to .44 or other chamberings using extra cylinders.

S&W built a few top break revolvers with long and short interchangeable barrels and QD butt stocks, mostly in .32 caliber.