Bisley Colt on "Antiques Roadshow"

[BruceB]

Yeah, I know it's the PBS Red Star Network, but I do like this one show. The episode last night was from Bismarck, North Dakota.

An elderly gent showed up with a VERY nice Bisley Colt, caliber unspecified, but the story was intriguing.

A Colt factory letter said the gun was shipped to a dealer in the Dakotas in early 1902, and the owner's great uncle bought it. In December of the same year, the great uncle got into a gunfight with "an Indian" and was killed. The death certificate and some other documents from the sheriff were on hand, including the info that the uncle managed to fire two rounds in the course of the encounter.

The gun was stashed for many years, and when the current owner unwrapped it from the cloth and holster, it was STILL LOADED with four live rounds and two empties!

Did the uncle not know of the one-empty-chamber rule? Did he know about it, and add that sixth round when the situation went downhill? I suppose the thing would have gone un-cleaned if those were the actual rounds from the fight, so what would the inside of the gun look like, with corrosive ammo and such?

Anyway, the expert consultant said the Bisley by itself was about a $5000 gun, but with the provenance so well-supported by the documents, etc., he placed the value in a good western auction at closer to $15,000.

It was a glimpse back into a time when reality was just outside the door, for sure!

[wills]

That is really interesting, and a wonder the AR people didn’t get agitated about the loaded chamber.

There was a model 92 Winchester fake, made to look like it had been used by Indians.

[454PB]

I saw that segment too. That gun was in great shape.

I have to wonder if the old timers really heeded the "empty chamber" rule. I do it, but in nearly 40 years of handling guns, I've never dropped one. If the owner was expecting a gunfight, his last worry was having an empty chamber under the hammer.

[Four Fingers of Death]

I'd reckon out riding the range and through the rough and tumble, I'd carry the hammer on and empty chamber. Coming into town where I might run into some bad guys or if I thought that something was not right, I'd load one under the hammer as well, that extra shot could be a lifesaver, especially if they didn;t expect it to be there!

[BruceB]

I believe the five-loaded/one empty was a common precaution. My own Grandfather hammered it home to me as a twelve-year-old lad, before letting me try his 1953-vintage Single Six back around 1955, and I've heard it from other old-timers as well. I also believe that many folks would add that sixth round when things got serious and there was lead in the air.

Elmer Keith frequently mentioned knowing gents who'd had a stirrup fall off the saddle horn when rigging horses, said stirrup then striking the hammer of the holstered (fully-loaded) Colt and firing it. The victim usually ended-up with a gunshot injury to a leg or foot. (I had an acquaintance, plenty old enough to know better, who had his Model 70 put a .375 H&H bullet through his foot from side to side when he violated another "old rule", and casually leaned the rifle against a truck door where the dog brushed against it and dislodged it.... his last years were spent in considerable discomfort, as the foot never recovered properly.)

I PERSONALLY had a Colt Frontier Scout .22 fire in the holster when I unwisely left it loaded with six rounds after a plinking session. The holster was an open-top cheapo which let the hammer spur drag on a rock face I was negotiating at the time, and I was lucky that my leg was raised to such a position as to be out of line with the muzzle. I needed no more hints after that one, which occurred forty years ago and still echoes in my mind!!

I still prefer the original-style lockwork in single actions, but it is IMPERATIVE that the empty-under-the-hammer routine is treated as Holy Gospel. The requirement is most assuredly not a myth, and a fully loaded Colt or pre-'73 Ruger should be treated like a coiled rattlesnake....with GREAT CARE AND RESPECT.

[Char-Gar]

The passage of time brings new technology, but people remain the same. There are wise people and fools, careful people and careless people. There are people who watch the detail and others who do not.

All of these types were about in 1902. Some folks with Colts were careful and some were not. Some Colt owners were knowledgeable and others were not. Some Colt owners shot themselves and others due to lack of good sense and caution, but most did not.

Same ol...same ol.