Wyatt Earp's Colt SAA up for auction

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J Miller
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Wyatt Earp's Colt SAA up for auction

Post by J Miller »

This was on the front page of my ISP: https://www.guns.com/news/2018/10/22/au ... rs-photos/

My question is, if you had pockets deep enough to get it .... would you shoot it?

No question what my answer is, that's for sure. ;)

Joe
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piller
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Re: Wyatt Earp's Colt SAA up for auction

Post by piller »

I wouldn't have the money to buy it. Even if I did, I wouldn't do anything which would affect the value. Put simply, no I wouldn't fire it.

By the way, didn't Ned Buntline s-t-r-e-t-c-h the truth and write in his penny dreadfuls and "claim" that Wyatt Earp carried a pistol with a crazy long 12 inch barrel? I cannot imagine anyone carrying a pistol regularly with a barrel longer than the 7 1/2 inch artillery model that could be obtained back then. Even a 6 inch barrel can be difficult to unholster when seated at a card table or in the saddle. It doesn't surprise me in the slightest that a Colt which can be proven to be Wyatt Earp's has a barrel length that is actually short enough to be practical.
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Re: Wyatt Earp's Colt SAA up for auction

Post by Pitchy »

I`d have to shoot it once just because. :)
As far as long barrels when Ruger came out with the ten inch SB i bought one for myself and a buddy, we both ended up trading them for shorter barrel ones. :)
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J Miller
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Re: Wyatt Earp's Colt SAA up for auction

Post by J Miller »

If properly cleaned afterwards, I doubt anyone could tell it had been fired again. After all it is used.


I think the longest barrel to be handy and usable is 7.5". Any more and it's just awkward.

Joe
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Bill in Oregon
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Re: Wyatt Earp's Colt SAA up for auction

Post by Bill in Oregon »

Lenn, I have had a couple of those 10.5- inch Ruger .44s and found them easy to carry if I attached a sling to the barrel and to a stud in the butt. Still the most comfortable .44 Magnum handgun I have ever shot, thanks to that long barrel.
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Re: Wyatt Earp's Colt SAA up for auction

Post by Pitchy »

Bill in Oregon wrote: Tue Oct 23, 2018 3:02 pm Lenn, I have had a couple of those 10.5- inch Ruger .44s and found them easy to carry if I attached a sling to the barrel and to a stud in the butt. Still the most comfortable .44 Magnum handgun I have ever shot, thanks to that long barrel.
They were cool alright and wish i still had it but i found it awkward to carry, probably collectable now days huh.
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Re: Wyatt Earp's Colt SAA up for auction

Post by gcs »

I read somewhere that Wyatt Earp had a bunch of those guns and traded or sold them for a pretty penny, and I bet all those guns was the one he used at the OK corral... :wink:
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Re: Wyatt Earp's Colt SAA up for auction

Post by piller »

gcs wrote: Tue Oct 23, 2018 4:44 pm I read somewhere that Wyatt Earp had a bunch of those guns and traded or sold them for a pretty penny, and I bet all those guns was the one he used at the OK corral... :wink:
With his fame, and how long into the 20th century that he lived, it could have happened.
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6pt-sika
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Re: Wyatt Earp's Colt SAA up for auction

Post by 6pt-sika »

If I were of the means to buy it you can bet the ranch that I’d shoot it and with some regularity ! But then if I owned a Parker A-1 Special you can bet your backside I’d shoot it as well .
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Re: Wyatt Earp's Colt SAA up for auction

Post by Sixgun »

Denver, Pa.?????? 35 miles down the road.......I'm off....well, retired......I still have my eighth grade lunch money.....mmmmmm......I'm GOING!!!!!

Naaaa....I was dreaming......75-100 g's ???? My guess if the provenance is as good as it says, it will beat that price.

Shoot it? Why sure.....single load the ammo while eyeing the powder in the case..load a lighter 200 grain bullet. I shoot Major John W. Hession's 44 Russian Colt SAA at least once a year. Nathaniel G. Herreshoff's S&W Triplelock target 44 Spl. eats lead a couple of times a year.-----6
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Re: Wyatt Earp's Colt SAA up for auction

Post by Griff »

Yeah, I think we're more "shooters" than "collectors" on this site. BP loads, maybe a couple of AJ's C45S cases and a thorough clean afterwards... then off to Sotheby's... and double my money!
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Re: Wyatt Earp's Colt SAA up for auction

Post by mickbr »

id buy one but only as a truck gun.


:P
JNG
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Re: Wyatt Earp's Colt SAA up for auction

Post by JNG »

I have a colt SAA in .22. It is tits!

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Re: Wyatt Earp's Colt SAA up for auction

Post by Pisgah »

gcs wrote: Tue Oct 23, 2018 4:44 pm I read somewhere that Wyatt Earp had a bunch of those guns and traded or sold them for a pretty penny, and I bet all those guns was the one he used at the OK corral... :wink:
Oh, yes. He was well-known to buy up any gun he could get for cheap, then sell it as one he had owned. Not exactly a lie -- and not exactly honest. What my dad would have classified as a "sharp businessman" -- that is, a crook but not an out-and-out thief.
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Re: Wyatt Earp's Colt SAA up for auction

Post by guido4198 »

I'd be a LOT MORE INTERESTED in one of Doc Holiday's guns.
Just sayin'.
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Re: Wyatt Earp's Colt SAA up for auction

Post by yooper2 »

Sixgun wrote: Tue Oct 23, 2018 9:48 pm Denver, Pa.?????? 35 miles down the road.......I'm off....well, retired......I still have my eighth grade lunch money.....mmmmmm......I'm GOING!!!!!

Naaaa....I was dreaming......75-100 g's ???? My guess if the provenance is as good as it says, it will beat that price.

Shoot it? Why sure.....single load the ammo while eyeing the powder in the case..load a lighter 200 grain bullet. I shoot Major John W. Hession's 44 Russian Colt SAA at least once a year. Nathaniel G. Herreshoff's S&W Triplelock target 44 Spl. eats lead a couple of times a year.-----6
Wow, you have one of Captain Nat's sixguns? Of course having that marvelous engineer mind of his it's a Triple Lock too! While the Herreshoffs are well known for their work in yacht design and maritime engineering most folks don't know that Capt. Nat and L. Francis were both avid shooters/hunters. I lived down the road from L. Francis' "castle" for a while in Marblehead.

Having one of Hession's guns is also way cool, but the Herreshoff Triple Lock is awesome. Six, you're the man.

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Re: Wyatt Earp's Colt SAA up for auction

Post by Sixgun »

Thanks Eric and no, I ain't the man...just a peon former forklift driver who got lucky. After having the guns I factory lettered them and that's who the purchasers were. just dumb luck. ---6
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Re: Wyatt Earp's Colt SAA up for auction

Post by Booger Bill »

I have heard the same story a number of times about Bat Masterson, Jesse James mother selling guns to tourist`s that she claimed had been Jesse`s etc. I think sometimes once a story is told it fits in nicely with other figures. Who really knows? Gun collectors are the most doubing persons in the world. Many of us have owned a ton of old guns. Truth is it probably would water some of our eyes if we somehow knew the truth of prior owners of some that passed through our hands. I bought a colt new frontier used but looked new from a pawn shop in reseda california about 1973. I paid $250 about the then going price. I shot it just a little, and then I bought the book "Post war Colt SAA`s by George Garton. In it he has a documented one of a matched consecutively numbered pair. I checked mine and it was the missing one! I called Garton and he confirmed mine was the missing colt. He bought the other from Murphys son and also had him notarize it. I got a colt letter where the pair was shipped together to Wolfram leather company in Monrovia where Audie bought them according to one son that sold the other. The other son evidently took his to the nearest pawn shop, evidently didn't tell them who his famous dad was and I lucked in and bought it. I later got married, had quit firing the gun and made it a safe queen. Later my wife ran off and a number of my guns did too. This among them. The serial # is 5355 NF. .45 cal.
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Re: Wyatt Earp's Colt SAA up for auction

Post by yooper2 »

Sixgun wrote: Thu Oct 25, 2018 8:07 pm Thanks Eric and no, I ain't the man...just a peon former forklift driver who got lucky. After having the guns I factory lettered them and that's who the purchasers were. just dumb luck. ---6
You may be lucky Jack, but you're definitely the man!

Eric
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