What Gun Did Wyatt Earp Use

Revolver

Colt Buntline
Colt Buntline with 16-inch barrel.
Type	Revolver
Identify of origin	United States
Production history
Designer	Stuart Northward. Lake
Manufacturer	Filly
Produced	1957–1992 ^[1]
Specifications
Butt length	12 inches (thirty cm)^[ane]

Cartridge	.45 Filly^[ane]

The Colt Buntline Special was a long-barreled variant of the Colt Single Action Army revolver, which Stuart Northward. Lake described in his best-selling but largely fictionalized 1931 biography, Wyatt Earp: Borderland Marshal. Co-ordinate to Lake, the dime novelist Ned Buntline commissioned the production of five Buntline Specials. Lake described them every bit actress-long Colt Unmarried Activeness Regular army revolvers, with a 12-inch (300 mm)-long barrel, and stated that Buntline presented them to 5 lawmen in thanks for their assistance in contributing local color to his western yarns.

Lake attributed the gun to Wyatt Earp, merely mod researchers have non establish any supporting evidence from secondary sources or in available main documentation of the gun's existence prior to the publication of Lake'due south volume. Subsequently its publication, various Colt revolvers with long (x-inch or sixteen-inch) barrels were chosen Colt Buntlines or Buntline Specials. Colt manufactured the pistol amid its second-generation revolvers produced subsequently 1956. A number of other manufacturers, such as Uberti, Navy Arms, and Cimarron Arms, take made their own versions of this long-barreled revolver.

Origin [edit]

The revolver was showtime described past Stuart Lake in his highly fictionalized 1931 biography Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal. The extremely popular book turned Wyatt Earp into a "Western superman".^[two] ^: p34 Lake's creative biography and afterward Hollywood portrayals exaggerated Wyatt's profile as a western lawman.^[iii]

Ned Buntline, the pseudonym for dime-novelist Edward Zane Carroll Judson.

Lake wrote that dime novelist Edward Zane Carroll Judson, Sr., writing under the pseudonym of Ned Buntline, commissioned the guns in repayment for "material for hundreds of borderland yarns." Although Ned Buntline wrote somewhere between twenty and 20-iv western novelettes and dime novels, the most sensational about William "Buffalo Bill" Cody, who Buntline made nationally famous, none mentions Wyatt Earp. Lake claims that Ned Buntline traveled to Dodge City and made the presentations there, so went on up to Due north Platte, Nebraska, where he fabricated a similar presentation to Cody. But Buntline traveled westward of the Mississippi only once in his life, in 1869, in fact, and at the time of the supposed presentation to Earp in Dodge City, Wyatt and his brother were actually in Deadwood, Dakota Territory mining for gold. Actually Earp was under indictment for murder in Dodge Urban center at the time. Equally for Cody, he wasn't in N Platte, either, only was in Wyoming scouting for the US Cavalry in pursuit of Sitting Bull and the Cheyenne and Sioux bands that had wiped out Custer at the Little Bighorn the previous summer. According to descendants of Wyatt Earp's cousins, he owned a Filly .45-caliber and a Winchester lever-action shotgun.^[4]

There is no conclusive bear witness as to the kind of pistol that Earp usually carried though, according to some sources, on the solar day of the Gunfight at the O.One thousand. Corral, October 26, 1881, he carried a Smith & Wesson Model 3 with an viii-inch (200 mm) barrel. Earp had received the revolver as a gift from Tombstone mayor and newspaper editor John Clum of The Tombstone Epitaph .^[v] Lake later on admitted that he had "put words into Wyatt'south mouth because of the inarticulateness and monosyllabic way he had of talking".^[3]

The book later inspired a number of stories, movies, and telly programs virtually outlaws and lawmen in Dodge City and Tombstone, including the 1955–1961 boob tube series The Life and Fable of Wyatt Earp.^[6]

Clarification [edit]

Lake conceived the idea of a revolver that would exist more precise and could be easily modified to work similarly to a rifle. According to Lake, the Filly Buntline was a single-action revolver chambered for .45 Long Colt cartridge. Withal, information technology had a 12-inch-long (305 mm) butt, in comparison to the Colt Peacemaker's 7.v-inch (190 mm) barrel. A xvi-inch (406 mm) barrel was available, likewise.^[7] Co-ordinate to Lake, it had a removable stock that could be easily affixed through a combination of screws and lead-ins. This accessory gave the revolver better precision and range, Lake claimed, and allowed the user to fire it like a burglarize.^[7] The Colt Buntline was further popularized by The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp tv set serial.

Alleged presentation to lawmen [edit]

Lake wrote that Ned Buntline commissioned the revolvers in 1876 and that he presented them to Wyatt Earp and four other well-known western lawmen — Bat Masterson, Pecker Tilghman, Charlie Bassett, and Neal Brown. All the same, neither Tilghman nor Brownish were lawmen at that time.^[viii] According to Lake, Earp kept his pistol at the original 12-inch length, just the four other recipients of the Specials cutting their barrels downwards to the standard seven+ 1⁄2 inches, or shorter.

Lake spent much effort trying to rails down the Buntline Special through the Colt company, Masterson, and contacts in Alaska. Lake described information technology as a Filly Single Activeness Ground forces model with a long, 12 inches (30 cm) barrel, standard sights, and wooden grips into which the name "Ned" was ornately carved. Researchers have never constitute any record of an club received past the Colt company, and Ned Buntline'south alleged connections to Earp accept been largely discredited.^[five]

Colt records [edit]

The revolver could have been peculiarly ordered from the Colt factory in Hartford, Connecticut, as extra-long barrels were available from Filly at a dollar an inch over 7.v inches (190 mm). Several such revolvers with 16-inch barrels and detachable stocks were displayed at the 1876 Centennial Exposition, but these were marketed equally "Buggy rifles".^[9] ^[x] There are no company records for the Buntline Special, nor a record of whatever orders from or sent to Ned Buntline. This does not admittedly forbid the historicity of the revolvers, however. Massad Ayoob writing for Guns Magazine cited notes by Josie Earp in which she mentioned an extra-long revolver as a favorite of Wyatt Earp. He cited an lodge past Tombstone, Arizona, bartender Buckskin Frank Leslie for a revolver of near-identical description. This order predated the O.K. Corral fight by several months.^[11]

Replicas [edit]

In the 1950s, Colt resumed industry of the Single Activeness Army and fabricated a Buntline version, due to customer demand. The barrels are marked on the left side "COLT BUNTLINE SPECIAL .45". A few third-generation Buntlines were manufactured in the belatedly 1970s, as well.^[12] Colt manufactured 70 New Frontier Buntline Specialsouth from 1962 to 1967 with 12-inch barrels and folding target sights, chambered in .45 Colt.^[thirteen]

The 1873 Buntline Target is an Italian 6-shot single-action revolver chambered for the .357 Magnum or the .45 Filly cartridges, manufactured past A. Uberti, Srl. The revolver has an 18-inch barrel with no muzzle brake or ports. It comes with a walnut grip and a dark bluish finish.^[fourteen]

The Navy Artillery Frontier Buntline Model is a 6-shot single-activity revolver chambered for the .357 Magnum or the .45 Filly cartridges, manufactured for Navy Arms. The revolver has a 16.v-inch barrel with no muzzle brake or ports. It comes with a walnut grip and a detachable shoulder stock.^[fifteen]

Cimarron Firearms offers a version chosen the Wyatt Earp Buntline styled after the 1 used past Kurt Russell in the 1993 movie "Tombstone" with a 10-inch barrel and a silverish badge inlaid on the right grip console.^[16]

References [edit]

^ ^a ^b ^c Peterson, Philip. Gun Digest Volume of Modern Gun Values: The Shooter'due south Guide to Guns 1900 to Present (16th ed.). p. 125.
^ Goodman, Michael (July 30, 2005). Wyatt Earp. The Artistic Company. ISBN978-one-58341-339-five.
^ ^a ^b Ashford, David (September 3, 1994). "Start activeness hero: Wyatt Earp was an elderly movie groupie who failed to brand information technology as an extra..." The Contained. London. Retrieved January x, 2011. ^{[ dead link ]}
^ Haller, Sonja (March 25, 2014). "Wyatt Earp guns upward for auction in Scottsdale". The Commonwealth . Retrieved 16 September 2014.
^ ^a ^b Shillingberg, William B. (Summer 1976). "Wyatt Earp and the Buntline Special Myth". Kansas Historical Quarterly. 42 (2): 113–154. Archived from the original on 2012-02-01.
^ Reidhead, S.J. (Oct iv, 2006). "Book Review: Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal". Retrieved Jan eleven, 2011.
^ ^a ^b Mayo, Mike (2008). American Murder: Criminals, Crimes, and the Media. Visible Ink Press. p. 53. ISBN978-1-57859-191-six.
^ Agnew, Jeremy (one November 2012). The One-time Due west in Fact and Film: History Versus Hollywood. McFarland. p. 149. ISBN978-0-7864-9311-1.
^ Sapp, Rick (2007). Standard Catalog of Colt Firearms. Iola, Wisconsin: F&Westward Media, Inc. p. 72. ISBN978-0-89689-534-8.
^ Hogg, Ian Five.; John Walter (2004). Pistols of the World (4 ed.). David & Charles. p. 79. ISBN978-0-87349-460-ane.
^ Massad, Ayoob (May–June 2007). "I Policeman's Custom Revolver". Guns Magazine. San Diego CA: Von Rosen Publications.
^ Sapp (2007) pp. 82–85
^ Taffin, John (24 April 2005). Kevin Michalowski (ed.). The Gun Digest Volume of Cowboy Activeness Shooting: Guns Gear Tactics. Iola, Wisconsin: Gun Assimilate Books. p. 110. ISBN0-89689-140-two.
^ Shideler, Dan (seven August 2011). Gun Digest 2012. Iola, wisconsin: Gun Assimilate Books. p. 429. ISBN978-1-4402-1447-ix.
^ Isle of man, Richard Allen; Lee, Jerry (xx November 2013). The Gun Digest Volume of Modern Gun Values: The Shooter's Guide to Guns 1900–Nowadays. Iola, Wisconsin: F+Due west Media. p. 190. ISBN978-ane-4402-3752-2.
^ Ramage, Ken; Sigler, Derrek (19 Nov 2008). Guns Illustrated 2009. Iola, Wisconsin: F+West Media, Inc. p. 46. ISBN978-0-89689-673-iv.