Archive for the ‘Colt’ Category

Anniversaries.

Tuesday, July 8th, 2025

I’ve been involved in some recent conversations about two things that are sort of connected.

Apparently, the word for the 250th anniversary of something is “Semiquincentennial”. Wikipedia, the source of all vaguely accurate knowledge, also says “Sestercentennial” is acceptable. Also: “Quarter Millennium”, and in the context of the upcoming anniversary, “America250”. “America250” sounds kind of silly and undignified to me. “America! 250! With purchase of an America of equal or greater value!”

I was feeling like nobody gives a diddly squat about the Semiquincentennial. I haven’t seen people talking about it, or announced plans for a big celebration, or any commemorative items. I’m old enough to (somewhat) remember the run-up to the Bicentennial. I may even have some Bicentennial quarters somewhere.

It turns out that there’s actually a federally chartered “non-partisan” planning committee, the “United States Semiquincentennial Commission“, which was spun up in 2016. It also turns out that President Trump has created “The White House Task Force on Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday“, aka “Task Force 250”. I like “Task Force 250”. “Task Force 250, engage the guns on Mount Suribachi.”

(We watched “Sands of Iwo Jima” over the weekend. I like it, but I would not say it was one of John Wayne’s best films.)

And, of course, the NYT has to micturate all over the idea.

I wonder if we’re going to see any commemorative guns for the 250th anniversary. And I don’t mean guns like the various “Trump 2025” and “47” guns you see around. I mean some really classy commemoratives, of the kind gun makers used to issue in the old days. And speaking of the old days…

For some reason, Mike and I were talking about my Smith and Wesson Model 544, the “Texas Wagon Train Commemorative”, for the 150th anniversary of Texas independence. While we were talking, I got to wondering: did any other manufacturers issue Texas Sesquicentennial guns? Surely there was a commemorative Winchester, right? Winchester issued more commemoratives than Carter had little liver pills.

Oh, if only I had some reference work on Winchester commemorative guns. Oh, wait! I do!

Volume One of the Trolard books says that Winchester was going to produce a full-length rifle, a carbine, and a cased set with both the rifle and carbine as well as a Bowie knife. The first volume came out in 1985, so Mr. Trolard was writing ahead of actual release. (He does have photos of the guns, which I’m guessing were factory supplied.)

Then it gets weird, and frankly unclear to me. There’s a reference early on in the second volume to “the unfortunate event with the termination of the production for the Texas Sesquicentennial program”, but not much more detail than that. At least some Texas Sesquicentennial guns made it out of the factory, as you can find auctions for them online. U.S Repeating Arms Company (the parent company of Winchester at the time) shut down the Winchester commemoratives program in 1987. They contracted with Cherry’s Sporting Goods to “design, create and market” commemoratives in 1989. This is about the same time that USRA went bankrupt and was bought by Fabrique Nationale Herstal.

(Some of the Texas Sesquicentennial guns were re-purposed as Larry Bird commemoratives, per Trolard. Really, I’m not making this up. There were Larry Bird commemorative Winchesters sold through “Larry Bird’s Boston Connection” with serial numbers that started with “TSR”. “More commemoratives than Carter had little liver pills” indeed.)

And what about Colt? I’m not as up on Colts, and don’t have as many Colt references as I’d like. But it seems like Colt did a Texas Sesquicentennial commemorative Single Action Army. All the ones I have seen for sale so far have ivory grips. Here’s one example from GunBroker.

Mike the Musicologist also turned up a Colt 1860 Army Texas Sesquicentennial commemorative. The listing he found claims they are very rare: here’s one listed and sold by Collectors Firearms.

The Texas Sesquicentennial Colts are listed in the online Blue Book of Gun Values, but that’s weird, too: the site shows a “Colt 1985 Texas 150th Sesquicentennial SAA Premier Model” that looks like the SAA with ivory grips, and a “Colt 1985 Texas 150th Sesquicentennial SAA Standard Model” that looks like an 1860 Army, not a SAA.

There is also a “Texas Sam Houston 150th Sesquicentennial Deluxe U.S. Model 1847 Walker .44 Caliber Blackpowder Cap & Ball Revolver” listed on GunBroker right now, but that seems to be more of a Sam Houston commemorative than a Texas Sesquicentennial one. Also, it doesn’t look like it was produced by Colt, but made by the “United States Historical Society” using an Uberti Walker reproduction.

I kind of think it would be fun to have a collection of all the Texas Sesquicentennial guns, at least the official manufacturer produced ones. But I don’t think I want to scratch that itch right away…

…that Single Action Army with ivory grips does look pretty, though.

If any of my readers are Colt people, and can fill in some of the blanks on Colt commemoratives, or can point to a good reference work, please drop a comment here.

Posted in Coins, Colt, Guns, History, Movies, Smith and Wesson, Winchester, Wordplay | 1 Comment »

Happy 1911 Day!

Saturday, March 29th, 2025

I know I’ve written about this before, but as a reminder:

Following its success in trials, the Colt pistol was formally adopted by the Army on March 29, 1911, when it was designated “Model of 1911”, later changed in 1917 to “Model 1911”, and then “M1911” in the mid-1920s.

I posted a teaser for this a while back, and I want to do the promised full post soon. For now: Smith and Wesson PC1911, round butt, scandium frame, 4.25″ barrel, tuned by the Smith and Wesson Performance Center. Original SKU on this was #170344.

Posted in 1911, Colt, Guns, Smith and Wesson | 1 Comment »

“…he thought he was good.” (Random gun crankery.)

Thursday, August 29th, 2024

I have an impression that the Colt Woodsman looms large in American popular culture.

Chandler, in one of his stories (“Trouble Is My Business“), had two gunmen come through the door, one armed with “a Colt Woodsman with a long barrel and the front sight filed off. That meant he thought he was good.”

(Sorry. Just wanted to break the wall of text up a bit.)

(more…)

Posted in Books, Colt, Guns, Ruark | 3 Comments »

The past is another country.

Friday, March 4th, 2016

They did things differently there.

The San Francisco Chronicle used to give out firearms as subscription premiums.

I am well pleased with the gun, as it is all that is represented to be. I did not expect to get a $100 gun for $13.50.

You could also get a Colt rifle plus a one-year subscription to the paper for $14.50. (“$15 of 1887 dollars would be worth: $362.50 in 2015.”)

Peter Hartlaub for the win:

We were like Leland Yee, but with more follow-through.

(Hattip: Jimbo.)

Posted in California Über Alles, Colt, Guns, History, Law, Leland "Uncle" Yee, Media | Comments Closed

We do the legwork so you don’t have to.

Monday, October 1st, 2012

Since I posted twice about the auction that included some of Bonnie and Clyde’s guns, I felt that I owed it to my loyal readers (all four of them) to give some final results. All of these are by way of Invaluable.com, which notes that these prices have not yet been verified.

Bonnie’s Colt Detective Special went for $220,000.

Clyde’s Colt in “Fitz Special” style went for $37,000.

A 1911 that Clyde had in his waistband during the ambush went for $200,000.

The S&W Hand Ejector went for $41,000, against a pre-sale estimate of $75,000 – $100,000.

The “Baby Face” Nelson S&W “Safety Hammerless” went for $17,000, against a pre-sale estimate of $40,000 – $50,000.

I’m not sure what to make of these two Smiths. It may be that “Baby Face” Nelson associational items don’t have the same draw as Bonnie and Clyde, but I’m not sure why Clyde’s S&W didn’t meet expectations. Perhaps the fact that it has been re-finished had something to do with that…

And the Emmett Dalton .44 Russian top-break went for $15,000, against a pre-sale estimate of $25,000 – $30,000.

(Edited to add: Invaluable.com requires you to have an account and be signed in before showing prices, so if you don’t see prices at those links, that’s why.

Also, thinking about it some more, the 1911 and Bonnie’s Colt were probably big money guns because they were actually recovered from Bonnie and Clyde’s bodies after the ambush. The S&W was apparently in the car, but not found on either of them, and the “Fitz” was recovered from a car stolen by Clyde. So that may explain the pricing. Maybe. What do I know?)

(Edited to add 10/2: Here’s the report direct from RR Auction, which gives the prices including bidder’s premium. Invaluable’s prices apparently did not include that figure.)

Posted in 1911, Clippings, Colt, Guns, Smith and Wesson | Comments Closed

Guns up!

Friday, September 28th, 2012

Remember the auction we noted earlier in the week? The one that included some of Bonnie and Clyde’s guns?

Well, by way of SayUncle, we learned that there was a bit of a kerfuffle. One of the guns in the auction is a Colt Detective Special that was found taped to Bonnie’s thigh. Frank Hamer, the man who led the posse that reduced Bonnie and Clyde to “a bunch of wet rags” [*], took that gun (and many, if not all, of their other guns) as spoils after the ambush, and it got handed down from Hamer through a couple of other folks before ending up in the auction.

So what’s the problem? The serial number on Bonnie’s gun was obliterated, and BATFE doesn’t much like people selling guns with altered or obliterated serial numbers.  Serial numbers, as I understand it, were actually not required until the Gun Control Act of 1968, so there are guns out there without serial numbers. But if the gun did have a serial number, like Bonnie’s did, and that serial number is defaced or altered, you can’t legally sell the gun.

What to do, what to do? If you’re the auction house, you contact your friendly local BATFE branch. I will now pause for a moment so you can laugh at the juxtaposition of  “friendly” and BATFE.

In this case, though, BATFE issued a new serial number for the gun, and had the gun re-stamped, making it all nice and legal for the auction. SayUncle and some of his commentators seem a little bent out of shape about BATFE doing this; personally, I’d rather have them do this than have the gun confiscated and melted down.

While I was writing this entry, Lawrence sent me an actual link to the auction. Bonnie’s Colt is here.

The “Fitz Special” that I wrote about previously is here. Looking over the auction description, a couple of things jump out at me. There are three documents giving the gun’s provenance, from various law enforcement officers, but there’s no Colt factory letter documenting the gun. The price of a Colt letter, according to their website, is $75; that’s a small percentage of the estimated auction price, and I’d personally like to see one of those letters with the gun before I bid (were I planning to bid; yeah, like I have $50,000). It might help document the story that Clyde stole this gun from a Texas Ranger. I strongly suspect (and the auction notes seem to confirm) that this is not an actual Fitzgerald modified gun, but one done in his style.

Why, yes, as a matter of fact, there is a Smith and Wesson Hand Ejector in this auction. And it has “a copy” of a factory letter. There’s also a “Baby Face” Nelson Safety Hammerless (Third Model) with a S&W factory letter, too. And a .44 Double Action First Model top-break carried by Emmett Dalton, also with factory letter. Except for those three, it seems that choosy gangsters chose Colts.

[*] That description, and some of the other background in this post, comes from Jeff Guinn’s stunning Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde, the definitive work of Bonnie and Clyde scholarship and a book I enthusiastically recommend.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Colt, Guns, Smith and Wesson | 1 Comment »