I cant describe how awesome this post is. I'll be reading this one many times!

Looks like you got hooked on the subject like I got hooked on the Civil War and John Mosby, the "Gray Ghost". Reenactments were big at one time with one member traveling from Washington state, Bob, the Palomino if you remember him.

The Santa Barbara Historical Arms Association is where I went as a guest to some of their meetings in the 70's. Each month, one of their members would give a presentation on their area of collecting.

John Kopec was the expert on Colt firearms and has written several books. You may already know this.

https://www.sbhaa.net/

https://www.johnakopec.com/

That is a helluva write up. Very cool info, thank you.

quote:

Originally posted by raggedhole:
Serial number 1194 is for sale at Collectors Firearms on their website

Oh, yes, I saw it there. As a matter of fact, in my research, I was able to follow around some of these revolvers from auction house, to gun store and sometimes back to auction house again.

Collector's Firearms is a place dear to my heart, and I am familiar with some of its lore: https://sigforum.com/eve/forum...760090984#3760090984

quote:

Danny Clark loves them. You might contact them with your research . He owns Collectors Firearms. I worked there for 8 years.

Well, send Danny a link and he can see the whole shebang right here if he likes.

I did contact the town of Rough and Ready in an attempt to find out more about E.W. Roberts. I received a polite reply but they have no more information about him that we have right now. In part, the email stated "Most of the town’s early history went up during the fires of 1853 and 1859. Our only reference is to 'E.W. Roberts', with no mention of full name." They suggested I contact the Searls Historical Library in Nevada City which I may do, but they charge for record searches and if all the records burned up in fires in the 1850s, there seems little point to this.

Might find some info on E.W. on the census reports of that time period.

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The write-up reminds me of the old "Gun Report" out of Aledo, Illinois.

I always thought they were very high quality with plenty of expertise in their writers.

This would fit with their gestalt, their high-quality standards.

Thank you for posting this.

Fascinating. 1144 and 1200 appear to have blued cylinders... I wonder if they were done later in their lives? I have an old 1960s/70s ASM or Palmetto replica Walker (haven't been able to determine which for sure as it's been completely defarbed) and an Uberti that's very nice. I haven't been brave enough to remove the bluing from the Uberti cylinder yet. They're so polished and shiny they look weird when you take the blue off.

You have to watch out for fakes.
Elmer Keith wrote of owning A Company No 90, a "cut off, badly rusted, then polished and blued wreck." He traded it off and later heard from a new owner that it was now complete in all respects with 9" barrel and clear markings.

I once showed off my youthful expertise in a store in Atlanta:
"That's a nice pair of Walker reproductions."
To which the owner replied,
"Well, one of them is."

Delightful, hugely interesting, thanks very much.

Para, you have put a great deal of time into this post! Amazing information that was a delight to read. Thank you

This is the best and most informative posting that I have seen in the last 6 months. Just amazing! Thank you sir!

I read the whole post when it was originally made, and just read it all again. Fascinating. Thanks.

Now this is a quality post. Very interesting. Thanks.

That's some fascinating history. Thanks for your work writing this up!

$375,000 for a cased Third Model Dragoon 8"

Beautiful item, but I was out at the opening bid..

The RIA YouTube page has some great stuff. I need to win the lotto so I can start collecting in that rarefied air.

Thank you for well researched and thoroughly interesting post. I'll likely read and re-read it before too long. Also the pictures of the revolvers are excellent. Thanks again.

A bit of holiday reading for those who might not have seen this article.

Another view of Colt Whitneyville-Hartford Dragoon serial number 1161, which appears on the first page in the Walker comparison photo.