Hi Patrick

As I know your luv of the firearm, I snapped these pic's at Heritage Museum, Lexington, Ma. (my old hometown) !
They have an exhibition called "The Western Pursuit of the American Dream" :
Selections from the Collection of Kenneth W. Rendell . http://www.monh.org/

I did get scolded for taking pictures, as I guess there was a sign posted someplace that said not to ?, but I managed to capture the good stuff before they lowered the boom ! * I did give them my reverse lecture about people with money owning pieces of history, etc., and how they really belong to the people , blah, blah, blah * (which he agreed with , but had to enforce the owners wishes ;-)

Anyway .... here ya go ! Mac

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Thanks for thinking of me Mac!

Leave it to a rebellious Scot to flaunt the rules :D

I particularly like the longrifle. I love those fancy patchboxes.

And who doesn't love the Colt SAA ? (all real men do *g*) Mine's prettier ;)

'Not Patrick Kelly, but my thanks for taking the time.

The Richards-Mason conversion was especially appreciated (with or without its pedigree).





Michael

Agreed, nice little conversion Colt, and nice SAA too. I like the Long Rifle, but I have to say the Long Land Pattern Bess is hottest of the bunch.

Patrick: Ha! My SAA 's are better than THAT too! LOL!!! ;o) One of these days when we get into an insane SAA thread, I'll post some pics... someday, but not today.

Thanks for posting those Mac, you have a good eye for getting good snapshots of "The Cool Stuff"! BTW, do they still have that nifty little Snaphaunce/English-lock belt pistol on display at the Plymouth museum? (Since you're in that neck of the woods...)

Gordon

now this stuff i can really get into!

Colt SAA? The Schofield was far superior. Go S&W.

Then again maybe I'm not a "real man" :confused:

Alina; I think lot of the "superiority" of the Colt is in the "feel" of it. It fits and handles "right", just like some swords feel better in the hand than others. The Schofield is, in my opinion, the best "feeling" of the Smiths... ALL of the Smiths, in fact, even those made today. Mechanically the Schofield is in some ways superior too, and a LOT faster to reload. But the Colt is a lot faster to "unload", as it were. Both are well designed and well made weapons of war, efficient and effective.

I believe that one of the reasons that Colt was so popular a maker was that he was there "the fustest with the mostest", and pretty much set the standards, too. For someone who grew up shooting earlier Colt products, the Smith&Wessons just don't feel "right". It's Fords and Chevy's (Uh oh, I see a whole new argument going on here...) so if you started with one, you generally prefer it to the other on purely emotional grounds. But I'm a confirmed Colt man, so it's mostly just my opinion.

Gordon

One more shot of Jesse's Colt ..... ( the lighting was terrible for picture taking, so please forgive the shadows )

Mac

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I'm going to go Schofield too. Back in the day when all my pards were packing Fanner 50's
I was always the contrarian who had a Hubley '51 Navy. (Except for the two gun Shootin' Shell
rig I got from the Grands) Then Clint iced it for me forever with the saloon scene in Unforgiven.
House Shmouse, Little Bill!

Best,
Doug G.

That there's a question I wouldn't touch with an 18-foot pike! :eek: To quote the Roman Tribune: Run away, Run away!

And here I thought I was opening a can of worms with the Ford/Chevy connection... Lord, it seems I can get into trouble with the least effort, doesn't it?

A truly meager sampling of the different models and designs of cartridge tools potentially available to the bold soul seeking escape from Colt SAA domination, ca. 1868-1883. These examples are all well safe in the era of proprietary cartridges, but then, you wouldn't expect flair AND practicality, would you? You'll reload your casings anyway, so bring a hammer. ;)

Michael

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Remington New Army conversion, .38 Rimfire

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Tranter, .50 (English)

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Thomas Self-Extractor, .450 (English)

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German Reichsrevolver, 10.3mm

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Merwin-Hulbert

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Mod. 1873 French Ordnance Revolver, 11.4mm F.O.R.

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Pryse, .450 (English)

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A breathtaking, original Remington NA conversion with full engraving and loading gate

EEEK! Hubley's and Fanner Fifty's!!!! Man, I haven't thought of THOSE in a while... I found a great photo of me (on horseback of course) packin' my '51 Navy in a full-flap holster back in, oh, '61 or '62... that's of course NINETEEN sixty-one or two, guys! Gotta love the saddle-shoes and argyle socks, but at least I was packin' iron.

Gotta love those old black-powder cartridge revolvers. I've always preferred my Colts, but I've enjoyed most of the cool pistols you showed, Michael. Wonderful old guns, and a real challenge to feed (at least they sure were 25 years ago when I was really into that stuff... amazing what you can convert .44 Special into! And yes, bring a hammer, LOL!) Of course I love the cap-and-ball stuff too, though cartridges are soooo much easier on the range. But later on, all you have to do is clean the gun, no nasty brass to clean up! I have to admit I've gotten tired of cleaning blackpowder-scooged brass... I finally have sold off most of my big single-shot rifles for that reason and gone back to my paper-cartridge Sharps. Same amount of work getting to the range, but a LOT less afterwards!

Anyway, GREAT thread!

Cheers,

Gordon

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Thanks for those pics Michael. Some of the less well known pistols are really fascinating in their design elements. Thank goodness Hollywood has gotten away from arming everyone with a Colt SAA and a '73 Winchester!

I have to agree with Gordon on the BP cartridge issue. A lot of fun but a real hassle to clean. I still remember the first time I fired a .45 Colt round loaded with 35-40 grains of black powder. Man, that was a show! I've owned a couple of conversions that were really neat. Those kinds of firearms were widely used on the frontier for a long time, it's a shame they've usually been under represented in film and books.

Gordon!
Looks like you kept an orderly range there, Deputy. My favorite holster for the Hubley was a narrow taper
split cow hide lashed with raw hide strips, worn cross draw of course. This set up earned a little envy, but
my whole posse envied a kid named Kevin who greened us all terribly with his Mattel "Indian Scout" rifle, and
a Thunderer pistol worn on a belt with a Mattel pop out derringer buckle. The Scout was a copy of a Remington
rolling block carbine that fired Shootin' Shells, the Thunderer was a metal colt-a-like from the '50's that fired
TWO ROLLS of caps at once, and the derringer belt buckle had a "surprise" feature (as seen on TV) that
allowed the little gun to pop out and fire if some outlaw had the drop on you. Lucky Kevin.
Apparently some kids never got over Kevin envy if the price old toy guns fetch on ebay is any indicator. I
bet at least a house payments worth got thrown away at my house!

He had a SCOUT??? Oh MAN! Serious envy there, no doubt! I had the Mattell Winchester of course... but I was a bit of a nutcase even then, and eventually cut it down into a Volcanic pistol, LOL! (No, I wasn't going for the "Dead or Alive" look, I wanted a Volcanic!) I remember those "Belt-Buckle Derringers" too... they were too cool. There were a LOT of very, very cool toy guns back then... of course, there are a lot of very, very cool REAL guns (and swords!) here now, but for some odd reason they seem to be just as out of reach as the toys were then. Sometimes Mana from Heaven falls to our lot, but not often enough! Hmmm... something very cosmic going on here.

What is really weird is now seeing stuff that I played with as a kid in the early '60's being sold in bloody ANTIQUE stores! Hey, I'm not THAT old! LOL! My Dad's toys, sure, but not MINE! :wtf:

Anyway, this thread just keeps getting further and further away from it's origins, and more fun too! Thanks for starting it Mac!

Gordon

Ahhhhh.... here's something that makes me drool as much as a fine sword: Old timey revolvers, in "serious" calibers...

Colt or S&W? It's all good.... but I gotta admit a lust for the old SAA. Too many John Wayne movies, I guess....