jlevines.com
holding a auction sunday, for a colt revolver with excellent documentation attribution the gun to bat masterson. He evidently bought the gun directly from the company.
would appear to have I think ivory grips. they are anticipating for the 1882 gun a price range of $80000 to 120000.
I need a small loan.

Rumor has it, Masterson was the first to request a 4 5/8" from the Colt factory, thus creating the trend.

I read "someplace or other" that one of the Colt's he ordered had a 4" barrel and ejector rod assembly shortened to match. I don't remember where exactly I'd read that, but I thought it was quite odd at the time. I mean, why bother with 5/8" difference over a factory option?

Late in life, when sports writing didn't pay well, he'd go to a store and buy a used Colt and sell it as a gun he carried in the hey-day. There are lots of Bat Masterson Colts in private collections.

You're correct, Dan. I've read accounts where Masterson bought a bunch of old Colts at pawn shops for a couple bucks each.

By the way, boys and girls, the length of the barrel on the Colt's Single Action Frontier Model was/is 4¾" , not 4 5/8".

L.W.

true but if they have documentation from one he ordered personally from the factory the dates will tell if its one he truly likely used.

I've seen the letter for the one he ordered directly. I can't recall the date on it, but tend to think it was after his lawman days, but my old brain isn't processing as well as it did in years past.

Supposedly he ordered several identical guns. The quote I've always read had him requesting the barrel to be about the same length as the ejector-not a specific measurement and asking for "Gutta Percha grips". A friend of mine owned one of these guns at one time. Based on that, I'd say that dollar figure is too conservative by about half.

Similarly, if you spend any time in Wyoming, you can find hundreds of rifles of all sorts that once belonged to Tom Horn...

whew glad you said small, since I've only $5 to donate to the cause.


bid em up!

Yep, I had Ruger on the brain, there......