Did Wyatt Earp really own a Buntline Special?
By: Marshall Trimble 08/01/2008
Q
Did Wyatt Earp really own a
Buntline Special?
Alexander Durvin
Fort Washington, Maryland
A
The term “Buntline Special” probably came into being in the 20th century. The story goes that dime novelist Ned Buntline commissioned Colt in 1876 to make him a Peacemaker with a 10-inch barrel that Wyatt Earp was said to carry in Stuart Lake’s biography of the gunfighter.
Yes, during the 1800s, Colt did sell 10-inch and 16-inch barrels by special order. But most historians challenge this claim.
Earp authority Casey Tefertiller says, “Because of the research done by biographer Stuart Lake, it appears most likely that Earp owned a long-barreled pistol at the time he was in Alaska. Beyond that, it becomes much guesswork. Did he have it in Tombstone? One of the witnesses during the Spicer Hearing into the O.K. Corral gunfight described Earp’s pistol as long enough to fit the ‘Buntline Special.’ What gun did he use in the fight? No one can say with any certainty.
“Did Earp receive the gun from dime novelist Ned Buntline? We have no supporting evidence. Was it called the ‘Buntline Special?’ This sure sounds like a Lake device, and there is no indication the term was used before publication of Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal.
“So we know what we know, and there is much more that we do not know.”
A couple of other points—Colt has no records of Buntline ever ordering long-barreled pistols. And Buntline, a notorious self-promoter and braggart, never mentioned the guns to anybody.
Comments (6)
Buntline: what a bloated toad paragon of truth in 'journalism'. Despite being a temperance spouting sot, he did have a certain sense of self-preservation. If this proponent of nativism had gotten anywhere a real 'native' during the Seminole Wars, no one would ever have seen his sorry ass again and the world would have been spared more BS of which there is already a super-sufficiency.
Every Viet-Nam vet I meet was a green-beret or a Navy seal, or some other Rambo like under decorated hero that belongs in the history books with Audy Murphy. So why can't the old west have liars. Seems like all the westerns we watched as kids had a hero with a special gun. Josh Randall bounty hunter, the rifleman, on and on. Let the colt records speak from the past, and lay this to rest.
Being a lawman myself here in Kentucky, and a participant in a shooting a few years back, I say with all honesty, if one was packing a 10-16"long revolver, why stop there and instead pack a much harder-hitting weapon, a rifle or just a shotgun? When one goes to a gunfight, one brings what will work and terminate its' end as soon as possible.
JRM
I always understand he used a Smith and Wesson in the fight. A recent statuette of the gentleman at the scrap (looking quite authentic as to dress) shows him wielding a S&W. Ironically the ad (in an err.."rival"
magazine) sabotages this realism by stating in the promo that he is quote "with Colt Peacemaker drawn ".
Sigh,it was ever thus in the ongoing battle between truth and legend. My sympathy to the sculptor.
Dr. Robert 'Bob' Pepper did find a connection between Ned Buntline ( Edward Zane Carroll Judson) and Dodge City in Judson's widow's Civil War pension application file at the NARA (No. 906598; Can No. 3154; Bundle No. 48.) This is the first evidence of any connection at all. See: http://www.kansashistory.us/buntlines...
It's been said that Earp carried his gun into the OK Corall skirmish in his coat pocket, would a "Buntline special" even fit in a coat pocket?
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