Edward Zane Carroll Judson was an author of dime novels in the last quarter of the 19th century whose pen name was Ned Buntline. He specialized more in fiction than fact and created long-standing myths about Western heroes. To this day, we do not know if it is legend or fact. However, he claimed to have presented five "Buntline Specials" to five lawmen in Dodge City in the late 1870s. Those men were Charlie Bassett, Neal Brown, Bat Masterson, Bill Tilghman and Wyatt Earp. Researchers have found long-barreled Colt Single Actions, which the factory did not refer to as Buntline Specials, in a serial number range from 1876 to 1884. To date, they have uncovered less than two dozen chambered in .45 Colt, two in .44-40, and one in .44 Colt. Usually, these long barreled sixguns were fitted with a wire stock and a long-range rear sight, which lifted out of its mortise on the top strap.
The first sixgun John Gallagher ever built for me was several years ago and it’s my Big Little Sixgun actually a big sixgun shooting a small cartridge, an eight-shot .32-20.
In 1836 Sam Colt came up with the first truly practical and workable revolver, the Colt Paterson. This revolver was a five-shot affair with a revolving cylinder in .28, .31, .34, or .40 caliber. As with all subsequent percussion revolvers, it was loaded from the front with powder and ball and then primed at the back of the cylinder with a percussion cap. However, unlike Colt revolvers that followed, the Paterson did not have a trigger guard a folding trigger came down as the hammer was cocked. It was also quite fragile. However it was still a tremendous improvement over single-shot pistols. Now a Texas Ranger carrying two pistols had ten shots instead of two.
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