Watched Tombstone today. Thought I spotted a S&W. Says Virgil Earp carried a New Model 3 with nickel finish and pearl grips.




Wyatt Earp was documented in the Judge Spicer hearings as using his Model 3 Russian during the O.K. Corral shootout.

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David Reynolds

Well you know there were a few of these…..

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Terry Lester

The No. 3 is a behemoth. It was also the model revolver Bob Ford used to kill Jesse James in the back. Here is mine, compared with my 29-2.

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Bob Ford killed Jesse James

Slightly off topic if I may --
I read that Bob Ford toured with a play depicting Jesse James assassination which Ford acted out on stage. Apparently, the show was fairly well received back East. When they tried to put it on in the West, Ford was loudly booed off the stage.

The reason given in the article was that in the East shooting someone from behind wasn't frowned on as it was in the West.

I wondered if that was true or if it was more the case that people out West actually admired Jesse James as something of a folk hero. His killer would be hated even if the shooting had occurred under the most favorable (to the shooter) conditions, let alone if the shooter showed himself to be a cowardly back shooter.

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You're shy a few manners.

According to Peter Sherayko’s (Texas Jack) book “Tombstone” the gun used by the Virgil Earp character (Sam Elliott) was an original nickel plated S&W Model 3 in 44 Russian. His gun belt was made by Rob Gang of Sylmar, CA. He made most of the leather used in the movie. Actually, quite a number of the guns used in the movie were originals. I spent a couple hours visiting with Peter one afternoon. Mostly we talked about the movie. He was a very interesting guy to talk to, very pleasant fella.

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Everybody could shoot

Here are two of mine. Both Club Guns, sn 02 & 03.

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Don Mundell

Saw this At the cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. There were several other famous outlaw and lawman guns their also.

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I had an old Gun Digest with an article on movie guns. Back then nearly all the guns used in movies were originals because the Civil War centennial had not stimulated a reproduction industry. Lots of them altered, though. And there was the one-off Walker at the horrible cost of $300.

I do not think that the various guns used at the shootout were documented at the time of the event, but rather recalled much later when authors interviewed the Earps. Authors like Stuart Lake was well known for inaccuracies in his book on the Earps. I once thought I had a pair of Wyatt's guns until I found out that Franklin Mint made crates of them!!!

. . . oh, if you think the Model 3 was a behemoth, check out the comparison with a Colt Walker!!!

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Gary
SWCA 2515

I think it was American Handgunner who did a big article about the guns used in the movie and armorer Thell Reed. Sam Elliott used that pearl/nickelNew Model 3, but Kurt Russell also wore an identical NM3 in the scene where he meets and rides horses with his future wife and when he finds Virgil and Morgan put on badges. here’s a database on the guns used in the film…

Tombstone - Internet Movie Firearms Database - Guns in Movies, TV and Video Games

I recall the older movie with the itinerant musician singing:
"'Twas a dirty little coward that shot Mr. Howard and laid poor Jesse in his grave."

There is a NM #3, nickel, pearls and a few hundred numbers from Virgil's revolver presently for sale in Tombstone. The owner would like the Tombstone Courthouse to purchase it for their display as the displayed revolver is incorrect. I doubt the tourists would know the difference and I bet the Courthouse curators could give a flip. I'll get a phone number if anyone is interested in this "tribute" piece.

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Mike Maher #283

Hi There,



I think that was the end of the movie "Long Riders."

Those lyrics go back to at least 1924 when it was first recorded
by Bascom Lamar Lunsford and many other folk singers over the
years. It has been reported the origins of this song go back to
the late 19th Century.



Cheers!
Webb

Actually Bob Ford killed Jesse James with a Colt SAA. The arresting officer confiscated a Colt SAA, and Bob testified under oath that that revolver was used to kill Jesse James.

When the play came out Bob bought a S&W revolver.

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S&WHF #946
S&WCA #3824

You of course know why Bob Ford shot Jesse James in the back... couldn't be done any other way.

I think there is no way to fully document the provenance of any gun that most outlaws owned, including Bob Ford. A New Model 3 sold for a half-million dollars in 2003 that claimed to have solid provenance that it was the gun that killed Jesse James. Ford actually had the gun engraved as such.

Published documents of Ford's testimony about the shooting apparently cannot be found, since all documentation that point to a Colt as being part of Ford's testimony have not been found. Ford was a notorious liar as was his brother Charley who supposedly stated in testimony that Ford shot Jessie with a Smith & Wesson. The debate may never end.

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Gary
SWCA 2515

Recall seeing a flick called The True Story of Jesse James with Robert Wagner eons ago. Might have included that jingle Jim Watson mentioned

I grew up hearing your buying the gun, not the story.

Yes if their is serious provenance that pardon the pun, overrules the rule.-

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14 S&W Revs none with locks!

I saw one of those in the showcase at FLD and thought I had struck gold. Then I realized it was non firing bricabrac.

Still from the film The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
Jessejames.jpeg
It's in the movie, so it has to be true, right?
Right?

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Ain't This Fun Though?

This a great movie and I think historically correct, except the Jesse James committing suicide by assassination part. I assume Ford used a NM3 S&W but who knows. The ridiculous Tyrone Power movie was typical 1930s whitewashing. The Robert Wagner one that Mauser9 mentioned was much better portraying him cruel and murderous at times. And “The Long Riders”? I like it as much as the Brad Pitt film. With an excellent Belle Starr portrayal, though better looking than the real one.

Wait, Brad Pitt played Belle Starr? He probably was better looking than Belle.

Kevin

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Unshared knowledge is wasted.

Good flick, the 2007 Brad Pitt movie "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"

Here is more on it:

"Jesse" (Brad Pitt) gives Bob Ford (Casey Affleck) a nickel-finish , Smith & Wesson New Model No.3 which Bob later uses to shoot him in the back.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - Internet Movie Firearms Database - Guns in Movies, TV and Video Games

BTW, supposedly, Jesse James' last revolver was a S&W Schofield...

Wheelgun Wednesday: S&W Schofield Revolver Attributed To Jesse James -The Firearm Blog

That’s a creepy thought, but when you look at the real Belle Starr, you got a point. The babe playing Belle Starr in The Long Riders was excellent, realistic, and they purposely didn’t make her all glamorous.
EDIT: Oops.Kind of off topic as this was about Tombstone.

Just to show how close we are to the frontier days, Elmer Keith remembered his Dad competing in harness racing with Frank James.

"The Ballad of Jesse James" is in several movies and the Long Riders was not even close to the first.

Here's some history:

Jesse James (folk song - Wikipedia)

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0;, etc.

I never heard that Easterners were less inclined to dislike back shooting than Westerners but I'm not into "Old East" history as much as I am into "Old West" history.

Robert "Bob" Ford was killed by a shotgun blast fired by Edward Capehart O'Kelley. Nobody really knows why O'Kelley did it but the surmise is that he had some kind of connection to Jesse James or had some kind of connection to the James family.

=======================

Having said all of that, the more important question is how many of the guns in "Tombstone" were real and how many non-firing replicas. The American Rifleman recently ran a long piece about "The Outlaw Josey Wales" and discussed the guns in great detail because they were Walker Colts. Apparently, "Josey" used rubber replicas for spinning or the "road-agent's spin".

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Come and take it!!

I honestly don’t see the need to have viable firearms on any movie set. That is PURE STUPIDITY. I wonder if that poor lady would still be alive if they followed that practice on the recent movie set killing involving Alec Baldwin?

Movies are “NOT REAL”, THEY ARE FICTION!

CLINT EASTWOOD USING RUBBER GUNS TO PRACTICE THE ROAD AGENT TRICK IS SAFETY SMART IN MY BOOK!

MURPH

Here is recently "invented" revolver based on
the Tombstone movie.
Modern day copy of Holliday's Colt Thunder or lighting.

Actually it is pretty easy as the local newspaper printed the Colt SAA's serial number as court evidence. Why you cannot find it is a mystery, and why anyone would pay big for a fictitious S&W is also beyond me.

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S&WHF #946
S&WCA #3824

Bob Ford was most definitely a liar and an enormous bragger. It’s painful to actually do the research on him because literally everything that came out of his mouth was a YARN.

The signed affidavit was actually 1 month “after the killing” of Jesse James. He also claimed the Smith & Wesson NM3 that is inscribed on the side plate was the murder weapon.

The truth is only Bob Ford and Charley Ford know what happened in that room. From all of what I’ve read about the Ford brothers their story is a total lie. Pre-fabricated before they even entered that room. In my researched opinion they murdered him as a team with a pre-planned scam. When you think about it the story they claim as what happened is actually comical. Made up by kindergarteners.

After the governor pardoned Bob and Charlie Ford.(They were actually sentenced to be hanged)
Bob Ford and Dick Liddil left for Las Vegas New Mexico to open a bar. It was a failure and the locals got so sick of hearing Bob Fords yarns and claims of prowess with a gun that they set him up in a shooting contest with a local shootist that rode with Billy the kid!

Bob Ford did very poorly in the contest and whined like a baby that it was not done fairly. So the shootist said:”Let’s do it for real”…
Bob Ford backed down and left town totally humiliated.

True story.

Murph

The myth of shoot outs and meeting out in the center of the street at midday has pretty well been debunked as the way in which people died back in the "bad old days". Most were dry gulched outside of town or as travelers going through bad parts of the country. Bad folks would kill people just to get their pocket change, honest work being what it was. The one benefit of hangman type jurys was that even though the creep may not have been guilty of the crime convicted he was probably guilty of dozens more that he never answered for. To quote one of my favorites "If you hang with outlaws, you will in the end as well."
The genetic pool had many bad genes cleaned out during that period of time.