OP
digi-shots
Member
Interesting, isn't it..
Old photo card, help identify revolver & rifle, new close up pics added **
- Thread starter digi-shots
- Start date
>
I kind of thought so too until I saw the closeup and saw the grips. No grip screw is a one piece grip. Bisley Models weren't supplied with the one piece grip.
But then again, if it's a prop in a studio, most anything could have been thrown together/held together for a photo
>
One other possibility.. The revolver may be an 1860 Colt Army C&B revolver. The grip does have something about it's shape that does not quite look correct for a SAA. The 1860 has a longer grip frame than the SAA and was issued with one piece walnut grips.
handejector
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In those days, having a photo made was a big deal to most folks. Photographers did keep clothing and props for patrons to use. A guy didn't want to send a pic home of himself in dirty work clothes.
Similarly, if the photographer instigated the pic, he usually wanted it to be as special as possible.
So, what many of you are calling "staged" was merely the norm for the day. Today, we do the same- try to look good in the pic. Have any of you ever waited for the ladies to fix their hair before the pics at family gatherings?
I am serious about checking out Tom Horn- if Addison photographed Geronimo, he'd have damn sure wanted to photograph the man who brought him in if he ever had the chance. I printed your pic, and the pic of Horn in jail and got lucky with them being exactly the same size. Laid on top of each other with a strong light behind, ALL facial features match about exactly- ear shape, eye spacing, nose shape, and head size. Check it out- you would LIKE to find an unknown pic of Tom Horn, since not many exist.
Similarly, if the photographer instigated the pic, he usually wanted it to be as special as possible.
So, what many of you are calling "staged" was merely the norm for the day. Today, we do the same- try to look good in the pic. Have any of you ever waited for the ladies to fix their hair before the pics at family gatherings?
I am serious about checking out Tom Horn- if Addison photographed Geronimo, he'd have damn sure wanted to photograph the man who brought him in if he ever had the chance. I printed your pic, and the pic of Horn in jail and got lucky with them being exactly the same size. Laid on top of each other with a strong light behind, ALL facial features match about exactly- ear shape, eye spacing, nose shape, and head size. Check it out- you would LIKE to find an unknown pic of Tom Horn, since not many exist.
OP
digi-shots
Member
Ok, after searching and googling some names, including Fort Sill & "Marlin", I found these 2 photos online... the fellow in the photo below is an Army Scout with the 8th U.S. Cavalry.
One has his name written on it and the other doesn't.
If you look closely, you'll recognize the background scene and also the fake log! This time the log is on it's side.
Same fringed outfit and vest!
Photograph
Gibhart, Scout with the 8th U.S. Cavalry, Fort Sill, OK, 1901
Unknown, 1901
Photographic Study Collection, 2003.041.3
Except for the gauntlets, Gibhart is wearing all non-regulation clothing and arms. Dressed in a frontiersman outfit of tailored and fringed buckskin, this military scout sports a Colt single action Army revolver in a civilian holster with a money/cartridge belt. He holds a Marlin rifle. Troop F of the 8th Cavalry served at Fort Meade, South Dakota, before being transferred to Fort Sill, Oklahoma on April 24, 1898.
Born in 1845, Theodore Baughman in his circa 1886 autobiographical book entitled The Oklahoma Scout, offers an insight into the mind of a government scout. "My business in hunting and driving cattle, locating ranches, etc., threw me constantly in contact with the United States troops stationed at the various posts. My accurate and extensive knowledge of the country, as well as a natural aptitude for finding my way anywhere, soon became known to the officers commanding, so that my services were in demand to pilot detachments of troops in their expeditions. I may remark here that from early boyhood the bump of locality, as the phrenologists would say, was strongly developed on my cranium. I never experienced the feeling of being lost. I have read somewhere that a poet is born, not made, and I think the same is true of a successful scout. Going through a country for the first time I make mental note of all its leading features, and they remain so indelibly impressed upon my memory that on a second visit it seems familiar ground. This is not the case with the majority. I know plenty of men who have been through a country time and again who would confess themselves incompetent to act as a guide to anyone else through the same region. And, after all, in every enterprise of life, is it not true that only the few can find their way unaided, while the many must be content to follow as they are guided?"
One has his name written on it and the other doesn't.
If you look closely, you'll recognize the background scene and also the fake log! This time the log is on it's side.
Same fringed outfit and vest!
Photograph
Gibhart, Scout with the 8th U.S. Cavalry, Fort Sill, OK, 1901
Unknown, 1901
Photographic Study Collection, 2003.041.3
Except for the gauntlets, Gibhart is wearing all non-regulation clothing and arms. Dressed in a frontiersman outfit of tailored and fringed buckskin, this military scout sports a Colt single action Army revolver in a civilian holster with a money/cartridge belt. He holds a Marlin rifle. Troop F of the 8th Cavalry served at Fort Meade, South Dakota, before being transferred to Fort Sill, Oklahoma on April 24, 1898.
Born in 1845, Theodore Baughman in his circa 1886 autobiographical book entitled The Oklahoma Scout, offers an insight into the mind of a government scout. "My business in hunting and driving cattle, locating ranches, etc., threw me constantly in contact with the United States troops stationed at the various posts. My accurate and extensive knowledge of the country, as well as a natural aptitude for finding my way anywhere, soon became known to the officers commanding, so that my services were in demand to pilot detachments of troops in their expeditions. I may remark here that from early boyhood the bump of locality, as the phrenologists would say, was strongly developed on my cranium. I never experienced the feeling of being lost. I have read somewhere that a poet is born, not made, and I think the same is true of a successful scout. Going through a country for the first time I make mental note of all its leading features, and they remain so indelibly impressed upon my memory that on a second visit it seems familiar ground. This is not the case with the majority. I know plenty of men who have been through a country time and again who would confess themselves incompetent to act as a guide to anyone else through the same region. And, after all, in every enterprise of life, is it not true that only the few can find their way unaided, while the many must be content to follow as they are guided?"
handejector
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I think you have merely found another Addison pic. Keep looking- those are the same buckskins, vest, and guns, and gunbelt seen in your pic. They probably belonged to Addison. Good chance your pic is also a scout, even if it not Horn.
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Originally posted by 2152hq:
>
I kind of thought so too until I saw the closeup and saw the grips. No grip screw is a one piece grip. Bisley Models weren't supplied with the one piece grip.
But then again, if it's a prop in a studio, most anything could have been thrown together/held together for a photo
>
One other possibility.. The revolver may be an 1860 Colt Army C&B revolver. The grip does have something about it's shape that does not quite look correct for a SAA. The 1860 has a longer grip frame than the SAA and was issued with one piece walnut grips.
You know, I think you are right! Great observation. I dug this other picture from my personal collection that shows a Doughboy posing for a staged studio photo with a cap n' ball revolver, and you can see the similarity on the grip.
GB
OP
digi-shots
Member
Here's a link to some great pics & info on the Texas Rangers.
http://www.curtrich.com/gs.txrangcost1.html
http://www.curtrich.com/gs.txrangcost2.html
http://www.curtrich.com/gs.txrangcost1.html
http://www.curtrich.com/gs.txrangcost2.html
MKT
Member
Having grown up in Texas I have at least half of the books referenced at the end of the pictures. The Rangers have always interested me. Thanks for that link.
feralmerril
Absent Comrade
That revolver looks like a standard colt saa with one piece grips. Does the guy look like "bucky o,neal" without a mustach to any of you?
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=t&ie..._US230&q=bucky+oneil
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=t&ie..._US230&q=bucky+oneil
opoefc
US Veteran
Linda, My time at the Ft. Sill Army Museum was early 1952, where I had to organize & catalog 100s of WW2 salvaged artillery ordnance & prime movers, mostly enemy equipment, which are stll lined up outside the museum, however last time I was there ( 2003) the signs describing each piece had weathered so much they were hard, if not impossible,to read. -- The fun part, was getting to "test" fire some of those cannon. The German 88 field guns were the best piece of artillery ordnance ever devised at that time. - I digress- Looks like every one has figured out the photo - It's a Dude in prop clothes with a Colt SAA ! Ed.
handejector
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Hey Ed,
Did they still train recruits with Napoleans when you went in?
Seriously, I agree with you- the 88 was an amazing piece.
opoefc
US Veteran
Lee, Were you in the German army in WW2? Ha! I actually tried to convince my superiors that the Army should round up a bunch of German 88s and ship them over to Korea and shoot the new shaped charges we were developing, as the Gooks had Russian T-34 medium tanks with 11 inches of armor on the front. Our 105mm ammo often bounced off, but an 88 would have holed those T-34s. The weakest spot we could find was the rear. If you could get close enought to the rear of a T-34 and it's fuel tank, a bazooka would turn them into sky rockets. Gook infantry usually followed those tanks, so sometimes all you could do was call for napalm and bug out.
handejector
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Ed,
I wasn't even the proverbial "gleam in my Daddy's eye" then. You know I'm still a spring chicken........
Very good idea you had there. And, I suppose, like most good ideas, it was totally ignored by the Army!
My High School girlfriend's Dad was a Sherman driver in Europe in WW II. The way he told it, the 88's super penetration SAVED his life twice- his tank took a direct frontal, centered hit. He said the rounds had such high velocity, they would continue on through, taking the engine out the back before fully detonating. Happened a second time to him, but hit more toward the other side- the guy in that seat went out with the engine. Might 'splain that look he had at times.... I tried not to cross him.
(have we successfully hijacked this thread yet?
Well I don't think it's a Colt because of the screw in the butt right where the mainspring ends. I've looked through Mike Venturino's book on sixguns of the old west, and none of them have a screw in that location.
handejector
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Kirk,
ALL the Colts we have mentioned here have a screw there- it is where the backstrap and the frontstrap/trigger guard screw together. In the pic, it is either loose or a replacement.
