Recreating Patton's Registered Magnum

The pimp/pearl grip quote is often cited but in fact Patton carried a Colt 380 auto with pearl grips.

Do you have any substantiation for this statement? I have numerous pictures of Patton wearing his .380 Colt Pocket Hammerless and ALL of them have wooden grips with inlaid stars.
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Seems I once saw a posted photo of Patton with the pearl gripped Colt tucked in his waistband but I don't have the photo. He had several small auto pistols and some had wood and one had pearls.
 
Seems I once saw a posted photo of Patton with the pearl gripped Colt tucked in his waistband but I don't have the photo. He had several small auto pistols and some had wood and one had pearls.

If you ever come across any documentation for this pearl gripped pistol I'd love to know about it. I've been collecting Patton books, pictures and information for years and have never seen such a thing.
 
Love the pics !
Just wanted to ad that while attending the SWCA in Orlando this year ,
Saw two vendors selling reproduction S&W N frame grip adapters identicle to the ones on Pattons Registered Magnum with holster in the very first picture in the thread.
 
Don Collins still makes elephant ivory grips. Google collinscraft. Contact Don and he'll get back with you. I've got a few sets of his ivory grips, and have been very satisfied with his work. He'll explain the legal issues with ivory. He includes a photocopy of the original importation documents. He buys old elephant tusks from back when it was still legal. The few makers left all use the same approach. They purchase tusks from old guys widows. They won't touch them unless the widow still has the documentation. Back in the 50s and 60s, many wealthy sportsman went to africa and shot an elephant. It wasn't un-PC then. A pair of tusks is worth big bucks if properly documented.

Nutmeg Sports won't touch S&W grips. Jim Alaimo the owner is a Colt man only. He's a very nice guy, but he only likes Colts. He used to come to all our gun shows, and is fascinating to talk to. Don Collins insists he taught Jim how to work in Ivory....just to keep the record straight.

I haven't ordered any ivory grips from Don in a long time now. I'm guessing his prices are between $400 and $500 for a pair. He does special orders, and you can get a much better grade of ivory if you're willing to pay for it. I once ordered a set of N frame Magna's out of bark ivory. Bark is the brown outer part of the tusk, and is more costly.

We'd worked out a deal and he brought them to a gun show. His wife kind of attacked him for wasting a good piece of bark on a S&W because she said no one would buy them, and he should have used them on a set for a Colt SAA. He took his abuse but finished up the grips without telling her who they were for, just let her think he was testing the S&W waters. He got to the show and put them in his display case that held the other high value grips. I was busy setting up our tables and it took a little while to get away and go visit with him.

I walked up, took one look and handed over the agreed price. He's a master craftsman and I had no doubt the grips were correct. He had other customers and I walked away. After a little while, his wife noticed the S&W grips were gone, so she asked him what happened to them. He then did the usual husband like thing and told her the first person that looked at them paid full price. All true, but he left out the little part about the pre-arranged sale. At least she didn't complain about it again! :D

You can find N frame elephant ivory grips at almost any large gun show. If you want or need aged ivory, just be prepared to pay for them. I've labored over sanding off some of the carving on one set I've got. They're Asian style ivory, probably Vietnam War era work. I'm not wild about dragons. They currently live on a 3 1/2" RM. Its problem is its one half of a consecutive set of RM #s. I guess the gun stays with its 6 1/2" brother, I really don't care about the ivories, except I realize the value.
 
Hondo 44, no it`s a uberti made for the american historical fondation. It is silver plated. The last ad I seen for their last one`s years ago was almost $3,000s! Think they started out at like $1,600s when they first were advertised back in the early 80`s or so.
 
Love the pics !
Just wanted to ad that while attending the SWCA in Orlando this year ,
Saw two vendors selling reproduction S&W N frame grip adapters identicle to the ones on Pattons Registered Magnum with holster in the very first picture in the thread.

Uberti makes a good SAA and their top of the line model like this one is excellent. Their engraving is a bargain. I had one of the Buffalo Bill Cody engraved models.
 
If you want or need aged ivory, just be prepared to pay for them. I've labored over sanding off some of the carving on one set I've got. They're Asian style ivory, probably Vietnam War era work. I'm not wild about dragons. They currently live on a 3 1/2" RM.


Dadgumit Dick...

I've been 50 years puttin these together...If'n I get up the nerve with a couple of swallers of 'Who Shot John' I'll lop 'er off to 3 1/2" one of these days.

I can jest see 'er now in my minds eye...Snubed up and them ivories re-carved with a Texas Longhorn Steer head on 'em. ;)

First year RM,
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Su Amigo,
Dave
 
I've shown 'em before, but here they are again...just to prove that IVORY looks good on anything. The older the tooth, the better!

Bob

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If I remember correctly, the Colt 380 was the Official issue sidearm for Army Generals.

Some time later they were issued a cut down [barrel and slide] steel framed 1911 in 45 ACP.
 
Reg Mag

Aaron,
If your serious about doing this, I have a guy coming to my table at the Big E gunshow Oct 28th. He has a Registered Magnum he wants to have me sell for him. It is a 5" barrel that someone cut right even with the front sight. PM me if your interested
 
Since I just picked up a blued 3 1/2" Model 27-2 I teamed it up with my engraved Colt .45 so I can pretend I'm General Patton. I sure can't afford the ivories so these stags have to do. Here's Patton's outfit and my two guns below. I think an actual Patton rig with perfectly duplicated guns would be a great venture for the well heeled Patton admirer.

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El Paso saddlery carries the patton rig.. Exact copy from original, since they made the original under S.D. Myres.
 
If you ever come across any documentation for this pearl gripped pistol I'd love to know about it. I've been collecting Patton books, pictures and information for years and have never seen such a thing.

First, General Patton's RM was a blued gun, as all the pictures show.

As to the pearl-handled small pistol that Saxonpig refers to, I vaguely remember reading about someone, perhaps General Joyce, delivering a pistol to General Patton when he was commanding Third Army. I believe it was Joyce, and I think he had replaced the factory stocks with pearl before he presented it. He was aware GSP favored fancy stocks, but could not locate ivory before he wanted to deliver the pistol.

I think GSP subsequently had the pearl stocks changed to the wooden ones with the stars, and that they were made for him by a handyman assigned to his headquarters. I cannot point you to any documentation. There are so many works dealing with GSP, often conflicting in details, that it is hard to be positive about the "pistol stories" - all you can be sure of is what you see in pictures. I recall reading one author who claimed GSP never carried anything but an ordinary M1911 any time he was in the field and not around reporters. Nearly every photo I have ever seen refutes that, and it leads one to wonder why the author would bother to make such a claim. I have only seen a few pictures of GSP with a 1911, in those cases being carried in a shoulder holster. I believe those were taken before he left the U.S. for the invasion of Morocco, possibly during the war games in the south where his troops surrounded and "captured" General Drum.
 
"possibly during the war games in the south where his troops surrounded and "captured" General Drum."

Seems I remember reading Patton carried a Colt Woodsman in the desert southwest while training.
 
Yes, there are pictures of GSP here in the states with the Colt .22 auto (usually the Colt was in a belt holster), but the war games I was referring to took place in Georgia.
 

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