Now that Cabela's has been completely taken over by Bass Pro, it's headed to be nothing more than Bass Pro 2 with a different name. I'm afraid that it won't be long before they quit selling black powder items all together. I hope I'm wrong about that.
On a brighter note getting back to Wild Bill Hickok.
I just received three antique S & W revolvers in last week that I won in an auction from about two weeks ago. One of them is example of the last revolver that Wild Bill was known to have carried. It was allegedly taken off his corpse after being shot in the back of the head by Jack McCall while he was playing poker in the Nuttal & Mann's saloon in Deadwood in 1876. It was reportedly the only gun he was carrying at the time.
It's a single action tip up Smith & Wesson No 2 Old model (sometimes called the Old Army) chambered in .32 rimfire. This was the 2nd cartridge firing pistol that S & W ever made with the No. 1 in .22 rimfire being their first. Smith and Wesson started with breech loading cartridge firearms right out of the box in 1857 and never even manufactured a percussion model. Colt was still over a decade away from marketing their their first conversion breech loader. This was because Smith and Wesson had secured the rights to the Rollin White patent for the bored through cylinder, which legally kept Colt and everyone else stuck with making percussion revolvers until the White patent ran out.
S & W introduced the larger and more powerful Model 2 in 1861 and produced them throughout the ACW continuing on until 1874 with a total of some 77k produced in total. Those with a serial number below 35k were produced before the war ended and could have been used during the conflict. Although it was never purchased by the war department, thousands were bought and carried by Union soldiers as personal backup firearms.
Here's a shot of a Union cavalryman showing off his Model 2 along with his Remington 1858 tucked in his belt.
The serial number on mine is 321XX which puts it inside the war production period. The one that Wild Bill was carrying when he was killed is serial number 299xx--so only about 2000 serial numbers earlier. Somehow it seems kind of neat to me to possess a pistol that rolled off the production line only about 2000 models later than one actually owned by Wild Bill. Hickok both worked and fought for the Union during the war in several jobs and it's not impossible that like many other Union soldiers, he bought one of the popular S & W no 2 Old model .32's during the war and kept it as a backup for the rest of his life.
After he was murdered, Hickok's personal effects were gathered by the sheriff and held, but at some point a local shop owner approached the sheriff asking about a debt that Hickok had ran up at his store. The shopkeeper was given the pistol in payment. It was subsequently handed down through the family of the store owner, but then was left by the last family owner to a close friend. There is quite bit of provenance and documentation of all of this, so most historians seem to give credence to the story.
Anyway, I remember when it came up for auction in 2013. The bidding reached $225,000 and stopped. Unfortunately the family had put a reserve on the price that was much higher, so it did not sell. It may have been sold privately afterward but I've heard nothing about it since then
Here's the story of how the family got the revolver and how it ended up for sale:
https://www.fieldandstream.com/artic...-murdered-1876
and here's the news link about it failing to sell at auction
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...9AH0G320131119
Another famous person of the period was connected with the model 2 besides Hickok. George Armstrong Custer who was massacred only a few months before Hickok was shot was also known to have owned a fancy cased and engraved pair of the No 2 pistols.
I also won an example of the model 1 second issue that was an even more popular ACW private purchase. S & W made over 100k of these and sold thousands to Union troops during the war They started production in 1857 having patented their new 22 short the same year and having also acquired the exclusive rights to the Rollin White patent for the bored through cylinder. That patent is what kept Colt firearms and others from being able to go to a cartridge firing revolver until many years after the war ended. The frame on this is brass, but silver plated as most were.
-and here's another tintype of two soldiers with the one on the right holding his model 1 while the one on the left has a more practical
1860 Army
Lastly, I snagged a S & W model 1 1/2, which was introduced just after the war. It combined the small size of the model 1 with the larger .32 caliber of the model 2.
Here's a shot of all three. I set out only to acquire the model 2, but the model 1 1/2 was in the same lot. Then when the model 1 was going to go for cheap, I snapped it up too. Basically I ended up with an example of all 3 of S & W's tip up models. S & W updated the model 1 and 1 1/2 later with fluted cylinders to look more modern, but soon switched from 32 rimfire to 32 centerfire and got rid of the tip up models in favor of a top break style. The box of ammo is a still sealed full container of .32 short rimfire black powder rounds manufactured by UMC/Remington around 1910. I'd be tempted to try to shoot some but I doubt the priming material is still good and if I break open the seal it decreases the collector's value
I forgot to mention that the method to load these is: release the latch at the lower front corner of the frame. The barrel then hinges up and the cylinder just drops out being only held in by two fixed pins at each end of the frame. The long pin under the barrel is the extraction system. One just turns the cylinder around and uses the pin to punch the empties out. Next, one loads the cylinder with fresh cartridges, replaces it, and closes the barrel down until the latch catches. There is no half cock, so I suppose one would leave one chamber empty and just orient it under the hammer when replacing the cylinder for safety.
Anyway, so while Hickok was famous for his pistol skills with his Colts, he left this life while carrying a little Smith and Wesson rimfire which he never had a chance to use.
Cheers