Did Wyatt Earp really own a Buntline Special?
Categories: Ask the Marshall
By: Marshall Trimble 08/01/2008
Q
Did Wyatt Earp really own a
Buntline Special?
Alexander Durvin
Fort Washington, Maryland
A
The term “Buntline Special” probably came into being in the 20th century. The story goes that dime novelist Ned Buntline commissioned Colt in 1876 to make him a Peacemaker with a 10-inch barrel that Wyatt Earp was said to carry in Stuart Lake’s biography of the gunfighter.
Yes, during the 1800s, Colt did sell 10-inch and 16-inch barrels by special order. But most historians challenge this claim.
Earp authority Casey Tefertiller says, “Because of the research done by biographer Stuart Lake, it appears most likely that Earp owned a long-barreled pistol at the time he was in Alaska. Beyond that, it becomes much guesswork. Did he have it in Tombstone? One of the witnesses during the Spicer Hearing into the O.K. Corral gunfight described Earp’s pistol as long enough to fit the ‘Buntline Special.’ What gun did he use in the fight? No one can say with any certainty.
“Did Earp receive the gun from dime novelist Ned Buntline? We have no supporting evidence. Was it called the ‘Buntline Special?’ This sure sounds like a Lake device, and there is no indication the term was used before publication of Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal.
“So we know what we know, and there is much more that we do not know.”
A couple of other points—Colt has no records of Buntline ever ordering long-barreled pistols. And Buntline, a notorious self-promoter and braggart, never mentioned the guns to anybody.
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