sPE CIAL LC - EMF Company

Gun
Test
W
E M F ’s
Hugh O’Brian’s Wyatt Earp and
his long-barreled 12-INCH COLT SAA!
By Mike Beliveau
BUNT LINE
4. 5
SPE CIAL
O
In Tombsto
Wyatt Earp ne
w
briefly as a orked
Well
Fargo guard
as well
as serving
as a deputy
US Marsha
l. He was
reputed to
ca
Buntline Sp rry a
ecial like
the EMF re
product
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F ALL THE LAWMEN OF
editing to get out.” My friend replied, “Mike, I agree
the Old West, the one who garnered
with you—that movie is named Tombstone.”
the most fame in the 20th century was
on the Cowboy Action Shooting fraternity. It came
his own lifetime, but Wyatt’s star rose along with the
out just as the sport was experiencing a phase of
success of the film industry—due in part to Wyatt’s
phenomenal growth, and its accurate period garb
long life and his choice of the city in which he retired.
and gear affected the choices of quite a few cowboy
Los Angeles, movies were big business and getting
24 GUNS OF THE OLD WEST
SUMMER 2010
He’s probably right. Tombstone had a huge effect
Wyatt Earp. Bill Hickok was certainly more famous in
By the time Earp died in 1929 at the age of 81 in
yed
(Above) Hugh O’Brian pla
in what
Wyatt Earp for six years
adult
has been called the first
w
sho
His
rn.
ste
we
ion
vis
tele
tion
era
gen
a
paved the way for
ne
of Westerns on TV. Everyo
gh
in my generation owes Hu
t.
tha
for
de
titu
a debt of gra
Earp
(Left) Author doubts that
wn a
dra
ly
tab
for
com
e
could hav
a
m
fro
e
12” barreled Buntlin
e
sid
ng
stro
y
tur
typical 19th cen
ch
mu
is
it
ks
thin
But
r.
holste
ly used
more likely that Earp actual
mple
exa
this
like
rig
a crossdraw
orks.
rW
the
Lea
-T
Bar
cle
Cir
from
LC
shooters. It is one of my favorite movies.
But if you are a child of the 1950s and ‘60s, your
bigger all the time. He was friends with early western
mental image of Wyatt Earp was probably formed not
stars like Tom Mix and director John Ford, who’s 1946
by movies but by the weekly TV series starring Hugh
classic, My Darling Clementine was considered the
O’Brian, called The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.
best of the Earp movies until the 1990s (provided you
That show hit the airwaves in 1955, ran until 1961 and
aren’t looking for any degree of historical accuracy).
was the first of the adult westerns, paving the way for
Since 1932 there have been at least 10 movies filmed
shows like Gunsmoke and Bonanza. The series started
where Wyatt Earp was the central character and about
when I was only a year old, so I was too young to
20 others where Earp is at least tangential to the story.
remember much about it. But a couple of years ago I
The string of Earp movies culminated in the early
1990s with Kurt Russell playing Wyatt in Tombstone
and Kevin Costner playing the lawman in Wyatt
met Hugh O’Brian and he remarked that I ought to
write an article on Wyatt Earp’s Buntline Special.
That piqued my interest enough that I bought
Earp. Costner threw everything into his film but the
the DVD box set of The Life and Legend of Wyatt
kitchen sink. I liked it, but I remember remarking to
Earp and saw what I’d missed back in the 1950s. The
a friend, “You know there’s a great two-hour movie
program still holds up well today, unique in that it
inside Costner’s Wyatt Earp, he just needs some good
made a real attempt to chronologically present Earp’s
SUMMER 2010
GUNS OF THE OLD WEST
25
EMF’s BUNTLINE SPECIAL .45 LC
the frontier marshal on
life as a lawman. EpiSpecifications
the series. Therefore, 12
sodes were based around
inches is the barrel length
the events Stuart Lake
wrote about in his Earp
on the EMF Buntline
biography Wyatt Earp:
Special we tested.
Frontier Marshal, with
Lake even serving as a
Gun Details
Caliber: .45 Colt • Barrel: 12 inches
technical advisor on the
EMF’s Buntline Special
OA Length: 17.5 inches • Weight: 48 ounces (empty)
show. While a great deal
is part of its Great WestGrips: Walnut • Sights: Fixed • Action: SA
of Lake’s book has been
ern II product line. These
discredited by modern
pistols are built in Italy
Finish: Black oxide polished blue • Capacity: 6-shot • Price: $575
historical scholarship, he
by Pietta, and are by far
did know Earp personalthe best reproduction
ly, which must have provided the series with information. Unfortunately Lake’s story is of a second generation Colt to leave the
valuable insights into Earp’s character.
more full of holes than Swiss cheese. Modern shores of Europe. I have been a fan of Great
Watching the series I became a Hugh historians have discredited a great deal of Western II revolvers since they were first
O’Brian fan and, as it turned out, when Lake’s book, including the chronology and introduced, and I have a couple of examples
we showed up at last year’s Single Action the rationale surrounding Buntline’s presen- in my personal collection. The Buntline Special
Shooting Society (SASS) convention, we tation of the pistols. But even Allen Barra lives up to the Great Western II’s reputation
found ourselves next door neighbors to and Casey Tefertiller, two of the most recent for quality. The color casehardening on most
O’Brian’s booth. Hugh and his lovely wife
(Left) The Great Western II
Virginia were there signing autographs and
Buntline features spectacular
we got to know the O’Brian’s better during
custom color casehardening
the convention.
that puts it in a class apart
After watching the TV series and spendfrom most Italian imports.
ing time with the star, I was pumped to
(Below) The walnut grips
write about the gun most closely associon the Buntline are a nice
ated with Wyatt Earp — The Buntline
deep wood tone without the
Special. A short walk across the convention
reddish stain found on so
floor brought me to EMF’s booth, where I
many Italian SAA clones.
arranged a loan of one of their Buntlines.
This is a long-barreled Colt SAA clone
modeled after the custom-made revolvers
supposedly presented to a group of famous
Dodge City peace officers in 1876 by the
prolific novelist Edward Judson, who wrote
under the pen name Ned Buntline. Buntline Earp biographers, don’t entirely discount
was rewarding the men for providing him the long-barreled Colt’s existence. There is
with colorful fodder for his novels.
too much circumstantial evidence to dismiss
It’s a good story, but it rests entirely the existence of the Buntline Special out of
on Stuart Lake’s book as the source of the hand. What is interesting is that while Lake
describes the revolver as
having a 12-inch barrel
in his book, his working notes said it had
a 10-inch barrel. Many
experts today think the Italian sixguns consists of a few swaths of
10-inch barrel length is washed out color on a mostly gray receiver.
more likely to be the Not so with EMF’s Buntline, which shows
correct one.
Pietta has gone the extra mile. The results are
Regardless of the gorgeous deep blue swirls that seem to float on
truth, the legend has a Smokey amber background. The rest of the
Earp armed with a pistol’s steel is finished in a lustrous modern
12-inch barreled Colt, black oxide bluing over well-polished metal.
The EMF Buntline is offered in two grip
Despite the lack of hard evidence, modern Earp researchers Like and that’s what Hugh
O’Brian carried for the options, walnut or faux stag. The walnut
Casey Tefertiller and Alan Barra, think there is too much circumstantial evidence to dismiss the existence of the Buntline Special. 6 years he portrayed grips are excellent with a deep brown color
with an understated oil finish and the wood
to metal fit is almost perfect. When he
played Wyatt Earp, Hugh O’Brian’s Buntline
had walnut grips like these, so I was remaining true to the icon.
My choice of gun leather is where I parted
company with The Life and Legend of Wyatt
Earp. In the series O’Brian wore his Buntline
in a typical Hollywood buscadero rig with
an extended drop loop that positioned the
grips at mid-thigh on his leg. As a result, the
12-inch barrel extended well below his knee.
If they had positioned the rawhide tie-down
thongs at the bottom of the holster, O’Brian
wouldn’t have been able to bend his knee.
So on his rig the tie-downs were attached
to the center of the holster. The buntline
holster had to ride low so that O’Brian could
execute the required 1950’s fast draw despite
the 12-inch barrel of the Buntline.
Lucky for me, no one times my draw. So
I felt free to break with Hugh on this one.
Stuart Lake has Earp say in Frontier Marshal,
“[The Buntline] was my favorite over any
other gun. I could jerk it as fast as I could
my old one and I carried it at my right hip
throughout my career as marshal.’”
Somebody, either Earp or Lake, was lying.
If the real Wyatt Earp actually carried a
Buntline, I’d bet dollars to doughnuts that
he carried it in a crossdraw rig. Drop loop
holsters were almost non-existent in the
1870s. And if Earp was going to jerk that
long-barreled revolver from a typical 1870 to
1880s strong side holster, he was not going
to be quick about it. My shirts have 33-inch
sleeves, and from a typical strong side holster
belted just below my waist, I can only clear
leather with the Buntline through uncomfortable effort. There is nothing fast about it.
On the other hand, with a crossdraw rig all
barrel lengths draw more or less equally fast.
Your arm has to come all the way back across
your body anyway — it doesn’t matter if it drags
two inches of barrel or 12 inches of barrel. My
Buntline rig was made by Marty Overstreet at
Circle Bar-T Leatherworks. It is an open-toed
Slim Jim with a long, shallow S-curve mouth,
canting 15 degrees backward for a very comfortable draw. Believe me, when you strap
on that rig at the range, people take notice.
26 GUNS OF THE OLD WEST
SUMMER 2010
EMF Great Western II Buntline Special
SUMMER 2010
B/W AD
Shooting Impressions
The Buntline does more than draw stares
— it shoots like a house afire. It is surprisingly well balanced, so much so that I found
myself shooting one-handed most of the
GUNS OF THE OLD WEST
27
EMF’s BUNTLINE SPECIAL .45 LC
Author poses with Hugh O’Brian.
Hugh and his lovely wife Virginia were
neighbors at the 2008 SASS convention.
B/W AD
time. This revolver’s balance was complimented by its exceptionally smooth, light
action. The trigger pull is an outstanding
two and a half pounds. This all adds up
to a pistol that shoots as well as it looks.
With Black Hills .45 Colt ammunition the
Buntline shot 25-yard, off-hand groups that
ranged from one and a half inches to three
inches in diameter.
When I switched to my black powder
handloads, it opened up a bit to average out
at 3 inches. But at 956.66 fps (feet per second)
in velocity, the black powder loads were
moving about 200 fps faster than the factory
loads. When you are moving 255 grains of
lead down range at that speed you are generating a fair amount of recoil, but the Buntline
has enough steel out in front to make muzzle
flip controllable. Overall the Buntline was a
pleasure to shoot, and shooting it is a fitting
tribute to Hugh O’Brian.
✪
i
FOR MORE j
INFORMATION
CONTACT:
EMF
949-261-6611
emf-company.com
Circle Bar-T LeatherWorks
573-445-5459
circlebar-t.com
28 GUNS OF THE OLD WEST
SUMMER 2010