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Brand New Colt SAA


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1 hour ago, Doc Coles SASS 1188 said:

Interesting .  In California, where I grew up in a family with a long history working with cattle, a barbecue gun is the fancy gun you wear to public events like rodeos, parades, or barbecues.  Think Edward Bohlin.  
 

I don’t know of many folks who would wear a hideout gun to church.  Most of the folks who would go to church wouldn’t need a hideout gun and most of the folks who needed a hideout gun wouldn’t go to church.  I have heard folks talk about a “Sunday go to meeting gun” but this too would be a fancy gun and the point for it was to show off, not conceal it.  
 

I guess it’s a regional variation.

In Texas it is not unusual to go to church carrying.:D :FlagAm:

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Never heard a 4 3/4" Colt or a 5" 1911 described as a "hide out".     And never heard of a 7.5" Colt considered a BBQ gun in Texas or California no matter who did the work.   Aint  such a thing as a California BBQ gun.  The BBQ was invented in Texas by the Texas LE community.  California invented movie stars and stag grips.

 

A proper Bohlin BBQ gun.   With all the classic boxes checked for a BBQ gun, Colt SAA, 4 3/4, 45, silver or nickel, C+ engraved with pearl.

 

bohlin.jpg

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Carrying a gun to church, oh what times we live in.  My great grandfather left Texas around the turn of the century to run ranches in Southern California and the family never looked back.   Before the idiots from everywhere else moved to California (after WWII), there was no better place to live on earth. Texas couldn’t hold a candle to it.  Sadly, things have changed.

 

My comment on a hideout gun was based on the statement that barbecue guns were short barreled so they could be concealed.  I used to have my 5.5 inch Bisley on my CCW in California so could carry it to and from SASS matches.  I also regularly carry a full sized 1911.  I guess a hideout is what you make of it.   But hideout is a term typically used for a smaller gun.  
 

By the way, Edward Bohlin worked in Hollywood California and almost all the most famous 19th century engravers were on the east coast, so while Texans may have bought barbecue guns, they sure didn’t invent them.  
 

I learned the term barbecue gun from my family and as I said it’s probably a regional variation, since we don’t have Texas rangers on the coast.  California did have a long history of making and using very fancy clothes, guns, and equipment in the cattle trade, going back to the Californios and vaqueros and their cattle industry is as old or older than Texas’s. 
 

But hey, you can always tell a Texan but you can’t tell em much, so believe what you like.  

 

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Funny stuff.   Bohlin was a renown silver smith, engraver  and tack and saddle maker for Hollywood.  Let's add some history to the conversation for context.

 

Edward H Bohlin Company

"Saddlery-Saddle Maker
1895-1980
BP: Sweden
LKL: Hollywood, CA

Born in Sweden in 1895, Edward Bohlin ran away from home at age 15, working his way to America on a huge four-mast schooner with dreams of Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West in his head. Ed worked cattle drives around Montana before opening his first saddle shop in Cody, Wyoming where he did rope tricks in front of his shop to draw business.   He met Tom Mix while performing at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood and Mix convinced Ed to stay and produce silver and leather items in the Los Angeles area"

 

The old Californio tradition of horsemanship,  Jaquima to Freno, (hackamore to spade)  goes  back to the Spanish using a one handed bridle for war horses first then later moving cattle.   That tradition became a high art form in old California.  The tradition is full of fancy rawhide and horse hair braiding, silver embellishment, if the horse earned it and carved leather.  But nothing to do with fancy guns. 

 

Long prior to Bohlin being born, Lawmen on the Southern border were embellishing their guns with engraving, plating and fancy grips.  Mexican Nationals did so prior to that.    By the 1880s the long barreled Colts were a thing of the past as LE had to work in town as well as on horse back.  By 1913 the 1911 Colt was common in the same circles.    Long barreled Colts were relegated to horse back if used at all by 1900.    I like to give credit where it is due and respect the history.  If you think a Bohlin gun is a  piece of Western history good on ya.  Fine art, decent  engraving, and good silver and leather work, but simply a piece of Hollywood's and the movie industry history if a movie is actually history.  

 

Tradition silver inlaid Californio spurs and a Spade bit.    

spurspade.jpg

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It is not accurate to say that Bohlin had nothing to do with fancy guns.  He was well known for making very fancy gold and silver grips and he embellished guns in a similar manner as his parade saddles.  Attached are a couple of pictures of guns he did.  The top one is his personal gun with all decorations to the gun as well as the case and accessories personally made by him.  The bottom one is one he did for actor Buck Jones.  
 

Not really to my taste and late to the game, but unquestionably highly decorated guns made to show off the owner’s wealth in a parade, on the screen, or at a barbecue.  

95C578FD-58DA-4590-9624-6CE3D508052C.jpeg

AE829E63-F07F-4F25-AF12-C5632DAB9AA2.jpeg

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I never said Bohlin didn't have anything to do with fancy guns.  He built a passel of them for Hollywood movie stars and rich clients along with spurs, bits saddles and leather gear.  Nice work in general and typically gaudy in the extreme.     

 

But Hollyweird guns aint a traditional "BBQ gun" and  movie or TV personalities with few rare exceptions weren't actual cowboys or law men for that matter.   

 

SASS started with only one handgun and most  cared about the history and less about what Hollywood was doing.

 

I see folks  posting their "BBQ" guns all the time in Internet forums and nice guns they typically are.  But  they still aren't traditional BBQ guns and neither were the majority Bohlin's  pieces of art.  "Rose Bowl Parade" guns?  Sure.  Your 7.5" gun would fit right in there.     But they aren't not traditional BBQ guns.    

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Boy this has drifted.  My point, which seems to keep getting lost in the conversation, is that the term means different things in different places.  Not uncommon in western gear. Different regions used different terms and gear.  The way you use the term makes no sense to me because it’s not what I grew up with and the other way around.    With all due respect, I don’t much care if you think I am using it wrong and I don’t much care how you use it or define it, other than to note the alternate usage.  
 

My gun actually has very little to do with the later guns, like those made by Bohlin.  It uses original Nimschke engraving patterns and checkered one piece ivories, which were common on earlier guns.  Engraved, color cased, and blued gun’s were well known in the 19th century,  they were just not as common as engraved plated guns in single actions. Plating was much less common in cap an ball revolvers.

 

You are right that fancy guns were not a big thing in early Californio gear, but that is largely because the hey-day of the Californio was before the revolver era.  Short swords, knives, and lances were the common weapons during the early days of California.  The arrival of Americans in California occurred at about the same time that revolvers became a thing.  The Americans (not the revolvers) and the california gold rush led to the downfall of the Californio way of life and fortunes.  After that, they didn’t have the money for fancy guns.  

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Should we continue this conversation to include crop circles?

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Seeing all of these really nice photos, of the Colt single actions, sure makes me wish there was a calendar produced, somewhere of the Colt's. I see calendars all the time with all kinds of subject matter, so one that had Colt single actions, as the main theme, would really be great to have.

 

 

W.K. 

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16 minutes ago, Waxahachie Kid #17017 L said:

Seeing all of these really nice photos, of the Colt single actions, sure makes me wish there was a calendar produced, somewhere of the Colt's. I see calendars all the time with all kinds of subject matter, so one that had Colt single actions, as the main theme, would really be great to have.

 

 

W.K. 

 

Good idea.  A lot nicer than what my bank, or even my gun shop hands out. 

 

Doc

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I bet S.A.S.S. could request the members to send in pictures of their favorite Colt Single Action, and they could create, and offer for sale, a calendar.  I bet so many would send in photos, they might even have to create a 60 month calendar!!!

I would buy one, for sure.

 

W.K.

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1 hour ago, Waxahachie Kid #17017 L said:

Seeing all of these really nice photos, of the Colt single actions, sure makes me wish there was a calendar produced, somewhere of the Colt's. 

 

 

We (where I use to work) use to make calendars with all 1911s.  If you have some jpegs off the Internet that you like, easy enough to make calendars (most any size) at Kinkos or Fed EX for very little money and the results were fairly high quality prints.  

 

One thing is for sure there was some serious  thread drift.    My apologies for that. 

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