Original Walker price

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Captain*kirk

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Does anyone have access to any documentation showing what the Texas Rangers paid for each of the original run of Walker revolvers? If so, I would appreciate you sharing the info and the name of the source. Thanks!
 
http://www.texasranger.org/history/BriefHistory1.htm

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt's_Manufacturing_Company

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt_Paterson

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Ranger_Division


Depends on who you ask!!!!

"Welcome to Paterson, N.J.
Colt set up his new company in Paterson, New Jersey, and they would eventually build about 2,800 revolving pistols. The first revolvers were ready for sale in late 1836. It originally came in .28 caliber with different barrel lengths. The price was $50, which translates to about $1,000 today. And, of course, changes were made to the design during the production run – most notably the caliber was increased to .36. The power of a .36 Paterson is very similar to a .380. In 1839 he received a patent for an improved design, which included a loading lever."

From:
http://www.guns.com/2012/07/30/colt-paterson/




"Development
The .36 caliber projectile used by the Paterson was underpowered and Walker asked that the new revolvers be made 50 rounds to the pound, or .44 caliber, and hold six shots instead of the five of the Paterson. He also required that the new revolvers be capable of firing an elongated ball, later known as a Picket conical, 32 to the pound which equaled 218 grains. These improvements would produce a handgun capable of bringing down a man or horse at distances of 100 yards, twice the range of the Paterson. He also required a fixed trigger with guard unlike the Paterson’s folding trigger design.

36-Paterson-vs-44-Walker.jpg

The .36 caliber round of the Paterson No. 5 Model, left, compared to the .44 caliber round of the Walker, right. (Photo: Jon Frazier)

Colt was happy to take on the project. Making arrangements with Eli Whitney Jr. to assemble the new revolvers at the Whitneyville Factory, Colt was able to secure a government contract on January 4th, 1847. The revolvers would be purchased by the government for $25 each, with the first 100 delivered in three months. Colt christened the new firearm the “Walker,” named after Samuel Walker."

From: http://www.guns.com/review/colts-model-1847-walker-170-years-of-revolver-history/
 
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The first 1000 "Whitneyville Walker" (Model 1847) pistols cost $28,000. That price was for the guns ($25 each) plus a flask, screwdriver, spring vise, and cone (nipple) wrench for a total of $3 per gun. Later, as production became more efficient, Colt was able to reduce the price to $24 per gun, including the appendages.

FWIW, that was an era of high wages, over $2 per day, for skilled machinists, due largely to the rapid increase in demand for railroad equipment and the tooling to make it. The early canal systems, including the hybrid canal-railroad system used by Pennsylvania, had given way to all-weather rail transport to the expanding West, and the age of machinery was beginning in earnest.

Jim
 
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Thanks to all of you for your replies! I knew it was somewhere in the $20-25.00 range but could not find the source any longer. Great reading on all the articles, BTW!
 
$25 in silver today would be about $425. In gold it would be over $1400 in today's currency. I'll pay in silver.
 
I cannot find anything, probably because there is a lot on information that contradicts each other, but the best I can figure is, the average wage back then was what a dollar a day . Guns were expensive and its pretty easy to see why most, not all but most, families only had a single shot muzzleloading rifle to serve all of their needs. .
 
The Rangers were paid $1 dollar per day. Seven dollars per week and you supplied your horse. A decent wage around 1847 was $20 dollars per week. The pay for teenage labor was $1.00 per day.
A Ranger was doing a dangerous job for poverty level pay?
 
The Rangers were paid $1 dollar per day. Seven dollars per week and you supplied your horse. A decent wage around 1847 was $20 dollars per week. The pay for teenage labor was $1.00 per day.
A Ranger was doing a dangerous job for poverty level pay?
Yes, but they got to play with cool stuff. Like Patersons and Walkers.
 
A good brass mounted, half stocked Dickson & Gilmore rifle cost $40.00 dollars in May 1845 whereas their silver mounted rifle cost $45.00 dollars. A silver mounted, bar locked percussion rifle from Joseph Cooper cost $20.00 dollars in 1845 also. Compared to average wages of the day an expensive piece of equipment.

There was also a good portion of the country that was not working for any wage as subsistence farmers.
 
Crawdad, Firearms were very expensive on the frontier. Fur Company trappers rented trade guns from the company. A Sharps Buffalo rifle and lead cost more than most high end rifles today.
 
Yes they were Dog Soldier and didn't Davey Crockett trade his rifle for a parcel of farming land and a horse when he married?

"Crockett's classic Pennsylvania rifle, of the finest quality, did not come cheaply. Crockett was making about $6.67 per month, and a gun like this went for $18—quite a financial sacrifice, but a wise one because a rifle was your ticket to survival on the frontier and scrimping on it was narrowing your chances of living. The rifle was often the only really nice thing a pioneer owned, and the only possession he could really take pride in. Davy Crockett was always a man of ambition determined to make the most of himself. He knew the statement a fine gun made about its owner. In those days, quality in the gun reflected quality in the man."

To own a Colt's revolver on the frontier must have been a real prize. But there is a diary of a rancher in Texas during the 1850's that had 2 Colt revolvers, one a '51 Navy that he kept with him at all times while on the frontier and the other a Dragoon that he kept in a holster on his saddle. So Colt's revolvers were available.
 
Thanks Crawdad. I had not heard that story about Davy. Very good. Hugh Glass worked as an indentured laborer for a Pennsylvania Gun Smith. He stole a very fine rifle and headed West.
There were rewards posted for him. His rifle was so unique most Trappers knew it on sight. He walked to New Mexico to get it back from Fitzpatrick who buried him alive. It would be lost in North Dakota at his murder.
 
My Great Uncle Jim, born in Southern Indiana near Louisville, Ky in 1862. He went to Texas as a teen in 1878. He went up the trail to Kansas with a herd. He and his partner each bought a Colt .45 Army revolver 7.5" Milsurps for $18 dollars each. He said that was a months pay trailing cows. He died at 100 years in 1962.
I remember seeing the Old Colt many times. It disappeared after his death?
 
"$25 in silver today would be about $425. In gold it would be over $1400 in today's currency. I'll pay in silver."

It doesn't work that way; when the metals were commonly used in coins (no collector value), $25 in silver was worth the same as $25 in gold, but the gold would be a lot less bulky (think one $20 coin and one $5 coin in gold, vs 25 silver dollars).

Jim.
 
Dog Soldier, do you have any info on how often your Great Uncle and his partner fired their Colt revolvers? Such as, did they practice, have shooting contests, shoot varmints for sport, ect.?
 
Jim K - admittedly the "dollar" price of precious metals has long been subjected to manipulation. Bill Murphy of GATA covers this quite well. The "prices" I was discussing is the (near) current "dollar" price today with respects to Colt then.
 
As I recall? He said, the "Cow Outfits" did not allow them to carry loaded firearms. They had to be stored in the supply wagons. That makes sense. One shot and a 1,000 head of Long Horns would scatter to Hell and back.
He never mentioned shooting the old Colt. I am sure that he did. However the .45 Colt rounds were very expensive. They often only bought maybe 2 or 3 rounds at a time. Saloons accepted .45 Colt rounds for cash. A .45 round bought a shot of cheap whisky.
Towns on the Texas trails banned the carrying of sidearms. It seems it was a problem not about gun fights. It was more about drunken drovers shooting and wounding their own horses. They would typically just take their saddles and leave the animals for the town to clean up. Like today the taxpayers complained.
He did mention shooting an Eagle in a tree top. He used a .40 Caliber Cap & Ball rifle made in North Carolina. The real cowboys were young kids. They were often barefoot and ragged. This was hard gritty work following the Civil War.
This is not connected but and example. The history of the Johnson County War in Wyoming notes this. The hired Texas gun fighters were caught in a blizzard. They did not own boots. Their bare feet suffered frost bite. The "B" movies and real life may have been very different.

This is anecdotal and a recount of family history. I am not claiming it is historically correct. If you enjoy it accept it for what it is. :)
 
Great information Dog!!!

I'm going to have to find a good book on the cattle drives and the range wars out there probably shed some light on how these guys were armed or should I say how poorly they were armed.

I'm currently reading Miller & Snell's 'Great Gunfighters of the Kansas Cowtowns' which is excellent but I could use a few more books like this one.
 
IMG_0936.JPG IMG_0937.JPG
As I recall? He said, the "Cow Outfits" did not allow them to carry loaded firearms. They had to be stored in the supply wagons. That makes sense. One shot and a 1,000 head of Long Horns would scatter to Hell and back.
He never mentioned shooting the old Colt. I am sure that he did. However the .45 Colt rounds were very expensive. They often only bought maybe 2 or 3 rounds at a time. Saloons accepted .45 Colt rounds for cash. A .45 round bought a shot of cheap whisky.
Towns on the Texas trails banned the carrying of sidearms. It seems it was a problem not about gun fights. It was more about drunken drovers shooting and wounding their own horses. They would typically just take their saddles and leave the animals for the town to clean up. Like today the taxpayers complained.
He did mention shooting an Eagle in a tree top. He used a .40 Caliber Cap & Ball rifle made in North Carolina. The real cowboys were young kids. They were often barefoot and ragged. This was hard gritty work following the Civil War.
This is not connected but and example. The history of the Johnson County War in Wyoming notes this. The hired Texas gun fighters were caught in a blizzard. They did not own boots. Their bare feet suffered frost bite. The "B" movies and real life may have been very different.

This is anecdotal and a recount of family history. I am not claiming it is historically correct. If you enjoy it accept it for what it is. :)
 
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