The TV Bat Masterson shorty barrel revolver

[44and45]

I'm an old cogger, like to watch the old black & white TV series: Bat Masterson and the Rifleman.

Gene Barry the actor of Bat, carries and interesting looking shorty barrel Colt revolver I assume is .45 Colt caliber. The barrel is either 3.5 inch or 4 inch and has an ejector rod running the length of the barrel. It can't be very practical to eject spent brass out of its cylinder chambers.

Anyone know more about that gun?


The Rifleman series is great, Chuck Conners has shot enough bad guys with that fast shooten winchester, he could fill a train load of box cars with corpses. The kid that plays his son in the series, wonder what he went on to do as an adult...anyone know.

I also understand Conners once sent russian premier Brezniv a Colt .45 caliber revolver as a gift back during the cold war era. Brezniv was a big fan for Chuck Conners...I think Conners linage was from that country?

Jim

 

[Jim Watson]

Been a long time since I saw a Bat Masterson TV show.
The real Masterson was known to carry a Colt SAA with 4 3/4" barrel which has the muzzle flush with the end of the ejector rod housing. It is the standard rod and lifts the empties as well as any.

Johnny Crawford who played Mark McCain in The Rifleman, is now a band leader at age 61.

 

[44and45]

Thanks for the reply, Jim.

Matter of fact, Bat Masterson is on the tube as I write this. Just seen the TV version of his jigged bone handle short barrel Colt. It can't possibly be the same size barrel as the real Masterson's gun barrel was 4-3/4 inches. The barrel had to be either 3.5 or 3 inches long per the TV version.

That is interesting about Johnny Crawford, who played Mark Mc Cain in the series, so he was into music and became a band leader. I recall in one episode he played the guitar and sang fairly well at that young age...but gads, he's 61 now.

I've got ten years on him...my how time does fly on bye.

Jim

 

[Imaginos]

The 3.5" and 4" versions of SA revolvers were not all that uncommon. They were made even in cap-n-ball versions before the Peacemaker hit the scene in 1873. They were often referred to a "sheriff's" or "shopkeeper" models. Some had ejectors and some didn't.

Billy Bob Thorton (as Doc Holiday) used one in the Kevin Costner film Tombstone.

 

[DrLaw]

Connors was a Cub

A long time ago, Chuck Connors was a Chicago Cub. According to a book by the late Mike Royko of the Chicago Sun Times, and Chicago Daily News, Chuck Connors could not field, hit or throw well. What was he known for as a Cub, according to Royko?

He was known for not being able to field, hit or throw well.

Crawford had some hits as a teen singer, including Cindy's Birthday and Your Nose Is Gonna Grow. I did not know he was a band leader nowadays.

Also, what show did Connors do after THE RIFLEMAN and what was his weapon of choice? Hint - it was a snubbie, or sorts.

The Doc is out now.

 

[44and45]

Well, I didn't know Conners did another TV show after the Rifleman. I'll guess and say it would have been a detective show if snubby guns were involved.

But he did play a killer gunfighter in the tongue in cheek movie 'Support your local sheriff' with James Garner and Jack Elam. Conners was much older then and looked in poor health...wonder if cancer got him.

He may have not been a good Cub baseball player, but he was excellent as an actor.

So was Johnny Crawford, who played his TV son.

Jim

 

[DMZ]

Let me see.

Chuck Connor played in a show called "Branded" in the 60's His weapon being the hilt end of his sword that was broken after he was court martialed. He sharpened it and used it much as he used his Winchester in the "Rifleman"

He did die of lung cancer as he was a heavy smoker most of his life. Rifleman fans may recall he often smoked cigars on his front porch.

He was a good friend of President Nixon and that may have been his connection to the Soviet Premier.

He was an avid shooter and was chosen for the Rifleman role due to the fact that he was athletic enough to swing that Winchester around like a baton.

There were quite a few future stars on the Rifleman series. Some were regular guest were Jack Elam, Claude Aikens and Warren Oates. Others I have seen were Dennis Hooper, Lee Van Cleef, James Colburn, Ed Begley, and Michael Landon to name a few.

 

[Lone Star]

Most of those TV shows had guns custom made for them, and the short SAA used by Gene Barry was one of them. I recall it well. It may have been a Great Western or some other make other than a Colt. I'm sure that it was modified by Stembridge Gun Rental or one of the other Hollywood prop gun houses.

The idea was to have a weapon associated with a particular character, like Finn's crossbow or Veronica's knives on, "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World" in more recent times.

Some of those actors just had Colts with a certain barrel length or finish. None of them had guns really used by the historical characters whom they portrayed, if the person was real. Wyatt Earp told his biographer that he used the 7.5-inch barrel on his Colts, other than the Buntline Special. On TV, Hugh O'Brien as Earp carried a 4.75-inch Colt. The real Masterson used several guns, one being a nickled SAAwith 4.75-inch barrel. I have seen his letter to Colt, ordering it. He also asked for an action job, a smoother, lighter trigger pull than normal. Later in life, he was known to favor Savage auto pistols.

With private eye Mannix, the gimmick was a Colt Detective Special carried at the small of his back. In real life, that carry will injure your spine if you get knocked down. TV is mostly fiction.

Lone Star

 

[Mikeo]

Billy Bob Thorton (as Doc Holiday) used one in the Kevin Costner film Tombstone.

Actually, Val Kilmer played Doc Holiday, in 'Tombstone'.
Billy Bob Thornton played the crooked faro dealer that Wyatt b*tch slapped before taking his job. (Good scene, by the way)

 

[Stainz]

Was Shelley Fabares on the "Rifleman' as his son's girl friend? She later played the girl friend on 'Coach'. She and Johnny Crawford had short careers in then pop music.

My favorite 'older' TV cowboy series is 'Have Gun: Will Travel' starring the Shakespearean actor Richard Boone. He learned to ride - did most of his scenes - even riding a camel in one desert race episode. His latter western work was as 'Heck Ramsey', in a show that shared and alternated the time slot with 'McCloud', etc. Second in my list is 'Wanted: Dead or Alive' with Steve McQueen. Those .45-70's on his belt - and his cut-down '92 - what a combination!

Stainz

 

[scbair]

According to one author ("Doc" O'Meara, I believe), a lot of the oaters' sixguns are really pretty horrid, up close & personal. chopped barrels (the Lon Ranger's had no sights; barrels cut back from 7 1/2" ), poorly fitted stocks, and chrome plating apparently applied by that guy with a brush from the old Popular Mechanics magazines.

Lookin' cool on the silver screen was all that mattered.

I read somewhere else that Nick Adams' Johnny Yuma character ("The Rebel," for you youngsters out there) carried a hybrid revolver; Model P frame assembly on a Cap & Ball Colt grip/trigger assembly. Also said to be the same prop gun later used by Pernell Roberts as Adam Cartwright, in Bonanza.

Richard Boone (Paladin / Hec Ramsey) reportedly hated horses . . .

I'm partial to the 7-shooter carried by Arnold Schwartzenegger ("Handsome Stranger") in "The Villain."

 

[xkalifornian]

More Chuck Conners/Rifleman trivia.
I remember one episode with Sammy Davis Jr. as a wayward but good harted gunslinger befriended by Lucas McCain.
During a very brief stint in the NBA with the Celtics, lore has it that Mr. Conners was the first man to break a backboard while slam dunking.

 

[44and45]

Conners played an ex solder officer with a busted sword made into close in fighting weapon???

Didn't anyone ever tell him to never bring a knife to a gunfight.

Jim

 

[taozen79]

QUOTE: Been a long time since I saw a Bat Masterson TV show.
The real Masterson was known to carry a Colt SAA with 4 3/4" barrel which has the muzzle flush with the end of the ejector rod housing. It is the standard rod and lifts the empties as well as any.

I have a mitchell arms 47, nickle that is a copy of the colt that bat ordered from Colt in his day...yep 4 3/4 SAA...

 

[44and45]

Taozen, do the ejector rod work full lenght to extract the spent brass???

How about as neat picture of a neat gun.

Jim

 

[YosemiteSam357]

Here's the 4-3/4" version with the full length ejector rod:

Here's the Sheriff's Model:

I've been told the shorter ejector rods don't work all that well, and some Sheriff Model guns don't have them at all. Most of my .45 Colt cases drop out on their own anyway.

I have no connection to this vendor's site, just been looking at guns there.

-- Sam

 

[44and45]

OH baby, I go for that Sheriff model, it looks just like Bat's barrel length.

Them short stroke rods being poor ejection is what I've heard a long time ago...but who cares.

The shortest Colt I ever saw a picture of was one with the barrel removed...reputedly carried by some 19th century hide-out enthusiest.

Jim

 

[TallPine]

Billy Bob Thorton (as Doc Holiday) used one in the Kevin Costner film Tombstone.

Kevin Costner was in the film "Wyatt Earp" - not "Tombstone"

FWIW, the name "Connors" might be an Gaelic variation of O' Conair

As far as the short ejector rods are concerned, I doubt those old shootists did much reloading during a gunfight. That's why they carried multiple guns. If they got to the point of needing to reload and the shooting was still going on, they were probably either dead or soon would be.

 

[mec]

colt made short barrelled Sheriffs and store keepers models but the ones shorter than 4/3/4" didn't have ejector rods. Gun World had an article about Chuck Connors presenting a rifle to Leonid Breznev who wanted it for Russian Boar hunting. This was right after GCA 68 when Breznev couldn't buy a gun here legally. Apparently Straw Man purchases were ok then. Don't remember about him giving him a Colt.

Heck Ramsey was made during the time the televison networks were working in a lot of anti-gun asides in the entertainment programing. Somebody was looking at an old colt and remarked that it didn't have much rifling- Couldn't be accurate. Boone/Ramsey delivered the party line..." A HANDGUN, ANY HANDGUN, IS MEANT FOR ONE THING ONLY. TO KILL PEOPLE!!!!"
I liked Paladin better.