Wild Bill Hickok: Difference between revisions

===Pistols known to have been carried by Hickok===

Hickok's favorite guns were a pair of [[Colt 1851 Navy Revolver|Colt 1851 Navy]] Model (.36 caliber) cap-and-ball revolvers. They had ivory grips and nickel plating, and were ornately engraved with "J.B. Hickok–1869" on the backstrap. He wore his revolvers butt-forward in a belt or sash (when wearing city clothes or buckskins, respectively), and seldom used holsters; he drew the pistols using a "reverse", "twist", or [[cavalry draw]], as would a cavalryman.<ref name="Martin1" />As Marshal of Hays, Hickok had a Adams and Deane percussion .44-caliber pistol.<ref>Elman "Fired in Anger" p.273</ref>

 

At the time of his death, Hickok was wearing a [[Smith & Wesson Model No. 2 Army]] revolver, a five-shot, single-action, .32-caliber weapon, innovative as one of the first metallic cartridge firearms and favored by many Union officers during the Civil War. [[Bonhams]] auction company offered this pistol at auction on November 18, 2013, in San Francisco, California,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bonhams.com/press_release/14277/ |title=Wild Bill Hickok's Smith & Wesson No. 2 Revolver on Offer at Bonhams This Fall |access-date=March 18, 2014}}</ref> described as Hickok's Smith & Wesson No. 2, serial number 29963, a .32 [[Rimfire ammunition|rimfire]] with a six-inch barrel, [[Bluing (steel)|blued]] finish, and varnished rosewood grips. The gun did not sell because the highest bid of $220,000 was less than the reserve set by the gun's owners.<ref name="NYDly" />A second pistol Hickock had at his death was a Sharps Model 1859 .32-caliber four-barreled rim-fire derrineger.<ref>Elman "Fired in Anger" pp.275-276</ref>