By Lars Dalseide
Fairfax, Virginia –-(Ammoland.com)- When an NRANews crew shows up at NRA Headquarters, there’s usually a member of the staff or two who watch the interview being filmed. When they come to film an episode of Curator’s Corner, there’s usually a crowd.
This time was no exception as Senior Curator Philip Schreier brought out a new gun on loan to our Hollywood Gun Collection. Another John Wayne original. This one, a Colt Single Action, found its fame after appearing alongside the Duke in classics like Rio Lobo.
“There’s a gentleman up in New Jersey who is one of the premier John Wayne collectors,” said Schreier at the National Firearms Museum. “He brought us this first generation Single Action Colt the Hollywood Guns display. One of the revolvers John Wayne used for a number of appearances including Rio Lobo.”
Staring as Sheriff Cord McNally (a former Union Colonel), Wayne teams up with former Confederate officers in Rio Lobo to track down a Union traitor. You can learn more about the 1970 film Rio Lobo on IMDB. And for you history buffs out there … you’re correct. The Single Action Army wasn’t yet in production during the movie’s post Civil War timeline.
In addition to Rio Lobo, records from the prop house previously holding the piece indicate that Wayne also used this Colt in True Grit in addition to a number of television Westerns.
The Single Action Army, designed in 1872 by William Mason and Charles Richards, was Colt’s answer to Rollin White’s defection to Smith & Wesson. Also known as the Peacemaker, it has been dubbed by the Blue Book of Gun Values as “the most copied revolver with over fifteen clones currently in production.”
If you’d like to catch a close up view of this Single Action Army, tune for the Curator’s Corner segment later this afternoon (around 5:40) to the Sportsman Channel. Or, if you can wait, then check out Curator’s Corner in the Featured Segment section of NRANews.com.
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in earlier reports john wayne gave that gun to a real trusted friend it hard to belive that’s the gun theres too many repos out there to be sure they have the holster only not the gun
He used an engraved Great Western in “The Shootist.” He was given a pair of engraved guns by Great Western.
I think its the same gun he used in The Shootist too.Why the gloves,to protect that finish ? HBH