TINCANBANDIT's Gunsmithing: Halloween

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Halloween

Since it is Halloween, I thought I would post something that relates to the holiday.

Years ago I read a story in a gun magazine (this was years ago, before the internet) about a custom revolversmith that had restored an old Colt Single Action Army revolver. The story had pictures of the gun in a coffin shaped gun case. I showed it to a friend of mine, who was a wood worker. He surprised me the next Christmas with a home made coffin gun case made from beautiful Black Walnut. Here is a picture of it with my Ruger Vaquero in it.

Additional pictures including one with dimensions. It is large enough to fit a 6" N frame S&W.

Here are some others I found online

Here is some Coffin Case cases, these are intended for guitars, microphones and drum sticks, but they are kick ass gun cases as well

Probably the coolest gun case ever also houses what could be the coolest gun ever. This Colt Detective Special is part of the Robert E Peterson collection. The collection was donated to the National Firearms Museum after his death. The gun is known as the "Vampire Hunter's Colt".
The museum is kind enough to allow web visitors to download high resolution images (click on the pictures to see the hi-res versions).
The gun was engraved with bats (in the recesses of the cylinder flutes) and a crucifix on the top strap, then silver plated. The trigger and pins/screws were Nitre blued. They added custom ebony wood grips and a lanyard for that Euro-turn of the century look.

Housed with the Vampire Hunter Colt are six silver bullets (to kill the werewolves??) mounted in the shape of a cross. The bullets have also been carved to look like vampires. Also contained within the coffin is a silver flask of holy water (to stop the demons) and a wooden stake (also made from ebony), which I assume is to be driven into the heart of the vampire to finish them off. They also included a mirror, used to positively identify your target as a vampire (vampires cannot see their reflection....allegedly).
Enjoy the pictures and if you have not been to the National Firearms Museum's website, you should stop in, lots of really interesting guns to see, I have provided a link at the end of this post.