Doc Holiday's mystery shotgun: October 26, 1881 OK Corral

Jim McDougall · 9th August 2019, 01:13 AM

David thank you for the great input!!!! and for heavens sakes DONT worry about 'clogging up' this thread!!! I am grateful for these kinds of details and quite honestly am just learning on all this stuff myself.

I have wondered if Wells Fargo weapons were so marked, and assumed they were but obviously there would be a huge market for fakery. I have still not found any examples marked and with provenance, so the notes you recall on the one you saw are most interesting.

From what I found on these coach guns, since they were now breech loading cartridge guns, with my limited knowledge I would assume they were center fire. I had seen the reference on Doc having a sawn off gun with swivel etc. and while interesting...…...considering that Doc had no particular fondness for shotguns, as well as the fact that he was handed the shotgun by Virgil ...who had grabbed it out of the Well Fargo office.....that is most unlikely.

Much of this is standard 'witness syndrome' in which witnesses seem to have a wide spectrum of details either inaccurately recalled; mistaken, made up or assumed. With this investigators rely on cross comparison of separate accounts, and presume the most aligned details corroborated to be accurate.

The 'shotgun messengers' had no reason to conceal their shotguns, so Well Fargo would not have had such 'rigs' for their messengers as the sawn off and swivel set ups.

While Rockwell was the 'Mormon Avenger' I think the gun he used (also called that) was actually a Colt with the barrel cut way down. I never found anything on a cut down shotgun, but with his penchant for 'alteration' would not be surprised.

Thanks very much David!

9th August 2019, 01:13 AM	#3
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,295	David thank you for the great input!!!! and for heavens sakes DONT worry about 'clogging up' this thread!!! I am grateful for these kinds of details and quite honestly am just learning on all this stuff myself. I have wondered if Wells Fargo weapons were so marked, and assumed they were but obviously there would be a huge market for fakery. I have still not found any examples marked and with provenance, so the notes you recall on the one you saw are most interesting. From what I found on these coach guns, since they were now breech loading cartridge guns, with my limited knowledge I would assume they were center fire. I had seen the reference on Doc having a sawn off gun with swivel etc. and while interesting...…...considering that Doc had no particular fondness for shotguns, as well as the fact that he was handed the shotgun by Virgil ...who had grabbed it out of the Well Fargo office.....that is most unlikely. Much of this is standard 'witness syndrome' in which witnesses seem to have a wide spectrum of details either inaccurately recalled; mistaken, made up or assumed. With this investigators rely on cross comparison of separate accounts, and presume the most aligned details corroborated to be accurate. The 'shotgun messengers' had no reason to conceal their shotguns, so Well Fargo would not have had such 'rigs' for their messengers as the sawn off and swivel set ups. While Rockwell was the 'Mormon Avenger' I think the gun he used (also called that) was actually a Colt with the barrel cut way down. I never found anything on a cut down shotgun, but with his penchant for 'alteration' would not be surprised. Thanks very much David!