Tag Archives: Rock Island Auction

Meet The ‘Captain

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In their upcoming April Premier event, Rock Island Auction is set to offer a trio of desirable Colt wheel guns including a “Fluck” Dragoon, a military-marked Eli Whitney Walker and a civilian model fit for a Scandinavian skipper.

The rarest of the three, the only known original cased civilian Walker in circulation, is referred to by collectors as the “Danish Sea Captain” due to its first owner, Captain Niels Hanson, who purchased the massive gun in New York while in port and brought it back to Europe with him where it was passed down through his family and collectors in Denmark for over a century.

The ‘Captain. (Photos: RIA)

The ‘Captain. (Photos: RIA)

According to lore, the gun even survived being buried in a garden by its then-owner during the Nazi occupation of that Baltic country during WWII.

The estimated price for this rare .44-caliber bird, which has been extensively documented over the past 80 years? How about somewhere between $800,000 and $1.3 million.

More on the big Dane and the other Colts in my column at Guns.com.

Know anybody with some Oerlikon parts gathering dust?

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They basically need everything you see above in gray…

I recently talked to Clark Perks, development director at the Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial and he has an 888-foot battlewagon full of armament that includes nine massive 16-inch and 12 5-inch guns, but what they are missing is a complete 20mm Oerlikon cannon.

They have the gun itself, they just need the mount and shield and can work to fab one from an original if they could work out the loan…

More in my column at Guns.com

P.S. They just got their 40mm quad mount restored– and it even fires.

More Colts than you can shake an auction paddle at

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Rock Island Auction has over 500 Colts up for their September Auction including 40 Pythons (!) and a bunch of really nice rares such as a Third Model Hartford London Dragoon, “D Company” Walker Model 1847, and a set of Model 1851 Navy “Squarebacks.”

This is my favorite, though:

Click to big up

Stamped with “U.S.” marks and a silver-gray patina, this Single Action Army in .45LC includes a rare “Ropes” type flap holster of the type used during the Spanish-American War. If a gun could talk…

Feeling like a naval AAA mount or two?

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If you have a problem with low-flying German Messerschmitts or Japanese Zeroes, Rock Island Auction Company may have just what you are looking for in a pair of naval AAA mounts.

As part of their May Premier Auction, RIA has both an original early WWII fixed-dual mounted AN-M2 anti-aircraft gun for those who like their “triple-A” in .30-06 as well as a hulking WWII Navy Oerlikon 20 mm cannon.

The Navy AN-M2 .30 Cal Navy MK II Mod 3 Aircraft Mount includes a rare MK 9 Mod 1 Illuminated Electronic Gun Sight

The working C&R Oerlikon 20 mm MK4 Naval Cannon has an original deck mount and gun cradle, though good luck finding 20×110mm RB ammo

More in my column at Guns.com

Kwajalein calling

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Rock Island Auction House has released some teaser information about their upcoming Premier Auction in May, and it has just about one of every full-auto or select-fire offering on your fave list.

While they do not have the full item descriptions listed yet, they have released some highlight images and what they show– besides the regular fare of 19th Century collectible lever guns and 18th Century dueling pistols– is a cornucopia of Title II/Class 3 items. Outside of the full Call of Duty collection, you aren’t going to find these guns in one place. There is even a Heckler & Koch HK21, a type I haven’t seen since I worked with NASA.

Among the neater pieces I saw was a Japanese Type 11 light machine gun– Kijirō Nambu’s take on the French 8mm Hotchkiss chambered in 6.5x50mm Arisaka. This particular piece was captured on Kwajalein Atoll in 1944 by the Recon troop of the 7th Cav.

captured-by-7th-cav-rcn-trp-kwaj-5-feb-1944-hotchkiss-machine-gun-japanese-ria
More (including a lot more photos) in my column at Guns.com

One stop box set fit for a Napoleonic gentleman

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Exhibition Quality Gold Inlaid and Engraved Cased Four Gun Garniture by Renowned Maker Nicolas Noel Boutet
Here is a matching exhibition quality gold inlaid and engraved cased four gun garniture by renowned French gunsmith Nicolas Noel Boutet (you do know Boutet, don’t you?) of Versailles including 12mm (.47 cal) dueling pistols with 8.75-inch barrels and much cuter but no less deadly .58 caliber pocket pistols, hence the two different bullet molds.
12mm boutet dueling pistol french 1800 12mm boutet dueling pistol french 1800 a 57 caliber boutet pocket pistol versallies 1800