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Remington Model 1875 Revolver with ID from Blue Jacket, Oklahoma & Possible Indian Police


This is a really interesting Model 1875 Revolver in 44-40 with standard nickel plated finish and 7-1/2" barrel. It's the late version with the larger Colt Single Action style blade front sight instead of the small early pinched sight and it has no lanyard ring on the butt. The caliber is on the left side of the trigger guard which is the 3rd and last place Remington marked their caliber. There is a name and a town on the inside of the walnut grips "Pete Harris" and "Blue Jacket OKLA" along with the word KIOWA scratched over an older marking. I showed this to a guy who's researching Model 1875's and learned a thing or two. Being a later Model 1875, I was skeptical this could be one of the almost 800 purchased by the Department of the Interior for the Indian Police which were used on reservations throughout the West. However, I was basing this on limited knowledge and mainly just photographs. There is a very interesting photograph the Indian Police from South Dakota who killed Chief Sitting Bull on the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota while trying to apprehend him during the Ghost Dance uprising in 1890. This photo is all over the internet but the first place I encountered it was as a kid reading the "The Great Chiefs" in the Time Life Series, "The Old West". In fact, I bought that book just because of that photograph. They are armed with early Model 1875 Remington Revolvers with lanyard rings, Model 1873 Winchester Saddle Ring Carbines AND surprisingly a Whitney Kennedy Saddle Ring Carbine which would have all been in Caliber 44-40. On a side note, the Department of the Interior also purchased Remington Keene bolt action carbines for the Indian Police.

So based on my limited knowledge, my thinking was that Indian Police 1875's were the early ones. After all, every one that I'd ever seen was in old photos & had those early lanyard rings sticking out of the holsters but to my surprise, this expert said that late ones like this were ALSO purchased for Reservation Police but he wanted to see the serial number which is under the grips. When we pulled the grips, he then noted that the serial number on this one was in "the correct range" but since there is no way to prove it beyond that, we can only say it looks like a duck, acts like a duck and quacks like one. Since most bear no markings to indicate Police Issue and that Remington never kept records, all we can say is that It's possible but the source I got it from purported it to be Indian Police. The name on the grips appears to me to read "Pete Harris" with the town of Blue Jacket, Oklahoma on the other grip. Blue Jacket is in the Northeast corner of Oklahoma, a small town which still exists and is on the Cherokee Res. The word KIOWA in my opinion was added later and pressed in by a ballpoint pin or something similar so maybe some embellishment there as you can tell better stories with name of a more hostile Western tribe but as someone who has visited a reservation or two in Oklahoma and maybe just a little bit of Cherokee blood in my veins, the Cherokee Nation is something I have always had great reverence towards.

Overall condition is NRA Antique Good Plus to Very Good with 20-25% original nickel remaining with the rest of the metal worn to a light patina or gun metal grey patina with plenty of holster and character wear. I'll say this...this old wheel gun did not sit in a banker's desk drawer back East somewhere. It has all the wear that you would expect find on a frontier gun that saw years and years of use. The action has been cocked many times over the past 140 years but still works fairly well, holds on half cock and full cock, indexes, and locks but it's by no means a tight snappy crisp new gun any more. When we got this, it had a piece stuck in it for the cylinder pin. We were able to obtain a brand new cylinder pin from a gentleman from Virginia who makes these pins with the tiny little end springs even better than the originals. If you're looking for a revolver that definitely came out of the American West with some character or a good research project to work on this winter, this could be a very interesting journey. Antique, Pre-1898.

Item# 547

$3,550

 
 

 

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