Page 230 - 83-BOOK1

"This is the first automatic pistol I ever owned or fired. I had turned them down without trial and stuck to an old Army revolver. Today I took the old revolver and the Savage automatic out and fired each fifty times making, to my surprise, a much better score with the automatic than I could with my old pet gun."
- William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody
He was born William Fredrick Cody, in 1846, not more than 10 miles from Rock Island Auction Company near the small river town of LeClaire, Iowa, in Scott County, right on the Mississippi river. At an early age, his family moved to Leavenworth, Kansas. At the age of 12 in Leavenworth, he worked for a freight service (wagon train) and headed for Fort Laramie in Wyoming and crossed the frontier many times. In 1859, he left Wyoming and went to try his luck at gold prospecting in Colorado, but he did not fare well and returned to Kansas only a few months later and worked for the “Pony Express” in Kansas and Colorado. After the death of his mother in 1863, he joined the Union Army and served with the 7th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment through the Civil War. In 1867, he began working for the Kansas Pacific Railroad as a scout and hunter. Over an 18 month period, he killed over 4,280 buffalo by his accounts. His one-day record was sixty-nine Buffalo shot in one day. The closest mounted contestant’s record was only forty-six. In 1868, he again joined the U.S. Army as a civilian Army Scout and guide with the 5th Calvary. In 1872, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for valor during the Indian Wars and was one of only four civilian scouts to ever actually earn this medal. It was presented by General Philip Sheridan of Civil War fame, and Sheridan later became a big promoter of Buffalo Bill Cody. In late 1872, Cody went to Chicago to make his stage debut in The Scouts of the Prairie, one of Ned Buntline’s original Wild West shows (Buntline was also the author of the Buffalo Bill novels). The next year, “Wild Bill” Hickok joined the show, and the troupe toured for ten years. In 1883, Cody founded his own show, “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West,” a circus-like extravaganza that toured widely for three decades in the United States and later throughout Europe. Besides Buffalo Bill himself, the Wild West show starred sharpshooter Annie Oakley, Chief Sitting Bull, and real Wild West cowboys and range hands as extras and stand-ins. CONDITION: Exceptionally Fine. This pistol retains 75% plus of the original factory high polish blue finish with wear on the muzzle and high edges with some minor surface blemishes and spotting. The casehardened trigger retains 80% of the vivid casehardened colors. All of the engraving and the inscription remain crisp as well as the standard markings. The grips are excellent with a few scattered minor nicks and scratches. An exceptionally rare, one of a kind, historic, factory engraved and inscribed Savage Semi-Automatic Pistol that is 100% original and impeccably documented to Buffalo Bill Cody. This is your chance to own an absolute historic National Treasure -- one that you could enjoy, hold, and appreciate without having to press your nose against cold museum display glass and wish you could be that fortunate. Estimate: 60,000 - 90,000
228
AS PICTURED AND DESCRIBED IN "ARMS GAZETTE", JULY 1979 AND THE BOOK BUFFALO BILL'S WILD WEST BY WILSON