Posted on 11/10/2007 1:20:58 PM PST by DogByte6RER
Two guns owned by Mexican folk hero Pancho Villa up for auction
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Associated Press
SAN ANTONIO Whether or not Pancho Villa is remembered as an infamous outlaw or a revolutionary hero, everyone agrees that the folk hero of the 1910 Mexican Revolution always carried guns.
Now two of those firearms, and one that belonged to frontierswoman "Calamity Jane," will be up for bidding in an auction beginning Saturday in Fredericksburg. The auction is open for public preview on Friday.
"He always carried a gun to the day of his death and he didn't care what it was," Tom Burks, manager of the auction and former curator for the Texas Ranger Museum in Waco, said of Villa. "He knew his life didn't depend on a fancy gun."
Also Online Frontier Times Western Auction But one of them is a real beaut'.
Villa's Remington single action revolver, engraved with a scroll pattern, will clearly be the star of the auction. The big draw is that it has Villa's real name, "Doreteo Arango," engraved on one side of the barrel. On the other side is "Chih-1914," around the time Villa became governor of the Mexican state of Chihuahua.
Burks said the gun model dates to 1875.
Another gun in the auction, which features about 1,000 Old West items, once belonged to "Calamity Jane," Burks said. The pocket pistol, which comes in its leather case, bears the moniker "Martha Jane Cannary," the frontierswoman's real name.
Also available is a mauser carbine rifle that Villa reportedly dropped in the Rio Grande during a skirmish with opposition forces. Documents accompanying the rifle say a woman fished it out of the water and sold it to a young man who later gave it to his sister.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
It got so bad, a lady in our club just took the moniker "Not Yet Taken".
Nobody had gotten my lady, because she isn't well known even though she worked for General Crook (her brother was killed by the Lakota, and she was out for revenge.)
If the closest mounted club weren't down in FLORIDA, I would be doing mounted shooting in a heartbeat. Even though I have a tall skinny Tbred hunter-jumper she is already broke to gun. And we would clean up in the mounted contests where they have to jump something - not so well in anything that looks like a barrel race. My girl won't set any land speed records anywhere, but she's utterly bombproof and can jump the moon.
Listen, I have Adolph Hitlers L.L.Bean boots I’ll sell ya real cheap.
SASS non-mounted which came first does use live ammo and I believe the targets have more imagination built into them than IPSC.
...Red Cloud and Crazy Horse caused a lot of trouble out West. Just about brought Crook to wits end.
I think that is not Pancho. Pancho is where the X in the picture is.
Meanwhile, a real find would be the head of Pancho Villa sa it was stolen from his corpse several years later.
I wonder if Warren Oates did it!
I’d want Pancho’s bandoliers. I thought THOSE were cool.
Are you sure that isn't Gov. Corzine in that picture. I understand he had a similar pose in the aftermath of his car accident.
If you look close at the bottom of the picture you will see two names. Villa is the first one with a small x above the name. If you look straight up into the picture to the right of the woman spectator’s head you can see another X. That is Villa.
One of the other posts I made of a picture taken from the hood you can also see him.
..and I'm sure the wax bullets they use in Vegas are a real handful.
and I believe the targets have more imagination built into them than IPSC.
No argument there. Plus, you get to wear chaps and call each other "buckaroo".
Maybe I should have said my comment about it being Corzine was a joke.
I was turned off from having anything to do with SASS when I noticed the recoil on the guns. It looked like they were shooting .22’s. Don’t they need a proven power factor in order to compete?
I did like the use of shotguns, rifles and handguns but all at the same time? No thanks.
I'm starting out with .38 Special/.357 just because the distances are relatively short. My carry gun is a Combat Commander in .45 ACP and my target pistol is a 1911A1 in .45, but they won't let me shoot those!
There are some people who download the .38 spl but there aren't many of them. The big problem with that is that you don't get knockdown on the moveable targets. It's like using downloaded .30 caliber on the metallic silhouette and then hearing it hit the rams and just watching them sit there. It's counterproductive.
The scenarios can be a good deal more creative than IPSC and the time pressure is fairly intense. I like it! (I've just got to get the hang of loading those darned revolvers! I have never been a wheelgun person!)
And of course you don't shoot all three arms at once! (you put the others down first.)
I think SASS is probably the best thing to happen to shooting sports in recent history. They have 10 times the membership of USPSA or IDPA, and their membership and funding have helped build - and protect - some magnificent shooting facilities. It's a very nonthreatening shooting sport - that aspect entices a lot of people to shoot that might not otherwise be interested.
But it's easier shooting - the guns don't recoil much, the targets are big and up close, all steel - so no taping, and scoring is a no brainer. A hit is a hit, perimeter or A zone. It takes a lot of skill to win, but it's different.
They did a lot of stuff right, and they have the membership to show for it. Plus, you get to participate in the masquerade aspect, from a period that many Americans hold in romantic high esteem. And the stages are incredibly ornate and imaginative, within the constraints of the SASS design limitations.
That said, I wish they'd be a little less hostile to other shooting sports, their founding membership seems to have inculcated a specific hatred of USPSA/IPSC in particular, and I'm not sure exactly where it came from because the disciplines aren't all that different.
If Doc Holliday were walking around today, he wouldn't be packing an Uberti SAA.
No PF for SASS, in fact they often use cream of wheat to top off the small charges in those big cases.
No need to cycle any action - your thumb does that - so as long as the bullet makes it to the target you're good.
It did look like a lot of fun but as I said, I was turned off by the lack of recoil in the guns regardless of the caliber. I also tried to watch that movie “Hell to Pay” which employed a lot of the SASS members but the acting was atrocious. The special features for the movie were more fun to watch.
There’s supposed to be a huge match at Glen Rose, Texas on the third weekend of the month. I still want to take a ride out there and check it out someday. Only problen is the third Saturday is my IDPA matches.
I didn’t think they had a power factor. We had a guy sneak into a IDPA match shooting a .38 revolver using squibs. It was ridiculous.
SASS should also get rid of that two hand hold for all their classifications instead of just “Duelists”. I never have seen a Remington or Russell painting where they needed two hands. Just saying.
Having been in SASS for over 16 years, yes SASS was started by some folks who didn’t have alot of use for IPSC shooters. SASS was supposed to be about people and families getting together and having fun. When I compete I more interested in the costume than a high score. I don’t know about Ubertis as I carry Colt 44-40s and a Winchester ‘92 and a Winchester shotgun 12 gauge model 97. The gamers are the guys with the small caliber and the light loads. The guys that are in for fun like myself are shooting the 44s and the 45s. Speaking of fun, it’s more fun to shoot at targets from moving gold mining carts and bucking mechanical horses than it is to stand at a firing line in some of the IPSC outfits I’ve seen.
I certainly get your point about having a good time; I'm sure that's why SASS has such a huge membership. I think SASS is big enough to pay staff to run the bigger matches?
USPSA is all volunteer, except for a very small administrative staff, which really limits the time people are willing to put into elaborate matches.
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