One of the guns from what was probably Clint Eastwood’s best Western is up for auction. Set in Missouri during and just after the Civil War, it chronicles the flight of an ex-Confederate guerilla to escape a vengeful Union.
“Well, you gonna pull those pistols or whistle ‘Dixie’?” Moments after delivering this line in the 1976 film “The Outlaw Josey Wales”, Clint Eastwood (playing the titular character) deftly draws a brace of Colt revolvers and opens fire. With assistance from his Cherokee friend, Lone Waite (played by late Chief of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, Dan George), Wales employs his pair of Colts to dispatch a group of Union soldiers who are hesitatingly preparing to attempt to take the infamous outlaw into custody. One of the guns in this iconic scene was an 1847 Walker which is set to be sold at an auction that will be held next month, August 26th-27th.
Better get that second mortgage, however. Estimates for the auction price run from $40-60,000. Original ones may bring close to a million.
The Walker Colt was the most powerful revolver made until the advent of the .357 Magnum (no word whether it would “blow your head clean off”), so it’s an appropriate arm for the man who played “Dirty Harry.” The Walker weighed a hefty 4.5 pounds, though, so a pair of them would weigh as much as a rifle.
Although popular in the movies, the Walker was a rare bird. The military contract was for 1000 pistols, and another 100 were made for private sale, making it very unlikely that a Confederate guerilla would end up with a pair of them.
UPDATE: Should you want to know exactly which guns were used in various movies, including Josie Wales, as well as the ones that weren’t right and the ones they should have used, I suggest you consult the Internet Movie Firearms Database, which has all that info and much, much more.
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