Victims And Lessons
So it appears The Autry got taken on their 11301, and trustingly based on that, the Franklin Mint went on to flim-flam their own customers with their replica of the Autry gun during the 1980s. As for me? Yeah, well …
Strangely enough, Franklin Mint replicas of the “Holliday” revolver sell for more on eBay than real, firing, used Ubertis bring at gun shows. Cheapskate me, in early 2024, I finally scored one at a local coin/jewelry/gun shop at a reasonable price.
When it comes to lack of expertise regarding Colt SAAs, my own was pretty abysmal at first, too. I have since spent a huge amount of money on more books for Colt collectors and spent untold hours online, plus conversations with Colt collectors at gun shows to learn a few things. At first I was pleased to discover my 11301’s cylinder was the correct diameter of 1.6505″ and the frame window was 1.671″, well within tolerances for a genuine Colt. The Mint model’s dimensions were 1.670 and 1.695″, just right for a Uberti.
However, the big reveal was learning that Colts have a recoil plate in their frames, while Ubertis merely have a simple hole in the frame for the firing pin to peen larger. My 11301 has no recoil plate. So if it’s not a real Colt with faked serial numbers, but rather some sort of fake Colt, what is it? Where did it come from? Whodunit?
Everything Wilson owned was seized and sold to pay his creditors and victims. He passed on Dec. 10, 2016, at age 77. I wonder if his Ferrari was even the real deal, or just another fake to impress his guests back in the day.
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