The vampire gun at the National Firearms Museum

[Gunreference1]

The vampire gun at the National Firearms Museum

Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 3, 2010

Let's say you need to kill a vampire -- and heaven knows, they're everywhere these days. The National Firearms Museum has just the thing: the Vampire Hunter's Colt Detective Special. The revolver has a cross engraved on the muzzle, presumably to keep vampires at bay while the vampire hunter takes aim. It spits silver .38-caliber bullets, each of which is sculpted in the form of a vampire's head. And its coffin-shaped box, lined with sanguinary-red velvet, comes with a helpful vial marked "Holy Water."

The Vampire Hunter's Colt Detective Special, which is a silver-plated version of the snub-nosed handgun once prized by Mafia hit men and pulp fiction's world-weary private eyes, is one of the newest additions to the collection of 5,000 firearms. It goes on display Oct. 8 along with 400 newly acquired firearms in the new Robert E. Petersen wing of the museum at the National Rifle Association's headquarters in Fairfax County.

To read the rest of the stort click the link below.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...100100155.html

Steve

[ATAK, Inc.]

Now that is pretty cool! But vampires are such a niche market!

[gewehr44]

Cute, but everyone knows silver bullets are for werewolves!

[Zoff12]

Somewhere around here, I have the magazine article from something like 12 years ago about that pistol. Here's the pics...

[Mark Ducati]

I've always love engraved revolvers and pistols like that....

When you look at the detail, its absolutely amazing that a man could do that kind of work...

How is engraving on a gun done? Do they use rotary tools to cut? Or the old hammer/chisel? Other than toy guns, they don't cast guns like this do they?

[Gunreference1]

If you don't have that issue of Guns & Ammo you can read about the 'Vampire Gun' at the link below.

http://www.gunsandammo.com/content/vampire-gun

It was engraved in 1975 by Colt master engraver Leonard Francolini, who claimed the gun was undertaken on the order of one Dr. Abraham van Helsing.

Steve

[mriddick]

There are actual period vampire kits from the 17-19th centuries, that pistol to me is little more then a recreation.

This one from 1800 recently sold for over $14,000

[mrkalashnikov]

There are actual period vampire kits from the 17-19th centuries, that pistol to me is little more then a recreation.

This one from 1800 recently sold for over $14,000

Now that...is way cool.

[mriddick]

There is a very kool kit that shows up at NGD, considering what the 1800 one sold for I might need to look into the one at NGD. Too bad they don't allow pictures on the floor or I'd get one and post it, it's actually better and more complete then the one that sold for $14000.

[circuits]

Cute, but everyone knows silver bullets are for werewolves!

+1...

A proper "undead" gun is a shotgun loaded with a mix of silver shot and live oak splinters - good for Werewolves (silver), vampires (live oak) and zombies (squishy headshot)

[raxar]

There are actual period vampire kits from the 17-19th centuries, that pistol to me is little more then a recreation.

This one from 1800 recently sold for over $14,000

I have an old Guns&ammo with an article about one of those, not quite as fancy as that one, it has a small, cross shaped, very simple muzzle loading pistol (with silver round ball), a ramrod/stake, bottle of vampire repelant and orginally came with garlic cloves. Maybe if I get around to it I'll scan some pics.

[ksuguy]

I've seen another one too. I think it was a garish 10mm 1911.

[HDR]

Cute, but everyone knows silver bullets are for werewolves!

"Fire a silver bullet blessed by a priest into his heart."

"Silver bullets will kill a vampire as well as any other silver object such as a silver dagger or silver stake. Silver is known for its pure qualities and is used to keep away evil spirits, werewolves and other evil beings for centuries."

Last but not least:
"Scientific discovery: Silver bullets not only kill vampires but bacteria"

http://www.examiner.com/holistic-sci...s-but-bacteria

[Bluntforce]

I have an old Guns&ammo with an article about one of those, not quite as fancy as that one, it has a small, cross shaped, very simple muzzle loading pistol (with silver round ball), a ramrod/stake, bottle of vampire repelant and orginally came with garlic cloves. Maybe if I get around to it I'll scan some pics.

Phil Spangenburger wrote that article before he took off to work for the History Channel on Old West shows. Haven't seen him on there forever though.

Roman medics carried silver staples that they would close large wounds in the soldiers with because silver did not cause infection and was not hospitable to it. The "purity" of it is probably a garbled memory passed from Classical times to the Middle Ages.

Just like the vampire itself is a amalgam of Greek blood sucking mist ghosts that preyed mostly on family members soon after death (much cooler explanation than people close to sick people tend to get sick themselves) and Arabic ghouls that had bodies, resembled people and ate dead bodies. When our friends the Turks conquered the Arabs and then the Greeks between bouts of raping the shit out of the women and little boys they had them tell them stories and the mist ghosts of Ancient Greece had an unholy union with corpse-eating Arab ghouls.

[Starvin]

There are actual period vampire kits from the 17-19th centuries, that pistol to me is little more then a recreation.

This one from 1800 recently sold for over $14,000

I hate to be the jerk that stomps on this but Dracula (and thus vampires as we know them) wasn't published until 1897.

While the above kit really did sell for the price mentioned, and some of the components are period, the "vampire hunter kits" are fanciful hoaxes put together by artists. Some scrupulous, some not.

[Zoff12]

I hate to be the jerk that stomps on this but Dracula (and thus vampires as we know them) wasn't published until 1897.

Just because Dracula wasn't written until the late 1800's doesn't mean Vampire Killing Kits didn't exist. Dracula was not the “original” vampire. Vampire lore has been around for centuries and changed very little until Anne Rice and the Vampire Chronicles. Bram Stoker based his story on existing vampire belief of the time and before. I wrote a thesis in one of my college forensic classes on vampire lore. Essentially... comparing what occurs to the body after death that gave credibility to vampire lore. I researched the subject extensively and was not all too surprised that the belief in vampires goes back to the beginning of written history and beyond with spoken stories. This is true for nearly every culture that existed. Even those who had no contact with Europe due to geography. The Mayans and Aztecs had vampire stories. So did China, Japan, and Africa. All showed close similarities. Granted, it wasn’t until Christianity became widespread that Holy Water and using the Cross became the “way” to ward off or dispatch a vampire. Still… that was way before firearms came along so the Vampire firearm is not a stretch. As for fakes… I am sure there are but originals do exist. All are "fanciful hoaxes" because for them to not be, vampires would have to be real and not things of fantasy.

[AKTexas]

There are actual period vampire kits from the 17-19th centuries, that pistol to me is little more then a recreation.

This one from 1800 recently sold for over $14,000

Could you imagine going to the local Montgomery Wards equivalent of the day and picking one of these up like you would your everyday needs?

[Starvin]

Just because Dracula wasn't written until the late 1800's doesn't mean Vampire Killing Kits didn't exist. Dracula was not the “original” vampire. Vampire lore has been around for centuries and changed very little until Anne Rice and the Vampire Chronicles. Bram Stoker based his story on existing vampire belief of the time and before. I wrote a thesis in one of my college forensic classes on vampire lore. Essentially... comparing what occurs to the body after death that gave credibility to vampire lore. I researched the subject extensively and was not all too surprised that the belief in vampires goes back to the beginning of written history and beyond with spoken stories. This is true for nearly every culture that existed. Even those who had no contact with Europe due to geography. The Mayans and Aztecs had vampire stories. So did China, Japan, and Africa. All showed close similarities. Granted, it wasn’t until Christianity became widespread that Holy Water and using the Cross became the “way” to ward off or dispatch a vampire. Still… that was way before firearms came along so the Vampire firearm is not a stretch. As for fakes… I am sure there are but originals do exist. All are "fanciful hoaxes" because for them to not be, vampires would have to be real and not things of fantasy.

I certainly wasn't argueing the idea of vampires didn't come along untill Dracula was written. I was saying the vampires most folks think of, and as you pointed out governed by the rules these kits supposidly cater to was created at the turn of the last century. And to be fair the lore continues to evolve today.

Just like zombies have been around for a very long time in one form or another but the ones most folks think of today are a product of George Romero.

Below is a link explaining how the kits got started in the 70's

http://www.lesvampires.org/dewinter.html

I've seen similar ones for werewolf hunters as well. To include one that had a "werewolf fetus" in a bottle of formaldehyde.

[Zoff12]

I've seen similar ones for werewolf hunters as well. To include one that had a "werewolf fetus" in a bottle of formaldehyde.

That's just nasty.

I wasn't denying the fact of "fakes" existing but stating that so did the "original" ones.