The Hunt for Old Guns: The Stevens, Wesson, and Miller Revolver

In “The Hunt for Old Guns” series, we look at 19th century American firearms – the rare, the unusual, and the iconic. In this episode, we’ll talk about a revolver that turned up in 2017 – only the second one known to still exist and the first to surface since 1851.

n 2017, a guy walked into an antique store in rural Connecticut and flopped an old suitcase down on the counter. His great uncle had immigrated to America around 1900 and settled in New Haven, where he was a bartender for many years. When he died, the suitcase was all that he left behind. It was passed down through the family, and they fished it out of the attic and decided to sell it in 2017.

Inside were a bunch of old knives and handguns. Apparently, the uncle had kept the weapons he confiscated from drunken bar patrons. Sadly, however, the contents had gotten wet many years before and were all hopelessly rusted together.