Hartland Pistols

Mike Jackson’s Hartland Photos:

WESTERN PARTS —PISTOLS

Hartland produced quite a variety of small pistols, many of which were lost in the grass or swept up in the vacuum over the years. While the silver weapons seemed fairly consistent over the years, the brown group of pistols and accessories varied a lot from burnt orange to almost maroon or wine colored.

PISTOLS
	Champ Style Small Pistol: This one, along with the larger Champ Style Pistol below, were the first pistols. They would have been used with the Cowboy and Cowgirls in the 800 series. Later the same pistol would have been used with the Champ Style Lone Rangers. I have seen this pistol used with Tonto, too.
	Champ Style Small Pistol (extremely rare): This is one of only two pistols like this that I am aware of and they came from a large collection compiled between 1959 and 1961. If I had to guess, I'd say it went with a Tonto set.
	Regular Silver Pistol without rear sight: I believe this is the second pistol mold made. Early versions of this pistol would slip down inside the figure’s leg and I believe they adjusted the gun in the next mold. These are far less common than the other two silver pistols below.
	Regular Silver Pistol with rear sight & small handle: This one appears to be one generation later but still has the small handle. The new sights at front and back helped keep the gun from slipping down into the holster.
	Regular Silver Pistol with full sized handle & sight. By far the most common pistol. This one is used by the Stevens company though the old pistols are a bit smaller. Almost any character could have had this pistol, expecially early.
	Brown-Reddish-Maroon Regular Pistol: This pistol is also farily common and seemed to start showing up in about 1958 or so, possibly with the introduction of the gunfighters, which all seemed to have them. They vary quite a bit in color. In later years, I believe all sets used this pistol except Preston.
	Earp Buntline: Buntlines are longer than any of the other pistols and were always dark brown to maroonish. Early Earps probably had the plain silver pistols until after the introduction of the Earp Gunfighter. They shipped with a matching regular brown pistol.
	Stevens Earp Buntline: When Stevens reintroduced the Earp sets in the early 90’s, they painted the pistol silver instead of the traditional brown. These pistols seem a little larger than the older ones.
	Stevens Regular Silver Pistol: This pistol was introduced with the re-release of Roy Rogers and was used with their Dale Evans and Wyatt Earp sets. They are a tiny bit larger than the older pistols. Most collectors will not be able to tell the difference.
	Mountie Pistol: This pistol was originally produced for Sgt. Lance O’Rourke and later switched to Sgt. Preston. It normally included a short piece of white cord to create the trademark lanyard used with the Canadian Mounties.
	Bat Masterson Pistol: This pistol is supposed to be exclusive to Bat Masterson, however I have quite a few more of this pistol than I have Mastersons. I have a feeling other people got this pistol, too. It is slightly smaller than the rest of the pistols.
	Black Pistol: I have heard from a reliable source that confirms the existence of original black pistols. I am guessing they produced them around 1957 to 1958 but that is very sketchy. Black pistols are glued in the holster of my Lone Ranger lamp.
	Military Pistol: I am fairly certain that Custer used this gun most of the time and possibly the Rebel and Mackenzie. There are so few of those two sets around to be certain. Whatever the case, they do look great with those sets. Toy guns from the same period featured a similar shape for the Rebel.
	Large Champ 900 Series Pistol: This pistol is quite a bit larger than the 800 Series pistols. They would have been some of the first that Hartland sculptors would have made followed shortly by the smaller 800 series Champ pistols. They are fairly hard to find.