How you doing?
GEORGE: Doing all right.
CHUMLEE: What do you have here?
What I have is a belt buckle pistol.
[whip sound]
[spaghetti western music]
CHUMLEE: This is actually pretty cool.
This was the concealed gun of all concealed guns, I guess.
GEORGE: Right.
CHUMLEE: It looks like this is the trigger right here.
GEORGE: Right.
CHUMLEE: A lot of the times what would happen
is you would have a string tied to here
and would run up through your arm
and be tied to a ring or something on your sleeve.
And then if you move your hand up, it would fire the gun.
So it's kind of a sneaky little gun.
I imagine there's no markings on it.
Am I wrong?
Is there marking?
I have not seen any type of marking on it.
CHUMLEE: Yeah.
And that's because the guy making this
wouldn't really want to advertise it.
He's the sneaky guy making these kind of guns.
GEORGE: Oh.
CHUMLEE: It's definitely been used,
and it looks like it's got some rusting on it,
but you would kind of expect that.
Does it work?
I have never fired it.
I've never tried to fire it.
The story has been lost.
We don't really know where it came from,
but it's been in the family for generations.
CHUMLEE: OK.
I'm not exactly sure how collectable this gun would be,
because it is hard to figure out who made it.
But I do know there is a market for this kind of stuff.
So what would you like to do with it?
I want to sell it.
And how much are you looking for?
I'd like to have $500.
That seems pretty reasonable, actually.
I do need to know a little bit more about it before I go ahead
and make you an offer.
Give me just a moment.
I'm going to go grab my guy, Alex,
and see if he can tell us a little bit more about this.
Don't go anywhere, all right?
Sure.
Thanks.
Hi. GEORGE: Hi.
- I'm Alex. - George.
Good to meet you.
Nice to meet you, George.
George has this pretty freaking cool belt gun.
[laughing]
ALEX: George, you mind if I pick it up?
GEORGE: Please do.
Oh, wow.
So my first feeling about this is
that it's incredibly dangerous.
[laughing]
Well, those are dangerous times back then.
ALEX: Yeah.
So what's interesting about this is
that the entire firing mechanism is contained
behind this back plate here.
And the trigger down here, it's got a loop through it.
So there must be, in the original design
of this, some type of lanyard or string
or wire which would actually be able to fire it, concealed.
I'm going to take the belt off of it.
GEORGE: Sure. ALEX: Is that all right?
So this hammer is from an old shotgun,
probably from the 1880s, 1890s.
GEORGE: OK.
ALEX: And I think that's about what this dates.
What I'm curious about is what caliber this barrel is.
I'm wondering if that is a standard caliber for the time,
or if it's just a homemade piece of pipe.
If it's a correct caliber of the time,
would that make it more valuable than, say,
if it was just a piece of pipe?
ALEX: Yes.
And the reason of that is because if it's just
a piece of pipe that somebody made and stuck on there, maybe
it's a homemade thing that's not very old.
If it's a caliber that was in use at the time,
it would show me that it was made that way
for a practical purpose.
This is a caliper.
It measures the inside dimension of the bore.
So that's right at 3.6, and that's really good,
because 3.6 was actually a really standard percussion
revolver caliber.
So I don't think that this was a homemade prop or anything.
I think somebody actually really did make this--
1890s, probably.
But it's a one-off.
I don't think this was mass produced.
I think it was made one at a time, maybe as something
that they sold in a saloon.
You know?
But it's that type of feel.
It's got an Old West kind of feel to it.
CHUMLEE: OK.
And what kind of price would you put on it?
I think you need to see if it works.
I would suggest that if you're OK with it,
I have the correct lead balls for it, .36 caliber.
And I think I strap it on and we see how it works.
As long as you're the one strapping it on,
I'm all for it. [laughing]
Would you be willing to meet us down at the range with this?
I can do that.
Sounds good.
We'll see you down at the range, and take a look around
and hopefully you enjoy your time here.
All right. Thanks a lot.
CHUMLEE: See you soon.
ALEX: So I set up three big balloons so I wouldn't miss,
even though I'm going to be very close.
CHUMLEE: Well, I think even with this wind,
you should be a good shot today.
[laughing]
I hope so.
So I brought some supplies.
I have black powder.
I have .36 round led balls, which,
that'll be the projectile.
And I have some grease, and the grease
is actually going to help me keep the powder and the ball
in.
CHUMLEE: I'm ready to see this thing working.
OK. So--
You getting excited yet?
GEORGE: I am excited.
[laughing]
ALEX: All right.
So let's see how to aim.
This.
All right.
So now to full cock.
You ready?
CHUMLEE: Go.
[gunshots]
[laughing]
ALEX: Well, we got two.
GEORGE: That's pretty neat. ALEX: Yeah.
It works.
I don't know how much damage it would do to somebody,
but it definitely would stop them,
at least for a little bit.
CHUMLEE: So what do you think it's worth?
Well, there's not a whole lot out there to compare it to.
But because it's antique, because it's from about 1890,
I think there is a collector's value to it.
I could see it selling between $3,000 and $4,000.
CHUMLEE: OK.
Thanks for coming out and testing it.
ALEX: All right. You're welcome.
I'll see you back at the event.
Thank you very much. - Thanks.
I'll bring your stuff back. Don't worry, Alex.
ALEX: OK, thanks.
CHUMLEE: All right.
I'll give you $500 for it.
Well, you know, Alex had a little better opinion of it
than that.
How about we go $2,500?
How about $1,500?
We'll split the difference at $2,000.
Maybe like 17's probably the max I could do.
I mean, it's really cool, but it is a very niche
collector's market.
All right.
You got a deal.
All right.
Well I'm happy to have it, and we'll get you some cash.
OK. Thanks a lot.
All right. Thank you.
GEORGE: You're welcome. - I'll get this stuff.
I got to get back to the event.
GEORGE: OK.