Colt Buntline The Colt Buntline Special is a variant of long - barreled Colt Single Action Army revolver that author Stuart N . Lake created while writing his 1931 biography of Wyatt Earp . According to Lake ' s biography , " Wyatt Earp : Frontier Marshal " published in 1931 , dime novelist Ned Buntline had five Buntline Specials commissioned . Lake described them as extra - long , - long barrel Colt Single Action Army revolvers . Buntline was supposed to have presented them to lawmen in thanks for their help with contributing “ local color ” to his western yarns . According to Lake , the pistol was equipped with a detachable metal shoulder stock . After the publication of Lake ' s book , various Colt revolvers with long ( 10 ″ or 16 ″ ) barrels were referred to as " Colt Buntlines " . Colt re - introduced the revolvers in its second generation revolvers produced after 1956 . Colt Buntlines in a variety of lengths ( up to 18 ″ ) are depicted in the Spaghetti western " " For a Few Dollars More " " . Origin of myth . According to Lake , the weapon was a single - action revolver chambered for . 45 Long Colt cartridge . However , it had a 12 ″ ( 305mm ) long barrel , in comparison to the Colt Peacemaker ' s , 7 . 5 ″ ( 190mm ) barrel . A 16 ″ ( 406mm ) barrel was available as well . The Buntline Special was further popularized by " The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp " television series . It had a removable stock that could be easily affixed through a combination of screws and lead - ins . These modifications allegedly gave the weapon better precision and range , and supposedly allowed the user to affix the stock and turn the revolver into an even more precise weapon to give it most of the advantages of a rifle . Buntline connections . Ned Buntline is supposed to have commissioned this weapon in 1876 , but the Colt company has no record of receiving the order nor making any such weapon . Lake conceived the idea of a revolver that would be more precise and could be easily modified to work similarly to a rifle . Lake ' s creative biography " Wyatt Earp : Frontier Marshal " , published in 1931 , and later Hollywood portrayals , exaggerated Wyatt ' s profile as a western lawman . The book later inspired a number of stories , movies and television programs about outlaws and lawmen in Dodge City and Tombstone , including the 1955 television series " The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp " . Alleged presentation to lawmen . Lake wrote that Wyatt Earp and four other well - known western lawmen - Bat Masterson , Bill Tilghman , Charlie Bassett and Neal Brown - each received a Buntline Special . However , neither Tilghman nor Brown were lawmen then . According to Lake , Earp kept his at the original 12 ″ length but the four other recipients of the Specials cut their barrels down to the standard 7½ ″ . Lake spent much effort trying to track down the Buntline Special through the Colt company , Masterson and contacts in Alaska . Lake described it as a Colt Single Action Army model with a long , barrel , standard sights , and wooden grips into which the name “ Ned ” was ornately carved . Researchers have never found any record of an order received by the Colt company , and Ned Buntline ' s alleged connections to Earp ' s have been largely discredited . Earp weapon . Buntline wrote only four western yarns , all about Buffalo Bill . There is no conclusive proof as to the kind of pistol Earp usually carried , though it is known that on the day of the Gunfight at the O . K . Corral , October 26 , 1881 , he carried an 8 inch ( 200mm ) barreled . 44 caliber 1869 American model Smith & Wesson . Earp had received the weapon as a gift from Tombstone mayor and " Tombstone Epitaph " newspaper editor John Clum . Lake later admitted that he had ' put words into Wyatt ' s mouth because of the inarticulateness and monosyllabic way he had of talking ' . Colt records . The revolver could have been specially ordered from the Colt factory in Hartford , Connecticut as extra - long barrels were available from Colt at a dollar an inch over . Several such revolvers with 16 - inch barrels and detachable stocks were displayed at the 1876 Centennial Exposition , but these were marketed as " Buggy rifles " . While there are no company records for the Buntline Special nor a record of any orders from or sent to Ned Buntline . This does not absolutely preclude the historicity of the revolvers . Massad Ayoob writing for " Guns Magazine " cited notes by Josie Earp in which she mentioned an extra - long revolver as a favorite of Wyatt Earp . He cited an order by Tombstone , Arizona , bartender Buckskin Frank Leslie for a revolver of near - identical description . This order predated the O . K . Corral fight by several months . In the 1950s , when Colt resumed manufacture of the Single Action Army they made a Buntline version due to customer demand . The barrels are marked on the left - side " COLT BUNTLINE SPECIAL . 45 " . A few 3rd Generation Buntlines were manufactured in the late 1970s as well .