Rock Island Auction Company will be aglow with Smith & Wesson handguns  ̶  rarities and classics  ̶  dedicating its entire May 1 Collectors Spotlight auction slate to only firearms from the legendary American company. More than half of the Smith & Wesson handguns in the 300-lot auction are from the collection of long-time collector Jon M. Maxwell. Maxwell was a 40-year member of the Smith & Wesson Collector Association and devoted himself to the pursuit of assembling a group of experimental, early production, one-off and rare collectable Smith & Wesson handg ..read more

Theodore Roosevelt remains one of the most popular men in American history and certainly one of our best and most beloved presidents. His face is chiseled into Mount Rushmore, and his legacy is represented far wider in the national landscape thanks to his immense contributions to conservation and national parks. Theodore Roosevelt passed his love for outdoor adventure on to his son Kermit, who accompanied his father on numerous hunts. This Hawken rifle and Parker Brothers shotgun offered by RIAC this May belonged to father and son, and together tell a story of an intimate period in the Rooseve ..read more

The USA Shooting Team is preparing to build on its Olympic medal-winning legacy as it aims for the Paris Games this summer, but it needs help from the wider firearms community before it gets there. USA Shooting has displayed decades of dominance on the Olympic stage, including three gold medals in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and 58 gold medals since shooting competitions were part of the first Olympics in 1896. Unlike other countries, the federal government doesn’t fund the U.S. Olympic Team, and programs like USA Basketball draw sponsors like Nike and AT&T. USA Shooting relies on donations an ..read more

George Armstrong Custer and Wild Bill Hickok were dead when John H. Burns arrived in Deadwood, Dakota Territory in 1877 with a letter of recommendation in his pocket from a well-known Chicago Circuit Court judge. Custer’s expedition into the Black Hills in 1874 sparked the gold rush. A year later in the fall of 1875, gold was discovered in “Deadwood Gulch” and a mining camp sprang up the following spring. Hickok arrived in the summer of 1876 as part of a wagon train to the gold rush but was only in town for a few weeks before he was shot dead at a card table holding aces and eights. Into this ..read more

In 'The Pilgrim's Progress: 1620-1875,' a humorous chronology of U.S. history widely published in 1875 newspapers, historian James Hammond Trumbull declared that in 1835 America "Invents the revolver, and sets about supplying the world with it, as a peace-maker." From the Paterson onward, the concept of the wheelgun as an equalizer was touted by gun dealers around the globe, with no model representing that idea more prominently than the Colt Single Action Army, the favorite peacemaker of the Wild West. This high condition U.S. contract Colt Cavalry Model Single Action Army was manufactured in ..read more

For over two centuries, James Purdey & Sons has ranked among the finest names in gunmaking. From shooting champions to English royalty, Purdey sporting arms have been treasured far and wide, and owning a shotgun or rifle from the famed London gunmaker is a dream come true for countless sportsmen, shooters, and collectors today. A consecutive trio of engraved 28 gauge Purdey Best Quality sidelock over/under shotguns. All three scenes were executed in exceptional detail by the hand of highly renowned master engraver Simon Coggan, who has signed each of the guns on the triggerplate. Available ..read more

Guns linked to the Confederacy are rare today, but relatively speaking, there weren't many to begin with. While northern gunmakers were turning out plenty of guns, the Confederacy with its lack of resources struggled to obtain the weapons to fight the Civil War. Southern ordnance officers turned to guns purchased in Europe that passed through the Union blockade or from gunmakers who were turning out small numbers of guns, sometimes relying on brass rather than steel for parts. Rock Island Auction Company’s May 17-19 Premier Auction will have a number of Confederate guns on offer, ranging from ..read more

When it comes to “armes de luxe” Parisian gunmakers have received near universal acclaim. French artistry in arms began to grow in prominence in the early 17th century. Even the smug English critics during the early World’s Fairs could not avoid giving the French their due. French gunmakers have been producing incredibly ornate fine arms for centuries, both for the royal court and international exhibitions. Their beautiful works of art have remained among the most desirable antique arms in both museum and private collections, exemplified by this incredible shotgun from Le Page-Moutier in Rock ..read more

The Thompson submachine gun, a product of finely machined hand craftsmanship, was completed too late to fill its intended role as a WW1 trench sweeper but saw service on all Allied fronts in WW2. Known colloquially as the Tommy gun, this impressive SMG also found fame on the streets of Prohibition-Era America. A Tommy gun for sale this May with documentation and accessories, this Model 1921 in “1921AC” configuration shipped to Hot Springs, Arkansas in 1929, and is later listed as shipping to the Greenville, South Carolina Police Department in 1932, during the heart of Prohibition. Rock Island ..read more

President Gerald Ford, who helped heal the nation from the Watergate scandal as the only president to enter office without being elected or through the death of a president, had a zeal for the outdoors. Ford, the 38th president, learned to fish from his stepfather, earned his Eagle Scout badge from the Boy Scouts, and in his autobiography recalled a photo of himself as a youngster dressed “like an early frontiersman.” He and his wife, Betty, were part-time residents of Vail, Colo., where he was an avid skier. Ford was the only president who served as a ranger for the National Park Service. As ..read more