#RockIslandAuction

Colt was the king of the wheelgun world in the 1800s, even though other manufacturers made arguably better revolvers. That’s because Colt’s reputation was built on the rough, tough frontier; they were the first company to sell revolvers, and their handguns were arguably the reason that Texans were able to fight off the Comanche warriors during the 1840s and 1850s. That was the start of decades of revolver firepower dominating the West, from the Mexican-American War to the California Gold Rush to the Civil War and the Indian Wars. Colt made full-sized revolvers that dominated the battlefields as well as personal conflicts in frontier towns.

If you’re unfamiliar with the story or need a brief refresher, Bonnie and Clyde were a notorious American criminal duo whose violent two-year spree unfolded across the central United States during the height of the Great Depression. They met in Texas in January 1930 and soon became romantically involved, a bond that shaped the rest of their lives. Joined by a shifting circle of accomplices known as the Barrow Gang, they moved from state to state, stealing cars and robbing small-town gas stations, grocery stores, and the occasional bank. Though popular imagination often cast them as glamorous Robin Hood figures, their day-to-day reality was grim, desperate, and rarely profitable, with many robberies yielding only modest sums.

At the end of the 1890s, John Moses Browning was in a weird place. He’d had a hand in designing many classic lever-action rifles (and even shotguns!) over the past years, but he realized that without some big changes to the design, lever-actions would lose a lot of market share to bolt actions. Tube mag lever guns were not suited for pointed spitzer-style bullets, which European bolt action rifles could easily handle with their box magazines.

When we talk about rimfires today, we mostly think of .22LR, .22 Short or maybe .22 Magnum. In the past few years, we’ve seen .17 HMR and .21 Sharp come on the scene, and the .17 HM2 come and go. All these cartridges have their advantages and disadvantages, but they’re all small-bore rounds. But this wasn’t always the case.

The high-end auction houses always have some sort of interesting firearm up for auction - sometimes it’s a rare piece of history, sometimes the gun belonged to a notable figure from the past, and sometimes, it’s a set of diamond-encrusted, gold-plastered Smith & Wesson No. 1 revolvers. Admittedly, that’s extremely rare, but that’s what we see for sale at Rock Island Auction on June 27, 2026.

Welcome back to another edition of Wheelgun Wednesday. This week, I wanted to take a look at my experience at Rock Island Auction and purchasing a gun from this company. If you are a true gun guy, going to the RIA auctions and purchasing a gun should certainly be on your bucket list. While I love going to a high-end gun shop just like everyone else, this experience was taken to an entirely new level with some of the rarest guns being auctioned off to the point where it can honestly be overwhelming.

Rock Island Auction Company has set a world record for the most expensive AK-47 pattern rifle ever sold at an auction. Of course, it’s not just any AK; it’s a milled receiver Chinese Type 56 fully transferable machine gun, a Vietnam War bringback by USMC Lt. Col. Frank Wolcott. This rifle was sold during the December 2025 Rock Island Premier Firearms Auction for a whopping $246,750, way exceeding the estimated price range of $80,000-$130,000 that the lot was initially expected to be sold for.

If you are interested in a Registered Magnum revolver, this is a fantastic auction to keep an eye on with a number of Registered as well as Non Registered Magnums with everything from 3” factory models to the longer 6 ½” variants and everything in between. Whether it's a matching set of snub nose magnums or a Registered Magnum that a Virginia ABC inspector carried with an extra set of Stag grips, there are some truly fantastic examples in this auction that would be a fantastic choice for anyone looking for a flagship piece for their collection. One of the models that made an impression is a factory Nickel Registered Magnum that was engraved by Cole Agee.

The Thompson submachine gun is undoubtedly one of the most iconic SMGs of the 20th century, which proved to be an extremely effective tool whether used as a broom in the trenches of WW2 or a typewriter on the streets of Chicago. No wonder they decided to further explore the potential of its design and developed a version chambered in .30-06 Springfield. This one-of-a-kind experimental Tommy Gun in 30-06 is consigned to the upcoming December 2025 Rock Island Premier Firearms Auction.

For today’s Photo Of The Day, we have pictures of a handgun that almost looks AI-generated. However, it is a real firearm consigned to the upcoming August 2025 Rock Island Premier Firearms Auction. Designed by Louis Schlegelmilch circa 1891, this is an Imperial German prototype pistol. In addition to its rather interesting appearance, this pistol also has a quite unusual mechanism and features. It is an internal magazine-fed manual repeater with a side-moving breech block actuated by cocking the hammer, and it features a cleaning rod/screwdriver attached to the left side of the frame.

Thanks to social media and YouTube, expert shooters can be well-known stars today, even if the mainstream media isn’t so keen on them. But once upon a time, trick shooters and expert marksmen were as famous and media-dominating as pro stick-and-ball athletes are today. Annie Oakley was one of the most famous of them all; if you’ve got the green, you can show what a big fan you are of her legacy by buying her six-shooter through Rock Island Auction this August.

When you think of classic six-guns of the Wild West, of course, Colt is the foremost manufacturer of that era. But once you get past their offerings, there are many other smaller manufacturers who were nevertheless significant, with Smith & Wesson being one of the most important of these companies. While their pocket-sized rimfires were the most common, S&W made big-bore horse pistols too, particularly the Model 3. And if you’ve always wanted a Model 3 with a particularly grim backstory, Rock Island Auction Company has something you might want to see—the revolver that supposedly killed legendary Sioux war chief Sitting Bull.

Guns, politics and bling go together like bacon, lettuce and tomato—just ask Bond Arms, where they release a derringer every few months featuring some political tie-in. But this is nothing new; fancy-pants weapons have been floating around politics for years, and this highly customized Colt 1851 is the perfect example. It was originally presented to Mexican president Benito Juarez, and it is coming up for sale at Rock Island Auctions in the coming weeks.

Want to buy a classic Smith & Wesson? Something way older than an original K-frame, even older than the Schofield. Why not a customized Model 1 ½, as ordered and owned by Horace Smith, aka the “Smith” in Smith & Wesson? Thanks to the Rock Island Auction Company, you will have your chance to do that next month.

Welcome back to Wheelgun Wednesday, our weekly column where we discuss everything related to revolvers. Early repeating firearm designs in general and revolvers in particular are always fascinating. Today, we'll take a look at a very rare late 18th-century flintlock revolving shotgun. This wheelgun is consigned to Rock Island Auction Company and will be sold in their upcoming December 2024 Premier Firearms Auction.