Billy’s gun he had two days before the shooting?

[MissyS]

I found an interesting story written in 1953 about  a Jewish man named Sol Floersheim  that came to New Mexico and encountered Billy the Kid in a saloon south of Fort Sumner on July 12, 1881; just two days before the shooting occurred with Pat Garrett, it’s interesting the gun that Billy was said to have had at the time of that encounter sounded like it was his original pistol that he claimed he shot 21 men with and had the notches in it for each. If this is true, I’m wondering if Billy could have taken his own original pistol back from the armory that was confiscated by Garrett at Stinking Springs along with the others that he was said to have taken? Also I’m not sure the description of the gun that Garrett, Poe and McKinney described Billy having? And I was wondering if Brushy’s had a pistol with notches in it?   

swja.library.arizona.edu/content/fearless-sheepherder-new-mexico-frontier

[kerry]

It is often assumed in the absence of cold hard facts -that if such is true -
someone would have mentioned it...
I don't think there is any mention of BTK having notches on his revolver-if there were then there would have been multiple
recordings of this rather salient fact.
John Miller -totally unknown in most respects but one -he did have notches on his revolver.
The 1878 gun the three Lawmen recovered from the Fort Sumner shooting was very different from the ubiquitous 1873 single action .44 - firing a rare calibre .41
cartridge and having a rather fragile double action mechanism...it was as scarce as it was unpopular.

[chivato88]

In the Jose Chavez Y Chavez book by Flores, at one point Jose mentions Billy having a gun with notches on it for every man he killed, dont know if its true cause that guy was a major liar

[kerry]

Jul 18, 2021 4:38:41 GMT -5 chivato88 said:

In the Jose Chavez Y Chavez book by Flores, at one point Jose mentions Billy having a gun with notches on it for every man he killed, dont know if its true cause that guy was a major liar

There is a rifle mentioned as belonging to BTK that had marks cut into it. .
Why would they bother with notches when a shootist like Billy often was using different guns? Maybe Billy Barlow was into Wood carving and collecting novelty
handguns?

[MissyS]

I have read that BTK had notches in his gun from a few different sources I can’t remember the sources, they could very well have been assumptions or myths or old west lore? I read that notches on a gun wasn’t something a lot of outlaws really did. I don’t know if very many people could’ve known if Billy did have notches on his gun back then because they would’ve had to have gotten close to Billy’s gun to see the notches or Billy would have had to brag about them. It may have been just a myth he had notches on his gun or this story may be some proof he did have them? I don’t know? This story or parts of it may not be true, it was excepted from a memoir by Sol’s son Carl in 1953, sometimes when a story is retold parts of it gets added or changed in the recollection or for emphasis. The part about the notches could have been added, however Billy could have told Sol that he didn’t want to trade his gun because it was the gun he used for the twenty one killings, it is a little hard to believe Billy would’ve used one gun for all his shooting encounters and end up with that same gun after his escape, I thought the story was unique and interesting because it was about a meeting with the Kid a short time before the shooting. Some of the story about the meeting with BTK seems believable to me because I believe Billy would have been suspicious of a stranger walking into a saloon and would ask him a lot of questions thinking he may have been a detective or spy. In an interview by Jack Hull in the Clovis News July 13,1938 Frank Lobato mentioned that Billy had spent a month at the Old Pig Pen Ranch shortly before the shooting, and it was owned at the time by Pete Maxwell in the area of Melrose, it may have been the area Billy was at the time when Sol met him?, Sol Floersheim worked in the sheep business and Pete Maxwell was said to have had a large sheep ranch, it’s possible Billy worked for Pete while hiding out and his duties may have included herding or working with sheep, so the chance of Floersheim running into Billy the Kid is somewhat believable to me because of the sheep business Sol and Pete were both into.

[kerry]

BTK left Lincoln jail with two .44 Colts and their gunbelts - after killing Bell and Olinger with their own guns(according to Brushy).. 8 weeks later Brushy claimed he still was armed with the two 44's -
whereas Pat Garrett claimed his dead BTK had re-armed himself with a .41 Colt Thunderer.Pat himself stated that the only guns missing from his jail after Billy's escape -were the two 44's.
To me -it just doesn't fit with BTK not being a braggard seeking the limelight but a rather modest reserved character who only sought public attention to get a pardon when it became a matter of life and death.

[RonBk]

I see your point Kerry. But at the same I got to say that Missy have very good points also. Even though I would guess Billy probably did not kill 21 people with the same gun, im nevertheless open to the possibility he could have told that story to this Sol guy, perhaps just for a laugh. My guess would be that most of the guys Billy gunned down probably was with a rifle. Maybe a few with a Henry rifle early on, and then the most part with the 1873 carbine. And of course at least one with a six shooter (Bell) and one with a side by side shotgun (Olinger).