The color case hardened/charcoal blue model is available only 44 special with your choice of 3-3/4″ or 4-5/8″ barrel.  $799.00 plus shipping to your FFL.

The carbona bronze model is available only in 44 special with a 4-5/8″ barrel. $849 plus shipping to your FFL.

This offer won’t last long, and supplies are limited!

Ruger Vaquero with color case hardening and charcoal blue finishes

Ruger Vaquero with Carbona Bronze Finish

Tony Stewart firing off the Turnbull Mfg. Co. revolvers

On Friday after qualifying, Doug Turnbull presented Greg Biffle and the #16 team with a Turnbull Model 1886 rifle.

On Sunday, after the AAA Texas 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Race, Doug Turnbull presented the winner, Tony ’Smoke’ Stewart and the #14 team, with a pair of Turnbull Mfg. Company custom revolvers.  Tony fired off the guns ‘Texas-Style’ before he was presented with his trophy.

Congratulations to both Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart for being the latest NASCAR drivers to win our guns!

The Tony Stewart Stewart ‘Smoke Show’ took place at Texas Motor Speedway this past August.   This event is a way for people to experience a day in the life of a Sprint Cup driver.  The day is full – starting with a driver’s meeting, driver introductions, parade laps, and time behind the wheel driving a replica racecar around the track at top speeds.  Participants then received a ride of a lifetime with Tony himself.  After the racing was said and done, everyone gathered in Victory Lane for a celebration that included firing the famous six shooters that Turnbull Manufacturing built.

The day was concluded with a dinner and an auction in which Turnbull Manufacturing donated a custom and one of a kind ‘Smoke Show’ Turnbull Model 1886 rifle.

The rifle featured flames carved into the buttstock and forend, and engraving that included the logos of ‘Smoke Show’, Texas Motor Speedway, and Speedway Children’s Charities.  The engraving was finished off with Tony Stewarts signature, the star of Texas and the outline of the state of Texas.

Speedway Children’s Charities was founded to care for children in educational, financial, social and medical need in an effort to help them live produtive lives.

Doug is looking forward to participating in next years event.

The beginning stages of this project started after the conclusion of the March 2010 James Julia Auction.

The highlight of the auctioned Colts was the fabulous and gold inlaid single action inscribed “From The Tomboy Gold Mine Co. Lt’d / Telluride Colo to Rob’t. D. Meldrum.” Meldrum spend much of his life as a deputy sheriff, but also worked for the Pinkertons as a guard and as a covert Pinkerton operator while in the employ of the Tomboy Gold Mine Co. He also worked for the Colorado Cattleman’s Association and like his good friend Tom Horn, was essentially a hired gun. He was a small man of only 140 pounds, but hard as nails, with a mean streak. He is purported to have killed over 14 men in his lifetime, most in the line of duty (two were unarmed).

Around the turn of the century, The Tomboy Mining Company was having a great problem with organizers who were attempting to get the miners to go on strike. It’s not known what Meldrum did for the Tomboy Mining Company, but one thing is for sure, they were exceedingly grateful. Because of the cost, only 16 Colt revolvers were ever produced with gold inlay. Only two of these were inscribed and presented, and this was one of them. This lavish gun was certainly payment for some very valuable service. The pistol had an intriguing history. Not only was the former nefarious owner historically significant, but the guns most recent provenance was also quite intriguing. A considerable amount of interest was expressed in the piece, and it finally sold at the auction for $258,750.

One of our latest restoration projects includes this Colt Bisley that started life back on June 5th, 1903 when it was shipped to Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Company in Chicago, Illinois.

Our customer is an amateur collector of firearms with a newfound love of the Bisley Model. This is the fourth firearm that we have restored for him – others have included a 1st Generation Colt SAA, a Colt 1911 manufactured in 1914 that was carried by a relative of his in WWI, and the third a Colt Bisley.

When we asked our customer about this current project, he explained that there was only “one source” that he would go to for his restoration projects. His experience with us “has been a pinnacle of professionalism, courtesy, extensively knowledgeable of the firearms they are restoring, and possessing near unbelievable craftsmanship skills.”

Bringing this Colt Bisley back to its original condition (with the addition of fancy walnut grips) will include a new barrel, cylinder, cylinder bushing and base pin, and new two piece fancy walnut grips. We will fit and polish all parts, restore all markings and then apply our signature color case hardening, charcoal bluing and nitre bluing on the appropriate parts.

Currently the gun being fit for those fancy walnut grips…. Stayed tuned for another update as well as more pictures.

Doug left with these new displays, loaded in a trailer on the back of his truck, on Sunday to start the first leg of the trip in Dallas, Texas for the Dallas Safari Club show which starts on Thursday. 

Our new displays are made of steel and feature an incline with a grungy background for the guns to be laid out for easy viewing.  Each display will also include new banners featuring some of our latest projects and restorations.

 If you get a chance to attend any of these shows, we hope that you’ll stop at our booth to let us know what you think.  For those of you that won’t get a chance to visit us there, we’ll have some pictures to post in the coming days.

Doug and Keith arrived on Thursday, November 4^th and had an opportunity to participate in the Sam Hornish, Jr. Celebrity Bowling Match.  There were many celebrities there including Sam Hornish, Jr., Rutledge Wood, and Kurt Busch to name a few.  They also had a chance to catch up with some friends/customers that they had met at the Tony Stewart “Smoke Show” back in August.

After a few interviews with local television and radio stations, they met up with the rest of the crew from Turnbull Mfg. that arrived on Friday afternoon.  We all went to the track to get ready to watch qualifying.  We all had our own personal favorite drivers that we were hoping to be able to present our custom rifle to for the pole award.  And, as a matter of fact, one of us lucked out because Elliott Sadler won the pole award for the first time in three years.  Elliott is a huge fan of hunting so the pole award prize, a custom built Turnbull Manufactured Model 1886 Take Down, that was awarded to him was very fitting for Elliott and Turnbull Manufacturing.

During the Truck race that evening, we headed down for an interview with Jeff, a weatherman from KTXA 21. While we were wrapping up the interview, we learned that Guy Fieri and Mario Batali were to arrive at any moment for their interview with Jeff.  We all got to meet the both of them quickly before they were rushed off to their next appearance at the Camping World Truck Series Race.

On Saturday, we watched Carl Edwards take the checkered flag at the Nationwide Series race.  After the race, we met up with a customer of ours who has several campsites within the infield.  Adam Mize and his friends entertained us before a few of us went over to the Asphalt Chef Competition at the Lone Star Tower Clubhouse.  This competition featured Guy Fieri, Mario Batali and Tim Love cooking Texas style cuisine.

On race day, before the race, we attended the drivers meeting, watched Willie Nelson perform the pre-race show and then presented the pole award to Elliott Sadler during driver introductions.  During that presentation, Turnbull Manufacturing’s logo was on the jumbo tron for all to see.

While the race was going on, we met up again with Adam Mize at his condo, just off of turn 2 and that’s where we experienced “BIG”.  Adam invited us all up for the biggest and best tasting rib eye steaks ever.  His chef, Isaac, made the most amazing lunch for us, providing us with our fuel for the rest of the day’s activities. 

We then went back to our suite to watch some more of the race.  With 40 laps to go we decided to head down to pit row so we could be ready to get to Victory lane to present the pistols to the race winner.  The race winner was a familiar face for TMC.  Denny Hamlin won the race and another set of Turnbull Mfg pistols.  Denny, once again, fired off the pistols “Texas Style”.

Our trip this November was amazing.  We were welcomed by everyone that works at the race track, customers and friends that we have met along the way, as well as the NASCAR community. 

We look forward to next year’s races in 2011.

Scroll design engraved by Tom McArdle

Tom McArdle is Turnbull Mfg. Co.’s in house metal engraver. Tom has been engraving for 17 years and has been doing the engraving work at Turnbull for 6 years. He learned the craft at Montgomery Community College in North Carolina on the GI Bill while taking night classes. He was originally enrolled in their gunsmithing program but switched to engraving after seeing the beautiful engraving work the students were able to produce after only one year of training.

Turnbull Mfg. Co. Metal Engraving Tools

 Tom uses a traditional hammer and chisel or other hand pushed tool along with a magnifying glass to do a lot of the engraving. This is the same technique that has been used for hundreds of years. At times he uses  air powered tools, which have become popular in the industry in the last 30 years. When using the air powered tool he must still direct it by hand. The pneumatic tool provides a very clean cut and is most often used on modern pieces. When restoring older firearms it is important that they have an authentic look. In these cases he would use the traditional hammer and chisel method. None of the engraving work at Turnbull is done by computer programming.

 The engraving work done at Turnbull is meant to last for several hundred years. The amount of wear on the engraving depends on a few factors. First is the delicacy of the engraving, finer more intricate designs will wear away quicker than simpler designs. The placement of the design on the firearm also determines how long the engraving will last. Finally how often the firearm is used and handled will play a factor into how well the piece will age.

Example of Tom's lettering work

Tom’s favorite projects to work on are on the opposite ends of the spectrum. He enjoys doing lettering work which is a relatively short project and he also likes to experiment with new designs and use his creativity however it is rare that he has the opportunity to do experimental work. Tom likes to work on lettering because it is extremely difficult to engrave letters that are high quality. People see perfect lettering every day and any mistake in the engraving is easily detected. He is currently working on a project for Keith VanOrman President of Turnbull Mfg. Co. it will be a display piece for his office.