The curious case of vampire hunter gun kits (VIDEO)

With this week one for ghosts, ghouls and goblins, we thought it was appropriate to bring you a sampling of guns meant to take out those undead creatures said to feed on the blood of the living.

While the nosferatu mythos has been found all over the world, one of the more popular modern-day totems to tackle these creatures of the night are vampire guns. A little while back we caught up with Jim Supica, director of NRA Museums in Fairfax, Virginia, as shown in the above video, to check out a number of their interesting pieces to include a silver-plated Colt .38 Detective Special complete with vampire-themed Francolini engraving and an ebony coffin.

Just check out the rampant colt tap dancing on a blood sucker's coffin. Good pony

Just check out the rampant colt tap dancing on a blood sucker’s coffin. Good pony

Other kits have popped up at auction in recent years.

Author Michael de Winter wrote that he started the trend in 1970 by taking a “poor quality pocket pistol in mediocre condition” with its black powder accessories and adding items such as an ivory crucifix, powdered flowers of garlic in original Victorian medicine bottles, and a wooden stake with a silver point then enclosing the whole thing in a nice wooden box.

No matter who started it, they seem to spark the imagination.

This .44 caliber percussion Scott pistol sold by Rock Island included "3 crucifixes (one cannot be too careful), bottle of black wolfsbane, bottle of holy oil, bottle of holy water, wooden stake and rosary." It went for $2,875 https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/1029/6102/vampire-and-werewolf-hunting-kit-with-percussion-pistol

This .44 caliber percussion Scott pistol sold by Rock Island included “3 crucifixes (one cannot be too careful), bottle of black wolfsbane, bottle of holy oil, bottle of holy water, wooden stake and rosary.” It went for $2,875, twice the estimate.

Here is a

Here is a “Professor Bloomberg” kit which may have de Winter’s stamp on it to include a .43 caliber Belgian pistol, holy water, “Tincture of Jalap” and other medicines, mostly empty. Rock Island sold it for $1,840, a good bit over estimate.

This Dallas Auction, which went for an impressive $8K, included a "black powder percussion 2-barrel pistol, a powder horn and bullet mold, bone handled dagger with crucifix, three small crucifixes, mallet and two wooden stakes, book of common prayer, two small framed portraits of Jesus, holy water and four glass vials with crystals." https://dallasauctiongallery.hibid.com/lot/8077065/cased-vampire-killing-kit--in-a-rosewood

This Dallas Auction, which went for an impressive $8K, included a “black powder percussion 2-barrel pistol, a powder horn and bullet mold, bone-handled dagger with crucifix, three small crucifixes, mallet and two wooden stakes, book of common prayer, two small framed portraits of Jesus, holy water and four glass vials with crystals.”  Not a bad price when the estimate was about half that.

Besides the NRA Museum, there are vampire killing kits on display at the Mercer in Pennsylvania while renowned bizarre item warehouser Ripley’s advertises that they have “one of the world’s largest collection” of such outfits, with no two alike.

But the best vampire gun, in our opinion, was wielded by Tom Savini in From Dusk till Dawn

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