In May, 2002, Dick Hite and ye Old Corral webmaster connected.  Dick owns the above Sunset Carson gunbelt and wanted any kind of info on it.  My inclination was that this was one of the belts that Sunset wore when he had his own Wild West show and not when he worked with Doc Tommy Scott's show.  Though it somewhat resembles the ornate style of gunbelt that Sunset wore in his later Republic oaters, it certainly is not one that he wore in those films ... and there is the K  I  T  monogram.

Anybody help with more solid info?

A couple of e-mails arrived with more information on this gunbelt:

... was built by a man named Les Thompson, a would-be character actor who was employed (by Sunset) in his Wild West Show to "handle" the front door and act as the announcer. Les was a saddle maker/leather craftsman who went by the name Colonel Mel B. Hood.

Sunset went by Kit Carson when he lived in Australia and if he did not make the gun belt himself I think it was probably the man named on the gunbelt, maybe in Melbourne since the "Melb" on the holster.

Perhaps the answer is in the two above e-mail tidbits: the gunbelt was crafted by Les Thompson (COL. HOOD) while Sunset was in Melbourne, Australia (MELB).