Alright: I admit it. On this one, I’ve bitten off more than I can chew. Or even nibble. This is a subject I’d have to write a whole book on rather than a simple blog to cover adequately. Once you dive into the world of famous guns in famous movies with famous actors, you find yourself up to your butt in facts, characters and details. Like most of us, I’m constantly being sucked down rabbit holes, but I can’t even see over the edge of this one.
I fully understand that the majority of folks out there don’t think much about the guns their heroes are killing each other with. They’re just tools written into the script. However, firearms, especially vintage ones, have been part of my life from a VERY early age (I bought my first one, an 1880s Remington rolling block, for 25 cents when I was five years old. Really! But I think I’ve gone into that before). So, when, watching a movie, I’m really sensitive to the hardware (and saddles, and boots and…). Details count and a lot of us judge just about everything in life that way. If the details aren’t right, nothing is. And, in some cases, a specific movie without a specific firearm wouldn’t work as well as it did.
Try to imagine Quigley Down Under without Matthew’s big 1874 45-110 Sharps. Or the Duke yelling “Fill your hand you Sonovabitch!” as he takes off across the meadow in a full gallop, without a Colt in one hand and a Winchester in the other. Or the Rifleman without his rifle (1892 Winchester). Or Clint E. sighting over a diminutive snub nose .38, rather than his hulking .44 magnum, and saying “…you gotta ask yourself a question: ’Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya, punk?”
You don’t have to know anything about firearms to know a lot of critical drama in movies just wouldn’t work without the right firearm, in the right hands at the right moment.
The aforementioned got me wondering what happened to those mechanical actors being held by the human actors after filming wrapped? That one thought is what sucked me down the rabbit hole. I have nearly a two days tied up in researching the guns I remembered and trying to figure out where they went. Do they still survive? Can they be seen on exhibit somewhere? Too many movies, too many firearms, too many questions, not enough hours.
This particular Thinking Out Loud is going to be a shortened version to be followed many months in the future with the rest of the story. This time around, I’ll home-in in on a few of the more memorable movies and the mechanical sidekicks that made them work.
Now, on to some of our favorites.
Quigley Down Under: A terrific movie with a Sharps as the co-star.
How many of your favorite movies do you record and then never remove? Lots, I bet. Favorite films are a form of video comfort food that we can go back and watch over and over. Open Range, both versions of the Magnificent Seven, and on and on. I can practically do the dialogue on Quigley Down Under. We like anything Tom Selleck has done in any venue however, Quigley really has us (me anyway) hooked.
BTW, Selleck. is a gun guy and ALL of his movies include less-than-common firearms that are totally correct to the period. Schofield revolver versus ever-present Colt Frontier, Evans repeating carbine, ’76 Winchester carbine, etc. It’s refreshing.
Quigley is really fun as it is a hardcore good-guy-versus-rich-really-bad-guy-good-guy-wins plot. Lots of twists, with the key being that Quigley and his Sharps deadly at 1,000 yards. However, the day was finally won at about 10 yards. Who knew?
The production company had three 1974 Sharps built by Shiloh Rifle in Big Timber, Montana with barrels 34” (4” longer than usual). Selleck being 6’4”, the stock had to be a little longer too. One of the rifles had an aluminum barrel, which normally is too heavy to do some of the fight scenes. They are very shootable exquisite rifles. Selleck got them and one went to the NRA Museum in Fairfax, VA and one was auctioned off for $103,000. I wonder how often the new owner shoots it?
Shiloh builds truly magnificent rifles. In case ya’ll don’t mess with Sharps very much, these are falling block actions: Pull the lever down and it pulls a breech block down and opens up the back of the barrel to put the cartridge in. The triggers are termed “set triggers”. The back one is pulled (its a little firm) which cocks a trigger mechanism making the front trigger very light. A true “hair trigger”, which is necessary for long range shooting.
The good news, when working with big calibers is that the Sharp’s weight soaks up a lot of the recoil. Also, there’s so much weight in the barrel although it is tiring it is steady. They are normally fired from a rest. Back in the day they also made saddle carbines which were much lighter and could beat the crap out of you on firing. I have one of those.
The Rifleman: The Good Guy, his kid and his Winchester
One of the nice things about cable TV is that we now have channels that devote their time entirely to rerunning old TV western movies and series. That means they are scrounging through film archives to come up with enough content to fill their time. So, we get to watch some old goodies. The Rifleman on TV had Lucas McCain (Chuck Connors) saving the day with some amazing rifle work. He didn’t bother wearing the requisite Colt in a low hanging holster rig.
BTW, the most common holster rig seen in the movies is what’s known as a Buscadero rig that hangs low, often with a wide cartridge belt that we see has a dangling, tied down holster. Those came along about the same time western movies did. They are too low to comfortably ride a horse in a working environment. The butt-forward carry which the cavalry (and Hickok) favored because it made it easier to ride a horse but slower to draw.
Lucas McCain’s lever gun was a movie land favorite, the Model 1892 Winchester. It was light, easy to maneuver, action was slick and was chambered in a pistol caliber. In Lucas’ case, 44-40. The fact that he was using a rifle built after 1892 and the series was set in the late 1870s is neither here nor there. A 92 Winchester was one of my first purchases while still in college and I’ve added several more since. Great rifles!
The lever is modified to a big hoop so the shooter can spin the rifle and put a new cartridge in place in only a couple seconds. Note the screw going through the trigger guard: That is definitely not factory equipment as it fires the trigger each time the lever is closed. That’s how he gets so many rounds out so fast with no chance of catching his finger in the trigger. Useless in normal activities but very showy! It could be backed out so the rifle worked normally.
Dirty Harry: King of the Hand Cannons
When someone writes a book about firearms and movies, at least half of it will be wrapped around Clint Eastwood. I ran across a site that lists actors’ movies and the guns they used and Eastwood had 85 totally different firearms spread out over his long career. Think back to the spaghetti Westerns and the bazillion other westerns, then the various crime and cop shows. Don’t forget he was in his ‘80s, when he chased kids off his lawn with an M-1 Garand in Gran Torino.
He favored giant handguns. Even in Josey Wales, just after the Civil War. There he was using a pair of 1847cap and ball Colt Walkers which were the biggest repeating handguns available at the time. He did the same when, as Dirty Harry, he was lugging around a .44 magnum Smith and Wesson M29. Immense caliber and an immense handgun. When he retired the handcannon, it was donated and put on display at the NRA’s Museum in Fairfax, VA.
If some one is pointing something like this at you, your next words should be “Yes sir! Whatever you want sir!”
Harry Callahan was carrying his Model 29 Smith in a shoulder rig but it was a long way from being concealed. This sucker is big!
John Wayne, Lots of Movies, not Many guns.
Wayne is credited with appearing in around 180-200 movies (varies widely depending on sources, but there was a lot of them) including the early low-budget films. A majority of his films were westerns and, once established, he carried the same single action Colt and 92 Winchester in most of them. Picture him bearing down on the bad guys in True Grit and he had one of each in each hand. In actual fact, if you watch any of his westerns made after about 1950, you’ll almost always see the same Colt and gun belt. Dittto the 92 Winchester. See the captions for more details.
Here's a link, I think you’ll enjoy. It’s a YouTube of the auction where the Colt was sold. I’ll give you a hint: The pre-sale estimate was $30-$40,000
Enjoy! AUCTION.
The Colt single action was sold new in 1909 as a .45 Colt. In the early ‘50s or so, Wayne had it rebarreled (4 3/4”) and a new cylinder in .44 WCF (.44-40). He also had the trigger guard enlarged slightly and finger grooves made in the faux ivory grips. Note that the holster belt isn’t leather but some sort of stitched canvas. Now that I’ve pointed it out to you, you’ll immediately start seeing the rig in lots of movies with the Duke.
He started carrying this Winchester, or one like it, when he made his first major film, Stagecoach in 1939. This one was with him for around 40 years. The lever hoop is for spinning and he had the barrel cut to 16” so it would go under his arm easier. It is .44-40 to match the single action. Speaking from a lot of personal experience with short 92s, they are wonderfully slick, quick to point weapons and a ball to shoot, but they aren’t 150 yard shooters.
See ‘ya next week. That one won’t be about guns. Actually, I haven’t a clue what the subject will be. If you have any druthers on subjects (what the hell is actually a druther?) let me know. I’m easy. bd
I read a lot of Louis L'Amour. He manages to insert period guns that I'd never heard of before, like the Shawk & McLanahan .36 caliber pistol, and the Roper 1867 revolving shotgun. Unfortunately, I've not seen the movie versions of most of his work, but I should probably start catching up on those!
Love this one! Those times were so much more interesting. Nowadays, everything is an M-4 (good guys), an AK-M (bad guys), a Glock (are they sponsored?), or a Desert Eagle (because BIG!). I'd love to see more variety in movies and TV, but unfortunately most people who make these shows are clueless about guns. Most of the actors are too, (Alec Baldwin, anyone?) with only a few exceptions such as Keanu Reeves. And I'm with you...love some John Wayne!