Best "Gun" Movie (Not a War Movie)

[wildcat junkie]

OK, lets have some nominations for the best movie featuring a wide variety of historically correct guns that is not a war movie.

 

Post PIX from the movie that show a reasonably clear picture of the gun/guns that can be used to identify.

 

I'll make the 1st nomination.

 

Death Hunt (1981)

 

The 1st time I saw this movie, my eye was drawn the the fore-end of the rifle that Albert Johnson (Charles Bronson) was holding. I thought that it looked an awful lot like that of an early vintage Savage M99 & sure enough, I soon got a good enough look at it to verify that is was indeed a Savage M99.

 

Well that got me interested as that was the 1st time I ever saw a Model 99 Savage in a movie.

 

The next weapon that caught my eye was being used by Sgt Edgar Millen. (Lee Marvin) I was really excited now, Lee was shooting an 1898 Krag Jorgenson 30/40. My dad had one of those & I now am restoring it to the sporterized condition it was in when he bought it in 1958. It appears to be a 22" barrel Carbine judging by the original military front sight. The ones cut down to 22" that the CMP/NRA sold in the late '20s had banded front sights.

 

 

As soon as I saw the side box magazine I knew it was a Krag.

 

 

Now, I was really paying attention.

 

The next weapon I identified was the sporterized SMLE (Lee Enfield) that Sundog/George Washington Lincoln Brown (Carl Weathers) was shooting.

 

This picture doesn't show the gun very well, but if you are familiar W/the rear bolt locking system of the SMLE, it jumps right out at ya. I could not find any better pictures of the SMLE.

 

 

 

In the picture above you can see the Winchester M1873 Winchester Rifle used by RCMP Constable Alvin Adams (Andrew Stevens) 

 

Another picture of the M1873 Winchester.

 

 

There was also a M1873 Winchester Carbine carried by Ned Warren (William Sanderson)

 

 

That pretty well does it for rifles. Now let's have a look at the Winchester M12 riot Gun being wielded by Sgt Edgar Millen.

 

There was a double barrel shotgun & a sawed off single barrel that weren't identifiable as anything extraordinary.

 

That brings us to handguns.

 

Here we have a Colt New Service revolver held by RCMP Constable Alvin Adams.

 

 

Finally, we see Albert Johnson in action with the Colt Peacemaker single action revolver.

 

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Edited March 11, 2015 by wildcat junkie

[Pygmy]

Great stuff, Wildcat...I loved the eye candy in that movie myself..

Another film with a good array of historically correct firearms was " The Wild Bunch" with William Holden, Earnest Borgnine, Ben Johnson, and and some other fine western stars..

On the OTHER hand... There have been SOOOO many screwups involving firearms..." Guadalcanal Diary", where the weapon in a Jap machinegun nest was a Thompson SMG mounted on a post where the magazine connected... " The Blue Max"....WWI German troops were shown being strafed by Allied planes..They were armed with British SMLE #4 rifles which were not even issued to BRITISH troops until 20 years later.

And then there is one of my favorite WWII films.." Bridge on the River Kwai"... Japanese personnel in the prison camp were armed with British SMLEs, Sten guns, and a Vickers machine gun.

I always wondered if that COULD be historically correct, because the Japs captured a lot of British ordinance after the surrender of Singapore, but I always suspected that it was due to technical ignorance of the film producer.

I also remember a film, the title escapes me, which supposedly took place during the Mexican revolution prior to 1920..One of the federalista troppers was armed with an M1 Garand, which wasn't invented until at least 15 years after that.

[grampy]

Not sure what they all were, but the outlaw Jose Wales had some really cool old guns. Even a old sniper rifle.

[fasteddie]

I don't know enough about vintage guns but " Death Hunt " was a great movie . The setting was the Yucon Territory in 1931 .  I don't think Charles Bronson ever made a bad movie .

[wheelieman]

Heat

[Pygmy]

I can't post picts, but "Unforgiven" was pretty authentic..

There was S&W Scofield revolver, a Spencer carbine, and a nice assortment of colt single actions, a Winchester '73 or two, and the revolver that Clint Eastwood carried, which I have not taken the time to identify.. Oh yeah...The tavernkeeper " Skinny" also displayed a colt percussion revolver, either a Navy six or an Army 44...

[Pygmy]

Oops.. Just looked it up..Clint's revolver ( which he could hit NOTHING with) was an 1858 Starr....

[wildcat junkie]

I can't post picts, but "Unforgiven" was pretty authentic..

There was S&W Scofield revolver, a Spencer carbine, and a nice assortment of colt single actions, a Winchester '73 or two, and the revolver that Clint Eastwood carried, which I have not taken the time to identify.. Oh yeah...The tavernkeeper " Skinny" also displayed a colt percussion revolver, either a Navy six or an Army 44...

1. The following guns were used in this movie. 1. William Munny used a 1859 Starr revolver double action, a Smith and Wesson Schofield revolver, a 12-gauge double barreled coach shotgun, and later a Spencer rifle.

 

The database where I got the PIX for "Death Hunt" also have "The Wild Bunch" & "The Unforgiven" listed but they are offline right now.

I'll check them out tomorrow.

Edited March 11, 2015 by wildcat junkie

[bkln]

Jeremiah Johnson by a long shot.....

[wildcat junkie]

I don't know enough about vintage guns but " Death Hunt " was a great movie . The setting was the Yucon Territory in 1931 .  I don't think Charles Bronson ever made a bad movie .

I never knew the exact time period, but judging from the weaponry I always assumed 1930s.

 

Krags we're going for $7.95 in 1927, so there were probably plenty of them about in 1931. SMLE & the trench gun would have been WW I surplus.

 

There was also a Vickers machine gun on the biplane so that would be period correct too I would think.

[Jeremy K]

 

Open range,the final shootout scene. One of my favorite all time movies.

[PREDATE]

Josey Wales toted a Colt 1861 Navy, 2 Colt 1846 Walkers, a Colt 1848 pocket dragoon, and a Sharps 1865 sniper rifle.

Another good movie that featured a Sharps rifle was Quigley Down Under, but Tom Sellecks Sharps rifle was a 1874 model

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[Pygmy]

Oh yeah...The one armed deputy in Unforgiven carried a Remington 1873 Revolver as one of the 3 handguns he packed ( with only one arm).

A great line from that movie...Another deputy asked him why he had 3 guns and only one arm..

His reply was " I don't want to get killed for the lack of shooting back".

Unfortunately for him, it didn't work..Clint dropped him with the Schofield and finished him off with the Spencer..

[wildcat junkie]

Jeremiah Johnson by a long shot.....

Mmmmm not really historically correct.

 

1. Though the movie had Johnson carrying a Hawken gun, the actual gun carried in the movie little resembles a gun after the true Jacob and Samuel Hawken style. Jeremiah Johnson (Robert Redford) carries both a .30 and .50 caliber Hawken rifle. Jeremiah fires the .50 caliberHawken rifle for the first time.

[PREDATE]

Although it is a war movie, Hawkeye made the good old Pennsylvania flintlocks sing

Last of the Mohicans scene - The Courier:

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Edited March 11, 2015 by PREDATE

[Pygmy]

Yeah..Hawkeye reminds me a lot of myself when I was younger, except he's a lot better looking and taller, and has longer hair, and is a much better shot and has a much hotter girlfriend than I ever had.

Other than that, we are pretty similar.

[sbuff]

I would vote for Jeremiah Johnson too, seems that's what started the muzzle loader craze...the damm bug but me and I am still going strong.

 

All others good choices too..

[philoshop]

"Silverado", 1985. Amazing cast lineup and an entertaining movie.They went to great lengths to get authentic sounds for the individual guns as well. Henry rifles, Colt peacemakers, etc. Sorry, no pics.

[Skillet]

The Ghost and the Darkness. One of my favorites, especially because it's based on truth. Not sure about the guns, but they look about right to me.

[Elmo]

Here ya go.

http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Main_Page

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[wildcat junkie]

Here ya go.

http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Main_Page

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Thanks Elm. I was googling individual pages last night & the site went offline.

 

I'll get some PIX downloaded for some of the nominations. 

 

Although I liked the movie  immensely, I don't think Jeremiah Johnson qualifies as the calibers are totally incorrect for what was actually used on the plains. A .50 was small caliber. .54 was the average. I believe Kit Carson carried a .62. .30 caliber would be useless for anything larger than small game.

 

"The Ghost & the Darkness" has some very interesting weapons as does "The Unforgiven", "Silverado & "The Wild Bunch"

 

The gunfight from "Open Range" would definitely get my vote for the best gunfight, which sounds like another interesting thread topic.

[GreeneHunter]

Josey Wales gets my vote !

[wildcat junkie]

Josey Wales gets my vote !

Yeah I'll have to check that one out too.

[jonathon88]

Young Guns with Emilio Estevez, Charlie Sheen and others is a real good western featuring old firearms.

[Pygmy]

Here's one of my favorites..

"The Professionals" with Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Jack Palance..

Win model 97s, '03 Springfields, Mausers, Browning water cooled MG,s Vickers Mgs, various Winchester levers, 1911 Colts, various vintage Colt and S&W revolvers and I'm sure I have missed some.