"Gat" and "Roscoe"?

I've trained my girls since they were age 2 or so to ask (when they see me wearing a gunbelt):

"What's the mohaska for?" OR "Why are you wearin' a hogleg?"

Gun slang is always fun.

Rosco comes from the Rosco vest pocket .22lr pistol.

http://picturearchive.gunauction.com/3910142628/6317587/a434e433fd1167021d8d2e4d386f9084.jpg

27 posts and nobody has mentioned "Vera"..?

refer to new post

mmmm Vera!

Gat and Roscoe

I remember Edward G. Robison using those terms in his movies in the early 1930's and 1940's (and beyond?). He was most memorable as playing the ultimate gang mob tough guy. Little Caesar and Rico come to mind. Yeaaaaah !

ironworkerwill said:

I did not know that. Of the hundreds of times I've watched that show.....never noticed. Guncheese, do you know the specific episode that references "Roscoe"?

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took a bit of diggin in the server, but i knew it was there

but...

BlueSteel

Roscoe? Odds are, Damon Runyon.

Gat? Gangster movies from the 1930s, at least. And in a Marx Brothers movie, the brothers snoop around in a house and in a dresser drawer see a large handgun plus some smaller ones. Groucho's line is, "This gat had gittens!"

And sometimes early Corvettes were sneeringly referred to as "plastic fantastics".

Shanghai McCoy said:

27 posts and nobody has mentioned "Vera"..?

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Vera-Ellen or Vera West?
I don't see how a baseball movie pertains to guns, Gat or, Roscoe?
Now if you mention "Key Largo", that's the ticket!

this is Verea

Gun Master said:

Vera-Ellen or Vera West?
I don't see how a baseball movie pertains to guns, Gat or, Roscoe?
Now if you mention "Key Largo", that's the ticket!

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"Vera"( no last name) was the name of Jayne Cobb's "very favorite gun".
It's a Firefly reference...

And "Key Largo" is a great movie.

Vera refers to a very specific gun.

It's a Callahan fullbore autolock, customized trigger and double cartridge thorough-gauge.

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Gat and Roscoe, and many of these other terms are referring to guns in general.

And while Vera was nice, I'd take Christina Hendricks any day.

Thought you guys might find this interesting.
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080628180712AAbfFqa

As to GAT as a reference to a handgun, I was told many many years ago that it came from the old GAT air pistols and many guys referred to any concealed handgun as a "GAT".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gat_air_pistol

A long time ago, a retired LASD narco deputy told us kids that a "Roscoe" was a term for a handgun that was confiscated from an individual. He also described how a "Roscoe" could refer to a gun to be used as a "throw-down" if something went badly, not in their favor for investigative purposes. Often these guns were carried around in the patrol's trunk, with a full cylinder that had a round or two fired.

Joseph Wambaugh's The Choirboys has a character called 'Rosco' Rules and explains how he got the nickname from using this word for a gun.

Guncheese, You are the man! I will save it to my sound files!

.
If I may loosely refer to any repeating long gun as a Gat and to any sidearm as a Roscoe... then these are my Gat & Roscoe:




Alas, both are recent reproductions of two iconic Browning designs; the Model 1892 (in .44 mag) and the Model of 1911... but there they are just the same.

USAF_Vet said:

Vera refers to a very specific gun.



Gat and Roscoe, and many of these other terms are referring to guns in general.

And while Vera was nice, I'd take Christina Hendricks any day.

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The phrases "fullbore autolock", "double cartridge" and "thorough gauge" are the reasons Joss Whedon is never allowed to invent his own gun terminology ever again.

200Apples, I like your Coleman lanterns. I have over fifty, many hanging from the workshop rafters, and a bunch dating to the 1930-1950 era. I know other gun folks that collect all things Coleman as well, kind of goes together.

"The phrases "fullbore autolock", "double cartridge" and "thorough gauge" are the reasons Joss Whedon is never allowed to invent his own gun terminology ever again. "

BRAVO! Love his movies, but his jargon sucks......

Bigdog57 said:

"The phrases "fullbore autolock", "double cartridge" and "thorough gauge" are the reasons Joss Whedon is never allowed to invent his own gun terminology ever again. "

BRAVO! Love his movies, but his jargon sucks......

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I can't help but wonder if some of his terminology is tongue in cheek. But being a typical Hollywood weirdo, he probably knows nothing about guns, even futuristic types, and makes up whatever sounds neat. I'd bet the majority of his fans wouldn't know the difference anyway.

But If I were to write a character like Jayne Cobb, I'd want to use a lot of oddball gun terms that make no sense. Plays to the character well.

Anyway, if you need me... I'll be in my bunk.

.
Hahaha... ok, the last two posts are funny and I'm only loosely acquainted with this Whedon person (must be my age, then). Usually when I hear a character get the terminology wrong, I quickly lose interest. That said, I hope I haven't used the thread's subject terminology incorrectly.

splithoof, wally, thanks for the compliments. I love the smell of lanterns in the morning.

Used to be when I heard the name Roscoe, I always thought of Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane of "Dukes of Hazzard".
Now though, I think of Deputy Shotgun Gibb's mule "Roscoe", in "The Life and Times of Wyatt Earp" on the western channel. Mom and I watch that when I visit her. Roscoe is quite a character himself!