Bond's PPK in "Doctor No", the novel.

[Sniper X]

CDSDSS, on the Hitlers PPKs, I saw a "Guns of the World" serries and they talked about his pair of PPKs, and said if sold would probably bring the highest price of any auction sale ever. I'll bet that is an exaggeration, but I'll bet the price would be "high" and in the milions. Anyone here know the gun that holds the prize without googling it?

 

[Lone Star]

CZ .22-

I know what is in the book. I read the whole Bond series in my teens, and still have many. He also said that the barrel of the Detective Special was "sawn". He evidently didn't realize that snub barrels were MADE that way, or just liked the hyperbole.

I do think that looks played a large role in the guns chosen. He liked style and wanted to suit a literary "image".

The Army Special is the gun that was renamed the Official Police in 1926. It was made in .38 Special, and I think, in .32/20 and .41 Long Colt. If you go to: www.coltforum.com and ask, someone may post a photo. Fleming owned an Official Police .38, given to him by Bill Donovan, head of the OSS. He posed with it on the cover of some of the paperback editions. Ironically, he also owned a New Service,and could have just read the lettering on the barrel. I guess he went from memory, and goofed. Likely, the gun was at his apartment in London, when he was writing in Jamaica, which was then a Crown Colony, and safer than it is today. He had an estate there, and that is where he wrote the Bond books, while on vacation from his newspaper job.

He wrote that the Beretta had a "taped" grip. This was to depress the grip safety and to make it thinner than if he'd left the grips on, but was silly. The grips weren't that thick, and the tape wouln't reliably hold the grip safety down. Tape stretches with use and age. Better to have had the grip safety pinned.

The Beretta didn't jam, I think. Rather, the silencer stuck in his belt or in the shoulder holster when he tried to draw and shoot Rosa Kleb, a KGB agent. She kicked him with a shoe that had a poisoned blade in the toe, and he nearly died. The PPK would have probably also stuck in his clothes or that old chamois holster, whichever it did. But the PPK had a double-action first shot, and was more powerful, although those I've seen shot weren't terribly reliable. An article by a German in a gun magazine said that German police figiured that theirs' averaged a jam per 50 shots. That was probably one reason why they shifted to 9mm guns, beginning in the 1970's, when shootings became more common, especially against terrorists.

Lone Star

 

[carebear]

The Beretta with silencer had snagged on the draw in the book. The "jam" confusion in people's minds nowadays I think comes partly from the real-life attempted kidnapping of Princess Anne in '74.

Her bodyguard's gun did jam. Fortunately he, her chauffeur, a passing unarmed Bobby (who did call for back-up), and an intervening unarmed (natch) journalist managed to soak up the attacker's rounds, allowing him to be arrested while fleeing by another responding unarmed Bobby.

Only her own courage in standing her ground and then going out the other side of the car (and yet another unarmed passerby rabbit-punching the attacker and escorting her to safety) kept the kidnapping from being successful. It also led to a sea change in how the Royals were protected.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

In the novel Dr. No the Beretta pistol is clearly IDed as .25 caliber.

A secret agent would have a weapon that could be easily explained
and the Walther PPK was and is a common war trophy and civilian
self defense weapon world wide. A secret agent would not carry
a defensive weapon unique to his home country. The James Bond
of the movies was not exactly subtle, but the James Bond of the
novels passed himself off as an agent of an import-export company
and might be able to explain possession of a generic side arm.

Yes, Ian Fleming needed a gun expert, but he repeated the advice
he received from Geoffery Boothroyd wrong more than once.
Bond was supposed to carry the .38 in the Berns-Martin revolver
holster. But Fleming had him carrying the PPK in a Berns-Martin.

 

[Piedmont Plinker]

Bond had stuck the silenced Beretta 418 (the same gun Fleming carried) into his waistband, without a holster, on that day when he sought out Rosa Klebb (an agent of SMERSH, not KGB but MGB, I think). He had her pinned down after she attacked him and Mathis had come to arrest her. Ironically, she got him with a posioned shoe after she had been captured, when Bond would not have needed a gun. The shoe was posioned with Fugu poison, which comes from pufferfish.
When Fleming says "sawn barrel" I think he meant that the front sight had been removed. He says that Bond's Beretta had a "sawn barrel".
His estate was called Goldeneye.
Fleming wasnt exactly a gun expert. He once describes s Colt PP as an S&W.
Note: the jam confusion comes from the movied Dr. No. M says the Beretta jammed in Bond on his last mission.

 

[Mk VII]

Geoffrey Boothroyd first wrote to Fleming after reading Casino Royale suggesting that Bond be rearmed with a revolver. Fleming replied, and an extended correspondence ensued over some years. The Berns-Martin faux pas wasn't the only one over the years and in the article shown below Boothroyd explains how it came about.
http://www.fototime.com/inv/95CCD40C4057F35
The revolver which was used for the 1st edn. cover of From Russia With Love was a .38/200 which Boothroyd acquired during the war and modified himself

 

[billybob]

Well for sheer "gunny" good looks, nothing beats that Tinkertoy (or soda straw) barrel Lego model in Man With The Golden Gun.

 

[default]

I haven't seen Dr. No in a while, but in the novel, Bond specifically states that he's never had a stoppage, and he in fact uses that particular word, rather than "malfunction" or "jam".

As for the taped grip, I hadn't known that the Beretta 418 featured a grip safety. And the "sawn" barrel - again, I hadn't thought of that turn of phrase as referring to the removal of the front sight (presumably to aid draw speed). Thanks for clearing that up, as sawing down the barrel of an autoloader didn't make a great deal of sense to me, P.38s and Lugers notwithstanding.

 

[Archie]

Another curious bit...

In Iam Fleming's biography, (I believe it was The Life of Ian Fleming ~ Alias James Bond by John Pearson) the .25 Beretta is mentioned.

In the draft for the novel Casino Royale, Fleming originally cited a "... .28 Biretta ..." as Bond's duty gun. The spelling and caliber were 'corrected' by a friend who was proofreading the manuscript. I don't know for certain, but I think it's possible Fleming might have meant to arm Bond with a .38 or .380 caliber Beretta.

The Beretta pistol Bond surrenders in the movie "Dr. No" is either a 1934 or 1935 Beretta, which would have been in .380 ACP or .32 ACP caliber.

Another cute error Fleming makes is talking about Bond's old .25 and mentioning Bond filed the firing pin to ensure reliability. I am aware of an old 'wisdom' of filing a pin-point shape to the firing pin in the belief it will more surely ignite the primer. I don't think it works, and would probably only pierce the primer and hang up the gun.

As for the car gun in the Bentley, I've always thought it was a Colt SAA in .45 Colt. For a 'powerful' handgun for use against automobiles in 1950 or so, a .45 Colt would do as well as most. I really can't offer any argument why it should be so, that's just the impression I had reading the story. I guess I didn't think it too much a stretch from 'Single Action Army' to 'Army Special'.

Fleming was not a bad shot; but the only formal was probably rudimentary military firearms training. "This end is dangerous, these are sights, here's how to load it. Sight alignment and trigger squeeze." I doubt if he had much experience with handguns in general. It shows.

However, Fleming's expertise with firearms outshines those of the movie makers...

 

[LightningJoe]

Let's face it. While the Bond movies are not particularly brainy, they're works of genius compared to the books. Put down the 007 and start reading Spiderman comics.

 

[cdsdss]

Strange that the 1911 never makes an appearance in any of the Bond novels. I'd've thought there's be more floating around after the war. Even in the novels that take place in the US, I don't think they ever show up.

 

[default]

Let's face it. While the Bond movies are not particularly brainy, they're works of genius compared to the books. Put down the 007 and start reading Spiderman comics.

There are to be sure some fairly outlandish and silly components to the novels, but From Russia With Love and Casino Royale are actually fairly serious espionage thrillers. And the only spiders encountered thus far (in that horrible obstacle course in Doctor No) were neither radioactive nor able to confer superpowers as the result of their bites. Or so I assume, as Bond killed them all with an improvised weapon fashioned from a stiff metal wire before any had the chance to sink their fangs into him.

However, Fleming's expertise with firearms outshines those of the movie makers...

Generally agreed, but the new production of Casino Royale is the only movie I recall having ever seen where a double-action autoloader was decocked (with a proper decocking lever or button) prior to holstering. Others here may have additional examples of such scenes, but I recall being impressed that that bit of realistic gunhandling was depicted.

Strange that the 1911 never makes an appearance in any of the Bond novels. I'd've thought there's be more floating around after the war. Even in the novels that take place in the US, I don't think they ever show up.

Yes, good point. Or the BHP and P38 for that matter, at least not yet, six or seven books in.

 

[cdsdss]

The gun handling in Casino Royale was better than any other Bond movie, IMHO. No more Brosnan-era P99-in-one-hand-MP5-in-the-other spray and pray. I was impressed that he used both hands when firing (except for the beginning fight in the embassy, but I'll give him a pass since he was using a Browning), and kept a straight trigger finger when not firing.

In the book "Bond on Set," they have photos of Craig practicing at the range with a P99, Browning HP, small-frame revolver, and P90.

 

[Piedmont Plinker]

I think the 1911 appears under the guise of Colt .45 in the Bond novels. If I recall correctly, a thug uses one in Diamonds are Forever, during the nud bath scene, and Bond uses one in For Your Eyes Only.
Course, that could have been referring to a New Service or the like.

 

[Hatchett]

In an interview for Playboy, Ian Felming once said that he often recieved letters from people correcting his firearm mistakes in his novels. He also refered to these people in some disparaging way. It was either "maniacs" or "psychopaths."

 

[carebear]

That seems common among authors, especially thriller/mystery writers.

On their various blogs and in interviews they'll remark on "gun nuts" (a kind term) who write in to complain about misuses or incorrect terminology.

The condescension fairly drips from some of their comments.

This in the same breath as they accept praise for their realism and excellent research.

 

[Great Scot]

This is a great post. I am a Bond fanatic. While I agree that a Beretta .25 is not the greatest weapon to have in a gun fight, it is better than nothing. A few more things to consider. Casino Royale was written in the 50's, there weren't a lot of concealable handguns to choose from. Also, Bond used the Beretta as much for initimidation (kinda) as anything else. The books didn't contain the huge gun fights that we see in the movies. When Bond used his gun, it was up close, and he knew the limitations of the Beretta. In Live and Let Die, he acknowledges that the Beretta was to small a gun to make the long shot necessary to hit a gun man that was shooting at him with a rifle.

Finally, the Beretta 418 is a cool little gun. The grip comfortable, it has a decent capacity, and the couple that I've handled were reliable with everything that was stuffed in them. They are also flat and easy to conceal. Bond could have picked a worse gun. Just my two cents.

 

[default]

I don't know. If you had just poured yourself into writing a masterful thriller, intricately plotted but with a tremendous narrative drive, unforgettable characters, and a breathtaking finale, and some loser wrote you an ill-tempered letter petulantly complaining that the 10mm version of the MP5 was called the MP5/10, not the MP-10, how would you feel?

I'm sure Ian Fleming, Tom Clancy, and Frederick Forsyth received their fair share of firearms-related technical corrections from readers knowledgeable about guns. Perhaps Fleming more than the others (and he probably got a lot of crazy letters from gold and diamond merchants, rocket scientists, professional gamblers and cardsharps, mechanics, French chefs, golfers, bartenders, guano refinery foremen, sommeliers, and travel agents).

I imagine the letters that took a complimentary and reasonable tone but apologetically suggested a few changes on technical subjects were often thoughtfully filed away by a grateful author. The ones that shrieked 'YOUR A IDIOT SIG SUAERS DONT HAVE A SAFETYS ECXEPT FOR SOME OF TH E P220'S MORON!" probably had the recipient wondering why his or her correspondent even bothered reading novels at all if all they wanted was to read highly detailed technical descriptions of firearms.

I'm sure some polite and well-intentioned letters have been ignored and discarded as the ravings of a "gun nut" by some authors, and that's a shame, but just look at the tone that a lot of gun people take with each other on some forums (not this one, usually) and then wonder how they present themselves when communicating with someone outside the fold.

I'm reading Goldfinger right now and Bond's Aston Martin has a hidden "Colt .45", which by 1959, I assume to mean a 1911 of some sort.

 

[carebear]

I guess my problem with authors getting self-righteous and up in arms is that many will take the time to thank the folks who advised them, or talk about all the hard work they put into research, and then blow something as simple as a caliber issue?

How much more time, say, does it take to crack open a "Guns of the World" and check how many rounds a particular gun holds; or what calibers a pistol, described by actual nomenclature, is actually available in?

It doesn't take a great deal of effort and yet they feel free to be cavalier with a topic central to their genre AND one they know a large portion of their audience has a passing familiarity in, if only from other books in the genre.

 

[cdsdss]

Now look what this thread went and made me do!

 

[default]

Nice picture, cdsdss! Thanks for posting it!

Bond gun update: I just finished Goldfinger. SMERSH financier, gold smuggler, and all-around criminal genius Auric Goldfinger carries a Colt .25 pocket pistol of some sort. He claims to always shoot for the right eye - and never misses. As I doubt that anyone who undertakes to read the book will be surprised to discover that the novel does not conclude 007 being shot to death by the villain, I don't think it's a spoiler to mention that Goldfinger does, in fact, miss.

 

[carebear]

-spoiler-

Bond closes his right eye, denying Goldfinger his target of choice. Shoots him in his confusion.

 

[Texfire]

James Bond: "Do you expect me to talk?"

Auric Goldfinger: "No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die... err, would you mind opening your right eye?"

James Bond: "Sorry have something in it, wait look behind you!"

Tex

 

[SergeantC]

In some of the Gardner novels, I think Bond carried a Browning Model 1910, or maybe a Model 1922.

And in some of the Fleming novels and stories, his .45 may have been a 1911. I seem to remember him engaging or disengaging a manual safety on a .45 Colt in one or two scenes.

 

[cdsdss]

I thought Gardner armed him with a Browning HP, but it's been years (decades, actually) since I read the book. Gard did have the good sense to give Bond the H&K P7 for one book (even if he did replace it with that weird ASP 9mm)...