double-action revolver in 'Unforgiven'

[roscoe]

Was there a double-action revolver in 1880? In an early scene in 'Unforgiven', Clint is practicing his shots on a tin can. I watched distinctly as he squeezed the trigger to bring the hammer back on one shot (this is the scene where he misses every shot, gets mad, gets the shotgun and blows the can off the stump at 15 feet.)

The revolver looked like an old single-action and I assume that it was a Hollywood screw-up, but I didn't know that there was a double-action revolver that even looked like that.

 

[Shane]

There was double action revolvers in the late 1800s, if memory serves. Didn't Willaim Bonney (sp?), aka "Billy The Kid" use a double action revolver occasionally?

As far as what year the double actions came out, I don't have the foggiest idea. A resident revolver expert like Jim March might be able to answer that for you though.

 

[Mike Irwin]

Lord yes there were double-action revolvers in 1880.

S&W fielded its first double-actions in 1880, in .32 S&W and .38 S&W.

It brought out its first large-frame double action a year later.

Colt brought out their first double-action cartridge revolvers even earlier, with the Thunderer (.41 Long Colt) and Lightning (.38 Long Colt) hitting in 1877 and proving to be both popular and successful.

On top of that there were a number of double action percussion revolvers, both American and foreign made, including the Starr from the US and the Adams and Tranter revolvers from Britain.

 

[BluesBear]

Colt also had a full sized DA .45. The model of 1878. Later available in .44-40 & .38-40

Merwin & Hulbert also had an EXCELLENT double action revolver in .44-40.
It extracted all 6 round at once, could be had with a square butt or a round butt and even had a folding hammer spur option for pocket carry. It could also be bought with interchangable barrels of different lengths. It was also made i a smaller pocket model in .32 & .38.

 

[Jim March]

Ya, the Colt 1877/78 series looked like a typical SA, complete with loading gate and ejector rod just like the SAA, but with a DA trigger. The Colt DA grip was of a modified "Bird's Head" layout; go to the Cimmarron Firearms page and look up their "Thunderer" and "Lightning" series for what the grips looked like, although Cimmarron is using that grip type on true SA guns...some SAs of the 1880s/1890s were done up that way custom, but otherwise the Cimmarron guns are...understood to "look old-timey" but aren't historically accurate. (They're SASS legal though.)

There were even DA percussion guns in the civil war era, and other DAs besides Colt prior to 1880. General Custer died with some sort of British DA wheelgun at the Little Bighorn, 1876. The Brits in particular made a lot of short-barreled 44 DAs, the general pattern was known as the "British Bulldog" although at some point, a lot were made in Belgium and elsewhere. Those were probably the most common DAs pre-1880 even in the US (classic "East Coast urban gun" versus Western).

 

[Lone Star]

Webley's Army Express resembled the 1878 Colt DA .45 fairly closely, but the lockwork was evidently more robust.

From the early 1880's, Webley produced an increasingly improved series of revolvers for both military and civilian sales. I believe the first to have their celebrated "stirrup lock" closure was the Webley-Kaufman of about 1882.

S&W and Colt had DA guns, the one supposedly used by Billy the Kid being the .41 Thunderer or the identical (but for caliber) .38 Lightning. These were notorious for breaking action parts, though. I think I'd have preferred the contemporary S&W top-break ,38's..
Lone Star

 

[Coult D]

To answer the posts orginal question I believe the gun used in Unforgiven was a model called Starr. A precussion gun that was produced in both single and double action versions during the War of Northern Agression(Civil War) for the Union Army.

 

[Mike Irwin]

"the War of Northern Agression..."


Used to be called the War of Southern Stupidity where I grew up...


Oh, and is anyone else with me when I say that Unforgiven just stank on ice?

I HATED that movie, and I just don't know why.

 

[BigG]

There was a DA revo called a Tranter, IIRC, from the Civil War era, if nobody mentioned it yet.

Unforgiven was one of the ten best Westerns ever, in my opinion.

 

[Jim March]

"Unforgiven" -=ROCKED=-.

It was Clint's "apology" for doing all those unauthentic flicks way back when...his "final statement" on Westerns and probably among the most realistic ever made. You had racism, bad carpentry, a shotgun misfiring, idiot kid in need of glasses and one of the best final gunplay scenes ever scripted, happening so fast you can't really track it.

 

[BluesBear]

Definately on my top 10 Westerns list.

But then so is The Outlaw Josie Wales.


And just in case anyone cares, A Fistful Of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad & The Ugly are NOT!

 

[Monkeyleg]

Mike, sometimes you surprise me. "The Unforgiven" will be remembered as one of the best Westerns long after you and I are gone.

The cinematography alone is enough to make it a classic. That, coupled with the subdued soundtrack, give a disturbingly quiet feel to a fairly violent movie.

 

[BigG]

"It's a hell of a thing to kill a man. You take away everything he's got, and everything he's ever going to have." William Munny

UNFORGIVEN

 

[Abominable No-Man]

I didn't like Unforgiven either. Whole movie just rubs me the wrong way,
I guess. Not sure why. I'm not a particularly big fan of westerns, but IMO the most watchable western movie in recent memory has got to be "Wyatt Earp". I also like "Legends of the Fall" a lot, although it's not strictly a western.

ANM

 

[semf]

Oh, and is anyone else with me when I say that Unforgiven just stank on ice?

Unforgiven was more than juat a western it was a psycological drama about the duality of man. Probably more intellectual than you are used to.

Plus it had some way cool guns

Edited out the inflamatory part.....Sam

 

[Ant Mod]

and one of the best final gunplay scenes ever scripted, happening so fast you can't really track it.

You really have to see Open Range before it leaves the theaters, by far the best western gun scene I have ever witnessed.

 

[Mike Irwin]

"Unforgiven was more than juat a western it was a psycological drama about the duality of man. Probably more intellectual than you are used to."



As a "duality of man" movie, Unforgiven was an abject failure of monumental proportions. Kevin Costner does better "duality of man" movies, and he's yet to do a good movie.

Unforgiven was overacted, underscripted, underwritten, and very much underinteresting.

If you want a TRUELY "psychological drama about the duality of man" try The Searchers, which truly is one of the best westerns ever filmed.

And hey! What do you know, the protagonist, Ethan Edwards? He was a Confederate veteran!

Edited out inflamatory and ad hominum parts....Sam

 

[semf]

and how the hell is "the searchers, a movie about a fascist man looking for his niece so he can murder her a lesson in the duality of man,because he can't kill her in the end?

And Kevin Costner? Give me a break.

Edited out ad hominum attack....Sam

 

[Tamara]

Sorry I didn't catch this one sooner.

Y'all know better than this.