Fact or Fiction, The best and worst

[Kaeto]

I recently watched an episode of Have Gun-Will Travel that featured a gatling gun. It was using stick mags and they were having to reload every 25 shots. And I've seen Paladin stopping to reload his Colt after 6 shots, and he never fired his derringer more than twice.

 

[Speedo66]

I recently watched an episode of Have Gun-Will Travel that featured a gatling gun. It was using stick mags and they were having to reload every 25 shots. And I've seen Paladin stopping to reload his Colt after 6 shots, and he never fired his derringer more than twice.

Great show, great actor. The thinking man's western.

 

[Offfhand]

Based on true events, only Perdicaris was a man, did not have his son with him, the Marines never had to shoot anyone or anything, their only action was to secure the customs house without firing a shot, and Perdicaris was released without further incident or gun-play.

Trivia: The Marine officer in this movie is, of course, based on the real Marine officer in charge of the USS Brooklyn's shore party. This real Marine officer was involved in another historical event (four years earlier) immortalized by Hollywood (and closer to reality, sort of), can you name that movie? Or, the Marine Officer?

Don't want to steal anyone's answer, but the clues are "JM & 55"

 

[Kaeto]

Great show, great actor. The thinking man's western.

And a very distant relative.

 

[DownInTheDark]

I liked the Rambo series for its realism.

 

[JackSprat]

Or them really cheaply made low budget movies were all the guns,shotguns rifles,and pistols all sound like cap busters,and all the near misses ricochet.

 

[Ramone]

Based on true events, only Perdicaris was a man, did not have his son with him, the Marines never had to shoot anyone or anything, their only action was to secure the customs house without firing a shot, and Perdicaris was released without further incident or gun-play.

Trivia: The Marine officer in this movie is, of course, based on the real Marine officer in charge of the USS Brooklyn's shore party. This real Marine officer was involved in another historical event (four years earlier) immortalized by Hollywood (and closer to reality, sort of), can you name that movie? Or, the Marine Officer?

Actually, Persicaria was captured along with his Step Son.

The Marine, of course, was 'Handsome Jack' Myers, best known for leading the Marines during the Boxer Rebellion.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

Forgive me if this has been said, but I laugh in Westerns where there is a shootout in a saloon and hardly any smoke in the air.
Yeah, before 1884 (after really, but smokeles was invented in '84) an indoor shootout was going to be pretty darn smokey. lol

 

[JackSprat]

Forgive me if this has been said, but I laugh in Westerns where there is a shootout in a saloon and hardly any smoke in the air.
Yeah, before 1884 (after really, but smokeles was invented in '84) an indoor shootout was going to be pretty darn smokey. lol

Or when the bartender shoots a shotgun up in the air to break up a fight

 

[greyling22]

First, the American was awful. But suppose by mini14, he really meant mini30. With subsonic rounds, which would make sense when using a suppressor, 630 mph converts to 924 fps, which is in fact a reasonable number. But let's not forget the movie was a borderline porno dumpster fire of a movie.

Interesting irony, I was flipping channels this weekend and stopped on a movie called "The American" with George Clooney. Although intended to be a drama about an assassin (Clooney), hired to train and equip a woman to pull off a hit, it's ignorance of firearms made it more of a comedy.

I happened to catch it right as he was talking to his customer/student about what weapon to use. The scene cuts to him deftly assembling the rife of choice for all professional hit men..........get this........a mini 14. Clooney calls it a "Ruger M14 and continues to customize it by whacking together a suppressor made out of old car parts.

Later, she asks Clooney about the muzzle velocity, which he states with authority to be "630 miles per hour". I kid you not. Sort of sounded like a conversation that takes place 20 times a day at the gun counter at every Academy/Gander/Cabelas in every town

That was all I could take of that excremental piece of cinematic excellence.

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

Don't want to steal anyone's answer, but the clues are "JM & 55"

55 Days at Peking with Charlton Heston .

 

[CapnMac]

Really, there's so many things so wrong with the "stock" H'wood reflexes.
Bodies that fly through the air when struck by mere bullets, but unaffected by immediately adjacent explosions.
Hand grenades that explode like 3-5# of explosive, not 1/2#.
MGs never used with T&E gear, but used only as direct fire weapons.
Pre 1860 cannon shot exploding.
Two-gun mojo that actually works perfectly (far too many movies guilty of this)
Good guy picks up any random arm and shoots 1/4MOA from first grasp.
Bad guys who are barely able to shoot minute of Deathstar.

Proof yet again that screenwriters write what they know; and what they know is mostly nothing.

 

[Goosey]

In the new 'Westworld' series one particularly bad moment was when a bandit executed a man with a '73 Winchester... they added a case ejecting automatically (and very visibly) as the shot was fired.

 

[HB]

I read this entire thread but thank the lord we aren't car aficionados!!!

Movies are for entertainment and that's it. There are some bad depictions of manual of arms but its all poetic license. Bruce Willis' liver would have exploded from the amount of aspirin he crunched down in the Die Hard movies not to mention several 124gr slugs in the ole wheelhouse.

HB

 

[BrocLuno]

My latest bummer is the cable series Shooter where an ex US Sniper has to shoot in all kinds of situations and rarely misses. Off hand at what looks like 500 yds after running up hill, etc. The actor is fit enough, fine, but he and the others only have to put the cross hairs on target at any range to hit head sized targets. No pulse pound, nada... No windage, no elevation (well occasionally dialed in w/o a range finder...). They've got Mil-Dot scopes but never use them.

My wife asks why I watch? I tell her to see the personal interplay of the characters, not to see the shooting ...

At least Top Shot was entertaining in a way that has not been duplicated ...

 

[Nature Boy]

First, the American was awful. But suppose by mini14, he really meant mini30. With subsonic rounds, which would make sense when using a suppressor, 630 mph converts to 924 fps, which is in fact a reasonable number. But let's not forget the movie was a borderline porno dumpster fire of a movie.

I guess we'd have to do a lot of 'supposing' to cover for the nonsense in that movie. My dog needed worming so I chose to do that instead of watching the rest of the movie so I don't know if she actually used the "Ruger M14" to carry out the hit (the term "hit" implying the assassin actually intends to "hit" their target, making the choice of a Mini-14 even more of a head scratcher)

 

[Nature Boy]

On the subject, this website does a pretty good just of cataloging the weapons used in just about every movie you could think of:

http://www.imfdb.org/index.php/Main_Page

 

[Hokkmike]

Matt Dillon (love the show) could always pick off a guy with a rifle with his 6 shooter at 40 yards while never being hit.

 

[TrickyDick]

In "The Magnificent 7", the Gatling gun seems to shoot everywhere. High, low, straight down, around corners. I don't get how this behemoth of a gun that requires a screw system to raise the elevation can at one second be hitting the ground, then the next second, destroying the church tower.

 

[GRIZ22]

Or when the bartender shoots a shotgun up in the air to break up a fight

Saloon roof repair would have been steady employment in the "Old West".

 

[JackSprat]

Saloon roof repair would have been steady employment in the "Old West".

And keep the undertaker busy too,because the upstairs was always a hotel,or cathouse.I always thought it was funny how the undertaker was always measuring people with a tape measure in those cheesy westerns