Movie gun question

[wannabeagunsmith]

For guns used in movies, are the guns used converted to lank-firing weapons or kept stock? I am asking because it seems like it would be a sad waste for WWII weapons to be converted into blank firing weapons, all the M-1s, Tompson's, and M1911s, etc. Also, I am aware of non-guns, but those are pretty easy to tell being as they do not eject shells. So basically what I am asking is are the weapons in movies stock and fire blanks for the movies, or are they converted over?

 

[rcmodel]

Of course they are.
As long as they still have the butt stock attached.

The sawed-off pistol grip ones hurt the shooter about as bad as they hurt the target.

The movie ones don't kick that hard with blanks!

rc

 

[TurtlePhish]

I think they'd be converted over, or even be new blank guns just made to look older. There'd probably be insurance and liability issues with using an unconverted firearm, even if it did have blank ammo in it. I mean, what if there's something stuck in the barrel? That's a seriously injured (or dead) actor right there.

 

[06]

Barrel inserts that restrict the gas escape are not noticable and work the actions well. Do not know how they make recoil operated arms to work.

 

[wannabeagunsmith]

'Cause it doesn't seem like a blank gun could cycle a semiautomatic or full auto gun..

 

[Saakee]

It depends on the movie.
If you're filming a movie that'll have a crapload of AKs in it, it's nearly always cheaper to buy surplus than nonguns, take a look at the info for Lord of War. For bigger budgets, blank firing guns will be used, flash nonguns in most cheaper films or green gas guns (for the spark they make when fired that looks like expelled burning propellant). Check IMFDB.org for the movie and you'll find whether or not a movie has real or nonguns in it.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

RC said, The sawed-off pistol grip ones hurt the shooter about as bad as they hurt the target.

That probably explains why in the movies they miss so much.

 

[USAF_Vet]

Depending on the studio, a lot of muzzle flash is done with CGI these days. Your cheap Sci-Fi channel movies are pretty bad CGI, but with some of the bigger budget action movies, you'll never tell the difference.

 

[Bubbles]

The guns in movies are not the high-$$$$$ transferrable collectibles, they are post-sample machine guns built specifically for that purpose. Converting them to fire blanks vs live rounds (and back if needed) is not difficult.

Also, a lot of the shooting sequences are done via CGI.

 

[rcmodel]

Just as an aside.

I had a friend in high school who sawed off a 20 ga single-shot and made it a pistol grip with a 10" or so barrel.

The first shot drove the barrel latch lever clear through the web of his hand.

Had it been a 12 ga, I'm sure the outcome would have been even worse.

I got the job of cutting it up in pieces with my dads cutting torch and disposing of the remains before the cops found out about it..

rc

 

[LawofThirds]

Another thing to think about:

We make fun of actors closing their eyes while blazing away.....

A lot of the blank firing/propane guns put a ton of nasty particulate/flame/debris all over the place, making them worse than modern firearms to actually pull the trigger on. And they have to do it with no eye protection in most cases.

Most prop houses have a mix of real, adapted guns and non-guns. Airsoft replicas are becoming more and more popular as they're relatively inexpensive, accurate looking and gunfire can be added in post production (you see a ton of this in TV shows). My favorite gun/show related activity: Spotting the rubber cast guns in the hands of actors (especially ones who are known to be clumsy/hard on guns).

 

[Sam1911]

The guns in movies are not the high-$$$$$ transferrable collectibles, they are post-sample machine guns built specifically for that purpose. Converting them to fire blanks vs live rounds (and back if needed) is not difficult.

Bubbles beat me to it. You don't have to much with a $40,000 original, transferrable, M1 Thompson when you can have an SOT2 manufacturer build exactly what you want out of surplus parts kits and provide it for the purposes of filming.

 

[xjsnake]

While I know some people bag on Sons of Guns, they did an episode where they converted a functional (Uzi or Mac 10 can't remember) to a blank firing movie gun. Look around and see if you can find that episode and you will see some info about prop guns.

 

[Ghost Tracker]

Don't know about ALL movies. But do have some "prop-gun" experience. A bunch of time, efforts, safeguards & lawyers are involved throughout the process to that assure no (NO!) functioning firearms are ANYWHERE NEAR a movie set. Most movie makers (Lucas being an exception, he's a shooter) aren't near as pro-gun as they are pro-money. The potential liability & financial repercussions of an AD/ND with a working firearm during the filming of a movie could easily bankrupt not only the directly involved parties, but financial institutions, studios, related investors, (etc., etc.). So, nothing on the set can (ever again) fire a live cartridge (without EXTENSIVE remanufacturing).

 

[walker944]

Sadly, Brandon Lee would tell you that they are not all converted over to blank firing only.

 

[lonegunman]

Brandon Lee was killed by a blank, so was some TV action star in the 80's. A blank still has 25,000psi or so and easily blows a hole in you or lows a chunk of skull into your head, killing you.

Quite a few movie machine guns are propane actuated or blank firing. Making a blank firing machine gun is easy enough, the military does it all the time. I have a few boxes of Steinbridge movie blanks, they are flash powder and black powder and probably make a huge fireball.

These days they make resin guns, all plastic and CG bangs later.

 

[effengee]

Movie guns

I read somewhere that a bunch of guns were confiscated that were part of a Hollywood production that were NOT converted to blanks. Apparently it's illegal to import weapons into third-world countries even if you are a big time moviemaker...

Watch "SNATCH" for a great scene involving a "fake" gun and a "real" one...

FWIW Jon-Erik Hexum of T.V.'s "COVER-UP" was the 80's actor who thought it would be perfectly safe to put a loaded blank gun to his temple and pull the trigger... My little sister had the biggest crush on him...

 

[Twiki357]

I seem to recall an old "Behind the scenes" type show many years ago for Miami Vice where the actors just pulled the trigger and the bang & flash was added later.

 

[Bovice]

One of the biggest hollywood movie shootouts is the bank heist scene from Michael Mann's Heat. Pretty sure those were real guns firing blanks. I saw a behind the scenes video about it one time, each "take" burned up about 1000 rounds.

 

[Mizar]

Hello. Let me clear some misinformation here:

1. For firing - real guns converted for blank firing are used almost 90% of the time - CGI is expensive and time consuming if you want it to look "real".

2. Almost all of the converted weapons CAN chamber and fire a life round. But just once - the gun will Ka-boom from the barrel restriction and etc. Most of the blank cartridges have the same OAL length as the live ones - that is to ensure proper feeding.

3. At least one weapons supervisor (Movie armourer) must be on set ALL of the time when weapons are used with NO exceptions - he is responsible not only for loading and handling the weapons, but for the safety as well.

4. The easiest to convert are gas-operated weapons - most of the time only a sleeve screwed in to the barrel is needed and some minor adjusting to the feed ramp, recoil spring and etc. Hardest to convert are locked breech recoil operated systems - a Glock for example - one way is to grind the whole locking lug on the barrel, weld a feed ramp extension, block the barrel from moving and adjust barrel/slide interference to allow full travel of the slide. That and sleeving the barrel. You are converting a locked breech to straight blow back, that is still capable of firing ONE round of live ammo.

Boris

 

[walker944]

Brandon Lee was killed by a blank

There was a dummy bullet that got lodged in the barrel prior to the fatal trigger pull on a blank round. So, it seems the blank round propelled the lodged bullet, which killed Lee.

 

[Ryanxia]

I've seen advertisements for blank-firing only replicas. I would guess many use them.

 

[mortablunt]

Oftentimes, movie guns are props and models which look like the guns. This is to deal with the hazards and liabilities of pointing deadly weapons at people. In scenes where a gun is pointed at someone, chances are that the weapon is a prop. If they're actually firing, then they could be real. Movie guns often do fire blanks or squibs, but those have safety issues too. I'm a bit hazy on this, but I definitely know that blanks are cartridges that just make a bang with no projectile and squibs are I think catrdiges loaded with powder and a paper wad of some kind. In order to simulate being shot, actors use things which I think are called squibs. They're explosive charges which definitely hurt. I'm a bit hazy on my prop gunplay vocabulary.

Interesting facts: The mini-14 is a popular movie gun because it works well with blanks. In the film Sergeant York, Alvin York used a Luger p08 because the M1911 did not cycle properly with blank ammunition. In the scene from Lord of War, the warehouse full of AK's actually features real AK's because they were cheaper to purchase than it was to make the props. In Boyz N The Hood, the director did not tell the actors when there would be gunfire to make sure that all their reactions would be genuine.

For more about guns in movies, go to the IMFDB at http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Main_Page

 

[Cosmoline]

It depends on the movie.

This is correct. It depends on the movie as well as the era it was made in. They use everything from non-firing replicas augmented by CGI to actual real firearms just handed to the prop master for supervision and loading with blanks. Sam Elliot I believe has used some of his personal arms in various westerns, and those are no mere prop guns. Plenty of the "M 16's" used in 70's and 80's action film and TV were just SP-1's firing blanks. But these days due to liability concerns they're going more and more with propane-fueled replicas that spit a cool looking "muzzle flash" but are not firearms at all. These are augmented with CGI.

That's not to say all the guns in the old days were real. They almost never used actual flintlocks, for one thing. So in most of those old Daniel Boone era movies they used surplus trapdoors or rolling blocks with faux flintlock actions tacked to the side. There was one of these on GB not too long ago from John Wayne's old production company.

 

[xfyrfiter]

On one of the speed channel shows about truck and car convrsions they have a propane actuated twin "ma deuce" setup in the bed of a big ohv truck, looks and sounds very real, and LOTS OF FUN.