Revolvers in pop culture

[gmh1013]

Im a big collector of Rolex and Omega watches......along with Revolvers.
I have a few auto's but NOTHING is like a Colt Python/Diamondback/Cobra etc.
My Colt Diamondback 4 inch is one of my most prized possessions....right up there with
a Rolex GMT pepsi.

 

[SharpsDressedMan]

Maybe it isn't common knowledge, but cops were carrying .41 and .44 mags way before "Dirty Harry". A few departments in AZ and TX issued or authorized the .41 mag, and Detroit, MI used to let officers use anything they wanted to and qualified with for several years, and some carried the .44 mag. I carried a .44 mag for a limited time off duty, and on a few plainclothes assignments while on a small department in Ohio in the 70's, but my load was a medium one with a 240gr JHP at 900fps. I just had to register it and qaulify with it. This was before all the hoopla about HAVING to use factory ammo (mostly fabricated by "experts"). I'm sure there were quite a few acorss the US carrying the big magnums, with Special and Mag ammo. It's a personal thing. Carry a 9mm and be prepared to keep shooting the bad guy until he stops (is that curel and unusual punishment?), or shoot them once, or twice, with a big gun...........

 

[KJS]

Considering that .500 is the legal limit in the US, and they won't have a S&W .600 coming out, there will not be an even more powerful trendy revolver likely to receive similar pop culture attention.

Even if there were no legal caliber limit, I think it would already be the practical limit anyhow. After all, what are they going to do -- make a cylinder as big as the wheel on your car to accommodate an even larger caliber? I doubt many (if any) have ever shot a .500 Mag and said "Gee, I wish they made an even more massive handgun." That gun is a monster that makes a .44 Mag look petite. Given that Ruger hasn't bothered to jump in and make a .500 Mag of their own, I gather that they decided demand for such a huge gun simply wasn't great enough to justify another company making it. A while back I look at a 2009 Taurus catalog and I didn't see any .500 Mags in there, so I gather they stopped production on them since I know they used to make a .500 Mag Raging Bull. I guess they too found that demand for such a huge gun is too limited to justify making it.

While I've never fired one, X-frame models look almost comically large to me, similar to how .25 ACP mouse guns look comically tiny.

I know of one local gun shop that has a .500 Mag in their rental collection. I suspect many rent it just so they can brag that they've fired the most powerful production handgun on earth. I doubt many of them rent it so they can try before they buy since few have a need for nor the money for such a gun that eats such expensive ammo.

 

[KJS]

Maybe it isn't common knowledge, but cops were carrying .41 and .44 mags way before "Dirty Harry". A few departments in AZ and TX issued or authorized the .41 mag, and Detroit, MI used to let officers use anything they wanted to and qualified with for several years, and some carried the .44 mag. I carried a .44 mag for a limited time off duty, and on a few plainclothes assignments while on a small department in Ohio in the 70's, but my load was a medium one with a 240gr JHP at 900fps. I just had to register it and qaulify with it. This was before all the hoopla about HAVING to use factory ammo (mostly fabricated by "experts"). I'm sure there were quite a few acorss the US carrying the big magnums, with Special and Mag ammo. It's a personal thing. Carry a 9mm and be prepared to keep shooting the bad guy until he stops (is that curel and unusual punishment?), or shoot them once, or twice, with a big gun...........

Thanks for the first hand information. I had no idea that such guns ever saw use in law enforcement.

If a cop was using full power Mag ammo, wouldn't a .44 surely go through the bad guy? That would be a bad thing for anybody unfortunate enough to be standing behind him. Also seems like a really heavy gun to carry all day long on duty.

As for 9mm, it still packs more power than a .38 Special that was the standard for cops for much of the 20th century.

 

[SwampWolf]

Maybe it isn't common knowledge, but cops were carrying .41 and .44 mags way before "Dirty Harry". A few departments in AZ and TX issued or authorized the .41 mag,

Quoting The Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson: "The .41 Magnum was originally conceived as an ideal police round, offering a larger diameter bullet than the .357 Magnum without the over-penetration and heavy recoil of the .44 Magnum. After its introduction, however, the mid-velocity police loading was overshadowed by the full power Magnum loading, and it never really caught on as a police round..."
The N-framed, Smith Model 58, with its fixed sights and 4" barrel, was originally intended as a holstered duty revolver for the uniformed police officer-but then, along came the "wonder-nines" (first, the single-stacked Smith 39; then the double-stacked Model 59, second and third generation Smith autos, and, finally, the Glock). The .40 caliber Smith & Wesson cartridge eventually evolved to become the ultimate "ideal police round" compromise..and the rest, as they say, is history.

 

[SharpsDressedMan]

It's been mentioned many times, in many threads, but no one should ASSUME that any round is NOT going to completely penetrate and pass through a hostile target. Even high tech designed bullets may occasionally not expand, and continue through a body with enough mass to exit. When I ws policing, I was always conscious of what was behind the few bad guys I (fortunately) did not shoot (but came very close). One was on a Saturday night, in a parking lot full of people outside a bar, during a brawl that magically became an armed encounter. I opted to take two steps and grab the gun rather than draw my own, which most assuredly would have made it a "two-guns-shooting-in-a-crowd" situation. True, a round less powerful than a .41 or .44 mag wound probably penetrate less, but to NOT shoot in my situation was the choice, no matter what gun/cartridge I had (we had full load .357's at that time, and I think any shot not hitting a bone would have gone through the suspect.). Tough call most of the time, but maybe this is why so many like a shotgun. It generally stops better than most all handguns, and penetrates less.

 

[KJS]

It's been mentioned many times, in many threads, but no one should ASSUME that any round is NOT going to completely penetrate and pass through a hostile target.

Of course, some rounds are inherently more likely to over-penetrate than others. A big, slow .45 ACP bullet is less likely to over-penetrate than a smaller, faster .357 Mag. In the endless .45 vs .357 debate this is always one of the major reasons cited by those who prefer the .45.

(we had full load .357's at that time, and I think any shot not hitting a bone would have gone through the suspect.).

A few weeks back I read that some police departments back when revolvers were still used would issue their officers .357 Mag revolvers and then use .38 +P+ ammo that effectively is a Magnum round since there are no industry standards for +P+. The person who posted that said it was done because it sounded nicer to say they were shot with a .38 rather than a Magnum, even though a .357 really is just a very hot loaded .38.

As a former cop, does the above sound familiar?

 

[wheelgunslinger]

David Carradine's character Bill in the Kill Bill movies carried a single action.

I found that choice quite accurate for the character.

 

[SharpsDressedMan]

KJS, our department didn't mince words about the use of the .357 full load at the time...they were proud to be armed equal or greater than the bad guys. Either the public didn't care, or they were even supportive. We were about 30 miles south of Cleveland, OH, and they (Cleveland PD) were stuck with .38's with "non-hollowpoints" (I can't remember their actual load, but HP's and magnums were taboo). They could not use revolvers chambered for .357. either; they had to be .38's. Our state patrol used .38 S&W Model 10 HB's with a SWC, if I remember correctly, so departments that used the .357 were a bit "renegade" (and the envy of these bigger, more restricted departments).

 

[StrateShooter]

Yes, great link CorpITGuy. I have some DVDs o f the WWW and in 2 episodes I,ve seen they use a snub-nose revolver but the 1st snubby came out in 1927, 3 or 4 decades later. But it wasn't used by the heroes who had the Colt SA or a Deringer.

 

[pak29]

He also lied about it being the most powerful handgun even back in 1973. Didn't it only hold that title from 1956-1959 when the .454 Casull took over as king of the handgun power hill (till others came along to knock off the .454 as the ultimate)?

Yes, but for a reason. He was pointing it at the listener.

 

[nulfisin]

Not really a "lie"

Yeah, the .454 has existed for almost as long as the .44. So what. No one I've heard actually carries that gun on the streets of any city. For all practical purposes, the .44 mag WAS the most powerful gun a bad guy could expect to encounter. Probably still is.

 

[BlayGlock]

Yea but he loaded them with .44 specials. I would argue that the most powerful handgun a bad guy would encounter anymore is a 10mm, although some guys will back a big ol' N frame around. I salute those guys, but I just cannot do that comfortably.

 

[PT1911]

I guess you moved the O in encounter to leave eno****er.... LMAO!!!!


and I have noticed a bit of what everyone is talking about... the semi-autos seem to have become interchangeable on screen and the full autos have finally been accepted as impractical even to most gun ignorant moviegoers as 10,000 rounds for 5 flesh wounds just doesnt make sense.... Now, when someone pulls out a revolver... that grabs the attention of the audience....OOOOOO, ahhhhh... what is that shiny thing.

unless it is bruce willis shooting down a choppa with a .22? 32 of some sort? dont even know what that rickety thing was.

 

[DougDubya]

Are you talking about Die Hard 3? It looked like a .38, just an old one.

And he didn't hit the chopper. He realized that after three shots, he wasn't affecting the choppah, so he shot the transformer the pilot was flying near, and the sparks from that thing knocked out the aircraft.

 

[Bellevance]

For those members who like to read mysteries and literary suspense fiction, THE ERRAND BOY (Three Rivers Press), the third novel in my Hector Bellevance series, was released this fall.

Hector, an ex-Boston Police Dept. detective, is a constable in the small northern Vermont town of Tipton. He carries a Colt 1911, but he keeps a S&W Model 27 in the safe. Anyone with an interest may read a feature about these novels published recently in Vermont's popular entertainment weekly, "Seven Days." Here is a link to the online version:

http://www.7dvt.com/2009north-country-noir

The earlier books in the series are COLD COMFORT (2001) and THE FIFTH SEASON (2005). All three novels present contemporary stories loosely inspired by real crimes. About THE FIFTH SEASON, Marilyn Stasio wrote in the New York Times Book Review, "...inexplicable outbursts of violence take years, generations even, to fester into a poisonous hatred of one's neighbors--a position that Bredes argues with grave eloquence in this disquieting novel."

Here's an excerpt:

My primary carry when called for was a .45 Colt 1911 A1 semi-automatic. I had a revolver in the safe, too, a Smith & Wesson Model 27 that I practiced with every week or so out of habit. By the time she was nine Myra had become curious enough about firearms so that, in the face of Wilma's misgivings, I set up a shooting range out behind the cabin, where Myra could learn gun safety and marksmanship. "No matter how much you may hate it," I told Wilma, "this country's full of handguns, and that isn't about to change. A child who doesn't know the first thing about how to use and respect a handgun will always be in more danger than necessary, and she'll have her parents to blame for that."

At a pawn shop one day I chanced across the classic small-bore target revolver, a 50-year-old K-22 Masterpiece in good shape, which Myra took to as soon as she held it. The magna stocks fit her hand just right. A natural deadeye, by the end of that summer she was shooting quarter-size groups without a rest at ten yards. Myra's interest in target-shooting drew Wilma out to our range now and then, too, but she didn't enjoy it--couldn't "get used to the suddenness," was how she put it.

www.DonBredes.com

 

[Bellevance]

Since the 70s and 80s, in pop-cultural entertainment--that is, in TV, movies, and in most contemporary crime and detective fiction--the revolver has lost considerable ground (since "Dirty Harry") to the bottom feeders--just as it has in real-world law enforcement.

For about 20 years now, in film and other fiction, revolvers have entered the story as unique or quaint weapons (something somebody find in a footlocker, like cuff-links) or as weapons of last resort. The understanding seems to have been that no self-respecting gangsta or mob hit guy is going to bother with anything so, well, dated-looking. Another reason, it goes without saying, has been the proliferation of semi-autos in the culture at large.

But that may be starting to change, I think, partly because semi-autos have been so ubiquitous, which makes the appearance of a revolver (both in the story and as a visual property) dramatically more appealing. As it is to most of us.

 

[Wedgester]

Had an uncle that was a Chicago detective and he mentioned several officers carried 44 mag and 357s . As far as qualifying with it haha this was Chicago in the 60s and 70s. There were laws and ChiTown laws.

 

[Quoheleth]

The other night, some cable channel had a Barney Miller marathon running. Nice seeing all the cops with Smith & Colt wheelies on their belts. Lots of K-frames there.

I did jury duty in Houston a couple years ago. Our bailiff (Harris Co. Sherriff's Dept.) had a very well-worn Ruger Six-series revolver on his Sam Browne. Saw a cop in Houston the other day that had an N-framed Smith on his belt - I would guess a 686.

A friend who recently retired from Houston PD said unless you're old school and grandfathered in, in a office job, special duty, or off-duty (i.e. personal time), revolvers are basically a no-go.

Q

 

[The_Shootist]

Well..

...in the upcoming Guy Ritchie flick "Sherlock Holmes", the trailer shows Holmes and Watson blasting away with with some revolvers (set back in the 19th century when British citizens were sill free). But maybe thats more of a period piece than an example of revolver showing a resurgence.

 

[DNS]

I watched the "Big Sleep" a couple weeks back with Philip Marlowe carrying a couple revolvers on a flip down section under his car dash.

It appeared to be a .32 Colt and a .38 Smith.
Very cool

 

[KJS]

On an episode of "Sons of Anarchy" several weeks back Gemma (sp?) gave her son's GF a snub nose revolver for self-defense. She got it out of the hat box that housed her personal collection of handguns. I guess she figured a revolver was optimal here, being so easy to operate and so reliable.

 

[Bellevance]

She got it out of the hat box that housed her personal collection of handguns. I guess she figured a revolver was optimal here, being so easy to operate and so reliable.

Sure, and that's sensible in that context, as we know. If somebody who isn't a gun person (and who is unlikely to practice much, if at all) needs an SD firearm, a revolver is the answer. Maybe they had a cop lending advice to the show's writers--as the producers of "NYPD Blue" did--which probably accounts for Andy Sipowicz's Model 10 snub.

But for dramatic flash and contemporary drama, these days the choice is almost always a semi-auto. That's what impresses an average audience.

 

[KJS]

But for dramatic flash and contemporary drama, these days the choice is almost always a semi-auto. That's what impresses an average audience.

Using semi-autos in TVs & movies seems to largely just reflect the fact that in the real world most handguns sold in the last couple decades have been semi-autos.

I recently saw the sales figures for S&W and Ruger for year 2007, which was one of the highest years in a long time. (No doubt 2008 and 2009 sales will blow those numbers away by comparison.) One thing that surprised me was the relative mix they had in handguns. For both firms combined revolvers made up 40% of the handguns they sold.

At first that struck me as odd, since obviously revolvers sure don't make up anywhere near that much of the handgun market. Then I figured that lots of other companies like Glock that make no revolvers at all would likely account for a large portion of the semi-autos sold.

 

[KJS]

Sure, and that's sensible in that context, as we know. If somebody who isn't a gun person (and who is unlikely to practice much, if at all) needs an SD firearm, a revolver is the answer.

In that episode Gemma gave her a shooting lesson that consisted of 5 or 6shots. Point & pull trigger, so not much in the way of detail.