Why do people spin the wheel on revolvers in movies/tv?

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SolaScriptura139

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I've just noticed something that seems to be a recurring theme in the media, every time someone loads a revolver in a movie/tv show, they spin the wheel around really fast. Is this something normal shooters do, or is it just something they do so you can hear the whirring/clicking sound it makes when you spin the chambers?
 
I shoot cowboy action, and I always spin the cylinder after loading for one simple reason -- if I have a high primer or overly long cartridge that might catch and cause a jam, I want to know about it before I go to the line, so I can fix it by removing and replacing the offending cartridge. By spinning the cylinder, I can tell everything is moving smoothly. I started doing this after I had a cartridge loaded a little too long and the bullet hit the back of the barrel, causing a jam and ruining a stage for me.

In movies and TV, though, I think they do it because it's a neat visual and sound effect.
 
Quote "In movies and TV, though, I think they do it because it's a neat visual and sound effect."
Yep!! Father is right on. Looks and sounds "cool". Another thing that really goes all through me is when an actor flicks the cylinder closed on a revolver. I hate to see a person treat a revolver that way, movie or not.
 
I've heard it called "The Hollywood Flip" when someone spins the cylinder on a revolver and then flicks the cylinder closed by jerking their wrist. I think every movie with guns made from 1930 to 1970 had that scene included. Another good reason to learn gun handling from professionals instead of the movies. Otherwise, we'd all be holding the pistol at a 270 degree "Gangsta" angle and wondering why we couldn't hit squat.


BTW, I'll spin the cylinder on my revolvers to make sure they move freely after cleaning (and yes, I do like to hear/see them spin :)).

Matt
 
Sort of like the continual racking of pistol slides or manipulating slide-action shotguns without reason.
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I love it when the action-hero is pointing his semi-auto at the bad guy and interrogating him. When the BG hesitates to give an answer, our hero then racks the slide on his gun, indicating that he's really serious now! Funny that this never causes a cartridge to eject. So the hero was threatening with a gun that wouldn't fire when the trigger was pulled? :confused: Morons.....

My daughter hates watching TV with me, since I can't help laughing at these and many other "un-possible" situations.
 
I consider turning the cylinder (not spinning it) to be a good idea with single-action revolvers for the reasons Father Knows Best outlined. Flipping a double-action revolver's cylinder in and out is not only unnecessary and stupid, it can also damage the gun.

Movies and TV shows are for the most part produced by left-wing/liberal sorts who know absolutely nothing about correct gun handling, and couldn't care less. No one with any brains should look to the entertainment industry as a role model for anything, but in particular gun handling.
 
Old Fuff said:
Movies and TV shows are for the most part produced by left-wing/liberal sorts who know absolutely nothing about correct gun handling, and couldn't care less.
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Quite true; sometimes with tragic results, as was the case with Jon-Erik Hexum:

However, on October 12th, 1984 after a long and draining day's shooting on the set of Cover Up (1984) (TV), Hexum became bored with the extensive delays and jokingly put a prop .44 magnum revolver to his temple and pulled the trigger. The gun fired, and the wadding from the blank cartridge shattered his skull, whereupon the mortally injured Hexum was rushed via ambulance to hospital to undergo extensive surgery. Despite five hours of work, the chief surgeon Dr David Ditsworth, described the damage to Hexum's brain as life ending, and one week later on October 18th, he was taken off life support and pronounced dead.
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Bruce Lee's son, Brandon Lee also was killed by a movie "blank".

I have to admit that in my younger days I frequently performed the hollywood flip. It looked cool and was oddly satisfying to perform. I remember the day I stopped doing it because of the inventive lecture my dad gave me about doing so. Lets just say that he didn't take the high road when he explained why I should stop doing that.:)
 
I believe it was in Young Guns II that Kiefer Sutherland opens the loading gate on his revolver, and slowly rolls the revolver across the top of his left forearm, inspecting the cartridges, just before a big fight. THAT seemed a plausible action, to ensure as FKB wrote, that the cartridges were in good shape, for once the fight started a stuck gun would get a person killed.

One of my favorite episodes of The Fall Guy had Lee Majors pointing a SAA revolver at an opponent and demanding information. I was still in high school, but I was able to notice that he might want to cock the revolver first if he was going to use it. Too bad the Hollywood Director wasn't as smart as an average high school student in public school :D

The accidental death of Brandon Lee (son of Bruce Lee) during the filming of the move The Crow was also the result of folks who knew nothing of guns.

LD
 
oopsies

As I heard it, Lee's wound was not strictly caused by a blank. Some way or other a dummy bullet had been placed in the mouth of a blank cartridge. The dummy bullet is essentilly a hard ball jacket with no core. The blank charge blew the jacket out with enough force to cause serious injury at short range. At least, that's the way I heard it.

One of my pet peeves is watching period movies where they do their shooting with guns that haven't been invented yet. Latest view was an old Roy Rogers movie that takes place in 1849 and they are all using Colt SAAs and Winchesters. Moving up, in The Rocketeer, the bad guys had P-38s in 1936.
 
I always enjoy the movie with hammer cocking sound for a Glock, a pump shotgun rack sound for a double barrel and a the revolver cylinder noise for a semi auto. Quite funny.:)
 
Is my revolver broken? My S&W doesn't make any "clicky" noise when I turn the cylinder when it is open.

I may just bring it to the gunsmith, just to see the look on his face:neener:
 
In the Half-Life games, Gordon Freeman does the flick-and-spin with the Python. Bugs the hell out of me. :banghead:

I have a High Standard Sentinel .22LR with the finish nearly scratched off on the left side behind the cylinder from some yahoo flicking the revolver closed (or trying to, anyway) when empty, whereupon the ejector rod would slide back and hit the frame.

At least I only paid $50 for it.
 
As Loyalist Dave says, the "slow roll" with an SAA cylinder is probably period correct and an effective technique. I've seen it in a couple of movies and it's one "movie trick for dramatic action" that makes sense.

With the Ruger post-1973 SA action you do this with the hammer fully down.
 
What bugs me is not that they do it, it's the fact that it makes a ratchety whir noise when they do, especially on Smith revolvers.

Drop your cylinder out and spin it. No noise! That's because the ratchety part is inside the frame and engages those little teeth there on the back of the cylinder. They have to add the sound effect in, of course.
 
One of my pet peeves is watching period movies where they do their shooting with guns that haven't been invented yet. Latest view was an old Roy Rogers movie that takes place in 1849 and they are all using Colt SAAs and Winchesters. Moving up, in The Rocketeer, the bad guys had P-38s in 1936.
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Fortunately, Roy Rogers comes from an era where acting in cowboy movies hadn't been invented yet, either, so accepting firearm anachronisms should be much easier to accept than cowboys and cowgirls just breaking into spontaneous songs while riding along the trail. :D

Did I say cowgirls??

roy-rogers-9827.jpg
 
for the same, ignorant, stupid, streotypical reasons thugs hold their guns sideways, and pimps have gold plated guns......

sometimes, the ignorance of some of you so-called "legal" gun owners suprises me. Im more scared you dumb asses carry guns than some criminals......

Legal ignorant gun owners are no better, if not worse, than the "thugs" you so freely stereotype..

I hope you dont hurt the wrong person, an innocent one, who "looks" like something else to you.. and if you do, I hope you burn in hell, or atleast get raped in prison, for shooting a familyman, who wasnt acting according to yer Television eduacation of a bad guy....
and the most of the folks in this thread appear to be educated by old ass wheelgun movies... what kinda stupid can you display?!

:banghead:

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Moderator note - this type of posting will not be tolerated and is being left in view instead of deleted, as an example of what THR will not permit.
 
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