Strange firearms incidents in movies/shows

[44Bro]

Here is someone who did the research to determine the actual Quigley bucket distance. Part of the research involved contacting the owner of the ranch in Australia.

 

[Howard Pippin]

7 or 8 hundred yards ain’t a stretch for that Sharps. A friend of mine shoots 600 yard matches with a repro musket & minie balls. He says when shooting prone if the wind’s right he can shoot & roll over in time to see the bullet hit the target through his spotting scope.

An older ex-military man I know that enjoys the Quigley shoots also shoots sometimes at the range I go to, and he set down one day with crossed sticks, shooting a 45-70 with one of those tang sites that's about 8 inches high, shooting at a 3 x 3' target at 1057 yards, and hit it three out of five times. I didn't even want to shoot at it with one of the unmentionable ones I own, not even considering using my 50 flintlock. We almost had time to visit before we heard it strike the target. We tried to place the target originally at 1000 yards, but we had to do it in a series of steps, and a friend I know has a high dollar rangefinder and he measured it at 1057 yards.
Squint

 

[The Crisco Kid]

I watched a part of "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" on youtube. Tuco has a percussion revolver and a belt of brass cartridges around him. Strange combination.

As to Baldwin, the bottom line is that the responsibility is always with the person who cocks the hammer, points the gun, and pulls the trigger. He should have checked himself.

 

[user 51569]

As to Baldwin, the bottom line is that the responsibility is always with the person who cocks the hammer, points the gun, and pulls the trigger. He should have checked himself.

You can make that argument I was just showing the reality of the situation is very distant from “Fox News said he might have done it on purpose for xyz reason” I was replying to.

 

[Omahkapi'si]

Enjoyed Quigley even with any flaws or unrealistic Sharps shooting. Gene Autry couldn't really get the bad guys a way across the canyon with his Colt either but he did and I was still a fan.

 

[Eutycus]

Did the Roman's (or anyone else)really yell "Fire" when launching fireballs from catapults on galleys? Like in Ben Hur?

 

[Omahkapi'si]

As long as movies make an effort to recreate the period and all it's stuff, and get enough of it right to help the story and draw me into it, I can live with the odd goof-up. Doesn't ruin it for me.

 

[GoodRabbitPilgrim]

What about in the Revenant when in the opening gun fight scene, Di Caprio hears the commotion so loads his flintlock by pouring powder down the barrel, then pouring shot into his mouth, spitting it into the barrel and then continuing on his way.

I saw in one manure movie, a guy sharpening the projectile of a rifle to improve it somehow.

Recoil in Hollywood is always terrible, either the gun doesn't move or the person throws their shoulder back like they're shooting a 600NE.

Black '47 is a good movie to watch, there are mostly flintlocks complete with some misfires and flash in the pans, and the odd percussion belonging to the more wealthy characters.

 

[Omahkapi'si]

You can also see the cartridges in Gus' Walker in Lonesome Dove in the surly bartender scene.

 

[user 48702]

What about in the Revenant when in the opening gun fight scene, Di Caprio hears the commotion so loads his flintlock by pouring powder down the barrel, then pouring shot into his mouth, spitting it into the barrel and then continuing on his way.

I saw in one manure movie, a guy sharpening the projectile of a rifle to improve it somehow.

Recoil in Hollywood is always terrible, either the gun doesn't move or the person throws their shoulder back like they're shooting a 600NE.

Black '47 is a good movie to watch, there are mostly flintlocks complete with some misfires and flash in the pans, and the odd percussion belonging to the more wealthy characters.

Are there any good western type movies filmed in Australia besides Quigly?

 

[GoodRabbitPilgrim]

Are there any good western type movies filmed in Australia besides Quigly?

They're not true westerns in the sense, but the 2003 film Ned Kelly based on the life of the famous bush ranger Ned Kelly is a good Australian period film. A big portion of Australia's first European immigrants were Irish and like your ancestors in the states were oppressed by the English. Ned Kelly tried to fight back against the system of corruption, and is famous to this day for it. Based around 1860.

Man from Snowy River and its sequel are favourites of mine because my family is from the area and I have relatives in it. It's based off a poem from a famous Aussie bush poet. It's about the high country horseman and class struggle.

There's a neo western series called Mystery Road which is pretty good, the film that proceeded it is OK too.

No other real westerns, but there are some good Aussie movies around.

 

[Woody Morgan]

What's the matter with you people?? Of course hitting a bucket at a half mile offhand happened.
It was QUIGLEY, for cryin' out loud. Next thing y'all going to say there's no Easter Bunny. sheesh

wm

 

[troy2000]

The real truth is Hollywood doesn't show the high death toll of the
men who went up against Native Braves. Using clubs and tomahawks
the Shawnee braves took out dozens of armed men. The Braves launching
those arrows, in real history, would have killed those men. Native Americans were
just outnumbered and- the real change came in the 1850's with repeating
revolvers and faster loading rifles. Hollywood creates the fantasy that ends
with what they need to portray. Fact is native American Braves were awesome
warriors--and German soldiers, portrayed in movies as stupid "krauts" were
devastating warriors, numbers wise, the best on Earth. Hollywood is pure
fantasy and to be ridiculed as the fakes they are.

We shouldn't necessarily ridicule Hollywood. Their job is to provide entertainment, not history, and they do that in spades. I'll admit though, that my wife long ago issued a gag order. It bans me from commenting on any relationship between reality and whatever movie we're watching...

 

[troy2000]

They're not true westerns in the sense, but the 2003 film Ned Kelly based on the life of the famous bush ranger Ned Kelly is a good Australian period film. A big portion of Australia's first European immigrants were Irish and like your ancestors in the states were oppressed by the English. Ned Kelly tried to fight back against the system of corruption, and is famous to this day for it. Based around 1860.

Man from Snowy River and its sequel are favourites of mine because my family is from the area and I have relatives in it. It's based off a poem from a famous Aussie bush poet. It's about the high country horseman and class struggle.

There's a neo western series called Mystery Road which is pretty good, the film that proceeded it is OK too.

No other real westerns, but there are some good Aussie movies around.

Thanks for the heads up on Man from Snowy River. I'll have to go looking for it.

 

[troy2000]

What about in the Revenant when in the opening gun fight scene, Di Caprio hears the commotion so loads his flintlock by pouring powder down the barrel, then pouring shot into his mouth, spitting it into the barrel and then continuing on his way.

I saw in one manure movie, a guy sharpening the projectile of a rifle to improve it somehow.

Recoil in Hollywood is always terrible, either the gun doesn't move or the person throws their shoulder back like they're shooting a 600NE.

Black '47 is a good movie to watch, there are mostly flintlocks complete with some misfires and flash in the pans, and the odd percussion belonging to the more wealthy characters.

I've been reading the Sharpe series, by Bernard Cornwell. It's about a British rifleman during the Napoleonic Wars, who's been given a battlefield commission for saving Lord Wellesley's life in India. Cornwell seems to have worked hard at authenticity. In multiple scenes where the fighting is heavy he has soldiers biting their paper cartridges open, priming the pan, pouring the rest of the powder down the muzzle of the musket, spitting a round ball into it, tapping the butt on the ground to set the ball, and firing. According to him, the British Army was the only major power at the time that had its troops drill with live ammunition, and a well-trained British infantryman could consistently fire four rounds a minute with a flintlock musket.

I'm impressed; I usually get off about one shot a minute. Of course I'm loading a Kibler long rifle, not a smoothbore musket, and I'm not facing a column of French infantry.

 

[GoodRabbitPilgrim]

I've been reading the Sharpe series, by Bernard Cornwell. It's about a British rifleman during the Napoleonic Wars, who's been given a battlefield commission for saving Lord Wellesley's life in India. Cornwell seems to have worked hard at authenticity. In multiple scenes where the fighting is heavy he has soldiers biting their paper cartridges open, priming the pan, pouring the rest of the powder down the muzzle of the musket, spitting a round ball into it, tapping the butt on the ground to set the ball, and firing. According to him, the British Army was the only major power at the time that had its troops drill with live ammunition, and a well-trained British infantryman could consistently fire four rounds a minute with a flintlock musket.

I'm impressed; I usually get off about one shot a minute - if I'm in a hurry.

I'm aware of the scene (at least from the TV show) that you're referring to. I was asked by a customer when I picked up my fowler "how many shots can you fire a minute?", as he picked up his new bolt action, I just smiled and said "maybe one!". The shop owner did come to my defence and pointed out that I'd recently shot buffalo with a muzzleloader, I think the other fella was a bit surprised and couldn't think of another tongue in cheek comment to make after that!

The scene I'm referring to in the revenant is shot not ball, you can hear as he's spitting it into the bore lots of little pellets trickling down the bore.

For all its faults I do like that in several scenes of the movie the Patriot, there is pan priming.

 

[hawkeye2]

Thanks for the heads up on Man from Snowy River. I'll have to go looking for it.

It's worth the search, great movie. Based on a poem by Banjo Patterson which was published in 1890. Slim Dusty sings the poem as a song, nearly 8 minutes long.

 

[troy2000]

I'm aware of the scene (at least from the TV show) that you're referring to. I was asked by a customer when I picked up my fowler "how many shots can you fire a minute?", as he picked up his new bolt action, I just smiled and said "maybe one!". The shop owner did come to my defence and pointed out that I'd recently shot buffalo with a muzzleloader, I think the other fella was a bit surprised and couldn't think of another tongue in cheek comment to make after that!

The scene I'm referring to in the revenant is shot not ball, you can hear as he's spitting it into the bore lots of little pellets trickling down the bore.

For all its faults I do like that in several scenes of the movie the Patriot, there is pan priming.

I've watched a fair amount of the TV series on YouTube; that's what sent me off looking for the books. Although it's very good and captures the feel of the novels, it doesn't always follow them very closely. For example: according to the first book, Sharpe earned his commission in India, by fanatically defending Lord Wellesley after he's unhorsed during a battle. and it happened in the past. In the TV series he saves him in Portugal, from an ambush by three French cavalrymen.

In the original books, Sharpe was described as black haired and tall. Supposedly because Cornwell was impressed by Sean Bean's TV performance, in the books he wrote later he stopped mentioning Sharpe's hair color and height, and backfilled his history to account for Bean's strong Yorkshire accent.

I've been reading the book series on my Kindle, which is relatively cheap, and can't recommend it highly enough. They weren't written as a straightforward history of Sharpe's career; after the first few they bounce around. But I've chosen to read them in the order in which they were written and published, instead of in their supposed chronological order. I kind of enjoy following along with the author, as he explores and develops his protagonist's character.

 

[Captjoel]

About the strangest things I have witnessed in just about every Hollywood western deal with a plethora of shooting and no horses being hit in the barrages. Where in reality the larger targets (horses) would have been wounded or killed a lot more than H\W pictures portrayed.

 

[TFoley]

Did the Roman's (or anyone else)really yell "Fire" when launching fireballs from catapults on galleys? Like in Ben Hur?

Nope, they called 'IACTE' - throw. It really galls me when people 'fire' a bow instead of 'loose', or 'shoot' from Old French - 'Jetez!' A gun is fired, or in the old parlance, 'set or put fire to your lock'.