@@Legitcar117 Da DA: "The problem is we have no evidence!" Dirty Harry: "Evidence?! What do you call that?" * points to rifle * Da DA: "I call it nothing! Zero!" Dirty Harry: "You trying to tell me Ballistics can't match the bullet up to this rifle?" Da DA: "It doesn't matter what Ballistics can do. This rifle would make a nice souvenir but it's inadmissible as evidence!" Dirty Harry: "Who says?" Da DA: "IT'S the law!" Dirty Harry: "Then the law is crazy!"
Interesting that he doesn't mention John Milius at all. Without him doing a draft of the early script (it went through a few by a few different writers, including Terrence Malick) then there would be no .44 Magnum in the script. When it comes to firearms in film, Milius is very important figure in that regard, especially since he is quite the gun-buff.
I don't like interviews that appear fake where the one asking the question obviously already knows the answers and knows the person interviewed seems to have rehursed answers. They may have gone over the questions together before recording. In this case I felt that the person being interviewed did not know the answer to some questions so went off on a tangent or just did not listen to some of the questions and just discusses what he wanted. I liked the topic of this episode but found it distracting trying to find the answer to the questions in the long replies.
SFPD selected the S&W Model 58 in 41 Magnum in the late 1960's. Instead of picking a mid-range LSWC, they used a full magnum round which blinded the crap out of any officer who fired it, according to the retired cop I talked to who shot it in an ambush. After that, SFPD issued Model 28 .357s and Model 19 .357s with .38 Special loads as standard and .357 magnum loads if the officer wanted. Officers could carry backup guns, of any caliber and configuration, as long as they carried the issue revolver. Many SFPD coppers went on patrol with a M28/M19 in their crappy Hoyt breakfront holster and a Model 29 in a Jackass Leather shoulder rig under their jacket. Every SFPD guy from that era, that I know, bought a Model 29.
Forgot what video talked about this but on The Dirty Harry movie the part where Clint Eastwood is running from place to place because Scorpio is telling him different locations. Clint Eastwood was tired and they used the wrong prop gun that was suppose to be thrown to the ground and he threw the main 44 pistol down on the concrete hard. They had to send it back to Smith&Wesson for repair. So yeah probably no gunsmith on site during that time.
In 1980, I joined a pistol club and obtained a S&W Model 66 which was a stainless steel .357 magnum with a K frame. We were not allowed to get the model 19 .44 as it was not used in competitions and was considered as a “fun-gun”. In hindsight, I should have got the .357 magnum in a blued N-frame, which looked like a .44, still the stainless steel one was good.
Even well maintained automatics jam and misfire. Revolvers work, even with minimal cleaning. "A weak, accurate bullet is far more effective than a powerful bullet that misses". Assume you and your family's life is imminently threatened. You have a Smith and Wesson 29, or a Colt 1911 in front of you, which one are you going to grab? If you shoot someone with a hollow point 44 magnum _anywhere_ on their body, the hydrostatic shock instantly incapacitates them. You can then take careful aim for the second shot. A 9mm often doesn't incapacitate until a few critical moments have passed. I have read stories of home owners firing 12 shots and missing the target which was 15 feet away. Automatics engender such scenarios. For an inexperienced shooter, the best pistol might well be a 22LR revolver. It has a long sighting plane and the intrinsic accuracy of low recoil. Training usually determines the outcome of a gunfight but if a gun jams, the shooter is always in deep trouble.
I know what your thinking. Did he fire six shots or only five? Well to tell you the truth in all this excitement I kind of lost track my self. But being as this is a .44 magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?'
The new audio makes it seem like he fired six but you can see new put the gun in single action before the quote and then fire in double action meaning he only had one left if he really went for the shotgun
That's the catch, most of what you see there are not firearms. I imagine very few of them could expel a bullet from the barrel. Just think of them as a bunch of metallic actors.
@@357Addict they're real guns muchacho. modified to function with blanks, but serialized guns none-the-less and probably convertible back into live firing.
@@smtbigelow as someone who has worked in that industry I can assure you, most of them can be converted back simply by removing the barrel block threaded into the muzzle. and ALL of them are still dangerous.
Fun fact: The script originally called for Harry to carry a four inch nickel or chrome plated M 29. But the sales of M29´s were so low that there just were no guns for sale of that type. S&W at that time just made a low batch of a number of guns and that was that until the next batch. So what was available was a couple of 6 1/2 inch blued models and that was what they went with. Now, over the course of filming the barrel lengths varied. 6&1/2 to 8 3/8 inches were used and as said in the video, it was a case of availability.
There is so much more known about the what's, where's, when's and why's about the M29 and Dirty Harry that this video should be renamed "the role of a movie armorer." 🙄
I was a young uniform cop when the Dirty Harry movies came out. My agency issued us a Model 15 and did not allow any personal weapons for anything other than off-duty carry, and those required approval & we had to qualify w/them. All that said some in our ranks did buy the .S&W 44 Mag and tried tocarry it on duty, but were caught by their sergeant & faced disciplinary actions. Not worth the hassle to me but I still enjoy these movies.
How will you purchase it when you get there though? You will be thrown straight in handcuffs trying to use "counterfeit" bills with series 2013 on them. Unless you can track down all period correct bills or find some way to acquire cash back then before heading to the store.
@@toki89666 Just take back some gold bars and sell them to a pawn shop. I'd loose some money due to the difference in gold prices, but make it back when I sell a couple of low serial number model 29s.
@@nasaboy87 that's a smart way to do the second part of my last sentence of the previous reply. Probably the fastest way too. I was thinking of taking a sports records book and making bets on then current sporting events. (I definitely stole that idea from a Netflix show, can't remember the name, good miniseries though)
John Milieus the writer of the film was a gun guy. They gave Harry that gun, because the model 29 was designed for hunting or finishing off large game, and they wanted Harry to come off as a hunter, not a standard cop. That’s what the commentary on the blu ray says
John Milius was the one who gave the character Dirty Harry the gun because of its symbolism. The gun, as stated, is designed for hunting. It might be something of what was referred to as a "Howdah Pistol" a backup gun for big game hunters. Milius wanted to portray Harry as a hunter so he gave him that gun despite the fact it is perhaps too large for use for most police officers.
I'm 48 years old my father bought a Smith & Wesson model 29 long barrel from Van loon and sporting goods in Cincinnati and I remember him waiting months to get his hands on it because of the movie.. I have the gun now in the original box that came in with the bill of sale 80 bucks
Damned near everyone on our dept had to have one, after the movie came out. I can promise you, they were a hell of a lot more than $80. !! Somebody’s fishing…..oops. I’ve just been weighed and filleted…….!
He doesn't mention the reason the barrel length changed is it was a 41 magnum, model 57 which is half inch shorter in a number of the scenes. The 57 came with a shorter barrel and it shows if you watch the movie. Guess this was long enough ago Mr. Zanoff doesn't know as he has only been in it twenty years. At the time of the movie this was all covered with each of the guns shown, lots of articles and even discussions with all the guns displayed. They couldn't get matching 29's as they were rare and expensive but lots of model 57 were avalible. Julian Fink, the writer, of Dirty Harry was a gun aficionado, watch for his Paladin (have gun will travel) episodes that are VERY gun centric.
Roy Jinks, the S&W historian wrote how the .44magnum was very unpopular in the late 1960s 1970 era. Smith & Wesson execs were closed to ending regular .44mag runs when Dirty Harry came out, it went 📈. BTW, Frank Sinatra was asked to play Inspector Callahan but the deal was not made.
@@DavidLLambertmobile True, in so much as the Smith and Wesson was concerned. The caliber was still popular. Ruger Super Blackhawk was way cheaper, had easier to tolerate recoil as it rolls in your hand due to it's single action 'western' design. For the money you could buy two Ruger's or most of one Smith. I bought both before the movie and everyone kidded me for spending too much for the Smith. The Smith came in 4, 6.5 and 8 and 3/8 barrels, the Ruger in 7.5 mostly, though I have seen shorter and longer, but if you went to the gun store you saw a 7.5 which is pretty much what you want to hunt or fun shoot. So no reason to buy a super heavy N frame Smith for lots more money... until the movie came out. Even in small towns 44 mag ammo was common, and you could buy 44 special cheaper and use it. Not like today. Oh edited to change, I had an old model blackhawk and the smith, didn't get the super blackhawk till 73 I think, between the first two movies. In those days movies were in theaters and drive inns for years.
@@DavidLLambertmobile hahahahaha,, all due respect, but "the Chairman of the Board" would need to wear a trench coat to hide a gun that size on him,,,,,
Yes 4 inch it's what most cops carried but Clint was just tall and big enough they got away with using something longer as for the nickel I am not too sure
@@geezerp1982 listen to clues I said 4 inch I didn't specify caliber if I did it would have been 357 and 38 special and for the movie they wanted something to stand out and a 44 mag does in the right hands it does as good a job as other calibers
I’ve heard that it was John Milius - who was an uncredited screenwriter in Dirty Harry, and wrote the screenplay for the sequel, “Magnum Force” - specifically wrote the model 29 into the script
It destroyed the 41 magnum model 57 in sales because of the movie. Now a lot of folks don't even know what a 41 magnum is. It was a more manageable round than the 44.
The .41magnum was pushed as a 🚔 round, advanced self defense round but proved to be impractical. The Detroit MI cops used .41magnum revolvers but many street cops also packed Hi Power 9mm too.
@vic vapor Because when Elmer Keith designed the .41, it was meant to be pushing a 210gr bullet around 1,250 to 1,300 fps which would be somewhere in the 700-800 ft lb range which is the top end of modern .357 Magnum. Remington had magnum fever and wanted Keith to make it another Magnum load like .44, which he said would defeat the point but they pushed him into it. So from a hunting perspective, the .44 Magnum did it better, for self defense, the .357 was much milder and adequate. So in short... as a Magnum load it failed to do anything better than the other two. If loaded to Keith's original specs and what most would call .41 Special today... it would have had a better chance.
I think for a S&W, the .41 would be a better round because the cylinder walls were thicker. I once got a classic 29-2 that had been fired with rounds that were so hot it stretched the walls at the cylinder stop notches, and ballooned the cases at the base making the empties near impossible to extract. I was lucky to find a mod 29 recessed cylinder on e-bay. I must have felt lucky.
Because of Dirty Harry my dad got me a S&W Model 29 in 44 Magnum 6.5 in barrel in 1974 when I was 12 years old, I still have that firearm today and have about 40,000 rounds through it. MY dad and I both had a blast with that firearm.
yup, guns don't kill people, stupid and negligible people kill people, not to mention bad ones. The world lost a the son of Bruce Lee for no reason other than careless gun handling.
My dad has been in "the industry" for almost 40 years and has worked with ISS many times, including their weapons department. I actually got to visit once when I was a kid but wasn't allowed to go into the gun section, not sure if it was because I was a minor or because I just wasn't pre-approved to go in there. I've heard some funny stories involving ISS guns, probably the best was when my dad got pulled over in rural Mississippi in a rental car with a trunk completely loaded down with MP5s, real but deactivated IIRC. It worked out fine, local LE had been briefed on the production in the area and he had the paperwork for everything, but to this day he says the deputy's reaction when he popped the trunk was one of the funniest things he's ever seen in his life. Another good one happened shortly after 9/11, when the studios were obsessed with the idea that they were going to be a terrorist target and had stepped up security to crazy levels. One of my dad's friends was driving onto a studio lot - at this studio, that's rare, employee parking is across the street and you only drive in if you absolutely have to - and got the third degree from the security people, we're talking a TSA kind of attitude and a long inspection of the car, looking under the chassis with mirrors, looking under the hood and in the spare tire well under the trunk floor, and so on. What the security people didn't even notice or check, though, was a very large duffel bag in plain sight in the back seat, and had they opened it they would've discovered that this guy was on his way back from ISS and the bag was completely stuffed with blank-converted M16A2s.
The gun in this film was used so sparingly but effectively much like the shark in Jaws. Neither sees a ton of action in their respective films but when they show up they certainly leave a lasting impression!
In my opinion regarding the 44 mag with full house loads, the problem isn’t recoil but the severe muzzle blast. I thought I’d hunt with mine until I shot at a game animal without ear protection one day. A full case of 2400 and I still have ringing that became permanent.
Second time I've heard a story of someone lighting off a .44 without ear-pro, once, and suffering permanent and obvious hearing loss. It's not a joke. I also don't find the recoil all that bad, but I've never been around one without ears on and I hope I never am.
I’m sure Elmer Keith couldn’t hear him self fart. I damaged mine with a Dan Wesson .357 @ 19. I’m 63 now & I advise young folks to protect their hearing. There’s no cure for tinnitus & it’s no joke.
There was a hotdog shop in Fairmont WV and the owner (a crabby old man) would kick people out of his shop if they asked for ketchup on their hot dogs or hamburgers. I live ketchup, so I never even went there.
I do. And mustard, mayo, chili, cheese, and onions. I'm prepared to fight to the end to defend my freedom of hotdog accessories. You'll get my ketchup from my cold, dead, hands...
Interesting video although I was expecting maybe a little more detail on just the Callahan 44 magnum instead of guns in other movies and a history of prop masters. Still worth watching though. Thanks.
The ISS guy is wrong on 1 point. The US Army & DARPA, SF did T&Es of 7.62 mini guns but the weapons were heavy, bulky & were a serious risk to Rangers or special forces. The mini gun required batteries 🔋 & the packs were a %=÷× to lug around. Jesse Ventura explains the weapon problems in his book; I Ain't Got Time To Bleed. 📚
In the script it called for the 4 inch stainless model. The SS model was causing issues with lighting for the filming plus there was shortage of the SS model. They were able to get their hand on the 6.5 inch model. Clint liked it better and the rest is history.
im reminded of an early 70`s hollywood tv series. " alias smith and jones. " the leading star who was expected to forge a wonderful career; didnt. for the reason that while on a break in filming, placed his loaded blank firing western weapon against his head and pulled the trigger. not grasping that a blank weapon had no bullet, but still carried a significant and deadly charge. he died instantly. since of course, hollywood trains actors to treat all weapons as loaded and deadly. this would be an interesting future topic. the training school or schools for actors in safe firearms handling.
Steven Homan It was in the 80’s. Jon-Erik Hexum. Played a quarterback with Alabama in a movie about Coach Bear Bryant. Accidentally killed himself with blanks in a revolver on the set of a TV series about a CIA agent posing as a model
Peter Dual, lead actor for that series shot himself in the head in an intentional suicide at his home in hollywood in 1971. Duel's girlfriend, Dianne Ray, was at his home at the time of his death and discovered his body. Ray later told police the two had watched Duel's series Alias Smith and Jones the previous evening. She later went to sleep in another room while Duel stayed up. Sometime after midnight, Duel entered the bedroom, retrieved his revolver and told Ray "I'll see you later." Ray then said she heard a gunshot from another room and discovered Duel's body.
@@kimthurston9192 Thats what l heard, he was an alcoholic with big problems from it, a great pity as he was ideally cast as the fast talking big smiling brains behind the caper character. All suicides are a sad end ( apart from Hitler and his sort i.e evil sh"* heads ).
I've heard that S&W sold tons of Model 29's with every Dirty Harry movie that came out, only for it there to be a glut of used Model 29's for sale shortly thereafter. 44's are miserable to shoot full power rounds out of.
I've never really had a huge problem with .44 mag. It's not something I'd want to run all day long, but I couldn't afford to do that financially either. I've heard what you've said when talking about .500 mags about a million times though and believe the hype. I've not yet had the pleasure to fire one of those but I've seen what has to be over a hundred of them for sale used that clearly have only had 10-20, at most, rounds through them and I've seen a couple on consignment where I was told straight up that the current owner simply couldn't fire them.
I've only fired one drumful of hot 44's in my life out of a friend's 44 magnum. My most vivid memory of the occasion was the tingling and the imprint of the wood grip checkering on the palm of my hand. That was good enough for me :). PS: I believe I heard the story about the glut of used 44's after the Dirty Harry movies on Ian's channel.
Apparently even Harry Callahan thought the .44 magnum was too much with full power rounds. I was just re-watching "Magnum Force", and the scene where Harry first meets the young hit team is at the SFPD indoor range. One of the cops in the hit squad, named Sweet, asks Harry what he's shooting in his .44, and he says "a light special" because it gives "better control and less recoil". Oddly, Sweet didn't ask Harry if his girlfriend in the film had major league yabbos (Sweet was played by Tim Matheson, who also played Otter in "Animal House").
@@loumencken9644 That scene was a setup to show Harry training for a marksmanship contest, which he had won multiple times as I recall and blew it intentionally in that year as part of his investigation, when he uttered those words. Who would go into a scored pistol course with full-on magnum loads? Certainly not someone as no nonsense as Inspector Callahan so obviously he would be training with his competition rounds. I mean... I'm a little tongue-in-cheek here, but that really is the way I always took that scene.
In my experience on film sets, the writer knows very little about guns, or just things from video games or old movies. They write things that they think are cool, sometimes they get reigned in by a consultant, but often the script is already written and everything else is along the way by the time they select the gun. They come to the armorer people in preproduction and say something like: we want a big gun, or we want a sexy spy gun, or we want a cowboy gun. The armorer then tries to convince them to select the most expensive rental they have, and depending on the budget of the film, they start high and negotiate to somewhere in the middle. For instance, on one movie that has yet to come out, they wanted Lily Collins to shoot a gun until it was empty and then continue to pull the trigger and have the gun click a few times. For that reason, my buddy, who was the prop master and also knowledgeable enough about guns to be an armorer, told them to select a specific Ruger (I think) .38 revolver that had a relatively light double action trigger pull so that she could do that. That was the only motivation for the inclusion of a revolver in the film, for that one scene where the gun clicks after it's empty. I was on a production where the director was a hack, and just wanted the biggest gun with the most impressive front flash (a lot of prop guns side flash for safety reasons) so he ended up with a Deagle that he wanted to use at point blank range on a waitress. She's fine, we had a long talk with him and the 1 AD about firearm safety. Anyway, that's the story about how guns are selected for movies. The end.
Most of this is absolute nonsense. Screw mini guns in the jungle. Talk about the S and W 29 in the Dirty Harry Movie... Not all of this crap... Nobody that matters, cares.... How about Harry Callaghan, in the last movie saying...... He was using .44 specials because the .44Mag was to much.. Why don't you talk about that?.. This was a complete waste of my time as a Clint Eastwood Fan and I can't get it back... Thanks. What a waste of time!
You're right DL at the time of the making of the movie, model 29's weren't in production, so they used a Model 57 .41 magnum until S&W could tool up production and get them a couple of .44's. The production crew had to be careful with camera angles on the .41.
Listening to this presentation, I get the sense that some prop masters, armorers, and even certain mentally unstable, unhinged actors may let their firearms safety skills simply _Rust_ over time.
The Smith 29 was on my bucket list for firearms that I wanted . I found one about a year ago, 6in Barrel, for a very good price. Put about 100 Rounds through it (.44 is very expensive and boy is it a workout). My dad asked me if I shot .44 special for lighter shooting...No Way, its a man gun and will be firing only man gun ammunition. The only difference is the previous owner had Pachmayr grips, which I am not fond of, but its an awesome gun and there is no shortage of quoting Dirty Harry when I take my daughter to shoot it.
I love the model 29 but a model 57 holds more sentimental value to me because my grandfather used one as chief of police here in ohio in the 70’s but involving some circumstances he had to sell it and my dad knew that if the circumstance did not happen he would have had it and I may have had it passed down to me. Its a real shame.
As a cadet on the West Point (Army) pistol team, while we were shooting at Camp Perry in the summer of '74, the S&W rep offered us brand new 6 1/2" Mdl 29's in the presentation case for $250ea. Unfortunately, that was over a month's pay and no one on the team could come up with the cash. Argh.
The Star Wars movies are the reason I want to own a Sterling some day. It would just be cool to have the same type of weapon that had been modded to be the E-11.
the tommy guns in BONNIE & CLYDE (1967)are captured beautifully,in all their loud glory, tho they didn't really use them often because BAR's were Clyde's preferred weapon. and that of the lawmen who ended their fun in 1934.
I gotta admit I rewatched the Dirty Harry movie a second time after I went down the gun owning rabbit hole, and I spent more time lamenting the sporterized paratrooper Arisaka and wanting a S&W Model 58 off the SFPD stand-in’s than noticing the Model 29 :P
Oops guess this guy doesn't really know the history of the .44 Magnum S&W model 29 or the orginal studio gun. I'm sure he is very knowledgeable But; The model 29 was very popular when in came out in 1955. It was very difficult to get one as the Demand was very high. And it continued to very popular well before 'Dirty Harry' John Milius was the director and Producer. He wanted a .44 magnum for dirty Harry. According to Roy Jinks the S&W historian; a letter dated April 19, 1970 under the letterhead of Universal Pictures 'We have been trying in Los Angeles area for some time to find one of these guns (S&W .44 Magnum, model 29) and learn something about it but they seem to be impossible to find' That's because every model 29 was earmarked to fill a long-standing back order. S&W could not keep up with demand even though they had increased production by 300%. Since every gun was spoken for, S&W built one using a frame slotted to become a .41 Magnum model 57 as their policy was not to let anyone jump in line to help avoid scalper's prices for their customer. The guns were being shipped against the oldest back orders first. Jinks doesn't say how many were shipped to Universal Studios. So it is a myth that the movie created a demand. But it did increase the demand by movie lovers. This is according to an article in Shooting Times by Skeeter Skelton published in March 1975. According to Skeeter the demand was still backlogged when the article was published. Years later it was possible to buy one of the Model 29s used but still at retail value. Like many others that wanted the gun for hunting I bought one. It came with a box of 50 rounds with 6 rounds missing. The owner said the recoil was too brutal. This was very common, to see one for sale with a box of only 44 individual rounds! It really wasn't that bad if you were an experienced handgunner. But to a novice it was brutal. Now we have much more powerful handguns cartridges that make the .44 magnum seem tame by comparison!!
Can you do a video on how semi/full autos work with blanks? Always wondered if they were specifically made that way or if something is done to ‘real’ guns to get them to work that way.
My 6.5 inch nearly movie correct (it's a little over a year old, but I recently installed those iconic vintage grips) Model 29 is my most prized firearm. It will never be replaced. 🔫
They only delivered two Bren Tens. I used to call them in Florida: Dixon and Dornas. I had Maryland Tag: BREN TEN ... nobody knew what it meant. D&D wouldn't give a discount for the advertisement.
OBVIOUSLY he doesn't know ANYTHING about Dirty Harry lore. John Milius picked this firearm. Since ISS purchased the original 29 (and most of their other movie guns( from Stembridge Gun Rentals the TRUE story must have not came with it.
No, pal the gun didn't become a character in the movie ... however it DID become a character in the TV series "Sledge Hammer" ... and her name was Susi ! "Trust me, i know what i'm doing !"
I found mine really by luck, wasn't even looking for one. Retired cop selling it, holster wear but non issued firearm. Sometimes I think about selling it...but once you pick it up, there's just something about it! The feel, the balance, the caliber... So I keep it! Regularly get emails from people wanting to buy it off me! I like 44 Magnum so much I bought a Desert Eagle in 44 to go with the model 29! As for guns used by Eastwood: I got a model 66 (the gauntlet) and a Korea era Garand (I think that's what is seen in Gran Torino, Garand for sure).
Not only was the S&W model 29 a character in the movie, it was central in defining one of the themes. It was the early 1970s, fresh on the heels of "The Summer of Love." The setting was San Francisco, with Haight-Ashbury being the epicenter of peace and love hippy counterculture. This cultural/political zeitgeist resulted in soft-on-crime DAs, politically motivated police chiefs, and a heavily scrutinized, defanged police force. When a threat appears that the neutered criminal justice system is unequipped deal with, they begrudgingly assign an anachronistic character who embodies the idea that sometimes "excessive force" is necessary as an overcorrection because the pendulum had been allowed to swing too far the other direction. Intrestingly, in an early screenplay by John Milius, the titular character was to carry TWO nickle-plated 4" model 29 revolvers in a dual shoulder rig. If that's not a hint to the theme, I don't know what is.
Almost all of the weapons there have been extensively modified to fire blanks. Some of them have had so much work done to them that it would be almost impossible to put them back into working order.
I read an article somewhere "(American Rifleman?) that they actually used a Model 25 in 45 Colt for the scenes where the barrel diameter was emphasized, because...it's bigger!
Lame Video. Lot of general talk about movie guns from a guy who currently works at the prop house, but nothing specific about the Dirty Harry gun from 1971. For example, no mention that when it was firing on screen, the Dirty Harry Gun was not a .44 Magnum, it was a .45 Colt. In those days there were no blank rounds in .44 caliber, so they had to use a gun that looks exactly like a Model 29, but fired .45 Colt blanks, the S&W Model 25 in .45 Colt.
Clint Eastwood pranced around on camera with one. But it was Elmer Keith who was instrumental in the 29's development and could kill big game with it at hundreds of yards. Bizarre that it is Eastwood who is remembered with the S&W M-29 - not Keith.
When I was dating one of Clints daughters she had his pictures up in her room. Of course him wielding the 44 magnum was right next to her bed. That was his gun, BTW. They wanted him to use a snub nose revolver but he had his long boy in the trailer and they acquiesced. At least that's the family story. If I see her again I'll check on that story to be sure. 😆🤙🏾
THAT MAN HAD RIGHTS
Callahan
" Well I'm all torn up about that man's rights "
“You should be!!!....I’ve got news for you Callahan as soon as he’s released he walks!”
@@Legitcar117 Da DA: "The problem is we have no evidence!"
Dirty Harry: "Evidence?! What do you call that?" * points to rifle *
Da DA: "I call it nothing! Zero!"
Dirty Harry: "You trying to tell me Ballistics can't match the bullet up to this rifle?"
Da DA: "It doesn't matter what Ballistics can do. This rifle would make a nice souvenir but it's inadmissible as evidence!"
Dirty Harry: "Who says?"
Da DA: "IT'S the law!"
Dirty Harry: "Then the law is crazy!"
"Well I'm all broken up about that man's rights" ---- Dirty Harry 😊
Interesting that he doesn't mention John Milius at all. Without him doing a draft of the early script (it went through a few by a few different writers, including Terrence Malick) then there would be no .44 Magnum in the script. When it comes to firearms in film, Milius is very important figure in that regard, especially since he is quite the gun-buff.
That's right!!!!!
SOID!!! THE! LEGENDARY!!! CLINT!!! EASTWOOD!!! SOID! THE! HISTORY! MAN!!! SOIDS! AREN'T! SOID!!! CLINT!!! INTRODUCED! THE! 44! MAGNUM!!! SOID!!! TO! THE! WORLD!!! SOID!!! CONSIDER! YOURSELF!!! NOW! INFORMED! ON! THIS!
Also, the main gun used in the movie belonged to John.
Fun fact Frank Sinatra was originally asked to play the roll and the signature piece was supposed to be a side by side shot gun.
I don't like interviews that appear fake where the one asking the question obviously already knows the answers and knows the person interviewed seems to have rehursed answers. They may have gone over the questions together before recording. In this case I felt that the person being interviewed did not know the answer to some questions so went off on a tangent or just did not listen to some of the questions and just discusses what he wanted. I liked the topic of this episode but found it distracting trying to find the answer to the questions in the long replies.
Larry is a veteran of the IDF, somehow I am not surprised.
SFPD selected the S&W Model 58 in 41 Magnum in the late 1960's. Instead of picking a mid-range LSWC, they used a full magnum round which blinded the crap out of any officer who fired it, according to the retired cop I talked to who shot it in an ambush. After that, SFPD issued Model 28 .357s and Model 19 .357s with .38 Special loads as standard and .357 magnum loads if the officer wanted. Officers could carry backup guns, of any caliber and configuration, as long as they carried the issue revolver. Many SFPD coppers went on patrol with a M28/M19 in their crappy Hoyt breakfront holster and a Model 29 in a Jackass Leather shoulder rig under their jacket. Every SFPD guy from that era, that I know, bought a Model 29.
bonjour superbe vidéo explicative sur les armes du cinéma cet armurier a bien expliquer les choses merci de se partage vidéo cordialement
Created an affliction known as magnumitis
It's an expensive malady too.
Absurdly loud intro, anyone?
Yeah, woke up my neighbors.
This video Made My Day!!! 💥🔫
Forgot what video talked about this but on The Dirty Harry movie the part where Clint Eastwood is running from place to place because Scorpio is telling him different locations. Clint Eastwood was tired and they used the wrong prop gun that was suppose to be thrown to the ground and he threw the main 44 pistol down on the concrete hard. They had to send it back to Smith&Wesson for repair. So yeah probably no gunsmith on site during that time.
I like watchin james as much as i like dirty movies best lookin man i know
Larry looks like Dave Hester.
this is wonderful, thanks
In 1980, I joined a pistol club and obtained a S&W Model 66 which was a stainless steel .357 magnum with a K frame.
We were not allowed to get the model 19 .44 as it was not used in competitions and was considered as a “fun-gun”.
In hindsight, I should have got the .357 magnum in a blued N-frame, which looked like a .44, still the stainless steel one was good.
Were you able to ask Larry what his thoughts are about the Die Hard Glock scene?
The firearms on the bench have arm braces on them. I'd think movies wouldn't feature arm braces, just sbrs
cylinder welding shut is a toy
Do they have the pulse rifle from Aliens? Or Vasquez's MG42?
Even well maintained automatics jam and misfire. Revolvers work, even with minimal cleaning. "A weak, accurate bullet is far more effective than a powerful bullet that misses".
Assume you and your family's life is imminently threatened. You have a Smith and Wesson 29, or a Colt 1911 in front of you, which one are you going to grab?
If you shoot someone with a hollow point 44 magnum _anywhere_ on their body, the hydrostatic shock instantly incapacitates them. You can then take careful aim for the second shot. A 9mm often doesn't incapacitate until a few critical moments have passed. I have read stories of home owners firing 12 shots and missing the target which was 15 feet away. Automatics engender such scenarios.
For an inexperienced shooter, the best pistol might well be a 22LR revolver. It has a long sighting plane and the intrinsic accuracy of low recoil.
Training usually determines the outcome of a gunfight but if a gun jams, the shooter is always in deep trouble.
I prefer bigger I carry a 5 shot 44 mag and have had no issues with accuracy
“You want a capable armorer”
I know of an actor who needed to watch this video.
I know what your thinking. Did he fire six shots or only five? Well to tell you the truth in all this excitement I kind of lost track my self. But being as this is a .44 magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?'
Never shoot your last bullet just in case so 5
"I Gottsta know"? Lol
The new audio makes it seem like he fired six but you can see new put the gun in single action before the quote and then fire in double action meaning he only had one left if he really went for the shotgun
Well do ya punk?
It was the most powerful until like the 70's when the 500 mag came out an now theres an even bigger one look up bfr revolver..
It's a shame all those great firearms are trapped in California. ☹️
That's the catch, most of what you see there are not firearms. I imagine very few of them could expel a bullet from the barrel. Just think of them as a bunch of metallic actors.
@@357Addict they're real guns muchacho. modified to function with blanks, but serialized guns none-the-less and probably convertible back into live firing.
@@jamesgarrison5546 Actually blank guns cant be modified to fire live ammunition.
@Matt Blank guns cant be modified to fire blank ammunition.
@@smtbigelow as someone who has worked in that industry I can assure you, most of them can be converted back simply by removing the barrel block threaded into the muzzle. and ALL of them are still dangerous.
I woke up this morning and I had to ask myself....
"Do I feel lucky?"
*TFB posts a Dirty Harry trivia video.*
Looks like I was.
This blew my head clean off...
Fun fact: The script originally called for Harry to carry a four inch nickel or chrome plated M 29. But the sales of M29´s were so low that there just were no guns for sale of that type. S&W at that time just made a low batch of a number of guns and that was that until the next batch. So what was available was a couple of 6 1/2 inch blued models and that was what they went with. Now, over the course of filming the barrel lengths varied. 6&1/2 to 8 3/8 inches were used and as said in the video, it was a case of availability.
Which size barrel was used for "the scene"
@@nickadkins7765 If you're talking about the bank robbery scene in th beginning, the 6.5in model.
There is so much more known about the what's, where's, when's and why's about the M29 and Dirty Harry that this video should be renamed "the role of a movie armorer." 🙄
I had no idea the space station was so well defended. The Martian's better recognize...
@@pineapple999100 Alleged a time or two, but no convictions yet.
when the martians roll up bumpin knuck if you buck.
I was a young uniform cop when the Dirty Harry movies came out. My agency issued us a Model 15 and did not allow any personal weapons for anything other than off-duty carry, and those required approval & we had to qualify w/them. All that said some in our ranks did buy the .S&W 44 Mag and tried tocarry it on duty, but were caught by their sergeant & faced disciplinary actions. Not worth the hassle to me but I still enjoy these movies.
$140 for a model 29! I know what the first thing I'm doing when I get a time machine is.
Same
How will you purchase it when you get there though? You will be thrown straight in handcuffs trying to use "counterfeit" bills with series 2013 on them. Unless you can track down all period correct bills or find some way to acquire cash back then before heading to the store.
@@toki89666 Just take back some gold bars and sell them to a pawn shop. I'd loose some money due to the difference in gold prices, but make it back when I sell a couple of low serial number model 29s.
@@nasaboy87 that's a smart way to do the second part of my last sentence of the previous reply. Probably the fastest way too. I was thinking of taking a sports records book and making bets on then current sporting events. (I definitely stole that idea from a Netflix show, can't remember the name, good miniseries though)
@@nasaboy87 Between 1933-1975 people couldn't own gold, it was made illegal by FDR and repealed by President Ford.
John Milieus the writer of the film was a gun guy. They gave Harry that gun, because the model 29 was designed for hunting or finishing off large game, and they wanted Harry to come off as a hunter, not a standard cop. That’s what the commentary on the blu ray says
Arnold in Red Heat...."what is Dirty Harry?"
This is a forgotten classic. Belushi character carries a 629. "Gotta watch these door jams, dangerous."
Ivan Danko: "Soviet Podbyrin, nine-point-two milimeter, is world's most powerful handgun."
John Milius was the one who gave the character Dirty Harry the gun because of its symbolism. The gun, as stated, is designed for hunting. It might be something of what was referred to as a "Howdah Pistol" a backup gun for big game hunters. Milius wanted to portray Harry as a hunter so he gave him that gun despite the fact it is perhaps too large for use for most police officers.
Video on ISS but nothing new on the Dirty Harry 44. What a misleading title.
I'm 48 years old my father bought a Smith & Wesson model 29 long barrel from Van loon and sporting goods in Cincinnati and I remember him waiting months to get his hands on it because of the movie.. I have the gun now in the original box that came in with the bill of sale 80 bucks
Holy SHIT!!
Damned near everyone on our dept had to have one, after the movie came out.
I can promise you, they were a hell of a lot more than $80. !!
Somebody’s fishing…..oops.
I’ve just been weighed and filleted…….!
Practically no information about the Dirty Harry gun but a lot of talking about Larry.
Exactly
I was waiting for a story about the gun .
"You need your prop master to be a capable armourer or at least be able to find a capable armourer"
Shame the Rust producers didn't watch this video.
Alec baldwin isn't going to watch informatove gun content.
He doesn't mention the reason the barrel length changed is it was a 41 magnum, model 57 which is half inch shorter in a number of the scenes. The 57 came with a shorter barrel and it shows if you watch the movie. Guess this was long enough ago Mr. Zanoff doesn't know as he has only been in it twenty years.
At the time of the movie this was all covered with each of the guns shown, lots of articles and even discussions with all the guns displayed. They couldn't get matching 29's as they were rare and expensive but lots of model 57 were avalible.
Julian Fink, the writer, of Dirty Harry was a gun aficionado, watch for his Paladin (have gun will travel) episodes that are VERY gun centric.
Roy Jinks, the S&W historian wrote how the .44magnum was very unpopular in the late 1960s 1970 era. Smith & Wesson execs were closed to ending regular .44mag runs when Dirty Harry came out, it went 📈. BTW, Frank Sinatra was asked to play Inspector Callahan but the deal was not made.
@@DavidLLambertmobile True, in so much as the Smith and Wesson was concerned. The caliber was still popular. Ruger Super Blackhawk was way cheaper, had easier to tolerate recoil as it rolls in your hand due to it's single action 'western' design. For the money you could buy two Ruger's or most of one Smith. I bought both before the movie and everyone kidded me for spending too much for the Smith. The Smith came in 4, 6.5 and 8 and 3/8 barrels, the Ruger in 7.5 mostly, though I have seen shorter and longer, but if you went to the gun store you saw a 7.5 which is pretty much what you want to hunt or fun shoot.
So no reason to buy a super heavy N frame Smith for lots more money... until the movie came out.
Even in small towns 44 mag ammo was common, and you could buy 44 special cheaper and use it.
Not like today.
Oh edited to change, I had an old model blackhawk and the smith, didn't get the super blackhawk till 73 I think, between the first two movies. In those days movies were in theaters and drive inns for years.
@@DavidLLambertmobile hahahahaha,, all due respect, but "the Chairman of the Board" would need to wear a trench coat to hide a gun that size on him,,,,,
I heard from forgotten weapons the gun that was “cast in the script” was a nickel plated 4” model 29 but they couldn’t find one.
Yes, to my knowledge, dir Don Segel got .41magnum revolvers for a few scenes.
Yes 4 inch it's what most cops carried but Clint was just tall and big enough they got away with using something longer as for the nickel I am not too sure
@@jorgesolis9468 no coppers ever carried a .44 magnum !
geezerp1982 my uncle did. He was a deputy sheriff in Idaho many years ago.
@@geezerp1982 listen to clues I said 4 inch I didn't specify caliber if I did it would have been 357 and 38 special and for the movie they wanted something to stand out and a 44 mag does in the right hands it does as good a job as other calibers
I’ve heard that it was John Milius - who was an uncredited screenwriter in Dirty Harry, and wrote the screenplay for the sequel, “Magnum Force” - specifically wrote the model 29 into the script
It destroyed the 41 magnum model 57 in sales because of the movie. Now a lot of folks don't even know what a 41 magnum is. It was a more manageable round than the 44.
The .41magnum was pushed as a 🚔 round, advanced self defense round but proved to be impractical. The Detroit MI cops used .41magnum revolvers but many street cops also packed Hi Power 9mm too.
DL Lambert The .41 Mag was issued to San Francisco PD for a while in the mid-60’s. My, how SFPD has changed over the years.
@vic vapor Because when Elmer Keith designed the .41, it was meant to be pushing a 210gr bullet around 1,250 to 1,300 fps which would be somewhere in the 700-800 ft lb range which is the top end of modern .357 Magnum. Remington had magnum fever and wanted Keith to make it another Magnum load like .44, which he said would defeat the point but they pushed him into it.
So from a hunting perspective, the .44 Magnum did it better, for self defense, the .357 was much milder and adequate. So in short... as a Magnum load it failed to do anything better than the other two. If loaded to Keith's original specs and what most would call .41 Special today... it would have had a better chance.
I think for a S&W, the .41 would be a better round because the cylinder walls were thicker. I once got a classic 29-2 that had been fired with rounds that were so hot it stretched the walls at the cylinder stop notches, and ballooned the cases at the base making the empties near impossible to extract. I was lucky to find a mod 29 recessed cylinder on e-bay. I must have felt lucky.
@vic vapor Considering that's the history of the cartridge.... that's kind of how it all went down.
Because of Dirty Harry my dad got me a S&W Model 29 in 44 Magnum 6.5 in barrel in 1974 when I was 12 years old, I still have that firearm today and have about 40,000 rounds through it. MY dad and I both had a blast with that firearm.
833 shots every year
16 shots a week
@@Loki1815I think hes full of it .
@@robertsr.249 I think he's full of shot.
9:00 "back then it might have been just a little bit different" ya, before Brandon Lee. 😬
yup, guns don't kill people, stupid and negligible people kill people, not to mention bad ones. The world lost a the son of Bruce Lee for no reason other than careless gun handling.
your comment doesn't make any sense. before the incident filming "The Crow" they knew better but, forgot because of... what reason exactly?
My dad has been in "the industry" for almost 40 years and has worked with ISS many times, including their weapons department. I actually got to visit once when I was a kid but wasn't allowed to go into the gun section, not sure if it was because I was a minor or because I just wasn't pre-approved to go in there. I've heard some funny stories involving ISS guns, probably the best was when my dad got pulled over in rural Mississippi in a rental car with a trunk completely loaded down with MP5s, real but deactivated IIRC. It worked out fine, local LE had been briefed on the production in the area and he had the paperwork for everything, but to this day he says the deputy's reaction when he popped the trunk was one of the funniest things he's ever seen in his life.
Another good one happened shortly after 9/11, when the studios were obsessed with the idea that they were going to be a terrorist target and had stepped up security to crazy levels. One of my dad's friends was driving onto a studio lot - at this studio, that's rare, employee parking is across the street and you only drive in if you absolutely have to - and got the third degree from the security people, we're talking a TSA kind of attitude and a long inspection of the car, looking under the chassis with mirrors, looking under the hood and in the spare tire well under the trunk floor, and so on. What the security people didn't even notice or check, though, was a very large duffel bag in plain sight in the back seat, and had they opened it they would've discovered that this guy was on his way back from ISS and the bag was completely stuffed with blank-converted M16A2s.
Max Archer So much for “TSA” level security.
The gun in this film was used so sparingly but effectively much like the shark in Jaws. Neither sees a ton of action in their respective films but when they show up they certainly leave a lasting impression!
My father was gifted a S&W 29-2 for his High School graduation. Never been fired. Really is a beautiful gun!
So in other words he's too scared to shoot it with his girly hands? 💀
In my opinion regarding the 44 mag with full house loads, the problem isn’t recoil but the severe muzzle blast. I thought I’d hunt with mine until I shot at a game animal without ear protection one day. A full case of 2400 and I still have ringing that became permanent.
Second time I've heard a story of someone lighting off a .44 without ear-pro, once, and suffering permanent and obvious hearing loss. It's not a joke.
I also don't find the recoil all that bad, but I've never been around one without ears on and I hope I never am.
I’m sure Elmer Keith couldn’t hear him self fart. I damaged mine with a Dan Wesson .357 @ 19. I’m 63 now & I advise young folks to protect their hearing. There’s no cure for tinnitus & it’s no joke.
When i was a kid in the eighties you couldn't go in a gun store without seeing a whole display of these.
nobody, I mean NOBODY puts ketchup on a hotdog
There was a hotdog shop in Fairmont WV and the owner (a crabby old man) would kick people out of his shop if they asked for ketchup on their hot dogs or hamburgers. I live ketchup, so I never even went there.
I feel called out.
@@RicArmstrong You know what's really good on a hamburger or cheeseburger? Mayonnaise.
I do. And mustard, mayo, chili, cheese, and onions. I'm prepared to fight to the end to defend my freedom of hotdog accessories. You'll get my ketchup from my cold, dead, hands...
Interesting video although I was expecting maybe a little more detail on just the Callahan 44 magnum instead of guns in other movies and a history of prop masters. Still worth watching though. Thanks.
The ISS guy is wrong on 1 point. The US Army & DARPA, SF did T&Es of 7.62 mini guns but the weapons were heavy, bulky & were a serious risk to Rangers or special forces. The mini gun required batteries 🔋 & the packs were a %=÷× to lug around. Jesse Ventura explains the weapon problems in his book; I Ain't Got Time To Bleed. 📚
Lot of good info on fun movies
In the script it called for the 4 inch stainless model. The SS model was causing issues with lighting for the filming plus there was shortage of the SS model. They were able to get their hand on the 6.5 inch model. Clint liked it better and the rest is history.
I'm really impressed that they got James to wear long pants for the video. Dress codes, etc.
🤣🤣🤣
I have a colt python and absolutely love it.
My uncle carried a model 29 when he was a deputy for the Kern County Sheriff’s Office.
Seeing those chambers of the model 29 flux welded really hurt my feeling😭
im reminded of an early 70`s hollywood tv series. " alias smith and jones. " the leading star who was expected to forge a wonderful career; didnt. for the reason that while on a break in filming, placed his loaded blank firing western weapon against his head and pulled the trigger. not grasping that a blank weapon had no bullet, but still carried a significant and deadly charge. he died instantly. since of course, hollywood trains actors to treat all weapons as loaded and deadly. this would be an interesting future topic. the training school or schools for actors in safe firearms handling.
Steven Homan It was in the 80’s. Jon-Erik Hexum. Played a quarterback with Alabama in a movie about Coach Bear Bryant. Accidentally killed himself with blanks in a revolver on the set of a TV series about a CIA agent posing as a model
That actor was Peter Duel. What an idiot.
Peter Dual, lead actor for that series shot himself in the head in an intentional suicide at his home in hollywood in 1971. Duel's girlfriend, Dianne Ray, was at his home at the time of his death and discovered his body. Ray later told police the two had watched Duel's series Alias Smith and Jones the previous evening. She later went to sleep in another room while Duel stayed up. Sometime after midnight, Duel entered the bedroom, retrieved his revolver and told Ray "I'll see you later." Ray then said she heard a gunshot from another room and discovered Duel's body.
@@kimthurston9192
Thats what l heard, he was an alcoholic with big problems from it, a great pity as he was ideally cast as the fast talking big smiling brains behind the caper character. All suicides are a sad end ( apart from Hitler and his sort i.e evil sh"* heads ).
I've heard that S&W sold tons of Model 29's with every Dirty Harry movie that came out, only for it there to be a glut of used Model 29's for sale shortly thereafter. 44's are miserable to shoot full power rounds out of.
I've never really had a huge problem with .44 mag. It's not something I'd want to run all day long, but I couldn't afford to do that financially either.
I've heard what you've said when talking about .500 mags about a million times though and believe the hype. I've not yet had the pleasure to fire one of those but I've seen what has to be over a hundred of them for sale used that clearly have only had 10-20, at most, rounds through them and I've seen a couple on consignment where I was told straight up that the current owner simply couldn't fire them.
I've only fired one drumful of hot 44's in my life out of a friend's 44 magnum. My most vivid memory of the occasion was the tingling and the imprint of the wood grip checkering on the palm of my hand. That was good enough for me :).
PS: I believe I heard the story about the glut of used 44's after the Dirty Harry movies on Ian's channel.
Apparently even Harry Callahan thought the .44 magnum was too much with full power rounds. I was just re-watching "Magnum Force", and the scene where Harry first meets the young hit team is at the SFPD indoor range. One of the cops in the hit squad, named Sweet, asks Harry what he's shooting in his .44, and he says "a light special" because it gives "better control and less recoil". Oddly, Sweet didn't ask Harry if his girlfriend in the film had major league yabbos (Sweet was played by Tim Matheson, who also played Otter in "Animal House").
@@loumencken9644 That scene was a setup to show Harry training for a marksmanship contest, which he had won multiple times as I recall and blew it intentionally in that year as part of his investigation, when he uttered those words.
Who would go into a scored pistol course with full-on magnum loads? Certainly not someone as no nonsense as Inspector Callahan so obviously he would be training with his competition rounds.
I mean... I'm a little tongue-in-cheek here, but that really is the way I always took that scene.
and expensive as hell for a "day at the range,,, even when I was reloading my own,,,
In my experience on film sets, the writer knows very little about guns, or just things from video games or old movies. They write things that they think are cool, sometimes they get reigned in by a consultant, but often the script is already written and everything else is along the way by the time they select the gun. They come to the armorer people in preproduction and say something like: we want a big gun, or we want a sexy spy gun, or we want a cowboy gun. The armorer then tries to convince them to select the most expensive rental they have, and depending on the budget of the film, they start high and negotiate to somewhere in the middle. For instance, on one movie that has yet to come out, they wanted Lily Collins to shoot a gun until it was empty and then continue to pull the trigger and have the gun click a few times. For that reason, my buddy, who was the prop master and also knowledgeable enough about guns to be an armorer, told them to select a specific Ruger (I think) .38 revolver that had a relatively light double action trigger pull so that she could do that. That was the only motivation for the inclusion of a revolver in the film, for that one scene where the gun clicks after it's empty. I was on a production where the director was a hack, and just wanted the biggest gun with the most impressive front flash (a lot of prop guns side flash for safety reasons) so he ended up with a Deagle that he wanted to use at point blank range on a waitress. She's fine, we had a long talk with him and the 1 AD about firearm safety. Anyway, that's the story about how guns are selected for movies. The end.
Perfect timing. I just woke up, took a big shit, then got out of bed. Now I'm enjoying this video
Model 29's were in such short supply that a S&W Model 57 was used for a scene...read this in a gun magazine in the 70's.
Most of this is absolute nonsense. Screw mini guns in the jungle. Talk about the S and W 29 in the Dirty Harry Movie... Not all of this crap... Nobody that matters, cares.... How about Harry Callaghan, in the last movie saying...... He was using .44 specials because the .44Mag was to much.. Why don't you talk about that?.. This was a complete waste of my time as a Clint Eastwood Fan and I can't get it back... Thanks. What a waste of time!
What about the other 80% of the story, and the other pistols....?? This was really just a dribble of the real story....., but insightful.....
They forgot to mention the use of a model 57 (41Magnum) due to low availability of model 29's. Ooop's
To my knowledge, the crew, props could not find a new S&W .44magnum N frame so they used a .41magnum in a few scenes.
You're right DL at the time of the making of the movie, model 29's weren't in production, so they used a Model 57 .41 magnum until S&W could tool up production and get them a couple of .44's. The production crew had to be careful with camera angles on the .41.
No, this has been debunked many times over, John Milius has since said it was a model 29 in the first and subsequent movies
I heard the prop used in at least one of the Dirty Harry movies was a S&W 25-5 in .45 Colt.
I've met guys that conceal carry desert eagles.
Listening to this presentation, I get the sense that some prop masters, armorers, and even certain mentally unstable, unhinged actors may let their firearms safety skills simply _Rust_ over time.
The Smith 29 was on my bucket list for firearms that I wanted . I found one about a year ago, 6in Barrel, for a very good price. Put about 100 Rounds through it (.44 is very expensive and boy is it a workout). My dad asked me if I shot .44 special for lighter shooting...No Way, its a man gun and will be firing only man gun ammunition. The only difference is the previous owner had Pachmayr grips, which I am not fond of, but its an awesome gun and there is no shortage of quoting Dirty Harry when I take my daughter to shoot it.
You gotta ask yourself a question. Do I feel lucky...
...well do ya, Punk?
I love the model 29 but a model 57 holds more sentimental value to me because my grandfather used one as chief of police here in ohio in the 70’s but involving some circumstances he had to sell it and my dad knew that if the circumstance did not happen he would have had it and I may have had it passed down to me. Its a real shame.
i tried to buy one in the early 70s only ones you could find were the 4 inch model it was selling for about 500 bucks a lot of money in the 70s
As a cadet on the West Point (Army) pistol team, while we were shooting at Camp Perry in the summer of '74, the S&W rep offered us brand new 6 1/2" Mdl 29's in the presentation case for $250ea. Unfortunately, that was over a month's pay and no one on the team could come up with the cash. Argh.
Callahan was cool and all, but let's not forget Inspector Hammer and his 629, with ivory grips. Sledge Hammer, best series ever!
What about Mike Hammer? And Betsy??? 😎
The Star Wars movies are the reason I want to own a Sterling some day. It would just be cool to have the same type of weapon that had been modded to be the E-11.
Randomly shot one at a gun show. Good fun.
Trivia question: what cartridge load did Harry use in his 44 mag (at least in Magnum Force)
4:15 Unlike more... recent... events... [tilt-head smile]
the tommy guns in BONNIE & CLYDE (1967)are captured beautifully,in all their loud glory, tho they didn't really use them often because BAR's were Clyde's preferred weapon. and that of the lawmen who ended their fun in 1934.
I gotta admit I rewatched the Dirty Harry movie a second time after I went down the gun owning rabbit hole, and I spent more time lamenting the sporterized paratrooper Arisaka and wanting a S&W Model 58 off the SFPD stand-in’s than noticing the Model 29 :P
...you didn't walk away from the series wanting an Automag? That's the one that always got my attention.
A second time? I watch them 2-3 times a year every year since they debuted in the 70's!
some Punks disliked the video.....i want to ask them DO YOU FEEL LUCKY?
It just so happens, I shot a 44 magnum this last weekend for the first time. Thing was a beast and a ton of fun to shoot.
Hilarious that the guy thinks every movie coming out is a masterpiece. It couldn't be further from the truth, lol.
Still, cool collection.
Dirty Harry movie - Co-star S&W 29!
I gots to know!
Oops guess this guy doesn't
really know the history of the .44 Magnum S&W model 29 or the orginal studio gun.
I'm sure he is very knowledgeable
But;
The model 29 was very popular when in came out in 1955.
It was very difficult to get one as the Demand was very high. And it continued to very popular well before 'Dirty Harry'
John Milius was the director and Producer.
He wanted a .44 magnum for dirty Harry.
According to Roy Jinks the S&W historian;
a letter dated April 19, 1970 under the letterhead of Universal Pictures
'We have been trying in Los Angeles area for some time to find one of these guns (S&W .44 Magnum, model 29) and learn something about it but they seem to be impossible to find'
That's because every model 29 was earmarked to fill a long-standing back order.
S&W could not keep up with
demand even though they had increased production by 300%.
Since every gun was spoken for, S&W built one using a frame slotted to become a
.41 Magnum model 57 as their policy was not to let anyone jump in line to help avoid scalper's prices for their customer. The guns were being shipped against the oldest back orders first.
Jinks doesn't say how many were shipped to Universal Studios.
So it is a myth that the movie created a demand.
But it did increase the demand by movie lovers.
This is according to an article in Shooting Times by
Skeeter Skelton published in March 1975.
According to Skeeter the demand was still backlogged when the article was published.
Years later it was possible to buy one of the Model 29s
used but still at retail value.
Like many others that wanted the gun for hunting I bought one. It came with a box of 50 rounds with 6 rounds missing.
The owner said the recoil was too brutal.
This was very common, to see one for sale with a box of only 44 individual rounds!
It really wasn't that bad if you were an experienced handgunner. But to a novice it was brutal.
Now we have much more powerful handguns cartridges that make the
.44 magnum seem tame by comparison!!
9:49 star line brass with a blown out case
Can you do a video on how semi/full autos work with blanks? Always wondered if they were specifically made that way or if something is done to ‘real’ guns to get them to work that way.
What about RoboCops gun lol
My 6.5 inch nearly movie correct (it's a little over a year old, but I recently installed those iconic vintage grips) Model 29 is my most prized firearm. It will never be replaced. 🔫
Every time I hear ISS I remember ‘In School Suspension’.
I don't think it's nice you laughing.
See, my mule don't like people laughing.
I would have hated to be a guy saving up for a S&W 29 then this movie dropped.
Then years later saving up for a Bren Ten and Miami Vice comes out.
They only delivered two Bren Tens. I used to call them in Florida: Dixon and Dornas. I had Maryland Tag: BREN TEN ... nobody knew what it meant. D&D wouldn't give a discount for the advertisement.
“Welded the cylinders closed to prevent accidental shootings” someone probably should’ve taught Alec Baldwin that trick
OBVIOUSLY he doesn't know ANYTHING about Dirty Harry lore.
John Milius picked this firearm.
Since ISS purchased the original 29 (and most of their other movie guns( from Stembridge Gun Rentals the TRUE story must have not came with it.
Mingun - Predator + Pulse Rifle - Aliens + M60 - Rambo + M16 w/203 - Scarface + Desert Eagle .50 - Snatch + Walther PPK - James Bond....
No, pal the gun didn't become a character in the movie ... however it DID become a character in the TV series "Sledge Hammer" ... and her name was Susi !
"Trust me, i know what i'm doing !"
I got all the Dirty Harry movies for my birthday a few years ago!
I found mine really by luck, wasn't even looking for one. Retired cop selling it, holster wear but non issued firearm. Sometimes I think about selling it...but once you pick it up, there's just something about it! The feel, the balance, the caliber... So I keep it! Regularly get emails from people wanting to buy it off me!
I like 44 Magnum so much I bought a Desert Eagle in 44 to go with the model 29!
As for guns used by Eastwood: I got a model 66 (the gauntlet) and a Korea era Garand (I think that's what is seen in Gran Torino, Garand for sure).
Not only was the S&W model 29 a character in the movie, it was central in defining one of the themes. It was the early 1970s, fresh on the heels of "The Summer of Love." The setting was San Francisco, with Haight-Ashbury being the epicenter of peace and love hippy counterculture. This cultural/political zeitgeist resulted in soft-on-crime DAs, politically motivated police chiefs, and a heavily scrutinized, defanged police force. When a threat appears that the neutered criminal justice system is unequipped deal with, they begrudgingly assign an anachronistic character who embodies the idea that sometimes "excessive force" is necessary as an overcorrection because the pendulum had been allowed to swing too far the other direction. Intrestingly, in an early screenplay by John Milius, the titular character was to carry TWO nickle-plated 4" model 29 revolvers in a dual shoulder rig. If that's not a hint to the theme, I don't know what is.
Almost all of the weapons there have been extensively modified to fire blanks. Some of them have had so much work done to them that it would be almost impossible to put them back into working order.
I read an article somewhere "(American Rifleman?) that they actually used a Model 25 in 45 Colt for the scenes where the barrel diameter was emphasized, because...it's bigger!
If only Alec Baldwin's weapon had cylinders which were welded closed, Halyana Hutchins might still be alive today.
Lame Video. Lot of general talk about movie guns from a guy who currently works at the prop house, but nothing specific about the Dirty Harry gun from 1971. For example, no mention that when it was firing on screen, the Dirty Harry Gun was not a .44 Magnum, it was a .45 Colt. In those days there were no blank rounds in .44 caliber, so they had to use a gun that looks exactly like a Model 29, but fired .45 Colt blanks, the S&W Model 25 in .45 Colt.
Clint Eastwood pranced around on camera with one. But it was Elmer Keith who was instrumental in the 29's development and could kill big game with it at hundreds of yards. Bizarre that it is Eastwood who is remembered with the S&W M-29 - not Keith.
When I was dating one of Clints daughters she had his pictures up in her room. Of course him wielding the 44 magnum was right next to her bed. That was his gun, BTW. They wanted him to use a snub nose revolver but he had his long boy in the trailer and they acquiesced. At least that's the family story. If I see her again I'll check on that story to be sure. 😆🤙🏾