Well, actually two minor observations. Well, two-and-a-half or three (depending on how you score the REALLY stupid one) but only one-and-a-half relate to The Magnificent Seven.
So I'm sitting here sipping some Sierra Nevada and I watched the vid of the The Magnificent Seven trailer again. Way cool, of course. But once again, I was struck by the silly cinematic nonsense. It seems that Robert Vaughn and the Young Dude (whose name I can't remember and don't want to look up, too lazy) are the only ones who can handle a six-gun properly.
Okay, in fairness, I didn't actually notice James Coburn and Charles Bronson, nor the other guys whose names escape me at the moment and I don't want to look them up, doing stupid crap in the trailer. But given their characters (and on-screen personas) I can certainly believe they would do this stupid crap.
So what stupid crap, you ask? I'm glad you asked.
Stupid Crap #1: This one is half a point. At 45 seconds into the trailer, Steve McQueen pops up from behind a wall and shoots from the hip. Dude, I know you're good and all that, but there's a reason that guns have sights.
Stupid Crap #2: Fanning. Good Lord, are Hollywood people that ignorant of handguns? Apparently so. NO ONE, and I repeat for the hopelessly revolver-naive, NO ONE can fan a single-action revolver and hope to shoot anywhere near accurately. Steve McQueen does it at 23 seconds in, and You Brynner does it at 27 seconds (and there are probably other examples I didn't scan for). Yeah, I know it looks cool on the big screen, but not to people who know anything about single-action revolvers.
Notice how I mentioned "single-action" twice? This brings us to the biggest dumbass thing I've ever seen on a screen that involved revolvers. And it's why I left open the possibility that it might get more than one "Stupid Crap" point.
Stupid crap #3 (and this one is REALLY Stupid Crap): Back in 1979, there was a TV show that came out called "240-Robert", starring Mark Harmon and John Bennett Perry and Joanne Gleason. Cop/paramedic show about the LA County Sheriff's Department. Mostly good fun, I like cop and paramedic shows that have good writing. This one was average as such shows typically go, but mostly good fun.
But here's what got me: in one episode, maybe the first, Mark Harmon (a Sheriff's Deputy) is at the firing range and not doing well on the targets. In the Grand Tradition of the Sundance Kid, he asks the rangemaster if he can "move" (not the actual words Harmon's character used but close enough for rock and roll). He then dives, rolls, comes up, and fans his service revolver, blitzing the target with all six shots (all six left AFTER missing several shots, BTW).
He was shooting a Ruger Redhawk. 10 Lo-cal MBP points to anyone who can explain in the comments why this scene gets such scorn from me.
Fortunately, I've never yet seen anyone on (or off) screen try to fan a semi-auto.
Iz out!
2 months ago
7 comments:
Why in hell would anyone bother to fan a double-action revolver?
That's what I was wondering.
Also, what police department would issue a .44 Magnum as a service piece?
Regarding fanning and shooting from the hip: true, nobody can shoot accurately while fanning, and only a true master could shoot accurately from the hip. On the other hand, they're in the middle of a melee, firing at moving targets. Accurate fire is damn near impossible under those conditions anyway. Instead, you try to throw a volume of fire and hope that one or more of your shots hit. Or that you force the enemy to take cover. Same principle behind an automatic weapon: it ain't meant to be accurate, it's meant to smother the enemy in bullets. Fanning is a useful way of generating a volume of fire with a single-action revolver. At least, as long as your ammo holds out.
So it's still stupid, but I don't think it's quite as stupid as you do.
What wolfwalker said. Aimed fire is critical, but sometimes all you want to do is pin the bad guys down, and get their attention on you, whilst they get flanked.
Still, in the context of the gunfight in "The Magnificent Seven", fanning a six gun is not a great idea; I'd use that technique in close quarters. So Ken's point is indeed relevant.
But Hollywood has generally treated firearms with lameness. It's gotten better in recent years (such as where they hire veterans as technical advisers on how to handle weapons), but I love to watch the older movies, and count the rounds fired from revolvers. It's amazing how many 7 shot pistols are around.
Okay, I kinda get the argument about laying down lots of fire, though with only a six-gun (and given how slow the Colt 1873 Army is to reload) I'm not sure how far it goes.
what police department would issue a .44 Magnum as a service piece?
I was THIS CLOSE to correcting WW on the Redhawk. But I looked it up in some older "Shooter's Bible"s on my shelf. Turns out that my assumption that the Redhawk was a .357 Magnum, and the Super Redhawk was a .44 Mag was flawed. It seems that, at least some years back, the Redhawk was a .41 Mag and the Super RH was .44 Mag. My bad.
Why in hell would anyone bother to fan a double-action revolver?
Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out if it's even POSSIBLE to fan a DA revolver. Answers soon...
Looks like we both should have done more research. I looked around again, and it appears that while the Redhawk was designed as a .44 Magnum, when first introduced it was available in several chamberings: .44 Mag, .41 Mag, and .357 Mag.
Though that doesn't explain why a cop would be carrying one as a service piece. I thought virtually all local police departments issued .38-caliber revolvers until the 1990s when they started changing over to 9mm semiautomatic pistols. Yes, a .357 Mag gun can fire .38 Special ammo, but the magnum revolvers are more expensive, and police departments have always been budget-conscious.
That actually makes me feel a little better because I was certain I had seen .357 Redhawks in the guns books, but couldn't find it in the few I currently have.
I do know of one PD in which officers carried .357s. At least, I knew one cop who did, I assume that means the dept. outfitted them. Possible, I suppose, that the officers were allowed to purchase their own.
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