lori@hp-pcd.UUCP (lori) (02/07/86)
>/***** hpcvla:net.movies / ssc-vax!stuart / 4:02 pm Feb 1, 1986*/ >> Does anyone know what kind of gun Indiana Jones carried in "Raiders of >> the Lost Arc" and in the beginning of "Indiana Jones and the Temple of >> Doom"? It looked to me like it was a .38 police special, but I am not >> sure. Were .38's common in 1936? Was that a logical choice for someone >> like IJ to carry in that day? (I know that it is not the gun I would >> choose when shooting it out with Nazis carrying automatic weapons!) > >The pistol is a Smith & Wesson service (i.e. police) revolver. Very, very >common .38 Special load. The Smith- .38 has been a non-standard issue >U.S. military sidearm dating back to WW I. By non-standard I mean that only >certain groups got them : Intelligence, covert operations, etc. They were >the standard sidearm for the U.S. Army Aleutians troops during WW II and >were also used in Vietnam by the Green Berets. I'm not saying ALL G.B.'s. >The Army's 'Tunnel Rats' used .38/.357 revolvers exclusively. The theory >being you may have, at best, ONE shot so it had better be "pull the trigger" >foolproof revolver action as opposed to an automatic. > >Stuart Lewis >ssc-vax!stuart >/* ---------- */ You're right in all respects except the important one; the revolver that Jones carried was not a S&W .38 Special. It was a half-moon clip S&W .45, which was commonly carried by U.S. Army officers prior to the intro- duction of the Colt .45 ACP Semi-Auto. The .45 caliber rounds for the 2 pistols were not interchangable. There are still a few half-moon clip .45's around today (my father owns one), but it's murder to get ammunition for them. hp-pcd/mfc (Mark F. Cook)
cramer@kontron.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) (02/14/86)
> >/***** hpcvla:net.movies / ssc-vax!stuart / 4:02 pm Feb 1, 1986*/ > >> Does anyone know what kind of gun Indiana Jones carried in "Raiders of > >> the Lost Arc" and in the beginning of "Indiana Jones and the Temple of > >> Doom"? It looked to me like it was a .38 police special, but I am not > >> sure. Were .38's common in 1936? Was that a logical choice for someone > >> like IJ to carry in that day? (I know that it is not the gun I would > >> choose when shooting it out with Nazis carrying automatic weapons!) > > > >The pistol is a Smith & Wesson service (i.e. police) revolver. Very, very > >common .38 Special load. The Smith- .38 has been a non-standard issue > >U.S. military sidearm dating back to WW I. By non-standard I mean that only > >certain groups got them : Intelligence, covert operations, etc. They were > >the standard sidearm for the U.S. Army Aleutians troops during WW II and > >were also used in Vietnam by the Green Berets. I'm not saying ALL G.B.'s. > >The Army's 'Tunnel Rats' used .38/.357 revolvers exclusively. The theory > >being you may have, at best, ONE shot so it had better be "pull the trigger" > >foolproof revolver action as opposed to an automatic. > > > >Stuart Lewis > >ssc-vax!stuart > >/* ---------- */ > > You're right in all respects except the important one; the revolver > that Jones carried was not a S&W .38 Special. It was a half-moon clip S&W > .45, which was commonly carried by U.S. Army officers prior to the intro- > duction of the Colt .45 ACP Semi-Auto. The .45 caliber rounds for the 2 > pistols were not interchangable. There are still a few half-moon clip .45's > around today (my father owns one), but it's murder to get ammunition for > them. > > hp-pcd/mfc (Mark F. Cook) No, no, no. The S&W and Colt .45 ACP revolvers (M1917) were manufactured for the U.S. Army during World War I because Colt and S&W had production capacity for building revolvers, but not the right tooling to manufacture M1911 .45 automatics. Both the Colt and S&W M1917 revolvers (almost identical) were in use at least until World War II -- I have a very good U.S. Army manual on repair of the .45 automatic that includes repair for the M1917 revolvers as well. Concerning the ammunition: I believe that something call .45 AutoRim was manufactured at one time for the M1917 revolvers, which was identical to .45 ACP except for having a rimmed cartridge (for the extractor), but .45ACP ammunition was supposed to be useable in the M1917 revolvers with half-moon clips. (Otherwise there wouldn't have been much reason to manufacture the M1917s, if the ammunition wasn't interchangeable.)