Nobody is more contemptuous of Hollywood than I am. The so-called Spaghetti Westerns ruined the Colt Peacemaker hog legs for me. Those movies spoofed the actors, the genre and the movie industry itself! The Japs provided the coupe de gracie on it for me: in one of their sod-busters - all the worlds nastiest, meanest, gun slingers showed up in a remote, sun baked western town... and set up a friendly tournament of duels between the colourful characters - the same way TB and his martial artist buddies would set up matches in a tournament. Gah. I think the Italians projected their cultural perspective on The Old West the same way the Japanese did.
But...
When Dirty Harry Callahan pulled that big S&W .44 Mag I wanted one like the dickens!!! When Quigley shot a milk bucket offhand at 800 yards offhand I wanted a Sharps rifle in some archaic calibre like .50-120 that throw a hunk a lead the size of my fist! When Jude Law starred as a Soviet sniper in Enemy At The Gates I even wanted the POS rifle he shot - a Mosin Nagant bolt gun!
I didn't buy them all but I did get a few and the retards at my gun clubs bought others. It didn't do anything for our marksmanship, having those cool guns - we all sucked with those as much or worse than with our regular guns. I was heartbroken when I actually handled one of the best Sharps recreations and discovered the gun did not fit me at all. And in these days of ludicrously powerful handgun rounds - a lot of people don't realize how much recoil a full power .44 Magnum generates. Prolonged use with them will turn all but the most dedicated shooters into flinching idiots. The seriously big cannons will do that to whoever's left over I guess, HAR HAR HAR!!!
I'd caution new shooters to stick with the tried and true calibres that all the regular schmucks are using but I won't - they won't listen to it and I won't take my own advice on that one either. Cool guns are what they are.
'Knew a guy who bought a Desert Eagle .50. He couldn't wait to try it out, so he pulled off the highway near the trash dump and let a round fly. It was night. He said it lit up the night like a lightning bolt and bent the hell out of his hand. The only thing he could think of was "I'm going to prison if I don't get the hell outahere!"
ReplyDelete...Good times...
Dirty Harry sold more model 29s than S&W could have ever dreamed to. I never was particularly inspired by any Hollywood fakery. The 44 mag was the first gun I ever shot when the idiot that owned it got the idea that the scrawny twelve year old should try it. His model 29 gained a few new dings and scratched when it flew from my spindly hands and landed on the gravel ten feet behind me.
ReplyDelete44 is not a bad caliber..... in a rifle.
Mine is the much more sensible H&R model 058 Handi-rifle.
A good friend of mine owned an S&W Model 29 with an 8 3/8 inch barrel, chambered in .44 Magnum. He loaded his own red hot loads.
ReplyDeleteHe left the standard wood grips on the canon, and insisted I try it at the local range. I tied down on that pistol with everything I had, and squeezed off a round. The pistol kicked so hard you wouldn't believe it, and the gun twisted in my grip.
I've got a Smith in .357, and I put Hogue grips on it before I could actually start hitting anything with it. I generally shoot .38 ammo out of it; it doesn't beat the gun up as bad as the hot stuff, and it doesn't beat the shooter up either.
But that .44? Sure I'd like one, but only if I learned to load my own ammo, and loaded it light.
And, by the way, any numbskull who passes a .44 mag to a non-shooting 12 year old should have his pistol taken away from him. He's an ass and is in desperate need of an attitude adjustment.