Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Rio Bravo

Watching Rio Bravo. John Wayne's character has one long cartridge in his gunbelt...twice as long as the rest. Looks like a .45-70. Just a mistake or is there a purpose? I'm aware it's just a movie....but am wondering.

Purpose so he knew when he was nearing the end of other rounds. I understand that was a common practice

You beat me to it. Exactly right.

If you watch closely. His belt is set up that way in almost all of his westerns

I am impressed when movies pick up on period correct practices. I watched an old “Gunsmoke” the other day in which Chester cleaned “ Mr. Dillon’s” Colt SAA for him. When he unloaded it, he dumped out six rounds......

Oops!

Well, it was a six shooter

I'm dredging up a 50 year old memory, but I seem to recall a Tales of Wells Fargo where Dale Robertson tells the (not yet revealed) villain that he only carries 5 loaded in his Colt for safety.

Especially considering westerns of the day weren't super fixated upon authenticity like they need to be today.

It's always been understood that an empty chamber under the hammer is the only safe way to carry it, but I wonder if Colt actually included that in the owner's manual back then.

LOL, with all the Winchester 92 carbines in 1870s and 1880s settings.

That’s not too bad. Some old westerns it would have held 60!

Well couldn't you index the cylinder for the hammer to rest between chambers?

Colt should have done that (along with notches for the hammer to rest in in between the chambers), but didn't on the SAA. Not sure why. I think they did that on their 1860 Army model.

...maybe because if the cowboys had lowered the hammer to the fire position and then bothered to pull the hammer back one click to the safety notch instead of letting the firing pin rest on the primer there wouldn't have been so many unintentional discharges....if there were that many anyway.

And what is more important when carrying a SA for self-protection....the "possibility" of the hammer taking a hit and discharging the gun or being 17% down on ammo when the fight starts...

Considering the number of gang bangers and "trained" professionals who have shot themselves and others with striker fired guns since their invention, maybe they should also be carried with an empty chamber also....

Bob

Amen on the striker fire.

Westerns are fun to watch until you realize they are full of inaccuracies. Most Civil War movies show troops using Springfield Trapdoors or Winchester lever guns being carried in Indian Wars era.
It carries over to WWII. Early Pacific combat using M1 Garands, M1 carbines, etc.

I believe you can order Duke's gunbelt from El Paso Saddlery.

Typically the Duke carried his belt gun that way in many of his westerns, especially the later ones. His SAA was a 38-40 and the longer rifle cartridge used to tell him when he was running out was indeed, a 45-70.

Here is the Duke's rig from True Grit. I don't know if this is the main rig because it looks a little darker than his usual setup. It does look like his 38-40 Colt though and his iconic big loop 1892 Winchester.

Like how difficult it is to accurately shoot a handgun??!! Heck, I thought everybody could ride a horse at full tilt, draw and fire on a guy 75 yds away (also on a horse at full tilt) and hit him in the heart...every time!!

Or when shooting a DA revolver, the proper way to do it is hold it at waist level and sort of throw it out with a snap of the wrist quickly while shooting. You can hit Indians on horseback while shooting from a moving train doing this.

Of course, once your six shots are gone the revolver is useless so it must be thrown at the antagonist.