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.

If they are US Army troops, then they DID have M1 Garands!
The US Army had fully changed over by late 1941, with all of the Army active units in Nov 1941 having Garands.
Newly called-up Reserve or National Guard units still had 1903s, and some new Army units were issued 1903s pending manufacture & issue of more Garands, but the Garand was certainly present in numbers from the start of the US involvement.

It was the USMC that had resisted giving up their Springfields... it was watching (and using borrowed) Army Garands on Guadalcanal that convinced the Marines (both rank & file, but also senior officers... like Gen. Vandegrift) that the Garand was a better battle rifle.


The M1 carbine is another matter - it depends on when & where they are supposed to be. The first M1 carbines were delivered in mid-1942, with initial priority given to troops in the European Theater of Operations (ETO).

Not quite true. Most U.S. Army units in 1941 through mid 1942 were still armed with M-1903s. There were a few M-1 Garands in the Philippines, but the vast majority of the U.S. troops were armed with Springfields and native troops with U.S. M-1917 Enfields . Most of those stationed in Hawaii were also armed with Springfields. Suprisingly, there was one U.S. Army division, I cannot recall which one off the top of my head, that landed at Normandy in June 1944 that were armed with Springfields. This was not a case of Garands not being available, but the division commander favored the Springfield and so had his troops armed with them. However this was soon changed shortly after that. Additionally, in the ETO, a lot of Springfields and some M-1917 Enfields saw active service with artillery and MP units until the end of the war. I am not sure, but I am under the impression that U.S. troops involved in the North African Campaign may have also used a good number of Springfields as well. Additionally, Springfields were more widely used by the U.S. Navy than Garands.This is simply because they had plenty available when the Marines transitioned to the Garand and secondly, sailors usually did not have that much need for rifles as did ground troops. As an example, my father joined the navy in 1942 and served in the PTO from late '42 until discharged in 1945. At no time, even in boot camp at San Diego, did he ever receive any rifle instruction whatsoever, including drill. He said they abbreviated training to get them quickly onto sea duty. The army contracted with Remington to produce M-1903 rifles shortly before our entrance into WW II because they realized that Garand production at that time was inadequate. Shortly afterwards, the M-1903 was modified to the M-1903A3 version to enable increased production and they were produced by both Remington and Smith-Corona. I know the M-1903A3 was produced into 1943 and I think production was not discontinued until 1944, but that may not be accurate.

Gang bangers = low IQ (under 90)

At John Wayne Airport in Costa Mesa there is a bronze statue of the Duke. ........with the 45-70 round in the belt loop.

I read an article about this airport. There is a group trying to change the name of the airport because they are saying John Wayne was racist. That accusation is based on the interview John Wayne did with Playboy magazine. It is an interesting interview. The Wayne family issued a statement denying any racist intent on the statements made during the interview.

Yup, but in that episode he loaded six to confound the villain.