Blondie and his gun

[iceman]

Cool pics. This is the type of conversion Angel Eyes would have had for his Remington, in the final gunfight he's toggeled back to his cap and ball cylinder, even though he has some cartridges left in his belt.

Bloody Hell!!! you guys never cease to amaze me. I'm sure no other film forum has detail like this one does...
As someone we all know might say...

"BRAVO"

ICE

[CZ]

great posts Harmonica. but still, its not that likely that such conversions were widely available as they seem to be in the film (everyone in the movie wears gun belts with cartridge holsters, which did not exist in the early 1860's, if you want to go even more into detail. )

the movie's conversion guns are still cool as hell though, so why bother discussing

[Catriona]

I'm new to this site so hope you guys out there bear this in mind     . Not quite sure why it has taken so long for me to join but I'm hear now so that's all that matters. This film is fantasic, my favourite character has to be blondie, Clint eastwood is bloody brilliant!! I've watched the film over and over but am yet to notice anything in particular about blondies gun, what shoudl I be looking at or for??

Cat  xXx

[Clinton]

this page might interest you all, theres some valuable information a little down the page: http://www.armchairgunshow.com/otsAZ_conversions.htm


 

The book is very good. Aside from "showing off" the author's and other collector's rare factory engraved peices, its full of information about the conversions. As far as I can remember, it doesn't delve into non-factory Leone-type conversions.

[Tucumcari Bound]

Those guns are awesome looking! Great post Clinton.

[Clinton]

Those guns are awesome looking! Great post Clinton.

The image was not from me but part of the quote from CZ! I was just commenting on the same book which I bought some years ago.

[tokyorose]

I love the rattlesnakes on the grips of Blondie's guns.  They're courtesy of Rowdy Yates, from the second episode of Rawhide.  Rowdy got them from a nasty desperado who is killed, very Leone-style, on the belltower of a Catholic Church when the giant bell hits him in the back!  I could see any incarnation of the Man With No Name pulling a stunt like that.

[Silenzio]

I love the rattlesnakes on the grips of Blondie's guns.  They're courtesy of Rowdy Yates, from the second episode of Rawhide.  Rowdy got them from a nasty desperado who is killed, very Leone-style, on the belltower of a Catholic Church when the giant bell hits him in the back!  I could see any incarnation of the Man With No Name pulling a stunt like that.

I saw that episode!  Incident at Alabaster Plain, it's by far the coolest one I've seen.

[Bill Carson]

Bloody Hell!!! you guys never cease to amaze me. I'm sure no other film forum has detail like this one does...
As someone we all know might say...

"BRAVO"

ICE

You know buddy, Leone was a genius and perfectionist, so what fans of him we all would be, if we too, wouldn`t try to see every detail, to analyse every shot..., to be a little perfectionist for ourselfes? 

I don`t want to praise us all, but I think that "the great maestro" deserves such fans, fans like we are, and that he would not expect anything less from us. 

[marmota-b]

I think I hadn't found courage to go through this conversation before (such things like cartridge conversions are still new to me - I wouldn't know anything about them if I wasn't a Leone fan - and reading it in English isn't easy), but I'm glad I found it today. Great informations here!

[El Incompetente]

Damn interesting reading about those old firearms. I have two questions for you pistoleros (maybe you went through this earlier, in that case, please enlighten me):

1. Most of the converted revolvers i have seen lacks the ejector rod mounted to the side.
Take blondie´s gun for example. Is that just an error made by SL & co. or is it possible to eject the empty cartridges some other way?

2.  How do you get the bullets out of a cap and ball revolver if you want to remove them (without firing it, of course)?
 

[cigar joe]

Damn interesting reading about those old firearms. I have two questions for you pistoleros (maybe you went through this earlier, in that case, please enlighten me):

1. Most of the converted revolvers i have seen lacks the ejector rod mounted to the side.
Take Blondie's gun for example. Is that just an error made by SL & co. or is it possible to eject the empty cartridges some other way?

2.  How do you get the bullets out of a cap and ball revolver if you want to remove them (without firing it, of course)?

On question 1. they did one of two things they either used the ball seater lever,  notice in the picture below, just under the barrels of the revolvers from left to right 1,2, & 4, is a rod connected to a lever that is connected to a ball seater push rod. What you do is just push the spring button on the muzzle end back towards the pistol grip, that frees the lever from the catch which swings down engaging the ball seater which would normally seat a lead ball in the cylinder bore. With a cartridge conversion that push rod would just push out a spent cartridge. For revolvers 3 & 5 that don't have the lever they had a tool that was just a rod with a handle that you'd keep in your pocket that served the same purpose.



On question 2. they had a rod that they called a "screw rod" with a cork screw on it that they just inserted in the cylinder and twisted then pulled out the ball, they had them for cannon also.

[El Incompetente]

Thanks a lot for the information, CJ.

So it´s possible to turn the ball seater push rod to the side?
I mean, because the opening where you insert the cartridges (and where the empty shells must come out)
is a bit up on the right side.

[cigar joe]

So it´s possible to turn the ball seater push rod to the side?

No its not, they can only push the cartridge out just enough so that you could turn the cylinder and pry the cartridge out with a pen knife especially with those conversions in the image, note on revolver 2 the angle of the image shows that there is a small gap between the cylinder & the frame. On these conversions the separate pushrod with handle would work much much better. 

But on conversions like the one below with the section of cylinder that has the added ring with individual firing pins (though that particular revolver in the image has the push rod lever removed) you would have to unlatch the cylinder push rod lever, then unlatch the cylinder axle & slide it forward enough to remove the ring with the firing pins, then use the lever push rod to push out the cartridges. Neither are the best solution which is the ejector rod.

[El Incompetente]

Thanks again, CJ.

Wow, that´s a quite tricky procedure.
Was there any particular reason for a gunfighter to not
have the smarter ejector rod attached to the side of your gun - high prices, extremely complicated process?