The Guns of Laredo … Part 3 … the Rifles
In Streets of Laredo we see mainly 3 standard rifles – plus a couple of oddities. There are others long guns, but their appearance is too brief to mention.
Firstly we have the Winchester 73′ rifle – ‘the rifle that won the West’? Combined with the Colt 45 pistol, these are backbone of many a Western Film and probably a good chunk of Old West history as well.
James Garner (Captain F. Woodrow Call) carries two rifles (not sure why .. but Why Not?): a Winchester 73′ and a 1860 Henry Rifle Brass Frame .45 LC.
Woodrow / Garner with his Henry
Garner using the Henry – folding sight.
Ned Beatty (Judge Roy Bean) and his Winchester 73‘
Between drinking and hanging people the Judge shoots things.
George Carlin gets ready to demonstrate the ‘Yellow Boy‘.
Hang on to your ears.
The 2 Unusual Weapons
Smith and Cannon
Charles Martin Smith and Cannon? Sounds like a Law Firm. And he’s got the guns to back it up.
The first of the 2 unusual weapons that I spoke of, is the The Holland & Holland Paradox shotgun (well named).
From the Internet Movie Firearms Database (http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Holland_%26_Holland_Paradox)
“The Holland & Holland Paradox was an interesting design. It was a smoothbore until the end of the bores where there was rifling … The 8 and 10 gauge shotguns were considered to be the most effective against Elephant, Cape Buffalo ect, but lacked the accuracy and range of a rifle. The Paradox design was a compromise which offered improved performance from the smoothbore design … “
In other words, Charles Martin Smith is carrying an elephant gun. Sheesh.
This weapon eventually contributes to the demise of our main antagonist.
Thanks to my brother Richard for finding this information.
Don’t ask me what the pistols are though … he never pulled ’em.
Charles Martin Smith seems to have a fondness for shotguns:
Charles Martin Smith with shotgun in The Untouchables – 1987
That other weapon is claimed to be a Model 1889 Schmidt-Rubin rifle with Scope.
Model 1889 Schmidt-Rubin rifle – without scope
Apology: I lost my sources for this reference. I do recall the the individual who recognized this rifle said that this weapon did not exist in the era of Streets of Laredo. I would not be surprised as we find this quite often in Westerns (and other movies) where technology from the future is imported to the past. Most often nobody cares or notices, but some Gun and Western history fans/experts do take note.
The only thing I can say for sure it that if Joey Garza (Alexis Cruz) takes a liking to your gun, you better just give it to him. And run away. Fast.
But it might not do any good.
The Guns of Laredo … an interesting mix.
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Tags: Alexis Cruz, Colt 45, James Garner, Lonesome Dove, Ned Beatty, Randy Quaid, Smith & Wesson Schofield, Sonja Baca, Streets of Laredo
