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From: cramer@kontron.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Re: Indiana Jones' gun question
Message-ID: <511@kontron.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 13-Feb-86 19:16:37 EST
Article-I.D.: kontron.511
Posted: Thu Feb 13 19:16:37 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Feb-86 05:27:48 EST
References: <1924@rayssd.UUCP> <6500002@hpcvla.UUCP>
Organization: Kontron Electronics, Irvine, CA
Lines: 46

> >/***** hpcvla:net.movies / ssc-vax!stuart /  4:02 pm  Feb  1, 1986*/
> >> Does anyone know what kind of gun Indiana Jones carried in "Raiders of
> >> the Lost Arc" and in the beginning of "Indiana Jones and the Temple of
> >> Doom"? It looked to me like it was a .38 police special, but I am not
> >> sure. Were .38's common in 1936? Was that a logical choice for someone
> >> like IJ to carry in that day? (I know that it is not the gun I would
> >> choose when shooting it out with Nazis carrying automatic weapons!)
> >
> >The pistol is a Smith & Wesson service (i.e. police) revolver.  Very, very
> >common .38 Special load.  The Smith- .38 has been a non-standard issue
> >U.S. military sidearm dating back to WW I.  By non-standard I mean that only
> >certain groups got them : Intelligence, covert operations, etc.  They were
> >the standard sidearm for the U.S. Army Aleutians troops during WW II and
> >were also used in Vietnam by the Green Berets.  I'm not saying ALL G.B.'s.
> >The Army's 'Tunnel Rats' used .38/.357 revolvers exclusively.  The theory
> >being you may have, at best, ONE shot so it had better be "pull the trigger"
> >foolproof revolver action as opposed to an automatic.
> >
> >Stuart Lewis
> >ssc-vax!stuart
> >/* ---------- */
> 
> 	You're right in all respects except the important one; the revolver
> that Jones carried was not a S&W .38 Special.  It was a half-moon clip S&W
> .45, which was commonly carried by U.S. Army officers prior to the intro-
> duction of the Colt .45 ACP Semi-Auto.  The .45 caliber rounds for the 2
> pistols were not interchangable.  There are still a few half-moon clip .45's
> around today (my father owns one), but it's murder to get ammunition for 
> them.
> 
> 				hp-pcd/mfc (Mark F. Cook)

No, no, no.  The S&W and Colt .45 ACP revolvers (M1917) were manufactured
for the U.S. Army during World War I because Colt and S&W had production
capacity for building revolvers, but not the right tooling to manufacture
M1911 .45 automatics.  Both the Colt and S&W M1917 revolvers (almost 
identical) were in use at least until World War II -- I have a very good
U.S. Army manual on repair of the .45 automatic that includes repair for
the M1917 revolvers as well.

Concerning the ammunition: I believe that something call .45 AutoRim was
manufactured at one time for the M1917 revolvers, which was identical to
.45 ACP except for having a rimmed cartridge (for the extractor), but .45ACP
ammunition was supposed to be useable in the M1917 revolvers with
half-moon clips.  (Otherwise there wouldn't have been much reason to 
manufacture the M1917s, if the ammunition wasn't interchangeable.)