Dirty Harry Model 29

Will the real "Dirty Harry" please stand up?

I'm no expert on the subject but I did find a link that has a pretty believeable account: Dirty Harry - Internet Movie Firearms Database - Guns in Movies, TV and Video Games

If this is true, then the guns are probably not true 29-1's or
29-2's since they were "pieced" together from whatever parts were available.

I bought a nickel 29-1 for my brother for Christmas. It was kind of hard handing it over, but he loves it so much he told his wife she'd have to find another place to sleep! :)
 
I have also read that, at least the first movie, a model 25 was used in the shooting scenes with the 5n1 blanks. If you put a 25 and a 29 side by side you couldn't tell the difference
 
Once and for all, for gosh sakes - THEY WERE MODEL 29's - NOT 25's, NOT bored out 44's to accept 45 blanks, or any of these other asinine stories that keep creeping in.

That book I spoke of in post #32 really needs to be written. That these silly rumors continue to be regurgitated as fact becomes more and more ridiculous.

For the newbies here, use the search function on this - it's been hashed out time after time. The facts are known and they're available. :rolleyes:
 
I have to add my first wheel gun was a Dirty Harry !!!
My Dirty is a 29-2 Blue 4". She gets attention at the range.The tupperware boys always want to feel the power !
 
Of course JM was "speaking Loosely" when he said "6 inch".

Heck, most of us describe a snubby J-Frame as a 2".
 
P1010092s.jpg


P1010033-1Medium.jpg
 
Last edited:
vilhelm said:
Of course JM was "speaking Loosely" when he said "6 inch".

Heck, most of us describe a snubby J-Frame as a 2".
Click to expand...

Agreed. I wasn't criticizing him. I was just wanting to clarify so that no one uses his statement to argue that it was not a 6 1/2" barrel.

Jack
 
Very interesting thread! I have a few notes about barrel length. I have six S&W .44 mags, N frame. I wrote it that way because one of them is a pre-29 model made in 1957 and one is a 329PD (so I couldn't just say Model 29).
I had always assumed, though I can't say for sure why, that the gun used in DH was a very early, probably pre-29. I measured the barrels on all of my guns and found something interesting:
Pre-29: 6.5" barrel. Bright blueing (maybe this is why I thought Harry's gun was a pre-29?)
Mdl 29-6 (circa 1999): 8.25" (not quite 8 3/8" but my 1979 Mdl 14-1, Circa 1979, is actually 8 3/8")
Mdl 29-4 (circa 2000): Also 8.25"
Mdl 29-3 (circa 1982): 5.75" (not 6")
For comparison, in addition to the .38 special Mdl 14 mentioned above, I measured my 27-2 (circa 1975): 5 7/8" (not quite 6").
Another reason I assumed harry's gun was an older model is because it looks to me like it's a 6.5" barrel. I know that S&Ws have not used a 6.5" barrel since at least the Mdl -3. As someone wrote earlier, maybe 1979. I do know that S&W first made the 4" barrel available in 1960.
These guns are very special to me. When DH came out I just had to have one. I wrote S&W and was told (if memory serves) that, at the current production rate, it would take 21 years beofre I'd see one!
I bought a single action made by a competitor and never did like it. I couldn't hit an 8.5x11" piece of paper at 20 feet with it. I sold it when I found my 29-3 in 1982. Cost me more than $350.00! I took her out in the dead of winter, found several beer cans some idiot left in the woods, threw one as far as I could (about 30 feet) and it landed with the end toward me. First shot I put a 40 grain bullet right in the end of that can! The other five shots performed similarly. Seemed I couldn't miss with that gun! I have been hooked ever since.
Sorry for the length, but I could talk about these great guns all day and the Model 29 is responbible for my love of S&W today. Two closing thoughts:
If Harry "skidded" his 29, I think maybe that would have been in The Enforcer where it skidded off the pier into the ocean.
Also, I too have heard the .41 mag being used in DH and have always doubted that as I could not figure out why they would do it. Whatever, I wasn't there, but I'm not so sure I could tell for sure if the gun in the movie was a .41 or a .44 (the latter being only .020" larger in caliber).
Thanks again - m
 
erikpolcrack said:
A long time ago, I read in a gun mag that a Model 25 was used for the shooting scenes, so that the so-called Five-in-One movie blanks could be used. These blanks had a base and rim made for 45 Colt, 44/40, and 38/40 chambered revolvers. The 'Five' refers to fact they could also be used in 1873 and 1892 Winchesters.
Click to expand...

You read it somewhere, so it must be true. Unfortunately, that is one of those oft-repeated, but untrue rumors that will just not die.
 
Quakertown said:
and a strange, out-of-place-in-San Francisco..New Jersey accent.
Click to expand...

Clint and Director Don Siegel planned to film "Harry" in Seattle. During a stop over in S.F. they diecided to change the location. With Frank in the lead, the picture may have been moved to New York!
 
Interesting that they created a poster showing Sinatra before the movie was made. I wonder if at this point the Callahan characters gun would have been a .44 magnum or something different.

Does anyone even know if the S&W model 29 was written into the script only after Eastwood was selected?


......casting Eastwood, BTW.....was a stroke of genius.


Russ
 
rdcl said:
...casting Eastwood, BTW.....was a stroke of genius.
Click to expand...

The story is (I don't know the source, so I can't verify it as fact) that Paul Newman, after turning down the role, suggested Eastwood. Knowing what I know about Newman, the story has the ring of truth to it. Unfortunately, Newman has now passed on, so it would be difficult to confirm this.
Jack
 
153 said:
Clint and Director Don Siegel planned to film "Harry" in Seattle. During a stop over in S.F. they diecided to change the location. With Frank in the lead, the picture may have been moved to New York!
Click to expand...

It would of had to been changed. I'm from SE Pennsylvania, close to Philly and Jersey. My uncle, who originally is from Boston, lives in California. He busts on my supposed accent all the time when I see him. East coast just has a way of speaking that stands out too much on the left coast. Watch Sparticus sometime. Tony Curtis sounds ridiculous.
 
Dirty Harry Model 29 barrel length(s) used?

I watched a television special on the making of the Dirty Harry movies and it was disclosed that they used both a 6 1/2-inch and a 8 3/8-inch length barrels of the Model 29. The 6 1/2-inch barrel was used most of the time, but the 8 3/8-inch was only used in a few scenes to achieve a larger than life shot of the Model 29. I never get tired of watching these movies with Clint Eastwood who personified a no nonsense detective who got the job done in spite of the bureaucratic superiors he reported to.
 
a no nonsense detective who got the job done in spite of the bureaucratic superiors he reported to.
Click to expand...


I love my Dirty Harry movies but torturing a suspect is a little more than "no nonsense". :D
 
Well I got my promotion today.
Had to turn in my Blue-Ray 5-DVD Movie Dirty Harry badge.
Finally got a correct one ---------------- :cool:
Genuine leather case, Authentic emblem recessed into case cover, gold Dirty Harry Badge, prop ID card, recessed removable Badge with Pin and Safety Catch.
DirtyHarrybadge-1_zps4a3ee53d.jpg

DirtyHarrybadge-4_zps59e3b490.jpg

DirtyHarrybadge-6_zps32b19a48.jpg

Now my 29-2 6 1/2" feels a lot better !
Now to find my 3rd speed loader somewhere in the vault, and still waiting for my Dirty Harry shoulder holster.
Here's the link if you also want to get the Badge:
Dirty Harry Collectible Badge Set


Ernie
 
Last edited:
stevehenry1 said:
I have also read that, at least the first movie, a model 25 was used in the shooting scenes with the 5n1 blanks.
Click to expand...

One would think that official word from the movies director , John Milius , that it was indeed a .44 magnum that by the way he owns , would put these rumors to rest once and for all.
 
Oh goodie! Another Dirty Harry 44 magnum thread! Please...did anybody read post # 12? Been a member of this forum 4 years and this has come up at least every two months.

Doesn't anybody know that they used a model 19 because Clint Eastwood is only 5' 6" and the 19 was more proportional to his size?

Hold on, that last sentence was only to see if you were paying attention! It was a model 29 everybody. Not a 19/25/57. There are pictures in this thread of real people holding the real gun. They have them in museums. That's good enough for me.

DSC02927.jpg
 
Last edited:
rdcl said:
Interesting that they created a poster showing Sinatra before the movie was made. I wonder if at this point the Callahan characters gun would have been a .44 magnum or something different.

Does anyone even know if the S&W model 29 was written into the script only after Eastwood was selected?


......casting Eastwood, BTW.....was a stroke of genius.


Russ
Click to expand...

Supposedly Frank Sinatra had hurt his hand filming his last picture-don't know what it was- and could not hold onto the 44.
 
I Asked S&W Historian Roy Jenks ...

A few years ago I e-mailed Roy Jenks - the longtime S&W historian - about the first Dirty Harry movie, since I'd read so much about it being a .41 mag, the barrel length, and so on.

He replied that Clint did sometimes hold a .44 mag with the 8 3/8" barrel in the movie for the look of it, but I've watched Dirty Harry several times and I can never spot it!

Regarding John Milius, in his autobiography with Richard Schickel, Eastwood says he doesn't remember Milius being involved with the movie at all and that he certainly doesn't remember being a part of giving him a Model 29, although Warner Bros certainly could have.

And it was a Model 29-2 with a 6 1/2" barrel, although a buddy of mine swore when the movie came out that it was a 4", but that had to be due to the camera angle in the bank robbery scene when Harry first utters his, "I know what you're thinkin' ..." The barrel does look short from that upward angle!

But Roy Jenks said it was always a .44 mag; never the .41.
 
Sorry - wrongo!

mkk41 said:
One would think that official word from the movies director , John Milius , that it was indeed a .44 magnum that by the way he owns , would put these rumors to rest once and for all.
Click to expand...

The director of Dirty Harry was Don Siegel; not John Milius. Milius was a screenwriter who supposedly did a lot of work on the script but got no screen credit. According to the story, this was why he later was given the .44 by Warner Bros - in appreciation. I say "supposedly" because, as I said in a different post, Eastwood said in his autobiography with Richard Schickel that he did not remember Milius having anything to do with the first Dirty Harry movie ...

And a little-know tibdbit is that Clint actually directed the sequence where Harry goes up on the fire ladder to talk down the suicide jumper. I've also read where Siegel was always urging Clint to try directing and that it was because of this urging that Clint directed Play Misty - in which Siegel played the part of the bartender. Story goes that Clint wanted Siegel around for emotional support on Clint's first project (and maybe to get some pointers, too?).
 
JP@AK said:
In the scene at the cross in the first movie, Eastwood tosses "a gun" away when the perp is holding a hostage. It seems very likely they used a stand-in gun for that part of the scene. What it actually was is unknown. He is holding the 29 a few seconds earlier, but then holds it down by his side, out of sight, just before he tosses it away. It's doubtful that they let him throw down that very nice Model 29 onto the gravel. Maybe it was a Model 57, maybe it was a beat up old Heavy Duty. Who knows?
Jack
Click to expand...

There was a rubber model made, this is also in the NRA museum.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

S
Double score day!! 27-2 & 29-2
Replies
9
Views
1K
RKmesa
RKmesa
C
  • Locked
WTB: Dirty Harry Holster
Replies
0
Views
326
Cryhavoc
C
M
29-2 8”
Replies
12
Views
1K
Model29-26.5
M
Jeep 1
WTB Model 29-4
Replies
0
Views
58
Jeep 1
Jeep 1
francoisallais
Dirty Harry Holster Home Made
Replies
21
Views
809
francoisallais
francoisallais

Latest posts

Back
Top