Dirty Harry Movies and the Model 29...

Before Dirty Harry the 29 was hard to find because nobody wanted one. After it was hard to find because everybody wanted one.
 
I'm paraphrasing here...

The Mayor
"We don't want anymore of those shooting incidents like we had in the Fillmore Inspector Callahan."

Dirty Harry
"Well, when a naked man with a hard-on and a butcher knife is chasing a woman, I shoot the son of a bitch."

Another one:

"or maybe he was just collecting for the Red Cross."

SO many one liners.

I bought my S series 29-2 in the wood box @ 1983. It's a helluva gun.
 
S&W got my money in '78 for a Model 29 directly due to the Dirty Harry franchise, (still have it). I know the choice of an N frame has been well documented, but think about it. Eastwood's a big guy. Could he have pulled off the "Do you feel lucky?" speech with a J frame?
 
For a long time, the pattern seemed to be that somebody would:
  1. see Dirty Harry and want a 29-2.
  2. not be able to find a 6" gun.
  3. buy a 4" and a box of the hottest magnums they could find.
  4. return the gun and a partial box of ammunition in a few weeks.
I SPECIFICALLY wanted a 4" 29-2 because "48 Hours" came out when I was stationed at "gunstore heaven", Ft. Knox, in the '80s. I liked Nick Nolte's gun and wanted one like it. I got a good deal on the gun in the box. Turns out it had an issue that's been discussed here previously, but I eventually got that fixed (as well as S&W's "fix"), and with a period of about five years of it in somebody else's hands, got it back and am quite happy with it.

I never shot many magnums in it. In fact, I shot more magnums in it trying to diagnose a problem than I have otherwise in the whole time I've owned it. With 200gr. Speer Gold Dot Specials, it's as pleasant to shoot as my Model 6" 25-2.
 
I agree, probably one of the creepiest most twisted and pathetic bad guys in movie history.
...at least until Heath Ledger's "Joker".

I used to know an anti-gunner in usenet (he's on the Huffington Post now where nobody can contradict him) who was, personality wise, identical to Ledger in the Batman movie. UTTERLY consumed by malice and the desire to do harm to others, usually by getting them to do it to themselves. I don't think he's murdered anybody... yet.
 
Does anyone know what he used in "The Gauntlet" and, my favorite cop movie by "the Duke" was Brannigan I think that's correct anyway it's the one where he goes to London.
 
I the late 1970s I rode to Los Angles with my friend Aaron Norris (Chuck Norris' brother).
We stayed at Chuck's house overnight and after dinner we started talking about guns. I showed him my 6-1/2" nickel 29 which of course led to Dirty Harry. He said he wanted to show me something and took me into his gun room. He told me that Ted Post, who was directing his new movie Good Guys Wear Black (1978), had also directed Clint Eastwood in Magnum Force (1973). He picked up an Italian switchblade and handed it to me saying this was given to him by Post who liberated it from the prop room. This was the exact switchblade that Callahan taped to his leg and left in Scorpio's leg...... I FREAKED (on the inside but tried to appear cool outside, after all this is Chuck Norris!) He must have noticed the drool running down my chin and the death grip I had on the knife because he said "keep it"! For a moment I considered doing the right thing and refusing such a gift but only for a moment! I thanked him profusely as he gave me a publicity photo to go with the knife.

Back home that knife went with me everywhere. I may have slept with it along side my model 29. My wife didn't understand. I carried the knife in a ski jacket with a zipper pocket in the sleeve. One afternoon I went to a video arcade to play "Missile Command". I took off my jacket and set it beside the game. You guessed it, I left my jacket at the arcade. I called but of course no one knew anything about it. I was left with only the photo and a good story.

DirtyHarry_zps28bbe833.jpg
 
I had a 6.5-inch M-29 with smooth rosewood target grips. I loved it. It was made around 1960 and was beautifully crafted. VERY accurate, too. My GI Education Bill check was late and I had to sell it. This was shortly before the Dirty Harry film opened. Had I kept the gun longer, I could have gotten far more for it after the movie opened.

But if I hadn't needed the money really badly, I'd never have sold that gun!

I had a companion piece in a four-inch Combat Magnum, same type stocks and also very accurate and a very smooth action. It, too, was eventually sold. I've owned later M-19's and a Model 66, but never one that I liked quite as well as that older M-19 with smooth stocks. But I am exceeingly fond of my M-66-3.

I liked the Dirty Harry movies. I'm glad that Eastwood got the role and that the setting was moved outside of NYC. I hate New York!
 
I've heard of sad ending..

I the late 1970s I rode to Los Angles with my friend Aaron Norris (Chuck Norris' brother).
We stayed at Chuck's house overnight and after dinner we started talking about guns. I showed him my 6-1/2" nickel 29 which of course led to Dirty Harry. He said he wanted to show me something and took me into his gun room. He told me that Ted Post, who was directing his new movie Good Guys Wear Black (1978), had also directed Clint Eastwood in Magnum Force (1973). He picked up an Italian switchblade and handed it to me saying this was given to him by Post who liberated it from the prop room. This was the exact switchblade that Callahan taped to his leg and left in Scorpio's leg...... I FREAKED (on the inside but tried to appear cool outside, after all this is Chuck Norris!) He must have noticed the drool running down my chin and the death grip I had on the knife because he said "keep it"! For a moment I considered doing the right thing and refusing such a gift but only for a moment! I thanked him profusely as he gave me a publicity photo to go with the knife.

Back home that knife went with me everywhere. I may have slept with it along side my model 29. My wife didn't understand. I carried the knife in a ski jacket with a zipper pocket in the sleeve. One afternoon I went to a video arcade to play "Missile Command". I took off my jacket and set it beside the game. You guessed it, I left my jacket at the arcade. I called but of course no one knew anything about it. I was left with only the photo and a good story.

DirtyHarry_zps28bbe833.jpg

Happy Stories can have sad endings and that's one of the worst I ever heard. BTW I wish I had everything I left in bars.
 
Before Dirty Harry the 29 was hard to find because nobody wanted one. After it was hard to find because everybody wanted one.

100% correct. Ordered mine right after the movie came out and got it 11 months later.
 
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