Where are all the pistols and rifles

[Tennessee Trapper Tom]

After watching movies and westerns shows my whole life, they make me want to go find the guns. Shoot out after shoot out and they leave the weapons. Bodies get left. Is there an undertaker that comes and gets the bodies then collects the ammo and guns to sell later. Watching Hollywood you would think that the land is riddled with old guns to find. 

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

I don't think that in any movies they show aftermaths such as picking up guns, furniture, fixing broken windows, etc. Wouldn't be part of the story, after all.

[Subdeacon Joe]

Also don't see people using the privy, buying boots, or hauling buckets of water from the town pump very often.

[Cypress Sun]

23 minutes ago, Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619 said:

I don't think that in any movies they show aftermaths such as picking up guns, furniture, fixing broken windows, etc. Wouldn't be part of the story, after all.

 

1 minute ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

Also don't see people using the privy, buying boots, or hauling buckets of water from the town pump very often.

 

But let one drunk fart in the saloon and the brawl is ON....

[Alpo]

38 minutes ago, Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619 said:

I don't think that in any movies they show aftermaths such as picking up guns, furniture, fixing broken windows, etc. Wouldn't be part of the story, after all.

Winchester '73

 

I couldn't find a clip, but here's the entire movie, and that scene is at 56:49.

 

 

[Blackwater 53393]

Like in the heat of a big gunfight, the characters will take an opponent out of the fight, find themselves outgunned and low on ammo, and walk right by the downed combatant without ever pausing to grab their weapon!!

[Subdeacon Joe]

In Zulu there is a scene of the Brits gathering weapons after the battle. In Gettysburg at the end there is a short scene showing piles of swords and flags.

 

But, yes, IN GENERAL it isn't shown because it usually does nothing to advance the story.  In 

17 minutes ago, Alpo said:

Winchester '73

 

I couldn't find a clip, but here's the entire movie, and that scene is at

 

it's shown because it is important to the story.  

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

As for Winchester 73, the movie was named after the very gun, and it was among those that were laying out there after the battle. It had to be picked up or the story was over.....

[Rip Snorter]

Can't recall the source, and real, not a movie.  An old timer told a story of being almost ambushed during the Indian wars, but having managed to shoot and kill his assailant and continue about his business, involving cattle or horses I think'   The gun pundit he was talking to was familiar with the area and apparently the terrain was unusual enough to pinpoint the scene of the event.  Scattered bones and a rusty rifle there decades later. Wide open spaces!  Weapons from European wars are still uncovered in much more heavily populated countries.  There are also accounts of undertakers selling possessions of the deceased to fund their burial.

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

I understand where the O.P. is coming from. Even though it's not pertinent to the plot, I could never understand why the survivors would always just mount up and ride away, even though they might be broke. It wouldn't take but a few seconds to show one of the characters picking up a dead enemy's weapons. 

Even though they didn't show it, they obviously did it in "Outlaw Josey Wales". Otherwise they wouldn't have had whet they did at the ranch for the final battle with Terrell and his men. 

[Alpo]

In Silverado, at the beginning of the movie these three or four people try to kill the hero and he kills at least one of them and the others escape.

 

So when he rides off he's leading the dead guy's horse, and the dead guy's saddle is on it. Then he finds the guy in the desert, and let him ride the dead guy's horse into town.

 

If I had been in that scenario, I not only would have left with the dead guy's horse, but with his rifle and his pistol and any food he had and absolutely any money he had. But apparently all the hero took was the horse.

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

2 hours ago, Alpo said:

 

If I had been in that scenario, I not only would have left with the dead guy's horse, but with his rifle and his pistol and any food he had and absolutely any money he had. But apparently all the hero took was the horse.

 Just wait, Alpo. I predict the film opportunities will be pouring in.....

[Utah Bob #35998]

4 hours ago, Alpo said:

In Silverado, at the beginning of the movie these three or four people try to kill the hero and he kills at least one of them and the others escape.

 

So when he rides off he's leading the dead guy's horse, and the dead guy's saddle is on it. Then he finds the guy in the desert, and let him ride the dead guy's horse into town.

 

If I had been in that scenario, I not only would have left with the dead guy's horse, but with his rifle and his pistol and any food he had and absolutely any money he had. But apparently all the hero took was the horse.

Scott Glenn was the guy in the cabin. He found Kevin Kline in the desert who was also a victim of the bad guys who had stolen his horse and possessions.  If Scott had taken the dead guy’s guns, Cline wouldn’t have had to buy that pos pistol in town to dispatch the horse thief.

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

Or any movie where, after downing a villain, walks past them, without checking their condition, leaving them behind them with weapons.

 

[Three Foot Johnson]

I found an octagon rifle barrel up in these foothills several years ago whilst out spraying weeds in one of the gulches. My grandad plowed up this 1849 Colt back around 1940 or so on his old homestead about three miles from here, breaking and bending the grip frame in the process. Under magnification, the butt says, "C Smith April 29 1861". With the advent of computer databases, I was able to locate three pieces of correspondence in the University of Utah's manuscript library from a C Smith to his boss, Nat Stein, from three places in present day southwest Montana and dated 1865, all three of which I've been able to locate. Nat Stein was an agent for Ben Holladay's Overland Stage Line. The scratched signature on the butt is a spot-on match for the signature on letters, and there's zero doubt it's the same man.

The hammer is still free, the trigger is still free, the loading lever still works and its latching spring is still intact and latches. It's still loaded, and has a completely intact cap on one nipple with the remains of caps on two others. The wedge comes out and the barrel assembly comes off, but the cylinder is frozen on the base pin.

 

Sometime back in the 1800's, an older friend of Elmer Keith was involved in a gunfight with a band of Indians along the Missouri River just a few miles from here. Years later, the old fellow was talking to Elmer and said he thought he'd ride over that way and see if he could find the site of the gunfight. He came back with an Indian skull with a bullet hole in it and the rusted relic of a Colt revolving rifle the Indian had and gave them to him. The account is in Keith's book, "Hell, I Was There", and may be the incident Rip Snorter refers to above.

 

 

[Chickasaw Bill SASS #70001]

when ya die , we is gonna split up your gear 

 

  Chickasaw 

[Alpo]

Two Mules for Sister Sara.

 

Hogan comes upon three guys and a naked woman. She is scared and screaming. He kills the three guys, and tells her to go ahead and get dressed. Then he starts going through the pockets of the three dead guys. Money. Oh, a watch. Cigar. That he packs the three dead guys' rifles and pistols on his pack mule, and calmly sits down and starts eating their food. "One of these guys was a pretty good cook. You sure you don't want some of these beans?"

 

He wasn't leaving nothing in the desert.

[Blackwater 53393]

It doesn’t seem to happen in the movies, but I’ve read many books, both true stories and fictional, where after the fight is concluded, the belongings of the deceased are gathered. Sometimes it’s to identify the dead and sometimes by the marshal/sheriff to pay for burial or compensate a victim. I’ve read where the belongings are forwarded to a relative of the decedent.

 

Seems to me that it’s only in video production that the guns and goods are generally ignored! 

[Three Foot Johnson]

17 hours ago, Rip Snorter said:

Can't recall the source, and real, not a movie.  An old timer told a story of being almost ambushed during the Indian wars, but having managed to shoot and kill his assailant and continue about his business, involving cattle or horses I think'   The gun pundit he was talking to was familiar with the area and apparently the terrain was unusual enough to pinpoint the scene of the event.  Scattered bones and a rusty rifle there decades later. Wide open spaces!  Weapons from European wars are still uncovered in much more heavily populated countries.  There are also accounts of undertakers selling possessions of the deceased to fund their burial.

Found it - this may be the incident you're referring to.

----------------------------------------------------

Sut Ellis of Winston, Montana, an old buffalo hunter, once told me of having a running fight with a band of horse stealing Indians on the north side of the Missouri below Winston. He and a band of hunters lost some horses to the Indians during the night and took up their trail at daylight. During the day they caught up with the band and engaged in a running fight. They shot a horse from under one Indian and he took to the rocks. He killed one of the whites before they got him through the head with a sixgun slug. Sut said they picked up their fallen buddy and buried him but never did bother to bury the Indian or even look him over as they again hurriedly took up the trail. He said he thought he could still find the place even though many years had elapsed and that he was going back over the scene of the fight that summer. I told him to get the Indian's gun if he could find it. A month later when I went to town for my mail, Sut gave me an Indian's skull with a .45 slug hole through it and an old Colt .36 caliber revolving rifle, with the stock in two pieces at the grip from weathering and a possible fracture when he dropped it. Three of the chambers were still fully loaded. He said the gun, the skull and most of the bones were still there wedged between some big rocks. Mother did not like that gruesome memento of the fight laying around the house so I gave both the gun and the skull to Will H. Everson of Bozeman, Montana. The old Colt revolving rifle was, as one would expect, a hopelessly rusted wreck.

----------------------------------------------------

The description of being "on the north side of the Missouri below Winston" doesn't make sense, as the river runs north/south from Winston some fifty miles to the north before it turns northeast for another hundred and ten miles, so within quite some distance of the town, it would be on the east or west side of the river, not north or south. If the fight took place as far below Winston as the next town on the river, Canton, he would have described it as being directional from Canton, I would think. Winston is about nine miles from me, and Canton about four. The old Canton townsite has been submerged under Canyon Ferry lake since the mid-1950's. The battle site could be underwater today too, depending on just where it took place.

[Rip Snorter]

That's the one!  Should have remembered it was Keith.  One of my best Montana rancher friends has spoken generally about his Grandfather's Indian encounters, but not in detail.  Not all that long ago, in the flow of history!

[Sixgun Sheridan]

What I don't get is how every time a cowboy gets the drop on his opponent it's always right next to a creek, and the opponent is told to throw his gun in it. What does he do when there's no creek available?

 

Kinda like when the guy up on the roof gets shot. He can't ever simply slump over and die. He has to leap over the edge screaming and crash through several overhangs.

[Father Kit Cool Gun Garth]

23 hours ago, Alpo said:

Winchester '73

 

I couldn't find a clip, but here's the entire movie, and that scene is at 56:49.

Make it easy on those who find it hard to get to a specific spot in a video. 

[Alpo]

 

 

You mean like here, starting before Lynn tells him to pick up the repeaters?

[Rye Miles #13621]

In the movie The Quick and the Dead with Sharon Stone they pretty much strip the losers of the gunfights  boots and all! 

[Alpo]

In the movie Bandolero! when the Mexican bandits chop the Americans up with their machetes they take everything - gun clothes boots.

 

In The Professionals, when Burt Lancaster gets caught by the Mexican bandits, they strip him down to his drawers before they kill him. The head bandit is wearing his coat and wearing his gun and smoking his cigar.

[Blackwater 53393]

33 minutes ago, Alpo said:

In the movie Bandolero! when the Mexican bandits chop the Americans up with their machetes they take everything - gun clothes boots.

 

In The Professionals, when Burt Lancaster gets caught by the Mexican bandits, they strip him down to his drawers before they kill him. The head bandit is wearing his coat and wearing his gun and smoking his cigar.

They didn’t kill Lancaster’s character…

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

I think that in most movies the prop people in fact did pick up the guns after the scenes were shot.

[bgavin]

On 5/1/2022 at 5:08 PM, Alpo said:

If I had been in that scenario, I not only would have left with the dead guy's horse, but with his rifle and his pistol and any food he had and absolutely any money he had. But apparently all the hero took was the horse.

That is because they had a caterer on the set... 

[Sixgun Sheridan]

19 hours ago, Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619 said:

I think that in most movies the prop people in fact did pick up the guns after the scenes were shot.

 

I've watched movies where the characters were out on a lake or in the middle of the ocean, and at some point a gun is dropped or thrown into the water. Makes me wonder if anyone retrieves it or if the set armorer has to write it off. Hopefully it was just a rubber gun or something.

[LawMan Mark, SASS #57095L]

Conagher brings in some guns from a couple of Apaches he killed.

[Alpo]

29 minutes ago, Sixgun Sheridan said:

 

I've watched movies where the characters were out on a lake or in the middle of the ocean, and at some point a gun is dropped or thrown into the water. Makes me wonder if anyone retrieves it or if the set armorer has to write it off. Hopefully it was just a rubber gun or something.

In El Dorado, Joey shoots Cole. Then she comes down to see if he's dead. He ain't, and he knocks her down, any picks up her rifle and throws it out in the creek. After they jaw a little bit she gets on her horse and rides out in the creek and leans way over and picks up the rifle out of the water.

 

In all the rest of the movie, when she's got a rifle it's a Winchester 92. In this scene however, it is a Daisy Spittin' Image 94. A BB gun. Because they were going to throw it in the water. If you pay attention at the scene, you can spot that "wood grained plastic stock".

 

 

[sassnetguy50]

The Forgotten Winchester, found 8 years ago, indicates there are still guns to be had.

[bgavin]

2 hours ago, Sixgun Sheridan said:

Hopefully it was just a rubber gun or something.

Back in the good ol' days when I used to work and explore in San Francisco... I had an idea about photographing an expensive Hasselblad camera from all sides, then gluing those images to a wooden block.  Then making a big deal out of throwing them off the Golden Gate Bridge in full view of all the tourists...

[WOLFY]

On 5/3/2022 at 2:31 PM, Sixgun Sheridan said:

 

I've watched movies where the characters were out on a lake or in the middle of the ocean, and at some point a gun is dropped or thrown into the water. Makes me wonder if anyone retrieves it or if the set armorer has to write it off. Hopefully it was just a rubber gun or something.

 

duriing production of Zissou (life aquatic), they had to get divers to retrieve a Beretta that inadvertently fell overboard