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Watching Gunsmoke - Don't Ask Why
cbxjeff
Member Posts: 17,599 ✭✭✭✭
Sitting here visiting a pal in Ft Lauderdale drinking beer and we got to talking about the weight of the old Colt 45 revolvers. Any thoughts guys to settle this?
It's too late for me, save yourself.
Comments
I've been watching Gunsmoke almost daily lately, mostly due to the dearth of anything else I can stomach. I have also noted how light the guns seem to be - or how strong the actors must be. I know that my Rugers don't handle that lightly.
I sadly confess that I have never held a genuine Colt from that era, and can only surmise that guns designed for smokeless pressures must be heftier. But if there's anywhere and anybody who can set me straight, this is the place.
Ok.
Why not?
Having held a few and one in the Custer era they to me handle very well. About 2.4 lbs but such a piece Blackhawks don’t handle as well TO ME .
I know every episode and still watch it. I watched one a week ago I must have forgot some of it but MATT DREW first against a faster gunslinger and DRT 🤭
like the ones early that he is on boot hill and talking. Never be another western like it —:
Thanks guys. I just watched the one where Matt drew first.
Did Kitty’s mole fall off ‘again’ ,,,,,,,,,, 😉
as a young fellow maybe about 7 or so I remember standing in front of the TV and doing my fast draw as the show come on the music counted down the shot
many years ago I seen a promo from John Wayne endorsing the show and James A. as a great up coming actor and good show to watch. I am sure it still floating around the internet.
I have some what looked for a dvd set series of the show but not got to serious about finding it yet
amazing how long it was on TV and I know there is web sites about how many people he shot and how many times he was shot
still a classic from my child hood
For whatever reason, I can shoot a SAA better than any other handgun. Pointability? Ergonomics for my hand? I don't know. I should probably get a sheriff's model for carry. I sure wouldn't feel under gunned with five rounds of 44 Special or 45 Colt.
I've been told that the gent at the other end of the street during the opening sequence is Arvo Ojala. If that's true, it had to be a choreographed fight. There's no way James Arness could outdraw Arvo Ojala.
I started watching Gunsmoke about 6 months ago.. I have been stuck in the house more than usual and it comes on about the time I stop whatever I am doing, make some lunch and watch it before getting back to whatever I needed to be doing....
We never watched it when I was growing up so it is like a new show to me. AND it is certainly better that most of the other garbage on the tube these days !
As for old SA Colt .45's, I have to agree, they have a natural point of aim for me also...
Every week night 21:00. So sad Kitty passed at 59. Of Aids.
Arvo coached many a celluloid gun slinger!
Big Gunsmoke fan here! OK, who do you like better; Chester or Festus?
I also seem to like the earlier B&W half hour episodes better. More Matt in them. Some of the newer shows, Matt might show up for the last few moments. Pretty sure he was living the good life of semi-retirement.
Nowadays I watch more western reruns than anything else. One show that I can't seem to get into (yet) is The Virginian. Started a few episodes but switch to Tombstone Territory and Bat Masterson instead. I remember liking The Virginian back in the day but?????
Talking about heavy early revolvers, I've had a couple repro Colt 1847 Walker's that weighed nearly 5 pounds! The Cavalry holstered them on their horses back then!
L:istening to the sound of the gunshots Matt maybe fired 2nd??????????(the other fellow missed)
The other fellow almost always misses - but nothing in the background ever gets hit.
If a "good guy" ever gets shot in Dodge, it's a flesh wound to the left shoulder. Always. Matt's left arm has been hit so many times it would have looked like a potholed road.
My favorite was the scene where a guy tries to shoot Matt in the back as Matt is leaving the bar. Matt spins around and drills the guy - and nobody in the packed crowd even flinches or spills a drink.
Least used object in the universe? Matt's front sight.
Depends on the show. Sometimes two and sometimes just one. Matt was shot between 56-60 times depends on what you read. Stabbed twice and poisoned once or twice.
I have been watching Combat and Tour of Duty. Brigs back memories of when tv was good. Not a big fan of TV at all, So I record these shows and watch when I have down time.
When I was in the hospital recovering from back surgery a few years ago. I was put in a room with an elderly man. All he watched was gunsmoke. He asked if I minded. Not at all. I really got into it. We would watch Gunsmoke and then Davey Crockett, along with a few other westerns .
I always liked Chester better
Dennis Weaver (Chester) left the series because he felt that the character had hit a dead end and could not be developed any further. He was probably right; Chester was a pretty shallow part.
Ken Burns (Festus) appeared in an early episode as a dandy, completely opposite of Festus. I always thought that Burns played the part to perfection, to the extent of using a voice other than his real one.
I think it's Ken Curtis.
We started recording it a couple of months ago.
Matt Dillion shoots a lot of people.
Brad Steele
Wikipedia says SAA with 7.5" barrel weighs 2.31 pounds. I am guessing there is some variation in caliber.
Yes, Ken Curtis. Thanks.
There is some doubt about Kitty's cause of death being Aids, according to Wiki. Quote from Wiki...
Blake was a heavy cigarette smoker and had surgery for oral cancer in 1977. She became a supporter of the American Cancer Society and made fundraising appearances throughout the country. In 1984, she was the recipient of the society's annual Courage Award, which was presented to her by then U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
On August 16, 1989, Blake died of liver failure brought on by viral hepatitis at Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento, California.[13] The popular media later widely reported that Blake's doctor claimed that she had actually died of AIDS. Her close friends have insisted that she was not a drug user or sexually promiscuous, and that she may have acquired the disease from a former husband.[14]
Other tidbits...
I briefly saw Chester limping on the wrong leg, and also once saw it bend as he was being carried (it is said he never wore a brace to fake the locked knee).
In one brief "B roll" scene of the Dodge street, there's an airplane cruising past in the sky. In another, there's a TV or microwave tower on a far hilltop.
My dad's older brother moved to Colorado when he was young. He told my dad that Ken Curtis was once his neighbor.
Do not believe everthing you read on Wikipedia. It can be edited by most anyone, I think.
Liked Festus the best. Got a good friend that is a perfect match for Doc.
Good clean western from back in the day, no cussing and never any blood.
Yep. Just good story and acting. One of the best shows of all time.
🇺🇲 "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." - Thomas Jefferson 🇺🇲
Think I've mentioned this before.......
Dennis Weaver put on a good act on Gunsmoke.........since he previously, in real life, almost made the U.S. Olympic Team.........as a decathlete.
As far as Hollywood fast draws are concerned........
Glenn Ford was known to be fast........but.......John Doucette(The Sons of Katie Elder.......the axe handle scene) was thought to be the fastest.
Love the old westerns......have the entire The Virginian dvd set.
Another fast draw actor was Sammy Davis Jr. I think some of his guns were on GB.
Wikipedia: Davis was an enthusiastic shooter and gun owner. He participated in fast-draw competitions. Johnny Cash recalled that Davis was said to be capable of drawing and firing a Colt Single Action Army revolver in less than a quarter of a second.[69] Davis was skilled at fast and fancy gunspinning and appeared on television variety shows showing off this skill. He also demonstrated gunspinning to Mark on The Rifleman in "Two Ounces of Tin". He appeared in western films and as a guest star on several television westerns.
Yep.......as a 12 year old kid I would always recall this episode where Sammy would throw a knife into a bullet hole.......only drawing AFTER throwing the knife.
It took over 50 years........for me to watch the same episode for a second time.
Seems like it first happened yesterday.
Sammy was in a second episode later that year.
The METV channel now shows all The Rifleman episodes. Heck.....I think I've watched the entire series 6 or 8 times now.
Sadly......Johnny Crawford passed a few years ago. Alzheimers.....with pneumonia and china virus piling on.
Johnny Crawford was also in at least one Gunsmoke episode. So was a very young Barbara Eden. No mistaking either face.
Pluto channel 263 is running "The Rifleman" 24/7 right now.