"The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" guns

[Mitch]

Caught this wonderful spaghetti western on AMC over the weekend. HAS to be my 50th viewing. Always wondered; Anyone know for sure what guns they were using? Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef positively look like they're using Colt Navy's with obviously modified cylinders (to accept cartridges), but the barrel is round, not octagon. It's also a bigger caliber than the Navy's .36. Yet they look too small to be Dragoons. I'd always heard that Eastwood was a stickler for authenticity when it came to his guns. Anybody know?

[Tom_M]

I don't know what models were used, but all the guns in the Eastwood flicks were made by Uberti, in Italy. I saw a program on TV that was almost entirely about the Italian gun makers, and their use in western movies.

[Doug.38PR]

Blonde and Tuco's guns to me always looked like .36 Colt Navy's modified to accept cartridges, period. (But then you have seen the movie about 40 more times than I have).

I did notice during the long drawn out three way face off in the cemetary at the end that Lee Van Cleef's (Angel Eyes) gun was a Remington .44. What was strange about it was he had cartridges in his belt...but he had percussion caps on nipples on the back end of his cylinder (IOW, his gun wasn't converted but he had cartridges in his belt)

[Gunsmoke]

Sergio Leone was a big fan of Aldo Uberti's work. He even made a documentary about the men.

No wonder that he also used Uberti firearms in his movies.