TINCANBANDIT's Gunsmithing : Hollywood's Influence on Firearms

Given the recent political developments, I should not even be mentioning the name of the town in which the retarded slave enthusiasts live (my new term for socialists) and construct their propaganda, however, there was a time in America when people in the entertainment business actually endeavored to entertained us.

For a moment let us reminisce about the good times...

Everything from clothing fashions to smoking...we have a long tradition of emulating our heroes or heroines on the screen.

How many of us as kids (or even as adults) wanted a black 1977 T-top Trans Am? or a '69 orange Dodge Charger with 01 painted on the door?

Guns are no different, while we chose our defensive weapons carefully, we often chose our "other" guns based on their history or use in TV shows and movies.

I covered this topic briefly when I wrote a generic post on movie guns, but I thought the influence Hollywood has had on us necessitated another look with more detail.

The Colt Single Action Army

We'll start with the oldest one. I would never suggest that Hollywood had any impact on the popularity of the original Colt Single Action Army.

Hollywood didn't even exist in 1873. Hollywood was incorporated in 1877 and the first motion picture, which put Hollywood on the map, didn't appear for another 11 years. It could be argued, however, that the Single Action Army did help to MAKE Hollywood what it is today.

While Hollywood had no effect on the popularity of the Single Action Army in the 19th century...it did, however, help bring it back in the mid 20th century......stick with me

The Colt Single Action Army was originally called the model of 1873 or Model P, but it has many nick names including: the "strap" pistol (it was the first Colt with a top strap), "the Peacemaker", "the Equalizer", "Big Iron" and "the gun that won the west".

Introduced in 1873 it was adopted by the U.S. Army that year and soon became the most popular side arm of lawmen and criminal alike. Carried by the likes of the Earp brothers, Bass Reeves, Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett & Bat Masterson.

Several things happened around the turn of the century that negatively affected the popularity of the Colt SAA. These included the introduction of smokeless powder, the introduction of double action revolvers, the "taming" of the West and the U.S. Army switching to a different sidearm. All of these led to a slow down in sales of the iconic revolver. Then WWII hit and the need to make room for war production made it easy for Colt to simply discontinue the Single Action Army in 1941. It was not the end of the road for the SAA....not by a long shot.

During the 1940s and into the 50's the genre of Western films became immensely popular, starting with movies like Blazing Six Shooters and The Gunman from Bodie the genre began to take over the big and little screens ending its run more than 30 years later with the cancellation of Bonanza in 1973. Then beginning again in the 90's with movies like Silverado, Pale Rider and Young Guns, continuing into the 21st century with Tombstone, Unforgiven, Appaloosa, Wyatt Earp and Open Range.

The main star in many of these films was the Colt Single Action Army.

There was even a movie called Colt 45, released in 1950 starring Randolph Scott. Keep in mind, when this movie was released the Colt 45 was no longer being produced.

This led the fans to want to own the sidearm of their favorite heroes or villain's.

By the mid 1950s there were several companies filling the needs of single action fans, producing copies of the Colt in the U.S., West Germany and Italy.

Soon the boys in Hartford decided they needed to re-introduce the Single Action Army (with some updates), known today as the "Second Generation". They went on to introduce a 3rd generation in 1976.

Colt still produces the Single Action Army, some 148 years after its introduction.

The Buntline Special

This next one, a model variation of the Model of 1873. Known colloquially as the "Buntline Special", it was 100% influenced by Hollywood and Pulp Fiction.

It starts with a book written by Stuart Lake in 1930 entitled: Wyatt Earp Frontier Marshal. In the book Lake asserts that Earp used a Colt model of 1873 with a 12 inch barrel at the gunfight at the OK Corral. He further explained that the gun was a gift from the author Ned Buntline. Keep in mind that both Buntline and Earp were dead when Lake wrote his book.

The story goes on to say that Buntline gave the same revolver to several other frontier law men.

The story was part false part reality, the real gun Earp used at the iconic battle was a gift, but it was not a gift from Buntline and it was a long barreled revolver, but it was not a Colt.

The gun Earp used in the famous gunfight was a S&W model 3 with an 8" barrel, that was given to him by the owner of one Tombstone newspaper (the Tombstone Epitaph) and one time mayor John Clum (who incidentally was also a pallbearer at Earp's funeral in 1929).

Unfortunately Hollywood had already accepted Lake's story as the "gospel" and virtually every depiction of Earp has him carrying a long barreled Colt.

Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp in the movie Tombstone.

Colt did not offer a 12" barreled model during Earp's lifetime, although they probably would have built one upon request. When Colt re-introduced the Single Action Army in 1956, customers immediately began clamoring for a 12" barreled "Buntline Special" and Colt added one to the catalog the following year. Since then numerous gun makers have offered a long barrel option on their revolvers.

See the whole story on the Buntline Special here

The Smith & Wesson model 29

When the creators of the film Dirty Harry were crafting the main character, they decided Harry should be an imposing figure.

Although many people including Frank Sinatra, John Wayne and Steve McQueen were considered for the part, "spaghetti western" star Clint Eastwood was eventually chosen to play the San Francisco Police Inspector with an authority problem.

If you didn't know Mr. Eastwood stands at 6'4" and the writers felt he needed the most bad-ass weapon available. Rather than provide Callahan with the Colt Detective Special as the other inspectors were issued, they chose the biggest, baddest revolver available: The 44 Magnum Smith & Wesson model 29.

Side note...despite the famous line from the movie, the model 29 was not the "most powerful handgun in the world", it was, however, the most powerful production handgun in the world......at that time.

Another side note, early in the film Dirty Harry brings attention to the number of shots fired from his revolver....."I know what you are thinking, did he fire six shots or only five"....something that would separate realistic shooting scenes from the unrealistic ones.

The revolver below is one of the actual model 29s used in the filming.

The model 29 was introduced in December of 1955 and initially sales were strong, probably due to the allure of the new cartridge, but that allure fell away once people shot the gun. While I wasn't around in the 50's or 60's I am told that there were many model 29s for sale including a box of ammo with only 6 rounds missing......

After the release of Dirty Harry in 1971, sales went through the roof. The guns began selling for double or triple their previous price. Everyone wanted the gun carried by Dirty Harry Callahan.

People also learned a secret about the 44 Magnum (as explained by Dirty Harry in one of the sequels) that you can shoot 44 Specials in the revolver, making target practice a pleasant experience.

Dirty Harry spawned 4 sequels which helped the gun and the cartridge to remain popular.

A nickel plated model 29 was used by James Bond in the 1973 movie Live and Let Die. The use of the model 29 by Bond was probably a way to please American audiences and may or may not had any effect on the already growing popularity of the gun.

The Walther PPK

Speaking of Agent 007, Bond.....James Bond was created by real life Navy Intelligence Officer turned author Ian Fleming.

Bond was to be the man every woman wanted and the man every man wanted to be.

When Fleming introduced James Bond to the World in the book Casino Royale, Bond was carrying a Beretta 418 in .25 ACP (6.32mm). I have read that Fleming thought a gentleman, like Bond, would only use "enough gun" to get the job done. Bond's gun also needed to be easily concealable while wearing a tuxedo......

Side note...."enough gun" is subjective.....Col Cooper once wrote that you should never own a pistol in .25ACP, because if you do you might be tempted to load it and if you do you might be tempted to carry it and if you carry it you may have to use it and if you shoot someone, and they find out about it....they will be very angry with you......

In 1956, just before the release of the book From Russia with Love, Fleming received a letter from a fan (and firearms expert) by the name of Geoffrey Boothroyd, in the letter Boothroyd called the 418 a "ladies gun" and stated his opinion that a super spy like 007 needed something with more stopping power. Boothroyd suggested a S&W Centennial revolver (38 Special), but Fleming felt Bond should carry an automatic pistol and asked if Boothroyd could suggest one. Boothroyd in turn suggested the Walther PPK in 7.65mm (aka .32 ACP).

In the book Dr. No (the 5th book in the Bond series) 007 is forced to trade his Beretta for the Walther.

When Bond was brought to the silver screen, Dr. No was chosen for the first film and 12 minutes into the movie Bond gets his new sidearm, M refers to 007's original sidearm as "that damned Beretta"....

Side note: Fleming named a character after Boothroyd in the book Dr. No, who also appeared in the film version. Boothroyd went on to provide more assistance to Fleming in later books.

The producers of the animated TV series Archer had to give the American super spy the same pistol.

In later films Bond uses a variety of guns, as mentioned above, a Smith & Wesson model 29 .44 Magnum revolver (Live and Let Die) and a Walter P99 (beginning with Tomorrow Never Dies and ending with Quantum of Solace), but the PPK will always be Bond's gun.

Side Note: The Gun Control Act of 1968 made the importation of the diminutive pistol illegal due to its weight and measurements. The solution was two fold, make the gun domestically (which began in 1983) and make a slightly larger version which they accomplished by merging the grip frame of the Walther PP with the barrel & slide of the PPK. The new gun, known as the PPK/s was legal to be imported, but was also produced domestically.

The PPK/s was issued to 007 (in .380 ACP or "9mm Short") in the 23rd Bond film Skyfall (40 minutes in) by his new Quartermaster.

The 1874 Sharps Rifle

Reproductions of the classic 1874 Sharps falling block rifle existed before the 1990 movie Quigley Down Under was released....hell the rifle Tom Selleck used in the movie was a reproduction.

The movie gun was made by The Shiloh Sharps Rifle Company of Big Timber Montana.

I don't think anyone could argue the guns use in the movie didn't help sales. When I contacted the Shiloh Rifle Company about how the movie affected their sales, their one sentence response was "Quigley was very good for us".

Viewers are introduced to the rifle and Quigley's mastery of it, 18 minutes into the movie.

As stated above the Shiloh Rifle Company provided the rifle used in the movie, they had been making Sharps reproductions since 1976. They currently have three models on their website, the 1863, 1874 and the 1877

The C Sharps Rifle Company also in Big Timber, Montana (just down the street actually) has been in business since 1975 (originally located in Richland, WA). They make many options for connoisseurs of the model of 1874, below is just one of them, called "The Hartford Heavy", an homage to the city in which the originals were built.

The Italians have also been making copies of the Sharps rifle for a while, I don't know if they were being made before the movie was released or if the demand for the rifles "triggered" their production.

This is the Uberti version, it comes chambered in the now popular again 45-70 Government

Pedersoli also makes a reproduction of the model of 1874 Sharps, they named theirs "The Sharps Q Down Under Sporting", obviously avoiding trademark infringements.

A couple of side notes, one of the original guns from the movie along with some other props were sold at auction in 2008, see the auction page here

One last side note, there is a scene in Quigley Down Under in which Matthew Quigley shoots two of Marston's men with one shot.

Ever since the release of the movie the action of a sniper killing two men with one shot has been known as a "Quigley".

The Ruger Mini-14

In the early 1980s NBC's President Brandon Tartikoff had an idea for a show that would be a combination of Hill Street Blues, The Dirty Dozen, Mission Impossible, Mad Max and The Magnificent Seven with (newly famous) Mr. T driving the car.

Stephen J. Cannell and Frank Lupo created the story about former U.S. Army Special Forces team members, convicted of a war crime they didn't commit, they escaped a military stockade and worked as soldiers of fortune in the Los Angeles underground..."if you have a problem if no one else can help and you can find them, maybe you can hire...the A-TEAM"

Starting in the second season, the producers decided to standardize some of the weapons used by the A-Team, mostly due to cost containment. They decided that the stainless Ruger Mini-14 with the factory folding stock would be the A-Team's weapon of choice and why not? It fired a cartridge Vietnam Vets would be familiar with (223 Rem/5.56mm) and was a smaller version of the M14 which many of the many American Soldiers trained with before the adoption of the M16.

One online forum member reminisced about the show recalling how wildly inaccurate the rifles on the show were, unless of course, they were firing at the tires of moving vehicles or conveniently placed fuel barrels, the latter of which always exploded on impact.

In 2010 the series was made into a motion picture and the Mini-14 was along for the ride

The same year the theatrical A-Team was released the Mini-14 played a role in the movie The American starring George Clooney.

Following the TV series and later release of the A Team movie the original folding stocks became very difficult to find and quite expensive when found. Then in 2018 Samson Manufacturing began working with Ruger to bring back the stock using original tooling/molds and walnut wood (rather than the original birch).

You can find them at Shopruger.com and Samson-mfg.com, but you have to time it right as they frequently sell out.

You may notice they called it the "A-TM" stock, again avoiding trademark infringements.

The Beretta 92F

The 80's were a transition time in firearms, many police departments were transitioning from revolvers to automatics. In turn many of the police /detective movies of the day also put this transition into their story lines. While there were numerous "wonder nines" in the 1980s the Beretta seemed to be a standout choice.

The reason for popularity of the Beretta was no doubt buoyed by the U.S. Army's adoption of the gun as the M9 in 1986. Police Departments unceremoniously adopted the M92.....After all why have your own trials when the Army has already done the testing?

Then came the movies, the 1987 movie Lethal Weapon used this transition from old to new as part of the plot....the old cop near retirement, trying to avoid danger carried his trusty Smith & Wesson model 19, while the younger partner, suicidal and reckless carries the Beretta 92F.

Die Hard was another one of those movies....NYPD officer John McClane had his issued sidearm, the Beretta 92F, with him at the Nakatomi Plaza when Hans and his team decided to commit a large robbery and take McClane's wife as a hostage.

Side note, the NYPD never issued the Beretta 92F, in fact at the time of the release of Die Hard the NYPD was still issuing revolvers.

If you are wondering.....in my opinion neither of these are Christmas movies, they are simply set during the Christmas season. Although that could be said of Its a Wonderful Life as well.....

One more Christmas side note, the house used as the Murtaugh residence in all the Lethal Weapon movies, was also used as the home of Todd and Margo, next door neighbors to the Clark W. Griswold family in the movie Christmas Vacation.

The 44 Auto Mag

The 44 Auto Mag is the second gun on our list whose popularity was raised by the Dirty Harry franchise. Designed by Harry Sanford, the owner of a Southern California gun shop, and his gunsmithing team led by Max Gera, the gun was introduced in 1971. Sales were not so great and the company is said to have lost money on every gun...a lot of money. They soon went bankrupt. Several attempts were made to revive the company, the last of which failed in 1982.

The gun used a special cartridge case using either a 30-'06 Springfield or .308 Winchester case, cut down to 33mm tall and opened up to accept the .44 Magnums .429" bullet. The result was a rimless auto cartridge that could match the original 44 Magnums performance.

The 44 AMP on the left, 44 Mag on the right

In 1983 the 4th Dirty Harry movie was released entitled Sudden Impact. Harry Callahan got his hands on a 44 Auto Mag and is seen target practicing with it....Callahan said of its prowess...."if properly used it can remove the fingerprints"

Of course the movie did for the Auto Mag what the original Dirty Harry movie did for the S&W model 29 a decade earlier, but it didn't do the gun maker any good as the last 44 Auto Mag had been produced a year earlier.

In 1987 the gun was again on the silver screen, this time in the movie Beverly Hills Cop II. The custom cartridge case left behind by the "Alphabet Crimes Gang" was a clue that led Axle and his BHPD buddies to the fictional Beverly Hills Gun Club. The cartridge case was a .308 Winchester cut down to a make a 44 AMP, which would have been noticeable to any gun aficionado or savvy cop.

In 2018 it was announced that a new company had been formed and intends to again produce the .44 Auto Mag. The new company is called Auto Mag ltd and is now selling the famous pistol, and I doubt they are losing money on these as the lowest priced model is $3,500. See their website here

below is long time AMT/Auto Mag employee Larry Grossman who assisted with bringing back the Auto Mag. Picture taken at the 2018 SHOT show.

Wildey Pistol

A nearly identical story can be told of the Wildey Pistol. Developed in 1973 by Wildey J. Moore, the guns were made to fire a magnum automatic round. Although they created several proprietary cartridges the most popular chambering was the .45 Winchester Magnum. Interestingly they also made them chambered in .44 AMP

Just like the 44 Automag, the Wildey was made of stainless steel and like the Automag was expensive to produce. The company was near collapse and bankruptcy until the release of the 1985 movie Death Wish III starring Charles Bronson. In the movie Bronson's character chose the .475 Wildey Magnum....and an intentional mention was made in the movie that it was "larger" than the .44 Magnum. An allusion to the competition between the Dirty Harry and Death Wish franchises.

I have read that the gun used in the movie was personally owned by Bronson.

The similarities continue, the .475 Wildey Magnum was also based on a rifle case, the .284 Winchester, which was cut down to just over 30mm and opened up to accept .475" projectile.

Also like the 44 Automag and Dirty Harry, Paul Kersey's (Bronson's character) use of the gun caused a surge in sales. Wildey Moore was quoted as saying that every time Death Wish III would air on cable TV sales of his pistol would spike.

The company was again in trouble in 2011 when production was suspended due to Wildey Moore's health issues. Then in 2015 USA Firearms Corp announced production would resume under their stewardship.

Desert Eagle

While we are on the topic of Magnum pistols we might as well add the Desert Eagle pistol.

The Desert Eagle was designed in the late 70's/early 80's by a Minnesota company called Magnum Research. They had the guns built by Israeli Military Industries in ....Israel.

The idea was to create a pistol that could fire existing magnum cartridges (.357, .41 & .44 Magnum). Production began in 1983 and as you might expect, sales were slow. The gun is far too large to carry and a little too cumbersome for home defense, which relegated it to target shooting. Hollywood, however, took a liking to the behemoth.....

The gun first appeared in film in 1985s Year of the Dragon in which Stanley White (played by Mickey Rourke) wielded it against his enemies.

Two months later Arnold Schwarzenegger used the gun in the movie Commando. In the years that followed the gun was used in more movies and TV shows than one can count.

While I have no empirical evidence that Hollywood has helped with the sales of the Desert Eagle (or Deagle as it is called in some video games, for trademark reasons) there is no doubt that many people who have never handled a gun will recognize the guns distinctive silhouette and that is the work of Hollywood.

Winchester model of 1887

The first Terminator movie was fairly popular, grossing 78 million in ticket sales, but its sequel Terminator 2: Judgement Day, released in 1991, broke all manner of records....grossing 520 million worldwide. It is the highest grossing R-Rated movie of all time.

It was early in the movie when viewers were introduced to the Terminator's chosen weapon when he relieved a biker of his clothes, Harley Davidson and Winchester 1887 shotgun.

The aforementioned Winchester is a lever action shotgun, designed by John Moses Browning around the same time that pump action shotguns were being developed. Of course we know that the pump action became THE American shotgun while the 1887 slipped into obscurity.

There were three guns used in the movie, two of them real and both had the barrels cut down and stocks shortened. They also had a portion of the trigger guard removed. One had the lever loop enlarged for the "flip cock" scenes. The third one was a rubber prop gun.

As always there is more to the story, for instance: in order to get the gun to be "flip cocked" the designer had to find a way to keep the loaded shells from flying out.

It took the designer a month and a half to make all the modifications, he then spent time teaching Arnold Schwarzenegger how to perform the famous move.

Also note that because reproduction models (Chinese or Italian) were not available at the time of the filming, both hero guns were actual classic Winchesters.

After the release of the movie, fans wanting to own one of these had to look hard, less than 65,000 of them were built before production ended in 1899.

Compare that to the Remington 870 shotgun, of which 11 Million have been produced.

Not long after the release of T2 the Chinese gun maker Norinco began producing a copy of the model of 1887. Then in 2008 Italian gun maker Chiappa began offering a copy.

Chiappa offers the gun in 28" & 22" barrel length versions as well as a cut down version similar to the hero gun called the "Rose Box". Named after the famous scene in which the Terminator smuggles his shotgun into the shopping mall in a box of roses.

The BREN-TEN

The Bren Ten was an attempt by some well meaning folks in the early 1980s to design the best defensive pistol ever. The gun would be based on a cartridge that was designed from the ground up to be a one-shot stopper.

The decision was probably influenced by the trend of law enforcement agencies switching to the 9mm cartridge, which many saw as an anemic round.

The miracle cartridge would be 1/2 way between the 9mm (.355) and the 45 ACP (.451), right at .400 or 10mm. The bullet had to have some heft, something in the 180 grain range and had to move fast, as fast or faster than a 9mm.

Just as with the .44 AMP before it, the creators took an existing rifle, the .30 Remington, and cut it down to just over 25mm tall and stuffed it with a bullet from the 38-40 Winchester Center Fire cartridge.

The cartridge exceeded expectations, its performance put it right between the venerable 357 Magnum and the 41 Magnum.

Now they needed a gun to fire this cartridge. They redesigned the CZ 75 pistol by enlarging the frame and grip in order to fit the larger cartridge and making the gun capable of handling the higher pressures.

The name was an homage to Brno in the Czech Republic (the town where CZ developed many weapons, including the gun the BREN machine gun was a derivative of) and Ten was for 10 mm. The pistol was introduced in 1983 and was doomed from the start.

Plagued by mechanical issues and a shortage of magazines, by 1986 the company was going under. There was a short lived attempt by the owner of the Voit Sporting Goods company to revive it, but that attempt also failed.

The pistol did get a boost when it was chosen as the side arm for Sonny Crocket (played by Don Johnson) in the hit TV series Miami Vice, but the boost was too little, too late. According to Wikipedia the value of the guns rose to over $1400 and a single magazine was selling for over $150.

In 2008 Vltor Weapons Systems announced that they planned to produce an updated version of the gun, to date no production units have surfaced.

The 10mm cartridge did survive, it was even adopted by the FBI, albeit for a short time. 10mm ammo can be found in nearly every gun store and most pistol manufactures make a model chambered in 10mm. Although I doubt that Hollywood had anything to do with the popularity of the cartridge itself, I believe it got attention on its merits alone.

The Mare's Leg

The original Mare's Leg was designed by car painter/pinstriper turned artist and sometimes gunsmith Kenny Howard also known as "Von Dutch". Yes there was a real guy named Von Dutch....the clothing line simply uses his name under license.

Howard was asked to design a custom rifle/pistol for the 1957 CBS television series Trackdown. Steve McQueen got a part in the show as a bounty hunter who carried the Mare's Leg.

This led to McQueen getting his own show entitled: Wanted: Dead or Alive where McQueen revived his role as a bounty hunter named Josh Randall.

McQueen brought the custom Mare's Leg with him in the new role.

The gun was built by cutting down a Winchester model 1892s barrel down to 9" and shortening the stock. They also enlarged the lever loop just like the one Chuck Conners carried in The Rifleman.

Side note: the cartridges in McQueen's belt are 45-70 Government, while his mare's leg was chambered in .44-40. I guess the .44-40 cartridges didn't look impressive enough.

Another side note: The modifications to the gun(s) were in violation of the 1934 National Firearms Act and the producers had to register the guns and pay a penalty for not getting government permission first. Another example of rich and famous getting away with crimes that would have landed John Q. Public in a Federal "pound me in the ass" prison cell.

For the record, the law goes like this: Once a rifle...always a rifle, but a pistol can be made either way...silly, I know.

Due to the Mare's Leg being an AOW and requiring paperwork and a tax stamp, it was never very popular with the gun buying public, although that doesn't mean they didn't want one......

After Wanted Dead or Alive left the air in 1961 similar guns were used in more than a dozen movies and TV shows.

Even Sterling Archer used one in Season 5 episode 3 (Archer Vice: A debt of Honor)

The Mare's Leg concept was brought back to the big screen in the 2009 comedy Zombieland.

A year or two after the release of Zombieland, Rossi out of Brazil began making a factory Mare's Leg called "The Ranch Hand".

Because the new gun started life as a pistol, it was not subject to the ridiculous rules of the NFA.

American gun maker Henry is now offering the Mare's Leg with a variety of caliber and receiver choices, even one in .410 shotgun.

The Italian firm Chiappa is also making a version of the famous gun.

The Witness Protection/Shockwave/TAC-14

The connections on this one are a little tenuous, but I decided to include it anyway because the story is interesting.

In January of 2010 a post apocalyptic movie about a blind man of faith carrying a Bible was released.

The movie was called The Book of Eli, the main character, played by Denzel Washington, carried two guns with him, one of them a short barreled Remington 870 shotgun known then as a "Witness Protection model".

The real Witness Protection shotguns were actually modified by the Wilson Arms Company specifically at the request of the U.S. Marshal's Service for.......wait for it......witness protection.

It was believed by all at the time that the Witness Protection was an NFA item (which technically it was) and not supposed to be sold to the general public without the proper paperwork and tax stamp (which it wasn't).

You have heard of the saying "the devil is in the details".... Well in this case it was in the wording of the law. A shotgun is defined as being designed to be fired from the shoulder, a Witness Protection shotgun cannot be fired from the shoulder as it has no shoulder stock, this makes it an AOW and still under the purview of the NFA.

If, however, the gun is manufactured without a shoulder stock, it cannot be classified as a shotgun as it doesn't meet the definition as outlined in the 1934 National Firearms Act (NFA). The gun would classified as a "firearm" only subject to the minimum length requirements of 26".

The Witness Protection models in the ad above had 12.5" barrels (cut off at the same length as the 4-round magazine), so they still remain an NFA regulated item (an AOW) because they originally had a shoulder stock and because a 12.5" barrel would make it less than 26" long.

I did find these pictures of the Witness Protection Shotgun in use by the U.S. Marshals and they have barrels that extend beyond the magazine, not sure why, as they would be NFA items either way due to the fact that they were originally manufactured with a shoulder stock, not that this would matter to a federal agency.....

Somewhere, sometime in the post Book of Eli period, someone evaluated the rules and got a clarification from the B.A.T.F.E. stating that indeed a shotgun manufactured without a shoulder stock was not a shotgun and only classified as a "firearm" and only needed to meet the 26" minimum over all length.

At the S.H.O.T Show in January of 2017 Mossberg introduced the Shockwave model, its name stemming from the use of a special grip that allowed for a barrel of just over 14". The original grips were called "the Raptor" and were made by Shockwave Technologies.

That following May Remington introduced their own version named the TAC-14

While I have no proof that Eli's use of the Witness Protection shotgun in the movie spawned the Shockwave and TAC-14 models, I have no doubt their existed at least some influence. Consider this, the Shockwave and Tac-14 models arrived 7 years after the Book of Eli but 83 years after the NFA became law.....

The Coach Gun

This next gun kind of goes full circle, life imitating art, imitating life.... sounds confusing....

The Coach Gun got its name from its use by the Stage Coach Companies during the days of the old west.

In those days Stage Coaches were a popular way for the more affluent people to travel. They also became couriers of mail, important documents, cash (payroll) and valuables like gold and silver. As you can imagine this made them targets for robbery. Which led the owners of these stage coach lines to issue shotguns to their drivers.

Side note #1: Wells, Fargo & Company did indeed issue side by side shotguns to their drivers. The guns were made by different manufactures and were not always stamped with the Wells, Fargo & Co name.

This is perhaps the most often faked gun in all of gun collecting. If you find such a shotgun, you can assume it is a fake, until proven otherwise.

Side note #2: The second driver, sitting up top with the driver was given the task of keeping an eye out for highwaymen and dispatching them with the shotgun. The 1954 movie starring Randolph Scott named Riding Shotgun led to people calling the passengers in the front seat of an automobile "riding shotgun".

Side note #3: due to their handling of money, gold and silver.....and insuring the safe delivery of such, some of the old stage coach companies evolved into other areas of finance, American Express and Wells, Fargo & Company are two examples.

While most of the guns issued to stage coach drivers had barrel lengths of 24" or more, it is certainly plausible that some were cut down to 18" or shorter to make them more maneuverable while bouncing around on the trail.

Hollywood chose to use a sawed off, double barrel shotgun in most, if not all of its depictions of stagecoach drivers

Companies like Stoeger and CZ USA make guns specifically for cowboy action shooting

CZ USA makes them in hammer fired and hammerless

The AMT Hardballer

This one was not influenced by Hollywood per se, but the motion picture industry did play a part in the guns popularity.

In 1977 Harry Sanford incorporated a new company to make firearms. Sanford was known at the time for his .44 Auto Mag pistol (listed above). Among the line of pistols made by AMT was an all stainless 1911 called the Hardballer, named after the US Army standard 45 ACP "ball" ammunition (230 grain round nose).

In 1999 the Danish video game company, IO Interactive, was working on a first person shooter video game, they chose to give their killer a pair of .45 ACP AMT Harballer pistols, although they called them "Silverballers" in the video game, perhaps to avoid trademark lawsuits. The original game spawned multiple sequels.

Then in 2007, the story was adapted into a motion picture, staring Timothy Oliphant as Agent 47 and Olga Kurylenko as the girl (there always has to be a girl).

Side note: according to IMFDB the actual guns used in the movie were Para-Ordnance P18 9mm pistols, but called "AMT Silverballers" by the producers.

Then a sequel to the Hitman movie was released in 2015 this time starring Rupert Friend as Agent 47. In this movie Agent 47 again carries dual stainless or satin nickel 1911 pistols called "Silverballers" by the producers.

At any rate the games and movies have caused a rise in the collectability of the original AMT Hardballers. Many fans recreate the hero guns using both real 1911s and toy (airsoft) pistols. See the examples below. Most hero replicas use the Pachmayr wood hybrid grips. Also note the engraving of the Hitman logo and the city of El Monte CA, one of the cities in which AMT Hardballers were produced.

The Marlin model 1895

This last one on the list is a reverse of the premise of this post. This gun became popular as a devastating hunting and self defense rifle and thus was included in several movies.

The Marlin model of 1895 was introduced in 1895, an upsized version of the model of 1893, designed to handle the larger cartridges of the day, including the 45-70 Government. The rifle was discontinued in 1917.

The U.S. Army abandoned the 45-70 in 1893 when it adopted the bolt action Krag-Jorgensen rifle (chambered in 30-40 Krag). The 45-70 was left to languish and by the mid-20th Century it was considered "obsolete".

In 1965 Marlin introduced the .444 Model (along with a matching cartridge: the .444 Marlin), an upsized version of the model 336 (which was a modernized version of the model of 1893). The new cartridge would mimic the performance of the 45-70 and fill a niche in states that only allow rifle hunting with straight walled cartridges.

From the late 60's and throughout the 70's nostalgia for older guns and cartridges coupled with introduction of Metallic Silhouette Shooting competitions led Marlin to reintroduce the 1895 model in .45-70 Government.

The new found popularity of the rifle, which can take down any North American game, led to its use in movies. In 2015 the Marlin 1895 was wielded by Owen Grady (played by Chris Pratt) in the movie Jurassic World.

Then in 2017 two movies displayed the prowess of the 1895 and the 45-70. The first was Windriver in which Jeremy Renner plays the part of Cory Lambert, a Wyoming Fish & Game Officer caught up in the murder investigation of a Native American woman. He used his own handloads sporting 500 grain projectiles to send the bad guys to hell on the express train.....

Later that year the sequel to the Kingsman was released, subtitled The Golden Circle which featured a Marlin 1895 carried by Statesman Agent Tequila (played by Channing Tatum). In the screen shot below the barrel looks square due to it being in motion.