Best of Theme Guns: Armed Forces

 Please enjoy your day off, but remember to fly Old Glory and give thanks to those who gave all.

The Origins of Gun Terms Part II

 This is the second part of an article I posted in 2020 on The Origins of Gun Terms.

Gun

I can't believe I forgot to include this one in the original post, but here we go. The word comes direct from Old Norse, the word gunn simply meant war. The second 'n' was dropped from the spelling by the English and then applied to what became the main tool of war.

Creedmoor: 

You have probably heard of the 6.5mm Creedmoor cartridge or perhaps a Creedmoor rifle, but do you know where the name came from?

Creedmoor was a shooting range in the New York City borough of Queens. In coordination with the NRA, the State of New York purchased the 70-acre farm from a man with the last name of Creed, and the land was on a moor, another word for rolling grass land that is uncultivated. Thus the name of the shooting range became The Creedmoor. The shooting range is long gone, replaced, by of all things, a mental hospital. They did name the street out front Winchester Ave, so that's something.

Bisley: 

Bisley is another name often used in firearms to describe a type of single action revolver. Both Colt & Ruger have made Bisley style revolvers that feature a different grip, hammer and trigger than the standard models. 

The name comes from the UK's largest shooting sports complex in Bisley, just outside of Surrey England.

Cavalry: 

The Cavalry was traditionally the horse mounted soldiers, when tanks replaced soldiers, tanks became the calvary. The name actually has nothing to do with the horse or tank. The name comes from the Latin "Cavalria", which means skull (or bald). OK so why isn't that name used for the skull in medical dictionaries instead of the older Greek word "Kraniou topos" (Cranium), who knows. The name became used after the crucifixion of Jesus, the hill he was crucified on was known as Cavalria, because it was a round bald hill. I would take a guess that it was probably the Knights Templar who first used the word for their horse mounted troops during the Crusades.

Uzi:

An Uzi, if you didn't know is a 9mm submachine gun designed for the Israeli military. The name comes from name the designer, Uziel Gal. 

Some will use the word "Uzi" to describe any machine pistol, kind of like using the word "Band-aid" for an adhesive bandage. 

Ranger 

The word ranger is obviously a derivation of the word range, which comes from old French, used since the 1200s, meaning a row or line of trees. Ranger has been used to describe an officer of the forest in England since at least the 15th century. It was also used as a term for a group of soldiers in France. Texas formed their law enforcement rangers in 1835, while the U.S. Army formed their elite division of soldiers in 1941. 

Quigley

The term for a sniper taking out two tangos (targets) with one shot is known as a Quigley, this comes from a scene in the 1990 film Quigley Down Under, starring Tom Selleck. In the scene he kills two of his enemies with one shot from his Sharp's rifle

Sling

The word sling originated with Old Norse or Old German as a word to describe a weapon made of leather that would hold a rock. The literal translation was to swing back and forth or to wind or twist. It also was applied to a leather strap used to lift and carry objects which is where we get the modern definition.

Picatinny Rail

Also known as the "1913 rail" or the "MIL-STD 1913 rail", the name comes from the Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey who had a hand in designing it. It was designed after the Weaver rail and became a Military spec product in 1995

Tactical

Tactical comes from the word tactic, which means a specific action design to achieve a specific goal.

The word originated with the Ancient Greek word taktikos, which came from the earlier Greek word tasso which meant to set up in order, appoint or put in station.

Roscoe

No one has definitively provided proof of the original source of the slang Roscoe for a carry gun. Could be one of many writers: Damon Runyon, Dashiel Hammett or Robert Leslie Bellum. Either way it was more popular in pulp fiction than real life.

Mohaska

I had never actually heard this term until I saw the Brian DePalma movie Untouchables. The word comes from the name of the Chief of the Ioway Indian tribe, it meant "White Cloud or White Thunder". Some other tribes used the word to describe a man's power, particularly their penis.

In the early part of the 20th Century, it began to be used as slang for a gun which kind of makes sense since the early guns used black powder which produced white smoke.

gun — Wordorigins.org

sling | Etymology of sling by etymonline

A Tale of Two Tombstones

 While scrolling through the free movies available on tubi I came across the 1994 western Wyatt Earp.

Without a more tempting alternative I decided to watch it, this was probably the 3rd time I had seen this movie, compared to the movie Tombstone, which I own and have viewed at least 20 times. 

While watching the movie I discovered that many of the scenes and even some of the iconic lines were identical or nearly identical to the ones in Tombstone. This got me to thinking......I knew the movies came out at about the same time, was there some imitation going on? A little Hollywood espionage?

This has happened before with other movies, Collider even did an article on this subject: 15 Times Movies With The Same Plot Were Released the Same Year.

Collider left out Tombstone and Wyatt Earp as they were not released the same calendar year, they were, however released almost exactly 6 months apart, Tombstone was released on Christmas in 1993 and Wyatt Earp was released on June 24th, 1994.

I thought there might be more to the story, so I did some digging....

It turns out that Kevin Costner was involved with the movie Tombstone early on but could not rewrite the script as it was owned by Kevin Jarre. So being the little bitch he is, Costner left the project and started his own movie. Costner felt the subject of the movie should be Wyatt Earp's life with of course Costner playing the part of Wyatt Earp. 

What is worse is that Costner tried to use his clout to prevent Tombstone from being distributed. I have no doubt that Costner kept a copy of the script as so many of the scenes and lines were identical or nearly identical.

Let's look at the cast members of each movie and how they played their part. Before we go into this, I should mention that Tombstone, while officially being directed by George Cosmatos, was actually directed by Kurt Russell.

Russell instructed the cast members to investigate their characters thoroughly and develop their acting to match these characters as best as they can.

The part of Wyatt Earp I think was played equally well by both actors, I feel that Costner's character development was much longer than necessary. 

Kurt Russell and Kevin Costner as Wyatt Earp

Doc Holliday was also played well by both actors, but I think the win has to go to Val Kilmer as he nailed the role and had much more dialog and character development.....hell he even looked sick

Val Kilmer and Dennis Quaid as Doc Holliday

Josephine Marcus, the character of Josie was better developed in Tombstone, also the chemistry seemed better and, in my opinion, Dana Delany looked the part of a happy go lucky actress who fell madly in love with a man who had no fear.

Dana Delaney and Joanna Going as Josephine Marcus

Johnny Ringo was a huge character in Tombstone, while he is hardly noticeable in Wyatt Earp....This one goes to Michael Biehn, I had to look up the name of the actor who played Ringo in Wyatt Earp and that should tell you everything.

Michael Biehn and Norman Howell as Johnny Ringo

Johnny Behan was a well-spoken, worldly character in Tombstone, while in Wyatt Earp, he seemed like an unsophisticated frumpy hustler wearing a period incorrect hat. This one has to go to Jon Tenney of Tombstone.

Jon Tenney and Mark Harmon as Johnny Behan

Virgil Earp, while Michael Madsen is a good actor....this one has to go to Sam Elliott, who proves that it takes more than growing a mustache and putting on a hat to make you a cowboy.... 

Sam Elliot and Michael Madsen as Virgil Earp

Morgan Earp, Wyatt's younger brother was played brilliantly by Bill Paxton, a bit immature and always looking to his older brothers for guidance. In Wyatt Earp the actor has very little involvement or development.

 

Bill Paxton and Linden Ashby as Morgan Earp

Mattie Blaylock, while a pivotal character, I think both actresses did a good job of showing the decline of the health, both mental and physical of Mattie. 

Dana Wheeler-Nicholson and Mare Winningham as Mattie Blaylock

Big Nose Kate had only a few lines in Wyatt Earp yet had an entire character in Tombstone. While both picked European actresses for the role, I think Joanna Pacula (who is from Poland) played the part of a Hungarian hustler much better, hell she even looked like the real Big Nose Kate.

Side note: She was nicknamed Big Nose Kate not because of the size of her olfactory glands, but because she had a habit of sticking her nose in other people's business.

Joanna Pacula and Isabella Rossellini as Big Nose Kate

Curly Bill Brocious, Ike Clanton, Billy Clanton, Johnny Tyler, Texas Jack, Turkey Creek Jack and others barely appeared in Wyatt Earp, yet in Tombstone they had clearly identifiable characters.

So how is it that Tombstone had so much more character development and seat of your pants action in a movie that was exactly 1 hour shorter (130 minutes for Tombstone and 190 minutes for Wyatt Earp)? I believe it was the writing and the way in which the actors were allowed to develop their characters.

In addition, the budget for Tombstone was less than half of what the budget for Wyatt Earp was.

To date Tombstone has made more money and received more acclaim than Wyatt Earp, something that probably stuck in the craw of Kevin Costner. The movie Wyatt Earp never broke even, not even close, it lost millions, while the makers of Tombstone at least doubled their investment.

In preparation for this article, I read a few comparisons of the two movies. One interesting observation is that Tombstone didn't follow the old Hollywood rule of supporting cast members not trying to out act or out dress the lead actor. In Tombstone, everyone was trying to out act each other and that made it different.

Another writer wrote the following:

"Tombstone takes risks, sets things on fire and delivers iconic lines that people still remember nearly 30 years later."

Gun Works of Art: The Czar of Russia Colt

 

This is a real classic, a Colt 3rd model Dragoon .44 Caliber revolver made in 1853.

Two versions of the gun were made, one, serial # 12407 is shown below was presented to Czar Nicholas 1st of Russia. The revolver no resides at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg Russia.

The mate, serial # 12406 to the Czar pistol had similar engravings, but with American images, is shown below.

Samuel Colt | Colt Third Model Dragoon Percussion Revolver, serial no. 12406 | American, Hartford, Connecticut | The Metropolitan Museum of Art (metmuseum.org)

Interesting Firearm Photos #87