Gents:
I love seeing double rifles in Hollywood films. Perhaps the best are the Tarzan movies with Johnny Wiesmuller where nitro express, black powder express, and the big 8- and 4-bores can be seen. The Africa films of the 1950s and 1960s showed doubles and on through the 1980s and beyond. But I have a question and I doubt I will get an answer:

Legends of the Fall showed Bradd Pitt with an 8-bore double rifle with a brass butt plate. I thought that was pretty cool. A few days ago I watched perhaps the worst western ever made. It was a takeoff on Lonesome Dove and titled Streets of Laredo starring James Garner. In the film Charlie Martin Smith played an accountant who carried an 8-bore double rifle with a brass butt plate. The actors said it was an 8-gauge shotgun but Smith's bandoleer showed 8-bore rifle cases. I wonder if it was the same rifle?

Any of you gents seen the films and noticed the 8-bore?

Can any of you gentlemen list films you've seen with double rifles featured in them? If so, let's compile a list.

Just wondering.
Cal

Appaloosa: 8 gauge hammer gun even of it is a smoothbore.

Trader Horn: 8 bore?

There was a recent (Daniel Craig era) James Bond flick with one.

Cal,

Do you know what rifles were used in the movie Ghost in the Darkness?

The double rifle and single shot were provided by Westley Richards. I seem to recall the double was a 350 or 360 caliber. The single shot was probably a 461. There are also two bolt guns in the film I guess were studio props.
The former US manager of WR is a pal. Next time we talk I’ll see if he recalls specifics. We discussed this a long time ago but the specifics have faded for me.

Out of Africa: Robert Redford I think is carrying a Holland and Holland in 465.

I have never seen Granger’s Last Safari, want to just can’t find it, but Granger carries a double in that one.

In Ghostvand the Darkness Val Keemer is carrying a Lee Speed No 2 pattern. Probably BSA. That is what it looks like to me.

The Bond Flim was Skyfall it was a 500 ne from Anderson Wheeler (VC?).

League of Extordinary Gentlemen 450BPE Back Action Sidelock?

There was that death run movie where the professional takes a German ivory safari in. It gets ambushed and he has to run being chased by the natives. There are doubles and Euro bolts in that. Can’t remember details.

quote:

Originally posted by LHeym500:
There was that death run movie where the professional takes a German ivory safari in. It gets ambushed and he has to run being chased by the natives. There are doubles and Euro bolts in that. Can’t remember details.

The Naked Prey. This is an excellent movie. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and see it!

What about White Hunter, Black Heart?

It has been a while but I seem to recall that they bought their rifles at H&H in London.

I just looked it up. The double was a H&H Royal 500/465 made in 1909.

And the two 600NE double rifles by Butch Searcy for the Jurassic Park movie(s).

The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) building a railroad Kurt Douglas used, a double rifle of unknown caliber, appeared to be a medium bore

This is my favorite double rifle movie scene. It's worth watching the whole clip (is that a .458 in Reba McEntire's hands?) but if you are antsy you can skip to the 2:40 mark.

quote:

Originally posted by LJS:
The double rifle and single shot were provided by Westley Richards. I seem to recall the double was a 350 or 360 caliber. The single shot was probably a 461. There are also two bolt guns in the film I guess were studio props.

The bolt gun is a Lee Speed as mentioned by LHeym500.
The falling block from the thicket scene is an interesting one.
It has a cocking lever that drops when he has a misfire (no idea why he didn’t immediately recock it and fire again...)
The sides of the action are recessed for the lever travel which is unique. I’ve seen a Watson with similar recessed sides but no cocking lever which are most often only found on match rifles. Cool gun though!

Naked Prey was a great movie until they get to the scene with the jet and the contrails following it in the background.

quote:

Originally posted by scojac:

quote:

Originally posted by LHeym500:
There was that death run movie where the professional takes a German ivory safari in. It gets ambushed and he has to run being chased by the natives. There are doubles and Euro bolts in that. Can’t remember details.

The Naked Prey. This is an excellent movie. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and see it!

I have seen it. I just ain’t seen it enough to burn the rifles in to my brain. I have seen it twice and enjoyed it both times. Now I will have to look for the jet.

Tremors one is is a 4 bore underleaver.
And Tremors 2 WR 476 Westley. I think Gus’s calls it a 480? And a 375 HH Holand and Holand.

Everyone agree Redford is carrying a Holland and Holland 465.There is a close up shot of taking two bottle neck rimmed cartridges beforee the lion charges between the fingers.

Eastwood does use a Double in Black Heart, white Hunter just can’t remember what type. Edited to reflect Mr. Shores solved the mystery. Royal 500/465.

Is one of the doubles in the Ghost and the Darkness a Parodox gun. Val empties Douglas’ side lock and has a hammer gun that he misses the lion with at point blank range. Paradox or Shotgun.

We have forgotten the percussion Howdah in Ghost and the Darkness.

Charge of the Light Brigade opens up with Earl Flynn on a tiger hunt. It is black and white, I only saw it once, so I can not give make or model. However, that secene has doubles.

There is a mini series called Centennial. Dalton of James Bond fame is in a couple of scenes with a percussion hammer double rifle. I do not think a maker can be identified in the scene.

Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing..The Mummy...1959 version. When the Mummy (Christopher Lee) breaks into Peter Cushing's house and ends up in the man's gunroom where's it's shot with a double gun of somesort. As all we Brits had glass fronted cases of guns in our houses just in case of Mummy attacks!



It's about at 1:34 way through this trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvF_NXNUou4

Or the relevant scene here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9nHdaCVLtA

The rifle carried by Robert Redford in Out of Africa was a H&H in .375. I had a hearing in Tulsa years back and drove to Champlin's the next day just to look. He had that rifle in his walk in safe and I was able to handle it. Beautiful rifle, but I don't even think it was .375 flanged if I recall correctly.

The choice of calibre was a bit disappointing, but I still like the movie.

Stuart Granger in Harry Black and the Tiger has some lovely medium bore Doubles.
Born Free has a scene with a Lion track up and change with a full load shot of a 470 with proper recoil.

There is a website called internet movie firearm database or something like that. The following is a link to it:

http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Main_Page

One of the Jurassic park movies, The Pro has a double. Pete Postlethwaite as Roland Tembo .

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
The rifle carried by Robert Redford in Out of Africa was a H&H in .375. I had a hearing in Tulsa years back and drove to Champlin's the next day just to look. He had that rifle in his walk in safe and I was able to handle it. Beautiful rifle, but I don't even think it was .375 flanged if I recall correctly.


The choice of calibre was a bit disappointing, but I still like the movie.

The cartridges in the close up seen are differently not 375HH Rimless Belted could be Flanged Magnum. I am not saying the rifle was not what you report. Just how Hollywood did the scene. Somebody thought a bigger round was needed for that scene.

There may be more than one double used bc the lion charge the bores sure look larger the 375. The cartridges are certainly rimmed and bottled necked at least in the lion charge scenes.

Yes, Butch Searcy made two complete, fully working real double rifles for Spielberg's Jurassic Park movies. Butch told me that he delivered the first one to Spielberg, and then when Spielberg asked for the second one, he told him that he would deliver it when he was fully paid for both rifles. He got paid. He also made one that was used as a prop. I was down visiting him one time and he threw it at me and said: "Here, catch this." I expected this heavy double and it was a light weight type of prop that they apparently had also used in the Jurassic Park movies. Maybe he'll chime in here if he sees this thread.

I actually never spoke to Spielberg, it was Paramount prop people. My attorney at the time had dealt with movie people before and advised me to get my money before I left the second rifle with them.

Butch: Didn't Spielberg keep one of those working doubles for himself? What happened to them?

Yes, he did keep one of the rifles and Paramount
Kept the second one for the show. Because the show rifle
Was supposed to look like a rifle from the 1920’s the prop company
Roughed it up. Wiped some of the blue at the muzzle end off. That rifle
Ended up with one of the producers who sent it to me for refurbishing.
Before sending it back I took it to a range where a bunch of friends
Would go to on weekends. I had big fun watching a few of them shoot it.

There was ''Shout at the Devil'' ,Roger Moore ,Lee Marvin with a double hunting elephants, each time he fired it, gas ? came out of the action ! Two part series ''The Lost World'' ,recent, [not jewberg version Movie anti gun],double, meant to be an 8 bore ,more like a 12 guage fitted with open rifle sights ,hunter shooting an Allosaurus ,best bit, where ''other'' guy shoots it in the head and brain matter flies in the air ,and beast collapses and nearly flattens them

''Safari '' with Victor Mature ,where he says ''Get my big Express with the 900 grainers'' something like that

quote:

Originally posted by ozhunter:
Stuart Granger in Harry Black and the Tiger has some lovely medium bore Doubles.
Born Free has a scene with a Lion track up and change with a full load shot of a 470 with proper recoil.

My two favorite movies "starring" double rifles..

Jorge, maybe they could use a Merkel..."take two" :-)

quote:

Originally posted by Biebs:
Jorge, maybe they could use a Merkel..."take two" :-)

Blasphemer!

I meant "Take Two" as in doubling...your pet peeve!

quote:

Originally posted by Biebs:
I meant "Take Two" as in doubling...your pet peeve!

Oh yeah, but we can add plastic grip cap and triggers that bend with recoil...

Hatari has the British game warden, Stan, carrying a double, having just dispatched a shamba raider. Also, "A Boy Ten Feet Tall" has Edgar G. Robinson shooting what looks to be a 4-bore muzzleloader, as well as several other more modern ones.

Harry Black good flick had to order a copy from overseas. damn hard to find for some reason. All these movies good also an obscure one "Red Dust" prequel to Mogambo has some tiger hunting with Clark Gable with a double I believe need to re watch sometime

quote:

Originally posted by ozhunter:
Stuart Granger in Harry Black and the Tiger has some lovely medium bore Doubles.
Born Free has a scene with a Lion track up and change with a full load shot of a 470 with proper recoil.

Not sure I ever saw the Harry Black film but my memory is haunted by the book. I recall that his off-sider carried a 318WR and find myself peering at binders of Readers Digest condensed book in op shops, looking for the one Dad read to us at bedtime (Some kids got Bambi, we got Harry Black and J.A.Hunter , and I wouldn't have had it any other way.)

Several years ago while I was Champlin Firearms in Enid, OKL. I got to hold the double rifle that Robert Redford carried in the movie "Out of Africa".

quote:

Originally posted by raamw:
The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) building a railroad Kurt Douglas used, a double rifle of unknown caliber, appeared to be a medium bore

Several posters have mentioned films using double rifles of smaller-than-expected calibres. I think there may a reason for this beyond what can be found or the possibility of the actor actually having to fire bullets from it: reminding viewers that this is actually a rifle. When big bores are used I suspect a fair proportion even of the shooting audience is left thinking it was a shotgun.

Another thought on bore-size selection relates to westerns. Usually, we are shown large holes in the muzzles - authentic, yes, but meant to impress us as power, too, perhaps. John Wayne, on the other hand, used a Colt .38-40, apparently his favorite pistol. I wonder, however, if an additional advantage was that the small gun made him look bigger.

The latest Tarzan Movie "The Legend of Tarzan" has Samuel Jackson Shooting a Double...
Glad Reba wasnt killed in the movie clip above I like the way she sings

From the Internet on the movie "The Ghost And The Darkness" :"Though it is unknown which company (or gunsmith) manufactured the double barreled rifle used by Remington (Michael Douglas) and later Patterson (Val Kilmer) it appears to be a hammerless model. Given the time it is probably supposed to be a Westley - Richards, Purdey, Rigby or Holland & Holland Double Rifle. It would likely be in 450 3.25" Nitro Express or 500/450 3.25" Nitro Express since those were the premier Nitro calibers at the end of the 19th century." This is the movie that inspired my quest for double rifles.

A couple of years ago I sold to a mate a .500 Holland Royal bpe, hammerless made in 1889. I don't know how early the hammerless rifles and shotguns came into being.
Cal