Author Topic: Cowboy loads and cover  (Read 5280 times)

Offline MontanaBighorn

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Cowboy loads and cover
« on: October 27, 2016, 11:59:46 AM »


I'm watching the original The Magnificent Seven (1960) when at the 1:15:04 mark, character "Britt" (James Coburn) flips over a table made from old boards that are maybe 3/4" thick to utilize as cover. 

I realize this is just a Hollywood movie but in nearly every western movie or show from A Fistful of Dollars to Gunsmoke you see something similar where old wooden tables/doors/etc. are utilized effectively as cover.  While the .45 LC, .44-40 and others aren't magnum loads, they still pack a pretty dang heavy wallop and would easily penetrate such thin wood.  I know these aren't intended to be documentaries, but how can they get it so consistently wrong?
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Offline Coal Creek Griff

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Re: Cowboy loads and cover
« Reply #1 on: October 27, 2016, 03:59:23 PM »
John Wayne shoots Richard Boone through a table in "The Shootist".  Boone apparently thought that it would help, but Wayne knew better.  Apparently Richard Boone watched too many old westerns...

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Offline pony express

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Re: Cowboy loads and cover
« Reply #2 on: October 27, 2016, 07:39:21 PM »
I can't remember the name of the movie-where the main character uses a wood stove door inside his shirt for the original "bullet proof vest". Has anybody here besides me ever shot at old cast iron junk when plinking? (I was much younger at that time) Not very bullet resistant!

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Re: Cowboy loads and cover
« Reply #3 on: Today at 10:19:34 AM »

Offline MontanaBighorn

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Re: Cowboy loads and cover
« Reply #3 on: October 28, 2016, 09:50:57 AM »
I can't remember the name of the movie-where the main character uses a wood stove door inside his shirt for the original "bullet proof vest".

The earliest bullet proof vest I remember is utilized by Clint Eastwood in A Fistful of Dollars (1964).  This screen capture is from the 1:33:35 mark.  This likely isn't the earliest, it's just the earliest one that I can remember.
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Offline Tornado

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Re: Cowboy loads and cover
« Reply #4 on: October 28, 2016, 10:59:55 AM »
I can't remember the name of the movie-where the main character uses a wood stove door inside his shirt for the original "bullet proof vest". Has anybody here besides me ever shot at old cast iron junk when plinking? (I was much younger at that time) Not very bullet resistant!

Marty McFly used the stove door in Back to the Future 3 after watching Clint Eastwood doing it in Fistful of Dollars:
http://backtothefuture.wikia.com/wiki/Bulletproof_vest


Offline Shawnee McGrutt

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Re: Cowboy loads and cover
« Reply #5 on: October 28, 2016, 11:42:11 AM »
You mean that a table won't stop a bullet?   :o
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Offline PJ Hardtack

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Re: Cowboy loads and cover
« Reply #6 on: October 28, 2016, 11:48:20 AM »
Utilizing some form of cover screens part of the body. Most people would instinctively shoot for the centre of the visible mass, making for a smaller target.

I learned this in IPSC with partial targets when we actually engaged targets as far as 50m in 'draw & fire' exercises. On closer targets, people would forget that all they had to do was hold lower, even if that portion of the target was missing.

The other prop frequently used in westerns are the ever handy wooden barrels, boxes, paper thin walls, water troughs, etc. At least the water in the trough would have the effect of slowing bullets.

Our club put on a couple of "corporate day at the range" events that included demos of CAS and IDPA. People commented that now they knew just how much BS Hollywood feeds the public.
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Online Mogorilla

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Re: Cowboy loads and cover
« Reply #7 on: October 28, 2016, 07:08:42 PM »
You want bullet proof check out the real (or movie) Ned Kelly.  That was some impressive armour

Offline Doug.38PR

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Re: Cowboy loads and cover
« Reply #8 on: December 02, 2016, 10:42:32 PM »


I'm watching the original The Magnificent Seven (1960) when at the 1:15:04 mark, character "Britt" (James Coburn) flips over a table made from old boards that are maybe 3/4" thick to utilize as cover. 

I realize this is just a Hollywood movie but in nearly every western movie or show from A Fistful of Dollars to Gunsmoke you see something similar where old wooden tables/doors/etc. are utilized effectively as cover.  While the .45 LC, .44-40 and others aren't magnum loads, they still pack a pretty dang heavy wallop and would easily penetrate such thin wood.  I know these aren't intended to be documentaries, but how can they get it so consistently wrong?

John Wayne, in his final gunfight ever, showed Richard Boone the error in this tactic  ;)

Offline Doug.38PR

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Re: Cowboy loads and cover
« Reply #9 on: December 02, 2016, 10:44:47 PM »
I can't remember the name of the movie-where the main character uses a wood stove door inside his shirt for the original "bullet proof vest". Has anybody here besides me ever shot at old cast iron junk when plinking? (I was much younger at that time) Not very bullet resistant!

That would be Back to the Future III (on AMC right now actually).   Marty, imitating Clint Eastwood in Fistful of Dollars, as seen in the previous movie on TV, puts a stove door under his pancho and goes out in the street to face Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen. 

Offline Doug.38PR

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Re: Cowboy loads and cover
« Reply #10 on: December 02, 2016, 10:45:55 PM »
Marty McFly used the stove door in Back to the Future 3 after watching Clint Eastwood doing it in Fistful of Dollars:
http://backtothefuture.wikia.com/wiki/Bulletproof_vest



Correct.  Clint Eastwood didn't use a stove door, he cut out some piece of metal or iron with a metal saw in an old mining shaft

Offline mehavey

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Re: Cowboy loads and cover
« Reply #11 on: December 05, 2016, 09:05:57 PM »
For the utter futility of what [we] see in movies,
See: https://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=562102

 

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