Last of the Mohicans movie prop gun???

[RaiderANV]

Geez,,,,,,,hate when I find sumthin' like this. Now I gotta watch it again closely throughout the whole movie to find if these really do exist.


http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=393492761

[bobanderson]

Try IMFDB, the Internet Movie Firearms Database. No mention of prop guns in there.

[Muley Gil]

These date back to at least the days of "Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier" in the '50s. The Mexicans at the Alamao were armed with them.

They were probably around before then, but I remember seeing 'em during the Davy reruns.

[Eggman]

Yeah, that, and you'll need to sit thru BOTH "Last of the Mohican" movies PJ including the one staring Randolf Scott.

[Dave Fox]

Eggman:

As I'm sure you know, much of the Daniel Day-Lewis "Mohicans" was filmed in and around here in western North Carolina, especially on the (now) DuPont State Forest land and at and near Chimney Rock. The initial run through the forest after the elk was, I believe, filmed on lands of a client of the office in which I then practiced law. I met and became friends with a fellow who managed the production company's firearms. He bought several at the end of fiming. One was one of two identical magnificent replica long rifles, engraved "1" and "2" with which Hawkeye was equipped for non- strenuous action shots. These were commissioned for the film. He gave me another: a Navy Arms Charleville. I never heard from him that this production used anything but replica firearms, Besses, Charlevilles, pistols, etc.

[Eggman]

Dave - maybe you could bring the Charleville to Statesville in March so we could touch it, drool, turn green, etc. etc. etc....

[Ron/The Old Reb]

One of the flint lock muskets that Daniel Day Lewis used in the movie along with his buckskin's. Were on display in the Chimney Rock visitors center when I visited there shortly after the movie was released.

[Scott Sites]

The working original flintlock for the movie was built in Winchester Va by LeMaster (don't remember his first name tho)

[Dave Fox]

Eggman;

Yes, I know that there's nothing like a Navy Arms replica to cause spontaneous orgasms and involuntary drooling amongst reenactors and skirmishers. Right. Actually, this musket was the subject of an article I did years ago for "Camp Chase Gazette". Scot Ledford (Ledford's Trading Post) of Hickory converted it to cone-in-barrel percussion using an original hammer I had and it was then re-marked as a U.S. M.1795 by Zimmerman. It bears the studio propery number "43" stamped into the wood opposite the lockplate.

[Muley Gil]

Does Mr Ledford still have a shop in Hickory? I used to trade with him at the Alabama Gun Collector's shows held in Birmingham.

[Eggman]

"Cone-in-barrel percussion," ---- you mean like an in-line???? (GASP!GAG!CHOKE!SPEW!!)

Eggman;

Yes, I know that there's nothing like a Navy Arms replica to cause spontaneous orgasms and involuntary drooling amongst reenactors and skirmishers. Right. Actually, this musket was the subject of an article I did years ago for "Camp Chase Gazette". Scot Ledford (Ledford's Trading Post) of Hickory converted it to cone-in-barrel percussion using an original hammer I had and it was then re-marked as a U.S. M.1795 by Zimmerman. It bears the studio propery number "43" stamped into the wood opposite the lockplate.

[Dave Fox]

Eggman: I may be being practiced upon, but just in case you are in fact unfamiliar with the process: the cone-in-barrel (AKA Belgian or arsenal) conversion method was utilized in Federal facilities in the late 1840s to the mid '50s. It consisted of sealing the flintlock vent, "bumping" up a lump atop and slightly offset the centre of the musket barrel breech, drilling and tapping the lump for a percussion cone, removing now extranious lock hardware, filling now redundant holes, weakening the lock mainspring, and fitting a huge percussion hammer. This conversion proved to be weak: the cone, tapped directly above the bore, tended to blow out, especially if the arm was rifled. These arms were withdrawn from Civil War service by both sides as soon as practicable.
Until Ledford converted this Navy arms Charleville in 1994, I doubt anyone in this country had so converted a flinter since the mid-19th Century. It's why I did it.

[Southron Sr.]

Back in 1979 I was an Extra for the CBS Movie of the Week production: "The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd." The movie starred Dennis Weaver and was filmed at Fort Pulaski on Cockspur Island, just down the Savannah River from Savannah, GA.

Fort Pulaski "stood in" for Fort Jefferson down in the Florida Keys where the original Dr. Mudd was imprisoned after the war. He had been convicted by a military tribunal for setting the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth while Booth was fleeing after shooting President Lincoln.

If you have never been an Extra on a movie, you don't know what you are missing. For one thing the production company hired a company that provided "Cafeteria Services" for the movie crew.

The "cafeteria" was in a specially modified 18 Wheeler Trailer. Anyone could go through the cafeteria line anytime they wanted and as often as they wanted. The food was good and consisted of things like steaks, shrimp, lobster and some other really great dishes. THE FOOD WAS FREE TO ALL EXTRAS, ACTORS AND PRODUCTION PERSONNEL.

I worked on the movie just over a week and played a Confederate prisoner. Generally we were needed in a new scene, we were rehearsed two or three times and then the scene was filmed. All together we were usually "on camera" three or four times per day-so we had a lot of free time on our hands.

Sometimes back around 1910 or 1920 movie companies found the best way to keep Extras from wandering off and keep them around between scenes when they were needed was to feed them free food!

Oh Yes! I did get to examine a rack of about 20 Trapdoor Sprinfields that belonged to the movie company. Actually they had TWO different types of "Guns." The Trapdoor Springfields were really dogs. The bayonets were welded on to the barrels. The metal was rusty and the stocks were so rough that they literally had splinters sticking out of the wood! Someone had taken a router decades before and carved on the stocks "Property of MGM." Needless to say, I didn't have the heart to look down the bores.

But these old Springfield Trapdoor dogs these were some of the most "seen" guns in the world. They had been in many movies and television programs for at least the previous 50 years! Most Trapdoor Springfields were purchased by the movie companies in the 1910's when they were dirt cheap, literally two or three dollars each on the surplus market.

Oh Yes, the second type of "Gun" on the set? These were RUBBER GUNS. From a short distance away, they looked pretty good. These were the guns that were dropped or otherwise abused.

But more and more of the old Trapdoors are being retired from production companies. For one thing, audiences are more sophisticated now-a-days and demand "authenticity" when it comes to clothing, uniforms and firearms.

[Eggman]

Dave -- Never heard the term before. Why would you want to convert it?

[Dave Fox]

Did a series of articles called "Pumpkin Slingers" in the CCG in 1993 and 1994, as I wrote. The intent was to document the extensive usage of smoothbore .69s during The War and to encourage their use in reenactments...doing early war scenarios exclusively w/ Enfields and .58 Springfield replicas was inauthentic. Don't believe the N-SSA had any matches for smoothbores then. The old "Pumpkin Slingers" (as soldiers called them, not necessarily with affection) were sadly underrepresented. At that time no .69 percussion muskets were being replicated. I wanted to demonstrate how they could be utilized: use of originals, cobbling together .69s from available original and replica parts, and, in this case, how to convert the available Charleville replica flinter into an M.1795 percussion conversion musket of the sort used, especially, by Confederate forces. Soon thereafter Dixie Gun works started carrying a percussion M.1822 and the Eye-talians began pumping-out M.1842 replicas.

[Muley Gil]

"If you have never been an Extra on a movie, you don't know what you are missing. For one thing the production company hired a company that provided "Cafeteria Services" for the movie crew."

I did a couple of the David Wolper productions around 1971. One shooting was held on Elmer Venskosie's farm, next to the Fort, and the other was down at Appomattox CH. They must have had a smaller budget, 'cause all we got was a box lunch. We got $35 for a couple of hours at the farm and $50 a day down in Appomattox.

[Eggman]

Now I get it. I was kind of lost on the 1795 bit too. I'm and old flintlocker - cutting them up, especially a beauty like the Charleville, kind of gives me the hebejebees. As Kowmander Kowdoc will explain, you have to go over everything twice with me.

[Dave Fox]

Eggman; Eggzactly.