PKD gun firing-- photos and vid

Below are a few links to Flickr and You Tube showing a mostlty completed PKD gun, and me firing it at the pistol range. Detailed info is with the images, but essentially, it's a Richard Coyle shell over a .44 Charter Arms Bulldog with a 4 inch barrel. I had to shorten things a bit, because while the movie gun used a custom 4.5 inch barrel (my guesstimate), a 4 inch barrel can be purchased stock from Charter Arms inexpensively. Looking at pics I've seen of the actual movie prop, I question whether any real ammo actually went through the gun, though they certainly fired blanks with it. I fired 200 grain lead round nosed commercial cartridges, loaded to 700 FPS. The only failure point in this field test was that the right front knob fell off when the second round was fired. I'll reattach it more securely. Also, I'll be adding vent holes to better disperse gas released between the cylinder and the barrel (something all revolvers do), and I still need to slap in the LED array. (IMHO, without added venting, there's too much pressure built up within the shell that surrounds the cylinder. When I did the test you see on the vid I only loaded three rounds instead of the full five to allow more venting/expansion, because I was concerned about too much containment of the cylinder/barrel gasses from the get-go. And as you can see, I also placed a sandbag between the gun and my head for the test firing. Picking a bit of metal shrapnel out of your hand is one thing-- quite another picking it out of your head.) BTW, while I did this work myself, I don't recommend anyone who doesn't do their own gunsmithing-- and knows their stuff-- attempting this modification. Sorry, no "how to" informational questions will be responded to for liability reasons, and I'm not much of an emailer anyway. Needless to say, I would never ever considering building one for hire. Gotta do it yourself if you're crazy enough-- like me-- to want a functional gun on the cheap (total project cost, including the used Bulldog, was under $700). Enjoy the pics and vid!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/85452191@N00/3056641009/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/85452191@N00/3020793108/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSn5Zg7HtEU

[Kipple]

Nice!

Truly Awesome Doc! I love it. I am collecting the parts and pieces myself to hopefully make my own fully functional replica some day. Good to know the 4" inch barrel will fit. Although I was hoping that the shrouded Police Bulldog 4" 44 would be exactly what they used (sans shroud), but it looks like it would still be a bit too small.

Andy

Glad you like the gun, or at least are amused. I forgot to post this link to it in its earliest stages... btw, all work was done with a drill press equipped with a good quality drill press vice, a Dremel, and hand tools.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/85452191@N00/3008552259/

doc3d

There are some incredibly good guns on this propsummit site. Thank you ridleynoir for letting me know about it. I hope to make my finished gun look as good as some of these. High standards indeed!

However, I can see some of the Bulldogs (toy castings, I hope) have had the forward cylinder locking sleeve and extractor rod lopped off at the pivot arm, so the cylinder can be swung open by pushing the Bulldog's release lever and not having an issue re getting the extractor rod past the Steyr magazine housing without removing it. I DO remove the mag housing when I load.

Why? Well I suppose this slice and dice mod is ok if you NEVER EVER do it to a real Bulldog and load it with real bullets. You can probably get away with blanks in it, but even that worries me, and I frankly would never do it even for use with blanks. This one factor is the reason I'm pretty sure the movie prop gun was never fired with live ammunition, assuming the cylinder swings open in the same way. Cutting off these bits forward of the cylinder swing arm destroys the pistol's ability to forward lock the cylinder into alignment! You could very easily misalign the live chamber in the cylinder with the barrel, turning the prop replica from a pistol into a grenade.

Stuff like this is why I don't recommend building a functional gun. People just don't know what they don't know, and with firearms, this can get you into big trouble really fast.

doc3d

All of those without the release rod are all pewter. I do hope can share these thoughts over there though in case a fan that does not post, decides to try it without knowing this. I work myself with a gunsmith in town that helps me find parts and such, and he always keeps me safe when I think about doing something stupid.

Andy

Think I figured it out, and it also accounts for the variation in out-facing knobs on the right-hand Steyr shell that covers the Bulldog cylinder (slotted screw vs. Weaver). That knob was screw type in the movies, and the recently surfaced pistol has a Weaver head, right? If this is the case, my respect for the gunsmith who built the gun just jumped a bunch. He uses that knob to secure the cylinder in place-- e.g. it does what the spring-loaded sleeve around the ejector rod does on a production gun, except it threads into the cylinder swing arm to absolutely lock it down in one position... which we will assume exactly aligns the cylinder's chambers to the barrel.

So, realizing that a hand turned screw wouldn't be reliable, and that he'd want that screw torqued to a specific load that equaled exact alignment, he made a slotted screw. This removes-- or at least reduces-- the human unreliability factor. Of course, the actor would never be allowed to actually load anything into the functional prop. This would be done by the prop master. The scripted scene of the gun being reloaded was likely cut because it would be laughable to see someone putting bullets into a Bulldog revolver on screen. I mean, this is a 2019 weapon that probably fires smart bullets, not a Saturday Night Special!

Now, when the movie prop gun was handed off to the guy it ended up with, it went with the sexy Weaver screw that was likely part of the original design. Which means that either version is technically correct. Assuming someone didn't just lose the slotted screw and replace it with the Weaver sometime after production wrapped.

To make the above work, the cylinder swing arm would have to be re-machined with a curved lug that exactly fit a re-machined locking cutout in the barrel. (You'd have to remachine it in order to get rid of the shoulders in the original Bulldog design, and allow the cylinder to swing shut securely. Afterwards, of course, you torque the screw down on the opposite side.)

Now, this cannot be done with any known aftermarket PKD prop shell. None of them have good enough metal (way too soft or brittle). Probably an actual Steyr piece would work, with appropriate machining to clear the cylinder. Or machine a good steel replica. Or use my cheapo philosophy and leave the Bulldog safety features alone and don't mess with 'em.

Since I don't have a real Steyr to check this all against, I cannot be sure if it would work or not, so just consider this post philosophical musing, not instructional.

This may be old news to everyone anyway. (cross posted to propsummit)

Cheers, Doc

Wow! I'm a great (IMHO) collector and fan of BR... but these level are unbeatable! :D:D

What a nice and fine job!

jfuste,

I just checked your BR site. Excellent!

I definitely want to buy a few of those De Magnoli Clothiers Blade Runner shirts. How is this done? Available to the US?

Many thanks!

Doc

jfuste,

I just checked your BR site. Excellent!

I definitely want to buy a few of those De Magnoli Clothiers Blade Runner shirts. How is this done? Available to the US?

Many thanks!

Doc

Thank you!

This shirt is available at Magnoli Clothiers web site. No matter if you are in US or Spain (as me):

http://magnolic.ipower.com/catalog/prod ... cts_id=228

Magnoli has this shirt and the necktie too.... Good fabric and nice product. For a price, of course...

Also, you must check Phil Smith and Megan Funk site. They produce a fine shirts and trench coat too...

http://funksimile.com/bladerunner.aspx

Doc,

I never thought about the weaver knob being used to retain the Cylinder. Interesting Idea. Just for the record though, the weaver was never seen as being part of the gun until the Hero prop was found By Karl (phase pistol) at Worldcon LA in 2006. Before that all the replicas and the stunt castings made from an early (less modified) version of the hero all had the slotted screw. It was very likely used as a replacement screw late in filming or just before it was given to the current owner who worked on BR as a Marketing expert.

Andy