Thomas Magnum's Gun - Some Documentation

[paperwar]

Maximrecoil, your informations on the gun are so far correct.
Just one tiny additional information:
Selleck was bidding by himself (his agent) through phone bidding at the Stembridge auction, but it finally sold for 11k + bbuyers premium and the winner was finally the gun-museum (estimate 1500-3000usd).

pw

So was Selleck bidding against the National Firearms Museum or on behalf of them? I ask because he's donated multiple guns to them before. For example:

National Firearms Museum to Display Tom Selleck Guns at Reno Cabelas

The display includes:

• Shiloh Sharps #3 Rifle in .45-110 caliber that was featured in “Quigley Down Under” (1990)
• A Henry rifle 44.40 Reproduction featured in “Last Stand at Sabre River” (1997)
• .45 Smith and Wesson Schofield revolver in ‘Crossfire Trail” (2001)
• Winchester 1876 .45-60 “Crossfire Trail” (2001)
• 1887 Winchester 12 ga shotgun from “Monte Walsh”
• An Ivory gripped Colt SAA reproduction from “Monte Walsh”

I was told: against them, but maybe he catched it to forward the gun to them. I was also bidding but was surprised it went that high.

That`s also correct: He gave many weapons to them. I believe i have somewhere in my archive a color PDF-catalogue showing Selleck`s weapons-collection. No magnum weapons in that catalogue so far, but one of the best pieces IMO: his extremely long rifle from Quigley.

pw

[MaximRecoil]

I was told: against them, but maybe he catched it to forward the gun to them. I was also bidding but was surprised it went that high.

That`s also correct: He gave many weapons to them. I believe i have somewhere in my archive a color PDF-catalogue showing Selleck`s weapons-collection. No magnum weapons in that catalogue so far, but one of the best pieces IMO: his extremely long rifle from Quigley.

pw

I'm glad the museum got it, which gives anyone a chance to take a look at it.

I wonder when Stembridge put the plastic military issue grips on it. The gun in the pilot episode definitely had basic fully checkered wooden grips, which could have been military issue (i.e., ones made before they switched to plastic grips in '41 or so). You could see the wood grain in them, plus they lacked the telltale rings around the screw holes like the plastic ones have. I don't recall ever seeing plastic grips on Magnum's gun, though clear shots of the grips are not common on the show.



The plastic grips adds a new variable to Magnum's gun that I wasn't aware of before watching the NFM video and reading the Stembridge auction description. I just don't know if the plastic grips were ever in the show or if they were added by Stembridge after the show went off the air.

The pilot episode gun also had a silver trigger (steel serrated trigger, satin nickel plated; came stock on some Series 70 pistols), while the gun in the National Firearms Museum and also in some other scenes throughout the Magnum PI series, had a black trigger (also stock on some Series 70 pistols).

[only looking]

Nice shot in the Kona Winds (Season 6) funny how the walther in her husband's drawer matches the same one in Magnum's..or did Magnum bring both. I do remember something about her husband having a gun, so I assume the one he pulls was his..even though it's the same model as Magnum's...

[MaximRecoil]

Nice shot in the Kona Winds (Season 6) funny how the walther in her husband's drawer matches the same one in Magnum's..or did Magnum bring both. I do remember something about her husband having a gun, so I assume the one he pulls was his..even though it's the same model as Magnum's...

I haven't seen The Kona Winds in a while, but I think that Walther PPK prop got passed around a lot. I just watched Double Jeopardy (season 2) and it was a Walther PPK that the woman used to shoot her husband. In the next episode (The Last Page, watching right now), the guy that hires Magnum has a Walther PPK too. I'm sure there are other episodes with PPKs other than Magnum's too. Probably all the same prop.

[paperwar]

Stembridge has rented out the gun to several other productions. So it`s most likely that they changed the grips during the years, cause the originals might have been damaged.

pw

[J.J. Walters]

Higgins: I heard gunfire and thought it only prudent to investigate.
Magnum: Gunfire? Shots?! Well, maybe there were just a couple...
Higgins: I counted twelve to be exact. A forty-five automatic from the sound of it, fired in the international Mozambique pattern if I'm not mistaken. And since that's hardly a technique prominent in divorce court, the person firing those shots could only have been...

What exactly is the "international Mozambique pattern"?

[N1095A]

Higgins: I heard gunfire and thought it only prudent to investigate.
Magnum: Gunfire? Shots?! Well, maybe there were just a couple...
Higgins: I counted twelve to be exact. A forty-five automatic from the sound of it, fired in the international Mozambique pattern if I'm not mistaken. And since that's hardly a technique prominent in divorce court, the person firing those shots could only have been...

What exactly is the "international Mozambique pattern"?

I think it's something they made up.

[MaximRecoil]

What exactly is the "international Mozambique pattern"?

Judging by where the bullet holes were located on the man-silhouette target he drew on the wall, and the pattern of the shots (1 shot; slight pause; 2 rapid shots; 3 shots total per "pattern"), I'd say it was a reference to the "one in the head, two in the chest" method; though I'm guessing that the term "International Mozambique Pattern" was fabricated for the show.

In fact, if you watch this clip, you can see that the "one in the head, two in the chest" thing is exactly what he's doing, though his chest hits are a bit off center.

Edited to add: Apparently the essence of the term was not made up:

Mozambique Drill

The Mozambique Drill, also called the Failure Drill, is a close-quarter shooting technique in which the shooter fires twice into the torso of a target – known as a "double tap" to the center of mass – momentarily assesses the hits, then follows them up with a carefully aimed shot to the head of the target.

The third shot should be aimed to destroy the brain, killing the target and preventing the target from retaliating. The drill was added to the modern technique of gunfighting by Jeff Cooper based on the experience of one of his students, Mike Rousseau, while on duty in Mozambique. Rousseau was later killed in action in the Rhodesian War.

It looks like Mad Buck Gibson was doing it backwards though, by shooting the head first.

[J.J. Walters]

Wow, how about that. Thanks MR!

We should know better. Higgins never makes things up.

Found another episode where Magnum's gun is addressed as a .45 - Magnum on Ice.

[MaximRecoil]

Found another episode where Magnum's gun is addressed as a .45 - Magnum on Ice.

I came across another reference too (I edited it into one of my previous posts on this thread):

From Ghost Writer (season 2):

Magnum: With my forty-five nuzzling his ear I expected the guy to take us to his employer...

Now for some more Magnum's gun craziness. I was watching season one's China Doll today on DVD and Magnum's gun looked "off", so I put the DVD into my PC's DVD drive to get a better look.

Now, I thought previously that this didn't happen on Magnum, P.I. (though it has happened plenty in other movies and TV shows; "The Wild Bunch" from 1969 being one of the best examples), but it did happen. The infamous Star Model B (good grief) managed to infiltrate Magnum, P.I.



Note the external extractor. That is one of the obvious differences between a Star Model B and a 1911. The 1911 has an internal extractor that is not visible from the outside of the gun, as you can confirm by looking at any picture of one from the right-hand side of the gun (ejection port side).

But it gets even stranger. When they show the gun lying on the ground, it is not a Star Model B, but rather, a Star Model BM (compact version of the Star Model B):



You can tell it is a Model BM rather than a Model B because it has a shorter barrel and it has slanted slide serrations (the Model B has vertical slide serrations like traditional 1911-pattern guns do). Additionally it has the other Star calling cards, such as the external extractor; funky thumb safety and equally funky safety notch in the slide; funky slide release lever; curved out area at the bottom of the front strap, etc. It is also in like-new condition while the Star Model B prop that Selleck is using has a fairly worn finish.

The following picture illustrates the difference between vertical and slanted slide serrations:



So there were two guns that scene (Star Models B and BM), neither of which were the usual Colt Government Model prop. That poor Star Model BM lying on the ground is funny when you think about it:

It is a Star Model BM 9mm playing the role of a Star Model B 9mm which is playing the role of a Colt Government Model 9mm which is playing the role of a Colt Government Model .45 ACP.

[only looking]

....LOL The world of Magnum PI.

[J.J. Walters]

It is a Star Model BM 9mm playing the role of a Star Model B 9mm which is playing the role of a Colt Government Model 9mm which is playing the role of a Colt Government Model .45 ACP.

Wild!

Maybe Magnum just has a bunch of different handguns? He normally carries the Colt .45, but maybe he sometimes likes to break out the Star Model? And the Pocket 9? And the Walther PPK?

[MaximRecoil]

It is a Star Model BM 9mm playing the role of a Star Model B 9mm which is playing the role of a Colt Government Model 9mm which is playing the role of a Colt Government Model .45 ACP.

Wild!

Maybe Magnum just has a bunch of different handguns? He normally carries the Colt .45, but maybe he sometimes likes to break out the Star Model? And the Pocket 9? And the Walther PPK?

LOL

Magnum must be a propmaster on the side, because they are pretty much the only people in the U.S. that have/had Star Model Bs. One even made its way into Pulp Fiction, even though by that time, there was no need for them anymore (not even a need for 9mm versions of 1911s). In fact, Travolta's character carried an actual 1911-pattern .45 ACP (Auto-Ordnance brand), but Jackson's character carried a Star Model B 9mm.

My theory is that it had been sitting in inventory since before the 1970s, and had already been done up long ago with the chrome or nickel finish and pearl grips. Rather than finding another Star Model B (which aren't common in the U.S., and were probably even scarce among Hollywood gun rental firms by the mid-'90s, considering no one had really needed them since 1971), they just did up an el cheapo Auto-Ordnance 1911A1-pattern .45 with the same chrome or nickel finish and pearl grips, so that they could have the "matching" pair that they needed for the movie.

They used a real Colt Government Model (9mm version) in the pilot movie for both Magnum's gun and Philippe's Vietnam flashback gun (Philippe's gun at the end in the bathroom scene appeared to be a Walther PPK from what little was shown of it).

Were the episodes filmed in the same order that they aired in? If so then China Doll was the first regular show of the series (not counting the pilot movie). Maybe someone got a deal on the Stars and figured they would be "close enough" for use on the regular episodes. Fortunately, I don't think the Stars ever showed up again (though I'll be keeping an eye out). Maybe someone complained; possibly even Selleck (he is a gun enthusiast after all).

Ironically, China Doll is one of the episodes where Magnum's gun is directly referred to as a "forty-five".

[J.J. Walters]

National Firearms Museum Senior Curator Phil Schreier discusses Magnum's gun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt7yu1Y6_lE

[paperwar]

Thanks for the link!

pw