User talk:The Mercenary

A-Team, Hanibal Smith's Chrome Pistol

I do believe George always used the S&W Auto. I never saw him use anything else.

Wild Geese II

After years of research into the firearms used on the film Wild Geese II i can say that i'm nowhere near what i'd call a conclusion. However i have made a breakthrough in the prop/fake rifle used Edward Fox's character Alex Faulkner, although this new information lacks any photographs other than screen shots.

The Survivor Rifle, is in fact a .45 Safari Arms M1911A1 clone, similar in appearance to Kimber's version(thanks to a fellow member for that part). What the film's armourer did was pretty unique for the time in action adventure films, it had been done with sci-fi movies, he turned a relatively low velocity hand gun into a short/close range sniper rifle (n.b. not my words).

First he designed a cover that would extend the length of the pistol's slide and its full action, allowing only the trigger guard and the pistol grip to be visable. To make the weapon functional he cut out to slots on the right hand side, the first was to act as a ejection port for spent cartridges. The second was a long slot that would allow a cocking handle to be attatched to the slide, as the slide was covered and the weapon single action. A t-bar shaped handle similar to the ones on MG34's and MG42's was then welded to the slide(in fact it might have come off a redundant MG42). Next came the the stock, a light weight t-bar shape similar tothose used on various Sten guns, it was attached directly to the back of fake upper reciever. Finally a fake suppressor was manufactured, at the end that fixed to the pistol's barrel it was machined with a ribbed texture to aid the user's grip.

In the end the rifle couldn't be made to work due to the complex ejection port, so when you see it used in the film its always just a sound effect, and you're always focused on the target and not the shooter. Amazingly in the novel the character uses a suppressed Draginov!!!!!!