Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) returns with his ".44 Magnum", a Smith & Wesson Model 29 with an 8 3/8" barrel (this time not a Model 25 standing in) as his famous sidearm in the film. According to the dialogue, Callahan .44 loads are in fact .44 Special ammunition, as indicated by the following dialogue. "It's a light Special. This size gun it gives you better control and less recoil than a .357 Magnum with wadcutters."
Officer John Davis (David Soul) and the rest of the "Deathsquad" police officers carry 4" Colt Python revolvers, as well as just about every other officer of the SFPD. During the police shooting competition, Davis lets Insp. Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) try out his Python, in which he deliberately misses a target to analyze the slug with a ballistics microscope. In the film the guns are shown capable of being sound suppressed, while this particular revolver has a gap between the barrel and cylinder that is too great and allows gases to escape, as well as sound. Not to mention the guns are not built to thread a suppressor, so such a modification would be quite difficult. Callahan's partner Inspector Early Smith (Felton Perry) carries a 2" Python as his sidearm as well.
A Smith & Wesson M76 submachine gun is seen used by one of the "Death Squad" officers to kill a large number of underworld folks at a swimming pool party.
Trivia: Anyone who owns a copy of the DVD may note this scene is called "The Dead Pool" in the scene index, a play on the fifth installment in the Dirty Harry series, The Dead Pool.
During the plane hijack, the two hijackers use Smith & Wesson Model 10 revolvers as their weapons. When Insp. Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) infiltrates the plane disguised as a pilot, he knocks out one of them and uses the gun to kill the other hijacker as he flees. Another Model 10 is seen in the hands of a robber during the grocery store stakeout scene.
When Insp. Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) and Insp. Early Smith (Felton Perry) are assigned to the stakeout mission in the grocery store, one of the robber holds a sawed off Double Barreled Shotgun with exposed hammers on Smith before the robber is shot by Callahan.
During the shootout outside Frank Palencio's (Tony Giorgio) place with the police, one of Frank's men uses a hammerless shotgun, also sawed off. Do to continuity error, the gun fires off three shots from only two barrels.
One of the robbers during the stakeout scene in the grocery store uses a Beretta 951. A thug during the shootout in Frank Palancio's (Tony Giorgio) place, the shotgun-wielding thug tries to draw a Beretta but is killed by Officer Davis (David Soul) before he can fire off a shot.
The murderous pimp (Albert Popwell) hides a Colt Detective Special between his legs when pulled over by Officer Davis (David Soul) but is shot before he can use it. Insp. Early Smith (Felton Perry) has a Colt Detective Special hidden under the counter during the stakeout in the grocery store. An officer is seen using a Detective Special to shoot targets during the police competition.
