| Error creating thumbnail: File missing Join our Discord! |
| If you have been locked out of your account you can request a password reset here. |
(Day of the Jackal) - Custom Sniper Rifle
In The Day of the Jackal (1973), the assassin code-named The Jackal (Edward Fox) commissions a custom-made sniper rifle for his latest "job", designed to break down into slender parts, including a suppressor and telescopic sight, that can be concealed inside (or disguised as) the parts of a set of crutches. The gunsmith modifies an off-the-shelf sporting rifle by removing the furniture, shortening the barrel, and cutting the bolt away from the chamber mechanism.
N.B. In the novel, the master gunsmith who produces the rifle, Paul Goosens, is Belgian, a retired engineer for FN's factory in Liège. The film changed his nationality to Italian, and his surname to "Gozzi".
Two identical rifles were produced for the film, one being returned to England as per agreement.
The gun appears to be chambered for .22 Magnum, which is also what the "GURPS Covert Ops" pen-and-paper roleplaying game supplement book states, although some believe that it used .22 Hornet ammunition, judging by the bullets seen on screen.
In the film and the novel, they were said to have hollow tips filled with mercury in liquid form, to make them "explosive." Under the Geneva Conventions, only standard ball ammunition is allowed for use on against enemy soldiers on battlefields, while it remains legal to use other kinds of ammunition when firing at inanimate targets, firing at "unlawful belligerents" such as terrorists and criminals, or equipping civil police forces. However, the Jackal is not concerned with such restrictions.