The Saga of the recreation of
this Film Prop.
Our goal was to recreate this prop as completely and accurately as
possible.
There a have been countless tries, and most were off in so many ways.
Never has there been a truly successful recreation of the form, function,
and details of the venerable blaster…until now.
We set out to do it completely right.
The underlying research was done by a team of two, Phil Steinschneider
and yours truly, Richard Coyle – with a late addition and many
contributions by Craig Kovach.
Phil and I had many talks about this prop at the outset
to nail down what we really knew. With my inside information
that the original concealed a 5-shot revolver for the pyrotechnics
seen on screen, quite possibly a Smith and Wesson 38, the hunt was
on.
“Armed” with a screen capture print of
the blaster from the scene where Deckard drops his gun onto the street
outside Sebastian’s apartment, Phil visited several gun shops
searching for the right gun. When he showed this scene shot to his
gunsmith, Sandy Garret of Northern Virginia Gun Works, Inc., Mr. Garrett
immediately spotted the details of a Charter Arms model Bulldog .44
special.
When Phil showed me pictures of a Bulldog I, too, knew we had
finally found the correct hand gun: the triggers, the frame around the
triggers, the removable trigger guard and hand grip frame, the cylinder
swing out arm, the cylinder thumb latch, and the cartridge retainer
and ramp for the cylinder latch pin – all matched perfectly.
Phil located and purchased a Charter Arms Bulldog
.44 revolver and a Steyr-Mannlicher Model SL rifle that were used
to pull molds and create master patterns for the project. The
Steyr required barrel removal by an expert gunsmith, courtesy of Sandy
Garrett at North Virginia Gun Works.
