I once owned a Ruger .44 Mag. I am willing to bet you would have found that to kick hard. I would have kept it, but I decided my chances of being mugged by a Belgian draught horse were small.
- Rick
You might look at the Browning Hi-Power. It’s a smaller frame, but smooth trigger action and an easy feel.
Myself, being a Ruger fan… I like the P89DC. It’s not small (same frame as their .45ACP) but it’s solid and dependable.
- Rick
Here’s what I think might be a plausible answer to Pushkin’s question. Since he mentioned movie stunt man, I can’t help but recall that the action packed Hollywood shootouts we see today were actually copied from movies in Hong Kong just in the recent years.
In the early days of Hollywood, your everyday shootout basically involved two people drawing their guns in the middle of the street. Even at its height, it only evolved to Clint Eastwood cutting down bad guys left and right as he took a walk outside for some fresh air.
Naturally, the ever-evolving movie audiences soon began to lust for more action. I think it was around the 80’s when Hollywood laid eyes on Hong Kong action films, which had horrendous acting and stories, but amazing gunfights and martial arts scenes. The result of this influence wasn’t all that noticeable until the 90’s, when you started to see films like * Lethal Weapon 4, The Replacement Killers * and * The Matrix. *
Incidentally, this brings us back to the topic at hand 
Chow Yun-Fat, the lead actor in * The Replacement Killers, * is practically the god of all gunfights in Hong Kong action films. I’m under the impression that he’s the one who made sideway shooting so famous. A common scene would be our hero, when surrounded by a roomful of bad guys, draws his two pistols, kneels, crosses his arms at the wrist with his palms facing down (i.e. held gun sideways), and starts pulling the trigger madly as he swept across the room in a half circle. By the end of the sequence, you have a pile of bodies and bullet shells lying around our hero without him ever reloading. Yes, it sounds pretty stupid, but it looks damn good, and it totally blew away the Hollywood filmmakers. This was the late 70’s and early 80’s after all. Similar stunts have also been trickling over from Hong Kong, although I still haven’t seen the catch-a-gun-in-mid-air-and-pump-the-villain-full-of-lead-before-you-land-on-the-ground scene here yet 
There you go. That’s my guess…
I have a Kimber Stainless Match .45 with a extra barrel, slide and spring in .22 to try to save some money at the range. .45 cartridges are pricey. I find the 1911 .45 very comfortable to shoot and fun, too. I have tried various holsters to see how concealable it is and it isn’t too bulky for me. I am 6’2" and 195 pounds. I seen some guys about my size or a little bigger carry them and they are invisible. It’s large, but thin. Plus, what a great combat handgun. Of course, I’m not allowed to carry concealed in KS, so the point is moot, but maybe someday I’ll move or something.
Originally posted by special:
Sure, special, corrado mentioned the jamming aspect. I think I referred to “the later post.” [corrado’s] As for the rest, Padeye used the phrases “impossible to hit” and “Hollywood is … bad” in his first post in this thread. I think my response was within bounds.
Many of the “guns” used in the early western movies were more than a little fake anyhow. Even though there were a number of other revolvers in common use in the last quarter of the 19th century, the movie producers seem to think everybody had Colt SAA’s. But the same folks don’t seem to think it’s necessary that the actors COCK the damn things before they pull their triggers. Later westerns addressed this point of accuracy.
I don’t know why fortune smiles on some and lets the rest go free…
T
I heard the above suggested theories before, and they sound perfectly plausible. Holding a gun sideways is supposed to look cool (I don’t know who thinks this, but I guess there’s somebody), and it allows a clear view of the actor’s face.
A slightly less plausible theory is that the practice originates, in a different form, in Israel. According to this theory, the Israelis recommend that when right-handed folks are forced to shoot handguns with their left hand, they cant the gun inwards (top tilted rightwards) about 30 or 45 degrees. This allows their (presumably weaker) left arm a little extra strength and still allows the sights to be used normally. I don’t know why the canted hold is stronger, but that’s what the theory says. And with some Israeli weapons (the Uzi pistol, for instance), I can definitely see why you’d want the strongest grip possible. Plus, the ejection port is angled down so the case doesn’t fly across your vision and bounce around so much…
Anyway, it’s just a theory. Don’t know any Israeli firearms instructors, though, so I can’t confirm it.
bricker, i gotta go w/ you on the .44. i once did targets at an indoor range w/ a variety of guns, including a s&w 15, my 19, and .44. the guy i was w/ is tall & stocky & collected guns & let me do the .44, all the while telling me to be careful because of the kick.
w/ all his warnings i didn’t know what to expect. i didn’t lose it, of course; but he refused to sell it to me anyway because he said i was too little for so much gun.
the noise, of course, is more like a percussion going on inside your head than any external noise. the kick was definitely there, which made rapid fire for me not feasible if i expected to hit anything on the back wall instead of the ceiling. oh, but it was fun. kapowwwww!
If you don’t mind my asking, how little are you?
I have had an ex-girlfriend get pretty good with the .44 and with my Desert Eagle 10mm. She was 5’3", maybe 110#. A more daunting problem than the kick was the grip size; neither gun was comfortable for her because they were hard to hold in her hands. But she learned to handle the kick… she was small but strong. 
- Rick
My grandfather gave me his Casull fifty Caliber revolver about 5 years ago. It only holds 4 rounds. It kicks so hard it almost makes my shoulder blades clap together.
Surprisingly it has practical uses. Like shooting down trees and making wood chips
bricker, i’m 5’3.5", 118#. but he was about 6’3", 300#, ex nypd detective sargent. everybody looked little to him. i actually think he was just a tad upset that i could shoot it as well as i could.
had no trouble w/ the grips, tho. i replaced the walnut grips off my 19 with pachs, altho i did get another set of oversized wooden grips, too. my gun instructor said the larger grips would make for a better hold, & i believe he was right.
s&w standard wooden grips, of course, are known for how sharp they can be, bad for the web of your hand if you aren’t doing much shooting or are using heavy loads. naturally, w/ a 19 i’m already shooting mag loads (duh), but i do like doing +p’s. more challenging to keep on target.
The holding the gun sideways started with a Jamaican gang in, of all places, Quebec, Canada. It was their “trademark”.
Back in the 60s & 70s the gang was smuggling drugs across the Canada/US border. They got involved in gang wars with the various biker gangs in Quebec, and lost (no doubt because they shoot their guns sideways :)). So, they went to Detroit and then Los Angeles. The shooting sideways caught on with other gangs in Los Angeles.
The reason why they started holding it sideways in the first place? It makes the gun harder to disarm. There is some degree of truth to this, but it also really messes up your aim. Consider the relative difficulty of diarming a gun anyway, it seems a bit silly.
I cannot swear to the 100% authenticity of these “facts”. I got heard the story from two different policemen in Canada, and one in the states (a Los Angeles police detective). It is possible it is a UL. Certainly, none of these three people have any reason to lie, but they still could be wrong.
Nominee for 2nd Annual SDMB Awards:
- Most rational in the face of a heated argument
- BBQ Pit’s Rookie of the Year
I’ve got the Ruger GP141 - very similar to the S&W 19; it’s a medium-frame .357 with a 4" barrel.
I usually shoot three boxes of .357 Mag and three or four of .38 wadcutters – easier than the +P loads, and after three boxes of the Mag loads I can barely feel the regular .38s. But I like the nice round holes they make in the target.
My former girlfriend notwithstanding, you are in a very small minority of women that comfortably shoot such a big gun.
S&W makes a 3" barrel .44 Mag (Model 296, I think) which you might try. I wouldn’t recommend depending on it for target shooting, unless both you and the target are both located in a small closet… but for a concealed carry weapon with superb stopping power, it’s hard to beat… and if you’re comfortable now with the .357 Mag loads, I rather suspect you can master the .44 load in no time!
- Rick
Bricker said to me
Hubby just got a .44 mag for Christmas, and I haven’t fired it yet. Did fire a Desert Eagle .50 caliber. Wouldn’t have liked to put a whole box of rounds through it, but it was so well balanced it really didn’t kick that bad. I, personally, own a .45 Colt, Ruger Vaquero .45 long colt, and Smith & Wesson .357. No problems with any of them. BTW, the Colt is the only semi-auto, the rest are revolvers. The .357 is the most accurate thing I have ever shot.
I found a dead link when I looked for the Internet Firearms Directory. If anyone has a new URL for it let me know.
A shame because it had a large section on movie goofs and misinformation about firearms. Just about every goof from Sergeant York to Die Hard(er, ier, est, etc.) is in there. My Personal favorite is Bruce Willis describing a Glock 17 (he calls it a 7 but there is no such thing) as being made of porcelan and “costing more than you make in a year.”
My Jesus fish can beat up your Darwin fish but forgives it instead.
On top of that (the Glock 7 line from Die Hard 2), did they expect us to think that his bullets were ceramic too?
About Chow Yun Fat: I can’t come up with a link or anything, but I’ve heard that John Woo, who directed many Chow Yun Fat films in Hong Kong and is now starting a career in the US, likes to make his movies like a comic book. Thus, you’ll never see a reload unless it’s important to the action. John Woo more or less invented the ‘gun opera’. You can see a lot of the style in his gunfight scenes in Face/Off, which he directed.
If you wanna see an obscene amount of violence and shooting without reloading, check out Hardcore, with John Woo directing Chow Yun Fat in more fierce gun action than you can shake a Black Talon at.
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- All you say is true. I should have said, I was referring to the story about why Berettas became popular with street gangs around the same time as Lethal Weapon. It’s true that regular gun-enthusiasts knew about the Beretta before that, but if you watch the news you know that for the most part, the most destructive guns are never used - never chosen, often never known about by the likes of the Bloods and the Cripps. To put it coldly, they don’t know how to pick a weapon, and then don’t know how to use it. Which is good, mind you, but it bears noting what influences their decisions. The author found that gang members base their preferences largely on fashion, and Lethal Weapon had more than a passing affect on that. - MC
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MC, I’m not trying to be a wiseass but where do you find out what kind of weapons are actually popular with street gangs?
Padeye, maybe this is the site you’re looking for? It has a different name, but I did find something on that porcelan Glock 17…
http://www.recguns.com/
Check out the movie mishaps section.
I don’t mean to hijack this post, but it just occurred to me: do they make “lefty” guns that kick the spent cartridge out the other side? Are they specialty guns, or when the dealer takes a new (insert popular gun name here) out from the display case, can you say “oops–you’d better give me the southpaw model.”?
My life was saved by rock and roll. --Lou Reed
Yeah, I believe they do make lefty semiauto pistols that kick the shell out the other side. They’re pretty hard to find, though; I suspect you’d have to special-order one through a dealer.
Lefty rifles, on the other hand, are a bit more common. You can find tables full of lefty rifles at gun shows, with the bolt on the ‘wrong’ side. Which is a good thing; it must suck to try to shoot lefty with a right-handed rifle, the bolt right smack in front of your face…