The Gunslinger's Guns - General Discussion

[John Blaze]

2. I know nothing about guns. Whether King made mistakes in describing them or he made them up, doesn't matter to me.

The majority of Dt fans are like you, and this is why it works. If he would have wrote this book series targeting gun junkies as readers, he'd have taken a major nosedive. Gun owners are some of the pickiest sons of bitches when it comes to anything gun related.

"It's not a clip, it's a magazine"

"they're called rounds, not bullets"

trust me, go in a gun forum and it's Nitpick City.

I myself am not so picky. I did say from the beginning that there is no way the guns could exist the way described. He described too contradictorily.

[Mad Man]

[quote=MonteGss;321017]

2. I know nothing about guns. Whether King made mistakes in describing them or he made them up, doesn't matter to me.

Yeh i agree with you. I'm happy that they do have guns there and i imagine 'em in my own way - haven't seen a gun in this forum which would be even close to the guns in my head My gunslingers in my head are special i guess

[Matt]

I'm the same on the guns, never gave them a second glance.

They fell under the category of "magic guns" right away.

[Darkthoughts]

2. Artistic liberties in the comics aside, Arthur Eld calls his guns "Colts" and "Peacemakers." The Colt SAA was known as the Peacemaker. Therefore, that is what Roland's guns are.

Actually, no. Arthur Eld's first set of guns were the ones he called Colts and Peacemakers, however, they were destroyed by the venom of the giant snake Saita (Gunslinger Born #3 - backstory) so Arthur had new guns forged from the blade of Excalibur...and those are the guns Roland has

[Wuducynn]

2. Artistic liberties in the comics aside, Arthur Eld calls his guns "Colts" and "Peacemakers." The Colt SAA was known as the Peacemaker. Therefore, that is what Roland's guns are.

Actually, no. Arthur Eld's first set of guns were the ones he called Colts and Peacemakers, however, they were destroyed by the venom of the giant snake Saita (Gunslinger Born #3 - backstory) so Arthur had new guns forged from the blade of Excalibur...and those are the guns Roland has

*Slam!*

[Matt of Gilead]

Fair enough. That would make any issues with their operation merely the result of imperfect copying.

[Darkthoughts]

Fair enough. That would make any issues with their operation merely the result of imperfect copying.

My thoughts exactly It's either a sneaky way to get around any inconsistencies - or, as Matt said, it just firmly places them in the category of "magic guns"

[lead dealer]

I'll buy that one!

In a world that has moved on, who can really tell?!

[Rcampebll]

i personally believe that the look something like this these are what i have tattooed on my back

[lead dealer]

1851 colt navy, brass frame. Nice balance, points well. Alas is a muzzel loader. And no swing out cylender. I think I went prematuraly grey trying to figure out what the revolvers in the sereis came close to. Here is the closest in, caliber (The one in the book is not sutable for a revolver) Barrel length, Being double action, and the swing out cylender. Just needs all the coustom engraveing work and the sandal wood grips.

Hope it helps, but this is the best this gun guy can come up with..

[Darkthoughts]

I think it's great we have you guys here to share this knowledge. It's very helpful for visualising the story

[Rcampebll]

i think that the main reason that King really didnt go into detail about the Guns of his father is because he wants all of us to visualize out own idea on the matter. As if we were to say if i was a gunslinger i would imagine myself with these. I know that the picture i put wasnt technically right but i just used it as a visual effect there are some Black powder revolvers out there in which you can take the cylinder out and replace it with a preloaded one which is how i visualize "Rolands reloading trick" which they never actually describe how its done and all. i just used the colt navy to show what a black powder looks like and that is one of the most famous and all but thats just my two cents

[osseolax28]

Like in Pale Rider and clint eastwood using the 1858 with the conversion cylinder.
I cant imagine it like that b/c of what king says in The Drawing, and like lead dealer said, he would have to have a bunch of extra cylinders, something king couldnt leave out.

Rolands trick in my mind is him swinging out the chambers and holstering the guns with them still out and puting six shells in each gun at the same time. like the way Charlie prince reloads his Schofields in 310 to yuma, puting a shell between each finger

[Rcampebll]

well yea but like i said to each there own so its just how you see it i guess

[lead dealer]

From a tecnical aspect,(sorry the job speaking) given the information from the sereis. The Colt New service is this wolds closest firearm.With all the features listed in the trilogy. But, as many better men than I have said "there are other worlds than these!" I can fully understand why he purpously left it a little vauge.

My Roland "Gunslinger" Special is a heavely blued Colt 1917 with rose wood grips. Still looking for the identical mate. Learing to shoot it as a south paw has gotten a little trickey.

Nore ramblings from a gun nut in some long forgotten level of the tower

"Lead dealer"

Head gunsmith
Old trooper Gunsmiths

[Jon]

My Roland "Gunslinger" Special is a heavely blued Colt 1917 with rose wood grips.

[Callahan o' the Roads]

SPOILER ALERT:
In the comic series, Arthur Eld sometimes calls his guns "Colts", and at other times "Peacemakers". There is no rose at the end of the barrels, but rather Arthur's dinh-mark, which means "Eld". when Steven Deschain wields them, they look pretty long in the barrels.

[Matt]

Great observation Callahan--welcome to the site.

[Nightfall]

So uhm.. just to keep a conversation going on in this thread

What do you a 'prentice's guns were based off of?

Perhaps the same guns that they used when they grew into true Gunslingers, just purposely weighted or maybe worn out?

Gogo Gadget Attempt To Start Theorycrafting!

[lead dealer]

They would proabaly be more worn cheaper made revolvers. The Gunslingers guns would be the finely tuned, ornately decorated peices. The apperntice guns would be an abused, plain, oft repaired wheel guns.... These would be like a millitary units or police departments training weapons. Many shooters learn how to shoot on these pistols and eventualy graduate to your personel peices.

Look at it this way.
Rolands gun: Colt coustom shop, with coustom grips and engraving.

Apprentice gun: 30year old iver johnson, 20% of its finish left and cracked, mismatched grips....

[BigIron]

Hi guys. I wanted to correct some of the details listed by lead dealer in regards to what we know about Roland's guns.

-Cal.: The Winchester .45 that Roland identifies as the ammo that will fit his guns is the .45 Long Colt (sometimes referred to as just the .45 Colt). This ammo can be found from a number of manufacturers.

-Action: Roland's guns are actually single action as the pictures portray. There are numerous instances where this is apparent (descriptions of the characters thumbing back the hammer when it would not be necessary or practical to do so, unless it was required). I think Sai King just didn't want to have to write "he/she thumbed back the hammer..." every time he described the action going on in the scene.

-Barrel Length: From all the descriptions, the barrel is almost certainly the 7 1/2 inches of the original Peacemaker (1873 Colt Single Action Army) .

-The Gun: Keep in mind that Roland's gun was made by the people of his world, from the steel of Arthur Eld's sword. From reading the series a few times, and from hearing Sai King talk about it, my opinion is that the closest gun to Roland's, available today, is the style of the 1873 Colt SAA with the 7 1/2 inch barrel. The major difference being the swing out cylinder, which can be attributed to the difference in worlds/makers/etc. in the story. Today you can find this style made by Colt, Ruger (Vaquero and New Vaquero), Beretta (Stampede), as well as some others.

And to Sam, I am going to post an image of my Ruger New Vaquero on here shortly, which has custom grips made from Yellow Heart wood. That is the closest I have found to the descriptions of the Sandalwood grips of Roland's guns.

[lead dealer]

What we have here are my meger reprisations of the gunslingers guns. the pretty colt (the fabled new service I have railed about so much) is a, large caliber (this case .45, acp/auto rim) double action, swing cylender. Blued and polished with rosewood grips. This would be the graduated gunslingers "duty" peice. The one to be passed down to his kin...

The other is what I think an "apprentice" pistol would be like. This is a well worn, double action only top break. It is in a weaker caliber (32 s&w, in this case) and not as well finished. This is a nickeled iver johnson saftey model, .... AKA the McKinley special.

[Munchausen]

My first impression of what Roland's revolvers were like, aside from the reflexive Colt Peacemaker, involved the .454 Casul. It's a nickleplated nightmare yer supposed to hunt bears with, yar. It only holds 5 rounds and the cylinder is smooth with no recesses. You might have seen it in the movie Alienation with James Caan?
But with the Arthur Eld lore and such, I'm figuring that the have to be one-offs that defy industrial processing. Kinda in the same vein as all those Mexican gunsmiths. Sure the bore had to be consistant with some established calibur but the rest could be very unique and handmade as long as breakage wasn't an issue.
Then there's that stuff towards the end of Drawing of the Three. I am not familiar with .45 Wincester. They make Colt loads but not something unique like the .300 winmag.
As for Mr. King's overall firearms knowledge, I submit that the weapon Tricks was using in Eddie's first shootout was actually an m60 machinegun as opposed to the stated m16 assault rifle. Maybe this just reflects my low opinion of the 16 to begin with.

[Claude Clay]

most likely of the Colt SAA 45LC 7.5"
vaqueros are made off of the blackhawk frame [which is why they will fire loads up to 454 Casul] of which the edges are smoothed and the sights are fixed. the new vaquaros are made on a smaller frame [closer to the Colt SAA] and don't take kindly to prolonged use of hot loads.
______________________________
make a fire for a man and you warm him for the nite
light him on fire and you warm him for the rest of his life

[lead dealer]

They are nice pistols, yes. But neither of them is a double action swing cylinder. Witch is what it mentions in the books. This has been my dilemma for the last few years, hence why I came up with the Colt new service.
As far as the .45 winchester there is no such round. the closest is the .45 winchester magnum. This is an elongated .45 acp ctg. But alas it is a rimless round not suitable for a revolver....
Low opinion of the m-16 series. Join the club. Most of us just got back from gods catbox too......