Lack of Speed-Loaders/Other Police Gear.

[Wyldwraith]

Hey,
Got to thinking about this. Rick (and apparently the other Deputies he works with) use revolvers. Don't know exactly what model, but I DO KNOW that Speed-Loaders have been in use for so long that they're common as dirt even in small towns across America. Seen em on the belts of Deputies in Dunnellon (small town adjoining the small city of Ocala, where I live. Dunnellon population: 8, 100-and something). Also remember seeing them at least twice in other states. Once in Huntington, West Virginia (where my mom's family is from originally), and once when the car I was riding in to a game convention in Cleveland, Ohio got pulled over for failing to signal as it changed lanes to get to the off-ramp.

Point being, why no Speed-Loaders...or even the Asp/collapsible riot batons popular amongst police in more "rural"/southern states?

Just an oddity I noticed. Rick and Shane are obviously conscientious about gun maintenance and are excellent shots. Just seems odd that if they were using revolvers, while at least some of the police at the Episode 1 roadblock were using 9mm's, that they took no steps to mitigate the lower round-capacity of the revolvers compared to the 9mm's. It sticks out, because "Rick cleaned out the cage back at the station"...I understand that they could easily have been left behind with the Bag O' Guns, but seemed at least slightly odd Rick wouldn't put one on his belt.

Gun/police procedure nuts: Thoughts?

[babomb]

I read somewhere that they filmed these episodes in 8 days...

[Eyebiter]

Good call on the handguns. They would have extra 9mm or .40 caliber Glock in the armory.
Rick carries a Colt Python .357 magnum revolver.

Firearms featured in the Walking Dead
http://www.imfdb.org/index.php/Walking_Dead%2C_The

Also noticed no one has an AR15/M16/M4 rifle. Locally even the small town police now carry both shotguns and M4's in the trunk of their car. With all the abandoned military vehicles and equipment shown so far, no one thought to pick up a dead soldiers weapon?

[childofgilead]

Honestly, the only cop at the roadblock that I saw to have a revolver was Rick, the rest seemed to use Glocks or shotguns. It's kinda strange to begin with, as the Python has been out of production for quite a while and a nickel plated piece is a bit more flashy than most on duty officers would carry. Maybe it was a gift? *shrug*

As for speedloaders, only officers who'd carry a revolver would have need for any, as someone carrying a semi-auto like a Glock would have a magazine pouch or two on their duty belts.

Oh, and some of prefer "weapon enthusiast" instead of gun nuts. ;)

*edit*, left the page open while browsing another page and came back only to see that eyebiter had answered pretty well and also gave the link to the awesome imfdb

But that's a really good question, about the military gear. Even the tank guys would've had an M-4 in addition to their back up pistols I'd think. Maybe they'd been looted already by some other group of survivors?

And yeah, most police agencies have higher powered assault rifles nowadays, either substituting for or in addition to their shotguns, because of the North Hollywood Shootout back in the 90s and how it showed them the need for increased firepower in some cases.

[babomb]

Technically then there's probly alot of police cruisers sitting around with M4's in the trunk.
Tank crews generally have SMG's on-board in addition to issue side-arms, but surely there'd be an M4 around too somewhere.
There's probly also some infantryman walking around with M4's and M9's still attached to their bodies because it's common policy now for them to use combat slings and retention lanyards to prevent their weapons from being taken.
I live in a small town 2 hours outside Chicago and the cops here have compacts like Glocks and Sig-Sauer's attached with lanyards, they also wear BDU's and refer to people as "individuals". Point being that even small town PD's are now militarized, except obviously for the Sheriff's dpt in TWD.
Even our counties Sheriff dpt wears brown BDU's as opposed to the PD officers that wear dark blue ones. Ricks uniform actually looks more like a jailers uniform than any on-duty officers I've seen in the last 10 years.
Seems to me that the reason it's being portrayed this way in TWD is because they're trying to make it clear that Rick is not a big city cop from Atlanta but a small town, old world, pre-9/11 cop. Which is probly why they have him carrying an out of production Python revolver.
They probly just didn't see the need or just didn't have the forethought to include scenes that showed Ricks duty belt complete with speedloaders or show him using 1. I think they're trying to focus on scenes that advance the story, and a scene like that really doesn't.
Personally I'd rather see more zombie scenes and/or rustic city environments than shots of equipment. That's just my own opinion though...

[Wyldwraith]

I've got one action-based gripe about the speed-loaders,
I REALLY detest two things when protagonists use revolvers. 1) Magic revolvers that fire 10-11 rounds without being reloaded. AKA: The Dirty Harry Effect.
2) Forcing the action to always be paced so if the script IS keeping track of the bullets fired, it seldom if ever becomes necessary to reload a revolver. Compare that to how often you see Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon or Bruce Willis in Die Hard slapping mags into semi-autos like they're going out of style.

In fact the only place I really have seen them used much is ::gags: Walker: Texas Ranger.

If they included a speed-loader or 2, Rick could be popping off more rounds without them having him juggle different weapons constantly (which people in real-life shooting situations DO NOT want to do!) It's flat-ass jarring going from even THINKING about using a shotgun then using a revolver, and back to the shotgun. Let alone DOING IT.

Guess that was where the core of my "issue", small-scale as it is, lay.

Edit: Colt Python's were in limited by-order-only production until 2005. So Rick's piece isn't THAT out of date. Look at the classic cop characters in other shows they depict as lugging around the same .38 their entire careers...

[childofgilead]

You're right Wyld, about the Python being a sort of special order kind of thing, I mostly meant the finish on his piece, along with the wooden handgrips. On the one hand it makes sense for him to use it as it has alot more punch than a 9mm round and of course much less chance of misfires, etc, but on the other hand, for somebody as by the book and..well, certainly not BORING, but kind of unassuming a guy as Rick is, I just thought the nickel plated Python was a bit flashier than would be expected..*shrug*

I guess I kinda prefer the shorter 4'' barrel than the 6 he seems to have..guess I'm prejudiced, heh heh.

[DjfunkmasterG]

I could have sworn rick was wearing the speed loader carriers on his police gun belt.

Some really great weapons in the show, especially ricks Python.

The Glock 17 is a fantastic firearm, the .45 is also a great pistol, I have a theatrical plugged version of that pistol that we used in Deadlands 1.

I own a P85 9mm myself, as well as a S&W .40 The P85 I purchased back in 1995/96 I believe and the .40 I bought in 2001

I was a bit surprised there were no M4's or even an M16 around... but I also went with the looting theory.

[Sammich]

Barney Fife only carried one round for his revolver and it was kept in his shirt pocket.

[swatguyjon]

Hey guys, longtime lurker decided to actually open an account here. I'm in law enforcement, county. I'll give my take on the different guns and lack of guns. It almost always comes down to agencies budget. Depending on what agency you are with, city, county, state (not Federal though), all carry different handguns, long guns (shotguns, rifles...). In our county we all carry Glocks (.40 cal for patrol and .45 for SWAT), the one city agency carries .40 cal Sigs and another carries a different type ( I can't remember off the top of my head). Some of the smaller agencies, the deputies or officers can decide on what to carry (the difference between Rick's gun and everyone else's). As far as the long guns go, I have two views on it: people stole/hoarding them and like I said earlier budget. Rick's agency could be like on the of the agencies in the state I live. The patrol officers are not issued M4's, AR/15 or M16's, a select few have 870's and only their SWAT team (of 6 guys)carries M4s (thanks to Homeland Security grant). Thats my take on the lack off guns and differences of handguns. Great show so far, I enjoy how it goes from the original story line to the new one and back and forth.

[DjfunkmasterG]

Hey guys, longtime lurker decided to actually open an account here. I'm in law enforcement, county. I'll give my take on the different guns and lack of guns. It almost always comes down to agencies budget. Depending on what agency you are with, city, county, state (not Federal though), all carry different handguns, long guns (shotguns, rifles...). In our county we all carry Glocks (.40 cal for patrol and .45 for SWAT), the one city agency carries .40 cal Sigs and another carries a different type ( I can't remember off the top of my head). Some of the smaller agencies, the deputies or officers can decide on what to carry (the difference between Rick's gun and everyone else's). As far as the long guns go, I have two views on it: people stole/hoarding them and like I said earlier budget. Rick's agency could be like on the of the agencies in the state I live. The patrol officers are not issued M4's, AR/15 or M16's, a select few have 870's and only their SWAT team (of 6 guys)carries M4s (thanks to Homeland Security grant). Thats my take on the lack off guns and differences of handguns. Great show so far, I enjoy how it goes from the original story line to the new one and back and forth.


Welcome Swatguy glad you decided to join in the conversation dude. We are a fun group... some of us assholes... like me, but it is all in fun.

I was actually thinking about what you posted and that is true. i completely forgot I had an uncle who was a small town cop and the PD had very little in terms of weaponry. In fact my Uncle had more guns in his collection than the police department.

Side Note... The Sig .40's are a slick weapon. Fired one of those not too long ago, but I felt the S&W version is a much better pistol

[swatguyjon]

Side Note... The Sig .40's are a slick weapon. Fired one of those not too long ago, but I felt the S&W version is a much better pistol
Thanks for the welcome! I've always enjoyed it here. The Sig .40's are nice, the one I Shot was a double/single action with the single action being the lightest trigger pull I have ever felt. A co-worker of mine bought the new S&W M&P 9MM http://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Category4_750001_750051_757954_-1_757781_757781_image Talk about a sweet gun, that is a must. Sorry for the off topic.

[Yojimbo]

Hey guys, longtime lurker decided to actually open an account here. I'm in law enforcement, county. I'll give my take on the different guns and lack of guns. It almost always comes down to agencies budget. Depending on what agency you are with, city, county, state (not Federal though), all carry different handguns, long guns (shotguns, rifles...). In our county we all carry Glocks (.40 cal for patrol and .45 for SWAT), the one city agency carries .40 cal Sigs and another carries a different type ( I can't remember off the top of my head). Some of the smaller agencies, the deputies or officers can decide on what to carry (the difference between Rick's gun and everyone else's). As far as the long guns go, I have two views on it: people stole/hoarding them and like I said earlier budget. Rick's agency could be like on the of the agencies in the state I live. The patrol officers are not issued M4's, AR/15 or M16's, a select few have 870's and only their SWAT team (of 6 guys)carries M4s (thanks to Homeland Security grant). Thats my take on the lack off guns and differences of handguns. Great show so far, I enjoy how it goes from the original story line to the new one and back and forth.

Welcome swatguy to the madhouse!

[Sammich]

There wouldn't be many speedloaders around as the standard procedure is to let them fall to the ground after the rounds drop into the chambers. Unless they do repetetive training with a mag dump bag, people under heavy stress will just let the speedloaders/mags fall to the ground.

There should have been LOTS of empty M16 mags and 5.56 brass around the abandoned helicopters outside the hospital because it looks like that place was overrun. I dunno, maybe the zombies picked up all of that stuff and took it to the recycler for beer money.

[MikePizzoff]

I read somewhere that they filmed these episodes in 8 days...

A) I highly doubt that. Where did you read that?

B) What does that have to do with the topic?

[swatguyjon]

There wouldn't be many speedloaders around as the standard procedure is to let them fall to the ground after the rounds drop into the chambers. Unless they do repetetive training with a mag dump bag, people under heavy stress will just let the speedloaders/mags fall to the ground.

There should have been LOTS of empty M16 mags and 5.56 brass around the abandoned helicopters outside the hospital because it looks like that place was overrun. I dunno, maybe the zombies picked up all of that stuff and took it to the recycler for beer money.
Good call on the dropping the reloader after loading. One thing we were always taught was to not catch the mag when we reload, just let it drop to the ground. Worry more about stopping the threat then having to bend down and pick up an empty mag.

[babomb]

A Documentary Style
On Boyd’s crew, there’s no hierarchy of importance among the three cameras — there’s no A camera per se. “Oftentimes what would be considered C camera gets the most unproduced shot, because that is the angle or shot that gets talked about the least,” he says. “It’s free to go find something that is particularly special, especially after a couple of takes. We have more than a dozen characters, and they all participate. We did these episodes in eight days. We had to find ways to cover everything, quickly, and that led to trusting the operators to find great shots.”
Here's the text from the article. You can read the full article in my "cinematography" thread.
The relevance is that shooting it in 8 days would make such attention to detail impractical.
When shooting and/or editing a film you stick to things that progress the story, especially when there's budget and/or time constraints.
While equipment shots may satisfy hardcore genre fans it doesn't progress the story, and could possibly create a gap in the flow of the film. And for what? To satisfy fans that examine the show through a microscope? There's no value in doing that.

[general tbag]

Yes i fail to believe no one has a military grade weapon ! also hard to believe not one ak47 has shown up.

anyone notice the .50 cal next to the tank ready to rock?>

ALso where did the grenade rick have go to?

[kidgloves]

ALso where did the grenade rick have go to?

Good question they made a point of showing it. Maybe Ricks saving it for the finale.

[Sammich]

Yes i fail to believe no one has a military grade weapon ! also hard to believe not one ak47 has shown up.



IMO, the lack of firearms is probably because the story revolves around what is deemed "regular everyday people" which the population can identify with and could be a reason why the motorhome group has survived so long. Lay low and don't do anything to attract attention.

The minority of people own several handguns, military pattern rifles, and thousands of rounds of ammo. Remember how reluctant Morgan was to shoot because the noise attracted zombies? Just think if a bunch of cod black ops 3 gun combat master armchair army seals armed with m4geries and aks have their wish granted to play a live version of Left 4 Dead. The dinner bell would be rung and then overrun, becoming victims of their own itchy trigger fingers. Then there are the people that buy a gun, shoot it once, and then put it away to collect dust. BANG...miss. BANG...miss. BANG...miss. Come and get it! Another buffet is open. :)

[general tbag]

IMO, the lack of firearms is probably because the story revolves around what is deemed "regular everyday people" which the population can identify with and could be a reason why the motorhome group has survived so long. Lay low and don't do anything to attract attention.

The minority of people own several handguns, military pattern rifles, and thousands of rounds of ammo. Remember how reluctant Morgan was to shoot because the noise attracted zombies? Just think if a bunch of cod black ops 3 gun combat master armchair army seals armed with m4geries and aks have their wish granted to play a live version of Left 4 Dead. The dinner bell would be rung and then overrun, becoming victims of their own itchy trigger fingers. Then there are the people that buy a gun, shoot it once, and then put it away to collect dust. BANG...miss. BANG...miss. BANG...miss. Come and get it! Another buffet is open. :)


easily fixed with a threaded barrel or a pop bottle.

Considering gun dealers outnumber gas stations in the US still find it hard to believe everyday folks still wouldnt have a high capacity military round weapon.

Closet was the .50 cal and i guess the whimpy beretta 9mill rick got in the tank.

[childofgilead]

Um, pop bottle silencers only work in movies.

[Sammich]

Um, pop bottle silencers only work in movies.

Yup.

Actual suppressors in reality don't make the soft "pew" noise in the movies either. Any projectiles going over 1100fps will still make a loud crack as it breaks the sound barrier no matter what suppressor is on a firearm. Subsonic ammo helps but still doesn't make gunfire "silent".

A lot of people have the misconception that you can walk into any gun store in the U.S. and just walk out with selectfire weapons and suppressors. This is not true for regular "civilians". The prices are very prohibitive ($6000+ for weapons, $500+ for suppressors) not to mention the having to get "approval" by local sherrif (if select fire/suppessor possession is allowed by state law) and the sometimes 1 month or more wait for a tax stamp ($200 fee) from atf.

---------- Post added at 04:43 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:26 AM ----------




Considering gun dealers outnumber gas stations in the US still find it hard to believe everyday folks still wouldnt have a high capacity military round weapon.

Closet was the .50 cal and i guess the whimpy beretta 9mill rick got in the tank.

Gun dealers outnumber gas stations? Sounds like anti-gun propaganda from Violence Policy Center.

1,15,223 gas stations in 2007 according to the U.S. Census
50,630 licensed gun dealers in 2007

The M2 .50 on the tank isn't exactly something you can just pick up and shoot Rambo style. It is designed to be either mounted on a vehicle or on a tripod. It is 84 lbs. and over 5 feet in length. The linked ammo isn't light either.

9mm is wimpy? It will kill just as dead as any round that is placed in a vital area.

[babomb]

not to mention the having to get "approval" by local sherrif (if select fire/suppessor possession is allowed by state law) and the sometimes 1 month or more wait for a tax stamp ($200 fee) from atf. Having to go through all that is BS! Your statement is true, I'm saying that having to go through all that just to own those weapons is BS.

[EvilNed]

Here's the text from the article. You can read the full article in my "cinematography" thread.
The relevance is that shooting it in 8 days would make such attention to detail impractical.
When shooting and/or editing a film you stick to things that progress the story, especially when there's budget and/or time constraints.
While equipment shots may satisfy hardcore genre fans it doesn't progress the story, and could possibly create a gap in the flow of the film. And for what? To satisfy fans that examine the show through a microscope? There's no value in doing that.

Sorry, I can tell you off the bat that this wasn't shot in 8 days. I'm below-the-line filmcrew and that's just an absurd statement. I can, off the bat, give you a dozen reasons for why that would be impossible. One would be lack of sunlight. One would be too many company moves in that little time.