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The Mystery of James Bond's Long-Barrel .45 Car Gun (Ad-free)
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Today Caleb Daniels joins me again to discuss one of the mysteries of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels. Bond is described as carrying a long-barrel .45 Army Special under the dashboard of his Bentley - but what is this gun? Fleming was not a "gun guy", but he liked to write lots of specific details into his descriptions of things, including guns. The way he describes this .45 car gun leaves it open to some speculation to what the gun actually is...so let's do some speculating!
Comments
WayneWiiki
I have a revolver with a safety...but nobody is carrying a Heritage Arms .22 SA. :) Makes a great training firearm for people who are afraid though.
Thomas Nini
In Goldfinger on the plane I remember someone had a .45 revolver as pointed out by Bond.
Guido Schriewer
I'd think the 1911 is meant. otherwise rather a 1917 in acp but a 1909 in 45colt?
Brian Ross
My assumption was that the Colt was kept for longer range scenarios. To me that implies adjustable sights (or at least visible ones) on a 7" or greater barrel. Officers model Target comes to mind.
Brian Ross
The long barrel Colt that I recall was used during a car pursuit. Mention was made of folding down the windscreen to reduce wind resistance; and shooting the Colt over it.
ViejoLobo
In the Fleming books, it's the Centennial, a .38 Special--something that might actually fit in a Berns-Martin Triple Draw. And it's issued at the same time as the PPK.
David C
Huh. I didn't know it was this ambigous. I thought I'd read it was an SAA but if I made that assumption or the writer did I do not know. In the books doesn't he upgrade to something that's definitely a large caliber revolver?
ViejoLobo
Why not a Webley-Fosbery? It's got a safety. Sorry, had to. Authors are notorious for installing safeties on handguns that never had them. "Ed McBain" comes to mind. But there were some, as you pointed out a couple of years back--including top-break Webley variants. If Fleming erred in the safety reference, one obvious choice is the New Service .45 Colt with 7 1/2 inch barrel.
