Thursday, August 29, 2013
Paladin
I rented Have Gun Will Travel from Netflix.
The Wiki article has problems with the description of the gun in the show, which happened in episode 1, as a matter fact. They think that Paladin's Single Action Army had a 4-8 pound trigger pull. Did it? That doesn't seem right with a single action. Also, the show says that the barrel is rifled, which is rare in a pistol. Oh? I would think by the 1870s the rare pistols would be the smoothbores. Was any revolver designed to fire from metallic cased cartridges, and widely available, unrifled in the 1800's?
Anyway, I like the show. Gene Roddenberry wrote an episode on that first disk. I never have seen the show in repeats back when I was a kid and wouldn't have sought it out. I didn't start liking Westerns til my 40s.
I like this character. He is... adult.
My current favorite bit of Western lingo: "Uh... He dry-gulched me..."
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My own two favorite pieces of Western jargon come from Louis L'Amour:
He's shot to doll rags;
I read him from the Book.
Made me look :)
I love that program. He was a good guy that didn't seem to preach. I like the radio version, with John Dehner, as well.
Actually, 4-8 lbs for a random, "rack grade" single action is about right.
But reading through teh Wikipedia listing, it seems to indicate that (for at least the last several weeks) they did list it accurately -- the show's producers may have tried to fool teh audience by bragging about having a rifled barrel, but the Wiki article notes that was standard. (Rifled barrels on US service pistols were standard from at least 1842. . . I think that was due to the use of Minie bullets by then, whereas anyone who has hammered a round ball down a rifled bore can imagine why a rifled bore is not a great idea for a muzzle loading standard service pistol firing round ball.)
The opening lines changed each week and were topical to the episode.
Good show, generally very well written and acted -- my ex and I bought the series on (OMG) videotape and enjoyed it greatly.
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