What Revolver would James Bond use?

Status
Not open for further replies.
James Bond was/is the best/smartest, plenty rich enough to have the best revolver, it would be a gold plated Colt Python.
Oh the books say different,(?) doesn't matter. What we say, and what we do are 2 different things.
 
Bond was a wimp with that .380, so I suspect it would have been a Colt .32 snubby.
 
Last edited:
If it were used by a movie Bond in a real future installment of the film I suspect that it would be a Chiappa Rhino 200DS in black. However it could just as easily be a S&W J frame.
 
Last edited:
As posted, Fleming had little interest in firearms, but a Smith and Wesson Centennial, hammerless revolver, with grip safety was pictured on the back of the dust jacket. Bond preferred the Beretta .25 caliber auto, but was forced to upgrade to a .32 caliber Walther PPK.

Bond's Bentley was equipped with a Colt (?) .45 caliber handgun hidden under the dash. I don't remember if this was a 1911 style auto, or a New Service. I believe that Bond also kept a cut down large bore revolver, (Fleming is vague about the details) handy.
 
I think the original books were all written before the Super Redhawk even existed.

I believe it is in Dr No that he upgrades from a .25 to a .32 auto (the famous PPK) because he's told it "hits like a brick through a plate glass window".

Brits!!

Later Fleming refers to the 2" .38 Colt snub used by the American as a "cannon".

Bond in the original books is a VERY different fellow from Bond in the movies.
Click to expand...
Yes, he is.
Perhaps I was thinking of a Blackhawk in .44 Mag? Its been a while.
I was surprised when I read it originally as Fleming was a bit of a gun snob, even Bond's .25 "ladies gun" was from a "Name" maker, Beretta, but the Ruger brand was thought of as a mass market basic manufacturer then in the U.K. so it surprised me it wasn't described as a Colt, or Smith & Wesson of some kind. Even then & restricting "James Bond" to the original Ian Fleming boks that would have been possible:

James Bond is the fictional protagonist of a series of novels and short stories, first published in 1953. Bond, often referred to by his code name, 007, is a British Secret Service agent; the character was created by journalist and author Ian Fleming, and first appeared in his 1953 novel, Casino Royale; the books are set in a contemporary period, between May 1951 and February 1964. Fleming went on to write a total of twelve novels and two collections of short stories, all written at his Jamaican home Goldeneye and published annually. Two of his books were published after his death in 1964.
Click to expand...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_James_Bond_novels_and_short_stories
Others have continued to write even up to today though. Based on that I don't get your reference at all.
 
I've been a James Bond nerd since I was a kid, so the following is from memory:

Geoffrey Boothroyd (the real-life inspiration for Major Boothroyd a.k.a. "Q") preferred revolvers and wrote to Fleming criticizing Bond using an anemic gun like the Beretta 418 .25 Auto Fleming had armed him with up to that point (Fleming chose such a gun because, during WWII, he had been issued a .25 Auto as a personal protection arm when working for SOE).

Boothroyd's recommendation was the then-new S&W Centennial Airweight .38 Special (later designated the Model 42). Fleming, however, felt that a semi-auto would be more appropriate because, among other reasons, it could be more readily suppressed. Boothroyd then recommended the Walther PPK in 7.65mm (.32 Auto for us Yanks) because he felt it a high-quality gun, it was more powerful than the Beretta but still small and concealable, it could be easily suppressed, and .32 Auto ammunition was widely available throughout most of the world.

In his next novel, Dr. No, Fleming has Bond issued two guns: the Walther PPK for routine, every day carry and the S&W Centennial Airweight as his "heavy" gun for when imminent danger and/or gunplay is expected. Also, at various points in the novels Bond makes use of revolvers for bedside and/or car guns. Fleming frequently has Bond keeping a revolver under his pillow when he sleeps (the exact revolver varies from one novel to the next) and in one of the later John Gardner novels, Bond keeps a Ruger Super Blackhawk .44 Magnum in the glove compartment of his Saab 900 Turbo.

In the films, probably the two most notable instances in which Bond has used a revolver are in Live and Let Die and Die Another Day. In Live and Let Die, Bond (played by Roger Moore) uses a nickel-plated S&W Model 29 to rescue Solitaire from the Voodoo ritual and Baron Samedi. In Die Another Day, Bond (played by Pierce Brosnan) uses a S&W Model 10 when he attempts to kill Zao at the gene therapy clinic in Cuba.
 
Helm

Don't know about Bond, but in a 1960's era spy novel written by Donald Hamilton "The Interlopers", his character Matt Helm uses a 2.5" Python.

Should be a good Bond revovler too.
 
lald.jpg


live_and_let_die_small.jpg
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top