MovieChat Forums > Sudden Impact (1983) Discussion > S & W vs. AutoMag

S & W vs. AutoMag

posted 9 years ago by jloper
7 replies | jump to latest

Which is the more powerful handgun, the Smith & Wesson Model 29 .44 Magnum that Dirty Harry usually used, or the .44 AutoMag he used in Sudden Impact?

[–] persen1 9 years ago

Harry's regular .44 Magnum. It was not before 2002, that another one turned up, who is more powerful:
Smith & Wesson Model 500

Take a look at this page, where the Model 500 and the .44 Magnum is shown together
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_%26_Wesson_Model_500

[–] RynoII 8 years ago

The automag I read, is a made up weapon for the movie, so if that's true, who knows if it's more powerful than the .44 revolver or not.

I saw a video of the S and W 500 being fired. Holy cow does that thing got some recoil to it.

[–] MaximRecoil (4041) 6 years ago

>The automag I read, is a made up weapon for the movie

No, it isn't - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AutoMag_(pistol)

[–] movies789 8 years ago

The prop "auto-mag" would have had to be more powerful. If manufactured to fire a .44 Magnum round of any sort (whether a revolver-compatible round or a semi-auto type round), the auto-mag would have required that powerful a round to cycle the slide and hammer, eject the spent shell casing, and re-chamber the next round. A less powerful round wouldn't have cycled the gun's action.

On the other hand, we know from "Magnum Force" that Harry loaded his revolver with hand-loaded "light special" rounds, quite a bit less powerful than a standard magnum round, for less recoil and smoother shot-to-shot recovery. He COULD have used store-bought magnum rounds, or even beefier hand-loads, but he opted for a low-recoil round instead.

Hence, in Harry's case only, his auto-mag was more powerful than his revolver, as he chose to load the latter. Using standard ammunition in both, though, they presumably might have been about the same, keeping in mind the variables in store-bought ammo for just about any caliber, i.e. bullet type and weight, and amount of gunpowder loaded into the cartridge.

Then again, hey - who knows.

[–] krispykremekiller 7 years ago

A revolver is going to have more recoil, generally, than a semi-auto. The slide's movement, which goes back and helps chamber the next round absorbs a lot of the force. Harry could have always just chambered his 44 Magnum Revolver (Smith and Wesson Model 29) with 44 Special rounds, much like a 357 Magnum can also work with 38 Special rounds.

[–] MaximRecoil (4041) 6 years ago

Six of one, half dozen of the other. The .44 Magnum and .44 AMP cases accept the same .429" bullets and have practically the same powder capacity, so they have practically the same power potential. The .44 AMP was specifically designed to replicate the performance of the .44 Magnum, but with a rimless case, which functions better in an automatic than rimmed cases do.

However, the Auto Mag has an advantage over a typical revolver such as Dirty Harry's Smith & Wesson Model 29, in that it has no gap between the chamber and the barrel. If all else is equal, you will get less muzzle velocity from the revolver (for a typical .006" barrel-to-cylinder gap, you can expect a muzzle velocity loss of about 100 feet per second with a .44 Magnum) because some of the propellant gases escape through the barrel-to-cylinder gap.

[–] Kino (441) 6 years ago

.44 AutoMag can remove fingerprints and .44 Magnum can't