I am a WW2 reeanactor and carry a BAR. This is an actual working fully auto BAR that is blank adapted for public battles and private tacticals, so I am very familiar with the weight of this weapon, 17 plus pounds. This tends to get pretty heavy , pretty fast. It appears to me that Kirby weilds his BAR like it weighs alot less, but his BAR fires and could not be a dummy(light) gun. Does anyone know the details of the weapons used, IE actual or dummy, and if so how they were blank adapted?? Thanks

By Dana Eugene Creasy (Deecee322) on Unrecorded Date:

Jack Hogan carried a real M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle which was, of course, modified according to industry rules to non-live ammo firing condition (I work in the television/film industry). As you say, even in that condition, the weight approaches the full combat load of nearly 40 poounds, with 12 magazine bandoleer belt, as the blank rounds don't weigh a heck of a lot less than live, M2 ball ammo. You will notice that he maintained the folding bipod on the front, when most infantrymen removed it, thus saving nearly 2.5 pounds in added weight. Jack was a real bear, lugging that thing through five years or production. While shots are generally less than a minute or so in length, with time off in between for changing setups, the weapon is stil pretty heavy hanging around your neck and shoulders, so for a Navy man, he got to feel what a real grunt feels like.

By Ranger94 on Unrecorded Date:

Dana , thanks for the info. Could you tell me a little more about how the weaqpons were used and blank adapted? Also were those fully auto MG-42's and MP-40's?Thanks

By Louis Vierne on Friday, April 05, 2002 - 02:38 am:

I can tell you a bit - all weapons used in film must be able to look authentic firing blanks.
The "authentic" sound is added later by the Foley operator. The problem was with the mechanisms of automatic weapons working properly with blanks. To effect this, the weapons all had "chokes" in them. If you watch old episodes, you'll see a lot
of closeups where you, the viewer, are looking down the barrel of the weapon. And in the case of the so-called "Schmeisser", for example, it appears it is actually a .22 caliber weapon. That's the choke. It's purpose was to build up enough back pressure to operate the weapon so it would fire full auto as it was supposed to. It worked, with varying degrees of success. On the M1 carbine, it worked like a charm. On the Thompson submachinegun, it jammed frequently. Note that there were probably other modifications made to these weapons, too - that's just one I know about.

By ww2buf on Tuesday, April 23, 2002 - 01:24 am:

I reenact world war two also. Reason I chose to carry the BAR for the 63rd Engineers of the 44th Division is because Kirby was my favorite character on the show. Named my son after Kirby also.

Jim

By Thompson SMG on Thursday, April 25, 2002 - 03:52 pm:

Didn't BAR men in WW II have ammo bearers? I always felt sorry for Kirby, having to lug that heavy BAR around with bipod still attached. Plus he had to carry his own ammo. Those 20 round 30 cal mags he carried in those pouches aren't light.

By Louis Vierne (Louisvierne) (209.172.22.148) on Thursday, May 30, 2002 - 01:50 am:

I mentioned this in another forum on this site.
The Army's "preferred" plan was for the BAR to be a two-man operation: Rifleman and ammo carrier.
It rarely worked out that way - working riflemen were too scarce to devote one man to being an "ammo carrier".

Louis Vierne