Indiana Jones guns: the top five, from the MP40 to Indy's M1917 revolver

Key points: Indiana Jones guns top

• Number five is the MP40, a stamped-steel submachine gun that shows how the design line from MP36 to MP38 to MP40 stripped out wood and machining to speed up wartime production; its folding stock was copied outright for the AK.
• The MP40 is an anachronism in the films — Raiders is set around 1936 and The Last Crusade around 1938 — but it reads as instantly German on screen, which is why the movies use it anyway.
• Number four is the C96 broomhandle Mauser: a short-recoil 7.63x25 pistol with a 10 or 20 round magazine ahead of the grip, loaded by stripper clip from the top, and German troops could fire their own 7.63 ammunition in captured Soviet 7.62x25 pistols unaltered.
• Number three is the Walther P38, the first pistol built with a double-action/single-action trigger and a decocking safety, unlocking on a falling locking block rather than a link — the pistol Indy fires from the tank in The Last Crusade.
• Number two is the Haenel-Schmeisser MP28/II, an improved MP18 that traded the 45-degree snail drum for a 90-degree box magazine and seeded the Suomi, PPD-40, PPSh-41, Lancaster, Sten and Japanese Type 100 lineages; it is the gun in the Last Crusade speedboat chase.
• The honorable mention is the RPG-2: a 40mm tube launching an 82mm warhead to roughly 150 meters with about 180mm of penetration, and the launcher Indy threatens the Ark with in Raiders.
• Number one is the M1917 Smith and Wesson in .45 ACP, adapted from the .44 Hand Ejector when 1911 supply fell short — it introduced the half-moon clip and stepped its chambers so rimless rounds headspace on the case mouth; two guns were used on screen, a 4-inch cut-down with banded front sight and chipped, medallion-free grips for handling shots, and a .455 Webley with medallion grips for the shooting scenes.

About this Gun Review video

Indiana Jones guns, ranked: Matt from Classic Firearms counts down the five firearms that define the franchise — the MP40 submachine gun, the C96 broomhandle Mauser, the Walther P38, the Haenel-Schmeisser MP28/II and Indy's own M1917 Smith and Wesson in .45 ACP — with the design history behind each and an RPG-2 honorable mention. Covers why the MP40 turns up in films set years before it was built, how a 1911 supply shortfall produced the M1917 and the moon clip, and how to tell which of the two screen-used revolvers is in any given shot.

Transcript: Indiana Jones guns