POTD: The Only Guns in Movies were Military – Motion Picture Blanks
Sam.S 06.03.21
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a really neat photo of a box of 8mm Lebel Motion Picture Blanks. A fun fact that some of you may not know; firearms featured in movies up until the late 1950s were almost always surplus military small arms. The reason being is there were not any companies that produced blanks for any old cartridge or firearms. There was, however, already standard ammunition companies that made blanks for the military whether it be for training or rifle grenades. If you wanted a gun to go bang in your movie it needed to be chambered for a military cartridge.
“These Remington “Motion Picture Blanks” still have a bullet weight stamped on the box even though they don’t have a bullet in the cartridge. And while 8mm Lebel might not be the most common movie ammunition, Lebel rifles can be found in films from Sergeant York to Wonder Woman.”
Motion Picture Blanks [Photograph found in Photos, Cody Firearms Museum’s Facebook]. (2019, March 5). Retrieved May 21, 2021, from https://www.facebook.com/CodyFirearmsMuseum/photos/pcb.2788712294686265/2788710761353085/
