This is my favorite I Spy episode, and I saw it when it originally aired.

I was always perplexed by one thing, however. . .especially now as I know the .22 model 06 Winchester .22 used in the show actually belonged ( so he claims in his commentary ) to Culp.

I owned exactly the same rifle, and came by it the same way: It belonged to MY grandfather. It is a pump action rifle, meaning you have to manually chamber each round by sliding the breach open and shut with the left hand which supports the barrel.

Near the end of "Home to Judgement," Kelly kills the last intruder with this rifle, but in the show it fires very rapidly, as a semi-automatic would. It would be absolutely impossible to fire this rifle this rapidly.

I always found it incomprehensible how such an error would be made in an otherwise pretty solid show, especially as it was Kelly's own rifle.

Hi Steven and welcome,

Steven wrote:
Near the end of "Home to Judgment," Kelly kills the last intruder with this rifle, but in the show it fires very rapidly, as a semi-automatic would. It would be absolutely impossible to fire this rifle this rapidly.





Just thinking out loud here, but I imagine that this may have been done for dramatic effect.

I know NOTHING about rifles or guns and would never notice anything about the way a rifle or gun was being fired in an episode. And I imagine 98% of the audience didn't either, so they could do something like the rapid firing you mentioned and no one would know ... except for you and Robert Culp!!

Nice that you and Kelly share an identical inheritance.

Thanks for the insider observation ....

All my best,

Tatia

P.S. I just received this note from our charming "Anonymous Venice and Ostia Photographer"

Hi Tatia,
Just for the record, the rate of fire of a Winchester pump-action 22 used in Home to Judgment (Model 1890 or 1906) can be very high (if someone is at all familiar the operation of a pump action rifle). That rate may actually almost approach the rate of fire of a fully automatic (machine gun) weapon. Trust me on this -

O.K. "Anonymous Photographer" - I do!! Thanks for the information ... as you know, I love "information"!!


~ ~

"P.S. I just received this note from our charming "Anonymous Venice and Ostia Photographer"

Hi Tatia,
Just for the record, the rate of fire of a Winchester pump-action 22 used in Home to Judgment (Model 1890 or 1906) can be very high (if someone is at all familiar the operation of a pump action rifle). That rate may actually almost approach the rate of fire of a fully automatic (machine gun) weapon. Trust me on this -

O.K. "Anonymous Photographer" - I do!! Thanks for the information ... as you know, I love "information"!! happy.gif"

Sorry, Anonymous, but you're just dead wrong. The slide action is rather stiff, and you must pull the slide back a good 8 to ten inches against resistance, then return the slide to its original position. The best one could do would be two shots in one second, and in the show Kelly must have gotten off 5 to 7 rounds in one second. I owned one of these rifles for decades and there is no way you could even approach semi-auto speed, much less "machine-gun speed."