We’ve lost action movie legend, American veteran, and Glock spokesperson Chuck Norris. Mr. Norris left us at the age of 86. In my headcanon, he got a mission to go fight the Grim Reaper and only had one way to get to his target. Chuck Norris was an action star of screen and film, and as such, he had a number of gun-heavy films.
With that in mind, what were Chuck’s best guns? Well, I have my opinions on the matter.
The Auto 5 Whippet | Lone Wolf McQuade
Listen, I’m a shotgun guy, but I limited myself to one shotgun selection. I could have picked the High Standard Model 10, the O/U shotgun used in Hitman, but I have to go with the Browning Auto 5 used by Chuck Norris in Lone Wolf McQuade. This particular model has the barrel and stock sawn off into a “whippet” style design.
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This creates a compact, semi-auto shotgun used by our hero. It’s also the subject of one of the greatest training montages of Chuck practicing with his gun. His home range is decked out with targets, and a shirtless Chuck does rolls, one-handed firing, and more, hitting every target. The camera cuts to his partner watching through binoculars, amazed at what he’s seeing.
It’s not John Wick, but it’s entertaining. During the final assault on the compound, McQuade brings his semi-auto, recoil-operated Auto 5 and disburses buckshot-fueled justice. This whippet configuration seems to most famously date back to Bonnie and Clyde, who carried various Auto 5-derived guns with a sawn-off stock and pistol grip.
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It’s quite compact and powerful. In the ’80s, a PGO shotgun was all the rage, and while that faded when people actually used them, it made a comeback. The Shockwave-style guns with grips have shown the potential of the uber-short 12-gauge. Maybe Lone Wolf McQuade was ahead of the game.
Dual Uzis | Invasion USA
One of the most famous Chuck Norris photos will always be from Invasion USA. I’ve seen it more now than ever before as a meme-worthy in memoriam to the legend himself. The photo shows Chuck Norris wielding a pair of Micro Uzis in a custom shoulder rig. To top it off, Chuck is wearing a full Canadian tuxedo to defend America.
The Uzi pistols are fired from the hip from seemingly endless magazines. They remain attached to the shoulder rig and turn Chuck into a walking assault force. The picture was famous enough to become the movie poster, albeit with Chuck’s other guns exposed—i.e., his arms.
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The Micro Uzis are best categorized as machine pistols. They are incredibly small, and while modern variants have stock options, that wasn’t a factor here. Who needs a stock when you can fire from the hip?
The shoulder rig carrier in the film was a DeSantis custom piece. I think DeSantis should bring back some of these crazy custom rigs. I think it would go hard with a Flux Raider or similar-sized PDW.
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Taurus PT 92 | Walker, Texas Ranger
My dad loved Walker, Texas Ranger. I’ve seen every episode, at least twice. It was a bit cheesy, but it mixed a family-friendly tone with the action Chuck Norris was known for. Throughout the long run of the show, Walker carried a variety of sidearms, including S&Ws, SIGs, and most famously, the Taurus PT 92.
The PT 92 is a clone of the Beretta 92, made on Beretta machinery from a Beretta facility purchased by Taurus in 1980. The Taurus PT 92 famously ditched the slide-mounted safety/decocker for a frame-mounted safety. Beyond that, the firearm was nearly identical.
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In Walker, it wasn’t your average PT 92. Rather, it was a shiny stainless steel model with sweet custom grips. The grips had a Ranger badge implanted in them. This created a striking gun that was often shown off with Walker’s hoop-style belt holster.
The custom PT 92 was used for the majority of seasons of the show, and I think it’s safe to call it Walker’s sidearm. The entire show has some awesome guns, including Trivette’s Walther P5, a spattering of S&W third-gens, and, of course, the bad guy’s TEC-9.
HK G3 With MGL | Braddock: Missing In Action 3
The Missing In Action movies are another series full of awesome guns. Chuck Norris plays Colonel Braddock, a special operations commando and Vietnam veteran. He’s sent back to Vietnam after the war ended to find POWs. In fact, he does this three times for three different movies.
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In Missing in Action 3, he wields a unique rifle-and-launcher setup. The rifle is an HK G3, a fairly standard Cold War-era battle rifle firing 7.62 NATO. These were popular rifles, used extensively by Germany when a World War-scorned Belgium refused to license the FAL to the Germans. Braddock’s is an HK G3A4 with a collapsing stock.
Braddock’s comes equipped with a revolving grenade launcher—kind of. In the film, it’s a multiple grenade launcher used to destroy the bad guys. In reality, it’s an AN/M5 pyrotechnic launcher. It’s a really big flare gun, and flare guns like this have long been used in the place of multiple grenade launchers.
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In fact, this exact model was used in the film Predator.
The Dan Wessons | Code of Silence
As the recent owner of approximately one Dan Wesson revolver, I love them. They’ve been in and out of production a few times, but have remained a revolver fan favorite. In the film Code of Silence, Chuck Norris uses two different Dan Wessons. His standard sidearm is the Model 15. Later on, he switches to a stainless Model 715.
The 715 is just a stainless Model 15. Both are six-shot .357 Magnums. These guns are tack drivers, and my Dan Wesson is one of my all-time favorites. The Dan Wesson revolvers are modern, double-action guns with swing-out, six-shot cylinders. Famously, the Dan Wessons use a robust cylinder release placed forward of the cylinder.
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In Code of Silence, Chuck Norris plays a Chicago police detective, and, from what I can find, I don’t think the Dan Wesson was ever an official Chicago police-issued revolver. It certainly could be if you need quality, accuracy, and robustness.
It served to make Norris’ character stand out as an old-school, no-nonsense cop in the modern world of 1985. The big revolvers are scene-stealers and provide an excellent hero gun.
Mr. Norris
Chuck might be gone, but his legacy lives on. From action star to early internet meme, he’s immortalized amongst a variety of generations. Mr. Norris is gone, and we’ll be outside.
