What Bolt actions in "Last Samuri"

[Buster Charlie]

I saw that the other night, great movie. IMHO.

Question: What bolt actions did they use? Where bolt actions even that common in 1877? The rifles in the movie seemed to be magazine fed (but sometimes it seemed not?) I read only the swiss had mag fed bolt actions in the 1870's?

Okay so here is my thought. It appears they are using Mosin Nagants! Okay hear me out. They bolts look exactly like the nagant, I only caught a quick glimps of the receiiver, it appeared to look like a nagant.

I can't be sure, the stock is definatly differnt, and so where the rear sights. So unless they bough a bunch of cheap nagants and dressed them up in a new stock I can only guess its something else..

[neilwest]

1. Good question. I wouldnt be the first time Hollywood didnt do their homework. Ive yet to see the movie so I cant really comment. I do know that bolt action rifles were avail in the 1870 for example my Druese NeedleGun for one. But I dont believe that the mosins were out quite that early. Maybe one of the Mosin collector's could answer that one.

[REDSTAR]

Mosins wearnt made till 1891. I havent seen the flick yet either.

[Buster Charlie]

Originally posted by REDSTAR
Mosins wearnt made till 1891. I havent seen the flick yet either.

I know its too early for a nagant, but I dont know what the actions on period rifles looked like. You know how the mosin receivr has a 'cut' in the top of the rear ring to allow the bolt to slide through? I thought I saw that on one of the LS guns, just for a split second, so I could be wrong.

everything else (stock, sights, mag) was completly differnt, so if it was a mosin action, it was dressed up to look differnt.

[jack in the black]

Single-shot Mauser rifles??

[Guinny_Ire]

Swiss Veterlis?

[BowStreetRunner]

i thought the same thing!
in the shots were they actually showed the rifle's profile, there were no nagants that i saw
but in other scenes with huge masses of men looking at the top of a few recievers they looked like nagants
in one scene the bolt guns were like semi-auto, you never saw them reload, cock them or anything
oh well
BSR

[Buster Charlie]

Well I'd like to get more peoples input, but it looks like we'll have to wait for DVD. Good movie, just technicaly flawed I guess.

[Dafapa]

The first few times I saw them, I kept thinking nagant, becuase of the reciever and bolt/handle shape. But the magazine was totaly wrong. Could be a historicaly correct firearm.

After a bit of looking online, this is what I found

http://oldrifles.com/japanese.htm doesn't cover rifles in the 1870s

This does make mention of japanese rifles in the 1870s

http://www.carbinesforcollectors.com/arisaka.htm

Third paragraph

[T2K]

In the movie, when they fight their first battle (where Tom Cruise gets captured by the Samurai) the Meiji forces are using percussion muzzle loaders. This seemed right for Japan in 1877.

The next battle was supposedly the following year (1878) and the Meiji troops were using bolt action rifles, presumably single shot, though I don't remember seeing them actually reload in the film. The actions did have a Mosin look to them. It was two years too early for the Murata, so who knows what they came up with for the movie.

I still remember being so disappointed with the first Indiana Jones, when they had MP38/40's and P38's in 1936. And Indy used some kind of RPG/Panzerfaust type of thing that they cooked up for the movie.