Quint's Armory
The entire second half of Jaws is set at sea with just Hooper, Brody and Quint left to hunt and kill the shark that has been terrorizing Amity Island. Under Quint’s captaincy, the three men embark on a journey into the deeper waters off Amity, hoping to draw the shark away from what has become it’s main feeding ground.
Before the threesome leave, we see Hooper bringing all manner gadgets and gizmos on board including trackers and an anti-shark cage. Quint’s armory is much less technical - a machete, harpoon gun, some barrels and of course the rifle used by Brody to detonate Hooper’s air tank and kill the shark.
Machete
French Army Indochina Senegalese Machete, also know as a Coupe-Coupe (cut-cut) machete used during World War I. Made from a crafted steel blade, a wooden handle and at around 20 inches in length, the machete is a lethal weapon - no wonder quint reaches for it while in the shark’s jaws.
M1 Garand Rifle
Quint (Robert Shaw) keeps an M1 Garand aboard his boat and is seen using it during the shark's night attack. Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) uses the Garand against the shark at the climax of the film. Several Coast Guardsmen are also armed with M1s, most notably when they surround the two boys wearing a fake shark fin.
The M1 Garand is a .30 caliber semi-automatic rifle that was the standard U.S. service rifle during World War II and the Korean War and also saw limited service during the Vietnam War. Most M1 rifles were issued to U.S. forces, though many hundreds of thousands were also provided as foreign aid to American allies. The Garand is still used by drill teams and military honor guards. It is also widely used by civilians for hunting, target shooting, and as a military collectible.
The M1 rifle was named after its Canadian-American designer, John Garand. It was the first standard-issue semi-automatic military rifle. By all accounts the M1 rifle served with distinction. General George S. Patton called it "the greatest battle implement ever devised". The M1 was itself replaced by the selective fire M14 rifle in the late 1950s.
Greener Light Harpoon Gun
The harpoon gun used by Quint (Robert Shaw) is a Greener Light Harpoon Gun with a nickel finish. He stores the rifle in its original take-down case, and the line holder has been removed from the forend and the reel is instead attached to the ship to handle bigger fish like sharks.
Made by W.W. Greener Ltd. Gunmakers of Birmingham (England), the Greener Light Harpoon Gun is designed for fishing and line launching. It functions by sliding a hollow harpoon over the barrel which is propelled by firing a specially made .38 Special high powered blank. The entire gun has a hard chrome lining for corrosion resistance.
The harpoon gun was of a take-down design, and packed away into a specially made wooden case that contained the rifle, blank ammunition, harpoons, rope, detachable line holder and cleaning kit. The rifle design is based on that of the sporting rifles that W.W. Greener manufactured which were in turn based on the Martini-Henry rifle.
The classic barrel scene (below) is what made the Greener Light Harpoon Gun so iconic.
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