Review: Quint's harpoon gun from JAWS

Dirty Harry has the 44 Magnum. Tony Montana aka ‘Scarface’ had his “little friend”. But surely the coolest movie weapon, and one of the more unusual is the harpoon used by Quint in Steven Spielberg’s shark classic JAWS (1975).

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.

Last month, YouTubers Kentucky Ballisitcs had some fun with Quint’s harpoon gun from the movie Jaws reviewing it’s shooting capabilities in a variety of land based tests. Watch the review below.