I've seen this a thousand times, but it just caught my attention. It appears that the board across the middle locks in some fashion, but it doesn't seem that it is close enough to the guns to prevent them from being removed while it is in place. You can see from the close up and side angle that there is no glass on the front. Not this episode, but I do recall Andy getting a rifle out of there a time or two. Does anyone remember any rifle racks of this type? What's the deal?

your link is all jacked up

ETA: My guess it was a movie prop and was for show, not for function.

An unsecured useless prop.

Well, it would take some doing getting them out.

Barney's got it covered. No lock needed.

I'd bet it was supposed to have a glass face, but they realized it reflected the lights and cameras so they removed it.

the guns are accessible but the bullets are only handed out one at a time.

quote:

Originally posted by kz1000:
Barney's got it covered. No lock needed.

No need for a long gun, Barney has a bullet in his front shirt pocket.

Barney couldn't figure it out so it was fine that way.

I still enjoy watching old episodes of that show...a time and place when life was simple and less stressful.

Actually, I’ve seen something similar in person. If you look at the “fingers” that trap the barrels, they should come out almost to the vertical plane of the “closing arm”. The one I remember also had a 2x2 scabbed on to the back of that “closing arm”. While not absolutely bugular proof, it wouldn’t be so easy to remove one of those long arms out of the rack without opening that “closing arm”.

It's Mayberry for goodness sake. They always left the key to the lock hanging on the side of the case anyway!!

quote:

Originally posted by straightshooter01:
It's Mayberry for goodness sake. They always left the key to the lock hanging on the side of the case anyway!!

Ding! Beat me to it.

also - correct me if I'm wrong - was there not like ONE episode where Andy actually armed himself to go after a particularly dangerous criminal ??

or am I dreaming that ...

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quote:

Originally posted by az4783054:
Barney couldn't figure it out so it was fine that way.

I still enjoy watching old episodes of that show...a time and place when life was simple and less stressful.

Same here. I always get a chuckle from Floyd the Barber and Howard Sprague.

I just saw a scene where Barney walks up with a rifle and replaces it in the rack without opening it in any way-just placed it behind the middle board butt in first.

And yes, Andy did arm himself from time to time.

Sig209, you are correct. I don't remember the specific episode, but I do clearly remember him taking a long gun out of that rack.
I can't swear to this, but something's making me think it was one of the episodes in which he had an actual bandage on one of his hands from a "real" incident off the show or something...could be wrong.

My buddies and I used to watch AG before we went to our morning classes in college. Some (not always me) were smoking the Devils weed. We all hated Helen Krump. She was an awful and easily pissed off women. Drop her Andy, drop her.

Back to the rifle rack. Who knows?

quote:

Originally posted by Sig209:
also - correct me if I'm wrong - was there not like ONE episode where Andy actually armed himself to go after a particularly dangerous criminal ??

or am I dreaming that ...

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There were a few times.

In one episode, Andy retrieves and loads his revolver after getting a letter from an ex-con that he had sent to prison stating that the con was going to "pay him a visit". (It turned out to be a friendly visit.)



In another, Andy carries a shotgun while going to a warehouse to apprehend an escaped convict hiding out inside.



And in a third episode, Andy uses Warren's revolver to fire at fleeing counterfeiters.

I always thought he should have stuck with Ellie Walker, the pharmacist. I didn't care much for Helen either.

Mostly the rack was there to keep Otis away from the guns. It proved to be effective.