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I was thinking I should post a quick guide to those who want to put together a screen accurate shoulder harness from seasons three thru five.  With the introduction of the Smith & Wesson 645-early at the beginning of third season, Crockett's Galco harness was upgraded with a holster for it and a new mag case.  The first holster used was the 250/260 model, of which I have only every found ones stamped 260 on them:

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I didn't have any closeups of the holster, but this is the harness as it appeared in the first three episodes.  This holster was used in El Viejo, When Irish Eyes Are Crying, and Shadow in the Dark as they were the first three episodes shot that season (the airing order was pretty out of whack this season).  The next episode shot was Baby Blues, but we can't see which holster he uses in that episodes.  The fifth episode was Stone's War which the replacement holster was introduced for the 645-early, a 262/192:

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The Galco 260 holster I have is shorter in length and hangs the sidearm more horizontal than diagonal compared to the 262 holster.  I believe the 260 holster is for the compact 45 model, and the 262 was for the full size 645.  This holster continued to be used into 5th season with the S&W 645-INT 3rd Gen auto.  This is commonly referred to as a 4506, but this was actually an interim run of the new generation of .45 of which the first 450 or less were hand assembled or test assembled on the line and stamped "645":

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These holsters had the two piece plastic attachments to the harness that had the Jackass logo molded on them.  This rig is often times referred to as a Jackass rig, but the company name had changed to Galco Gunleather by this time and the logos were just leftover on the molds from previously.  The harness is often referred to as the Miami Classic too, which is incorrect as it was not called that until around 1989 when they changed the holster design.  

The original strap to this system was a thick over shoulder strap which was used for one episode (Bought and Paid For) in season two.  But it was switched to a thin strap model by the next episode for the Bren Ten holster.  This may have been a custom setup requested by Don Johnson at the time, and may have been the reason Galco then adopted a thin strap design too.  The plastic connector between the four straps was stamped with the new Galco name and logo:

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The straps are a bit thicker on these early harnesses compared to the new ones available today.  They also differ from present ones with the screw fasteners.  The current ones are a black faced screw with a round back, where as the old Galco fasteners were a natural steel face with a square back:

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The cuff case was not present for the first two episodes filmed, but it was added sometime during Shadow in the Dark:

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On the inside of the cuff case is the stamped model number of A1412, and it differs from the modern SC7 which has black painted snaps while the A1412 has steel finish snaps:

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I just put a set of modern S&W cuffs in the case.  I'm not sure if there is a difference between the ones you buy new today and those from the 1980s.

The final piece of the rig is the mag case.  This is a tough one to get as it appears to be a custom item designed specifically for his 645-early metal bottom and follower mags.  It has the top fold of the leather and plastic retainers of the previous Jackass brand case.  But the bottom of the case resembles the early Galco cases like the A1410, but the plastic pieces still have the Jackass logo molded on the cuff case retainer and the harness retainers:

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If you have an early Jackass mag case and a Galco A1410 case, you may be able to get a leather shop to use the A1410 plastic pieces for a custom case, and have them use measurements off the two cases to make a pattern for the custom case that was screen used.  

The places to find these components are eBay, gunbroker.com, and armslist.com online.  They pop up pretty frequently enough that I've picked quite a few examples of each.  

I hope those instructions and descriptions made enough sense to people so that they can assemble their own harness for their S&W 645-early or 645-INT.  :thumbsup:

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  • 4 months later...

   This is an awesome write up! How am I the first to comment on this one being the new guy? Lol.

   I got as close as I could w/ my EAA Tanfoglio Witness 45 in Wonder Finish using an Armadillo horizontal MV style holster. I use this setup as my main carry set up. 

 

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Goddamn bro, that's slick! Real slick! Haha, I have a airsoft pistol version of Crockett's pistol, all I need is the shoulder holsters for them. They cost a lot though.

 

You folks cops or something? Or just happen to be able to own the pistol?

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I have about 4 Miami Classics for different guns. What I don't like about them is the mag carriers. You have to put both mags with "bullets" facing out. That's OK for me on the mag closet to my chest as the reloading positing puts the top round at my index finger to feed into the gun well. The rear mag closest to your back is opposite and I have to turn the mag around during the reload which is a bad thing to have to do. First it is not natural, second under high stress you will fumble this. 

I like shoulder holsters as they "look cool" and package your firearm and extra mags and or cuffs if you carry those, and hey...Sonny carried one...but they are really not that practical IMHO unless you are sitting a lot and need to draw your weapon from that position. Your draw stroke and reloading will be a lot slower then traditional hip carry and reload. Of course what you practice is key to your success. YMMV.

Nice rigs! 

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1 hour ago, Assasinge said:

Goddamn bro, that's slick! Real slick! Haha, I have a airsoft pistol version of Crockett's pistol, all I need is the shoulder holsters for them. They cost a lot though.

 

You folks cops or something? Or just happen to be able to own the pistol?

Well I assumed that the reason no one was responding was that it was basically a reference post for people to consult before buying vintage Galco parts on eBay.  I've already done all the research and shared my knowledge.  Makes it easier for those wanting to replicate the props.  

I am not a cop, I just bought all of these on the secondary market here in the US.  Other countries may restrict access to buying or importing these vintage firearms.  eBay and GunBroker mainly.  The Smith & Wessons are no longer manufactured, so you have to get them used.  And early 645 for season 3 and 4, and I should maybe post some pics for the specifics on that.  And the interim 645/4506 that I described above, which is a lot harder to come by.  

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The mag carriers on my Armadillo also have the bullits facing out/opposite each other. I never thought much of it. I am not a cop so hope I never have to lay down a fast 30 rounds lol.

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On 5/8/2017 at 9:16 PM, ZAO178 said:

The mag carriers on my Armadillo also have the bullits facing out/opposite each other. I never thought much of it. I am not a cop so hope I never have to lay down a fast 30 rounds lol.

Yeah, the Armadillo does somewhat resemble the custom case Galco provided for the S&W.  Not sure exactly why they didn't just use their factory .45 mag case at the time?  Still waiting on a friend who is learning leatherwork so he can make a pattern and design a reproduction of the prop.  I plan to pick up at least three, and have the parts from old mag carriers to add the correct "Jackass" emblem plastic parts.  

Yeah, my training is military and our mag in weapon is meant to get us to cover from where we can draw fresh mags while your fireteam continues firing.  If I'm 16 rounds into a firefight and not behind cover or have at least a partner or team continue fire, and reorienting the mag for a second more is going to open me up to more fire......I think I'm fucked either way.  Or I'm a really bad shot, and my 16 rounds hit nothing :p

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  • 1 month later...

It seems that Photobucket has changed their terms of use and won't let you link your photos on your account there to forums ("3rd party hosting") unless you pay them $400 a year.  Well obviously I'm not going to do that, so they have blocked all the pics I have previously posted here.  Since the MVO forum allows picture storage I should have been using it for all my postings here.  But this was the only forum I post to that allows that, so I was not in the habit.  I guess I'm going to have to spend some time uploading all those pics all over again and reposting them on each of the threads that kind of needed the pics in order for what I said on them to makes sense.......like this one. :( 

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  • 2 months later...

I haven't gotten around to putting the holster pics back up on here yet.  But I'm in the middle of restoring my S&W 645-early.  Doing a little gunsmithing on it, restoring the bead blast and brushed finishes, and a new set of springs.  When I have it finished, I am planning a YouTube video to feature it and my Galco holsters as a mini documentary on the Crockett props.  I hope I can get it done by winter, but I need a new HD camera to film with.

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  • 1 month later...

you know I'm convinced I got lucky with that, NIB from 1986 645, never shot, shoots like a dream, especially after using this guys advice on the last range session last week, please forgive the clickbait title and bold idiot clickbait youtuber labeling but its actually a good video

 

more than a few shots around the bullseye, including the first on a new mag and a new target that I saved lol although I guess the trade off is the 4006 just doesnt work for me, yet for the rest of the world it does.

and its the first gun I violated the always have a 5 inch barrel for when it comes to the proper centerfire cartridges, although weirdly I had one magazine that was marked differently from the others that caused a failure to feed, like it was from that 4586 or 4566 compact model that was apparently notorious for that

as the mags that worked had ES1 stamped on it, in addition to the other two stock factory mags that came with it, this it said this magazine must have a yellow follower on it and couldnt even load properly after the range session, when I tired to see if leaving it loaded for awhile would help the feeding by preloading the mag abit, like maybe it was a bit too stiff from never being used, as they do that on car springs to help keep everything in line. which is where I got the idea from, a street speed mag that had an article on it.

as imports and muscle cars all have the same objective, keep it between the ditches as fast as possible.

anyways it was just like on the 4006, so I gotta see if theirs a different set of mags everyones using on that, as maybe I've just got all of the bad ones and the latter brownell ordered ones work on it.

as the gun had NEVER had any failure to feeds even without cleaning for like 450 rounds up until that point, I took it out of the rotation for a 100 last week, same thing, no problems at all, just this mag.

also I did vice it a little, I noted that in S3 the insert for whatever reason was black, I used a sharpie and blacked it out, as I just dont like the look of the gun without that being viced like that, as while the red insert design on other guns like the M29 never bothered me, for some reason on model 39 like designs like this it does.

 

also not sure if I ever told you about my walther P38, if I have, the gun I learned to shoot on, yeah the reason why I kept breaking was the frame was warped, something, something big and heavy must have run over it during the war as the frame is bent 2 thousands of an inch to the right, which means that if it was at the battle of the bulge, as it was made in feb of 44' mel brooks owes me a new pistol as his dumbass probably ran over it lol

as he served in the war as a mine sweeper, which included that battle I believe which might explain his warped sense of humor lol

 

plus it explains why while I could point shoot with it, the second I moved off of it I was shooting heavy to the right, as the barrel and the frame was warped that direction on it lol like I thought it was me, turns out I just learned how to shoot on a broken gun lol

and the more I fixed it the more it broke as now it had non warped parts on it that didnt line up with the other warped parts lol as it was literally a cascading failure of a firearm lol and you wonder why no one ever saved bent framed automobiles!

Edited by Kavinsky
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