American Handgunner Jul/Aug 2011 - Jeffersonian

Left: Inside the ISS western collection room is
this Anderson Gun Craft replica Gatling gun
featured in The Book Of Eli, 3:10 To Yuma,
The Last Samurai and Jonah Hex.
The vital email arrived on the
last day of September following
several weeks of
trading phone calls and anxious
waiting. Permission
would be granted to enter “the
facility” the coming Friday. This was my
ticket, my exclusive access to a highly
secure armory nestled in the foothills of
the San Gabriel Mountains, housing one
of the most amazing and extensive collections
of motion picture firearms in the
world. I arrived on at the prescribed time
and was met by Karl Weschta, manager
of Independent Studio Services’ vast
motion picture armory.
Weschta laid down laid down the
Right: Top left to right; Scott Fritchler with a K98 sniper rifle used by actor Scott Harris
to train with prior to shooting Enemy At The Gates. Armorer Thomas Richardson
wields the M40A1 sniper rifle used in the movie Jar Head. ISS Assistant Manger, Larry
Zanoff displays Anton Chugar’s suppressed Remington 11-87 used in No Country For
Old Men. Armorer Brian Rodgers with Clint Eastwood’s M1 Garand from Gran Torino.
Armory General Manager, Karl Weschta has Heath Ledger’s flinklock used in The
Patriot (Note to Karl, hold it up next time!). Bottom left to right; Armorer Will Huang
with a M240 SAW fresh off the set of Battleship. Joe Dantona with a slick sawed-off
Rem 870 used by the Joker (Heath Ledger) in Dark Knight. Armorer John Welch with
a .44 magnum used in The Spirit. And finally, Armorer Sony Bilson (in stealth mode)
wearing an actual full body alien invisibility suit used in Predators. Okay, it’s a joke.
He’s not really there.
law as we were buzzed into the high
security section of the expansive seven
acre ISS facility.
No photos of the vault doors, no
photos of the security cameras or other
security measures, no description of
the building’s physical layout, no mention
where this place was located, and
positively, absolutely no photography
of firearms on the many industrial
roller cart casually positioned everywhere.
I knew where he was going
with the security restrictions, but the
guns on the roller carts?
Karl explained they are “weapon
packages” going out to productions.
Directors and producers don’t like
items being seen before the film is
released. There are several roller carts
nearby, piled high with AR systems,
Left: A collection of Matanza Arms Corp. 20mm, case-less “cellular ammo” modular bullpups used by the RDA SecFor (Security Force)
in James Cameron’s “Avatar.” In reality they’re re-dressed full-auto Ruger Mini-14s. Top three rifles with the longer barrels are the
Matanza GS-221 models. The shorter barrel model at the bottom is the PDW (Personal Defence Weapon) variant. Note the right-hand
view of the WASP 9mm revolver bottom right. Right: Hypervelocity 9mm sabot WASP revolver used in James Cameron’s, Avatar. It’s
actually a dressed-up Dan Wesson Model 15-2 with rail-mounted simulated top electronic optics and bottom mounted sensor array.
Hammer was cut off to radically alter the handgun’s appearance, and thus it could only fire double action.
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