Blade Runner Blaster, Making a Shooter

Oh no, the crime of it... it's only a work in progress!

But seriously... looking forward to seeing the build process immensely!

Very cool, I look forward to seeing your Progress...

I always wanted a shooter,not because I want to shoot anything,just for the novelty of having a 100% screen acurate replica.I've always loved the B.R blaster,but Blade Runner is layered in awesomeness.Its the best Sci-Fi film made I.M.O.I was purchasing a replica, but after moving...I lost my recipets and well,I'm out $300.00(just $200 shy) and no proof I paid.That was quite a long time ago,still...it sucks not having the blaster prop I was paying on.

great article, a good loking prop. well done!:lol

Slow but sure progress. The original finish of the Bulldog was removed to more closely match the screen used look. Here is the Bulldog as it looks now, prior to fitting 2nd trigger, setting into a Coyle blaster, etc.

What a great project, i can´t believe i missed this thread!
Looking forward for the finished gun.

This is a really fine conversion job. To save money, I installed an actual Charter Arms four inch factory barrel on mine (the movie barrel is about 4.5 inches, so I slightly shortened the Steyr shroud casting to hide this rather than make a custom barrel, and I haven't got around to rebuilding the "sight" to make it illuminate. However I am currently building a small firearms grade laser under the top shroud so the pistol can actually be aimed (green laser to stay in character with the fake sight tube). Here's where you can see it rock and roll: Firing the Blade Runner Blaster! (.44 Special Rounds) - YouTube

Postscript Re: Blade Runner Blaster, Making a Shooter

And another short vid that proves the old maxim, "Even a child can use it!"
.44 Special Testing (Blade Runner Blaster) - YouTube

2012 update

Progress has been slow but steady with this build. For those of you new to this thread, it is for information only, do not do this at home. I am a fully licensed gun dealer and maker, have been playing with guns for over 50 years, been a cop for over 27 years and have the facilities to precision machine metals. No hand tools, no guesswork, etc. and the people working with me are trained machinists with backgrounds in firearms, ballistics, etc. For those of you who are self apppointed keyboard cyber secret police :rolleyes please note everything done here is legal, licensed, and done in a safe manner. For the purpose of this thread, the firing pin on the Charter Arms revolver has been removed so it can be considered an inert weapon ... the only way it can hurt someone is if it fell on their foot.

:confused OK, enough of the cyber stasi disclaimers but I hate hearing from "experts" (know-it-alls living at home with their parents) warning me about sleeping in a cell with "Bruno" if I build guns, modify guns, etc. and post the info. Again, I have federal, state and local licensing to deal in live firearms.

Here is how the parts look. The upper is a hand finished, hand selected Steyr replica from Rich Coyle. It is the latest and greatest version of the RAC BR Blaster upper. I had considered buying a real Steyr upper for this build, but this new version of the replica upper convinced me it may not be needed.

Having access to some details from the recently sold actual prop I posted some high rez photos that resulted in some changes by Richard Coyle.






Since this will be a "shooter" the parts attached to the real Bulldog must be solid, allow overpressure venting, and be attached securely. This is a .44 special and even using light loads or blanks will subject the entire prop to extreme physical forces as well as heat and overpressure. If this isn't built solidly, it could become a hand held grenade. Here is a shot of a side panel being fitted.







For display purposes, I will be acquiring a second cylinder which will be modified to prevent the gun from being fired. Technically this is a real gun and the laws are specific about a firearm being left unsecured so a backup cylinder will have 5 dummy round premanently installed and the cylinder occluded to prevent the fitting of any real ammo. It will also be displayed with no pin.

Yes, it will be fired first from a Ransom Rest or something like that at first, as a safety precaution. I will wear a shooting glove when I shoot it by hand.

THANKS to Rich Coyle for his efforts in continually improving his venerable blaster replica. The new upper looks smooth and shiny, and the new ammo box should be another improvement. Hope to get this to the range this Spring.

WOW, I dont care if it would shoot or not ,would be an outstanding hero version of the blaster regardless ,my hats off to you ,fantastic, I got me a Worldcon BR blaster a month ago and I want to get a metal frame and cylinder and one day rebuild mine ,I want it to be sturdy ,wish I could get my hands on metal parts , Outstanding work so far........

Looking forward to the progress.

Great work!

Adam Savage is also slowly working on one. Who will finish first?

I wonder if those plastic side panels will take the strain or fly away.

I'm curious about two things. Would it be legal to own a .44 like this that was a working gun? It seems like it would be a fun thing to have to target shoot with at a range, people going "What the heck is THAT?"

And was there a rational for how all the bits would have worked on the fictional Blade Runner pistol or was it just stuff that looked cool? I always wondered about what it was supposed to be shooting besides bullets in the film.

It looks really, really cool. Great work!

Now just need someone with working knowledge of metallurgy, physics, ballistics, acoustics, to design a explosive sounding round without firing a projectile

Calufrax said:

I'm curious about two things. Would it be legal to own a .44 like this that was a working gun?

Click to expand...

As long as the base gun is legal to own (IE not fully auto or have a barrel shorter than 6"), you can dress it up how you see fit. Im referring to California laws. Eltee knows more than I on the specifics. The legal loopholes was the biggest factor in making my live fire Pulse Rifle.

Eltee......What is the Steyr made of? Pot metal like the Sidkits?

This in on my list of to-dos also......just cant justify buying a real Mann to cut up:cry

T2SF said:

Now just need someone with working knowledge of metallurgy, physics, ballistics, acoustics, to design a explosive sounding round without firing a projectile

Click to expand...

A blank?

Lear60man said:

As long as the base gun is legal to own (IE not fully auto or have a barrel shorter than 6"), you can dress it up how you see fit. Im referring to California laws. Eltee knows more than I on the specifics. The legal loopholes was the biggest factor in making my live fire Pulse Rifle.

Eltee......What is the Steyr made of? Pot metal like the Sidkits?

This in on my list of to-dos also......just cant justify buying a real Mann to cut up:cry

Click to expand...

Steyr shown is a Coyle replica, his latest version. Smoothed and polished. There is someone selling the correct real Steyr SL receiver only in .222 and the right year who gave up on his BR blaster project, but I'm going with the Coyle replica for now. It looks pretty good, and has the right serial number and cartouches to match the screen used version (the available real Steyr does not).

I guess my question was if anyone knows what was the rationale of the original prop builder in having those bits that cover the cylinder for the bullets and the purpose of the big bolt lever looking thing that drapes over the one side? Is that something some obscure real handgun has that the inspiration came from?

It looks really cool, but did it mean in the Blade Runner world the gun was supposed to fire something other than bullets? I assumed the other trigger was maybe for a stun or RPG like projectile from the lower barrel. I just never read any place what the deal was.

I always assumed the way the grip was constructed with the metal 'heel' I'll call it in my ignorance suggested a clip-loading automatic, though the connection between handle and gun seemed to make the geometry of that impossible to work.

I always thought this was the neatest looking handgun in movies mostly because of the amber grips, and was glad it wasn't a mere ray-gun, but it always made me want to know how it was supposed to work in the movie and if there was a real world correlation, and this thread I found really exciting because it never occurred to me it could be made to be a 'real' gun.

A 'real' working Blade Runner blaster .44 magnum? Mr eltee, you have just made what everyone who was a kid who saw the film want one. If the .44 mag version is too much, can you at least do a run of CO2 pellet gun versions?

It's actually a .44 "Special" and not a magnum. Same diameter projectile, slightly lower ballistics.

There has been alot of debate over the years as to how the gun was supposed to function. Was the rifle section part of the pistol mechanism or a separate firearm (like a mini grenade launcher) or was the bolt handle used to "charge" the main gun and only the pistol barrel projected any bullet? Does the ammo magazine actually carry ammo (for the movie concept) or was it a power supply?

I don't recall a definitive answer ever proven as to how the gun functioned.

There may have been a scene filmed where Deckard is reloading the gun using the cylinder. Lots of mystery remains as to how the gun was supposed to function, etc.

One of the difficulties in recreating this gun was that the Charter Arms Bulldog .44 special was not recreated in an airsoft or "non-gun" version. If the original blaster had been built on, say, a Smith and Wesson "J" frame .38 special such as a model 36, 60, 49, etc. then there would have been all sorts of airsoft, blank, non-gun replicas, etc. to build the blaster around.

Rich Coyle's site has alot of research and history on the gun, you may want to check that out. Rich is a wealth of information on the BR blaster.

As soon as I hit post I thought I'm asking some incredibly stupid questions because I can probably Google them, but my glee finding this thread got me carried away. I did indeed find Mr Coyle's site and was reading one of the articles, not understanding the rifle bolt bit and all until just now when your reply came through. Thanks for answering though.

It always looked to me like a bash together of cool parts that probably didn't have a specific rationale other than to look futuristic, but things like a green laser slight or perhaps a modern stun gun as we know them today could be rationalized to be parts and components today. Obviously I haven't given any of this more than a passing thought in the nearly 30 years since I saw the film. It's really cool to discover others have and fun to read up on.

It's also really cool to see it as a 'working' gun. A couple of years ago a sheriff friend of mine had one of those black and yellow stun guns that the local guys carry now on their other side of their belt from their service gun and never having seen one of those up close I laughed with him how it was putting him one step closer to being a "Blade Runner" cop which he got but apparently never thought of. The more futuristic the sidearm looks, the scarier it is, even though it was the least lethal part of his arsenal, nightstick included. I think it was something like this TASER M26C w/Laser - Black/Yellow but I'm not sure of that.

Anyway, I hope it's a matter of time that someone will make an airsoft, pellet or paintball version of this. I'm clearly not a gun guy, but I would love to have one just for the wow factor. I bet there's a huge untapped market for whoever can make that. I would take up paintball fighting in my old age just to be able to whip that thing out of a shoulder holster.