Watch: A Close Look at Ed Harris’s LeMat Conversion in WestWorld

Longtime readers will know that I often enjoy Ian’s Forgotten Weapons videos, but here’s one that’s a bit different. This time, he’s discussing a type of firearm that he knows well: The LeMat “Grapeshot” revolver.

But in this case, he’s looking at the “Hollywood-ized” version used by a character played by Ed Harris on a TV series called WestWorld. That gun is clearly a LeMat, but it’s also clearly different from real LeMats.

It’s also clearly impractical and unlikely to work in real life.

The show shows centerfire cartridges being loaded into the Harris version, which wouldn’t have worked with a real LeMat. Then there’s the way the gun comes apart and especially the loading of a centerfire shotgun shell into the gun’s central shotgun barrel.

Of this, Ian says:

That shotgun shell is total fantasy. In reality, a centerfire conversion LeMat would have retained the muzzleloading shotgun barrel.

In short, the LeMat-ish gun used in the show is pure fiction and wouldn’t work with real ammo, but it definitely looks cool.

Of course, the original LeMats also looked great but were notoriously unreliable.

Anyhow, here’s the video. Enjoy.

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.