I’m a pretty flexible guy. I am willing to intake new information and change my opinions, and rarely is there ever a hill worth dying on. One hill I will die on is that the film “Tremors” is a perfect movie. It’s perfectly acted, paced, and filmed. The sequels are hit-and-miss, but even they are typically entertaining. Hell, I even watched the TV show. I love the Tremors series, and like many, my all-time favorite character is Burt Gummer.
It’s obvious why. He’s a gun nut. He doesn’t trust the feds, and when there is a problem, he’s more than willing to solve it all by himself. Even if that problem is a dirt worm that gives birth to shirkers, who turn into butt blasters. He solves those problems via a massive arsenal of firearms. Today, we’re going to take a look at Burth Gummer’s best guns from the Tremors series.
Tremors – William Moore and Co. 8 Gauge Shotgun
Graboids are roughly the size of elephants, so it makes sense that Burt grabs his ‘elephant gun.’ The weapon posing as Burt’s elephant remover is an eight gauge shotgun made by William Moore and Co. This was a trade name for a Belgian company from the late 1800s. They produced a number of shotguns in various bores, with the 8-bore being the largest.
This gun was made for hunting dangerous game in Africa, so it’s fairly close to an elephant gun. Burt uses solid slugs loaded into brass cases. These slugs exist and are massive. The projectile weighs 1,250 grains, which makes the bullet alone nearly three ounces. They fly at 1,500 feet per second, an impressive rate for such a heavy slug. The recoil would be obnoxious and not likely pleasant.
Burt Gummer’s 8-gauge weighed 12.5 pounds. It has some standard features of the era. This includes rabbit ear hammers and a set of dual triggers to set it off. If a Graboid is coming at you, the gun does offer two massive rounds that can be fired fairly quickly. It makes sense in the grand scheme of the film.
Tremors 2 – Aftershocks
In Tremors 2, a newly single Burt is recruited by Earl Basset to hunt Graboids in Mexico. This time he knows what he’s up against and brings the appropriate weapon for the task. This results in him lovingly presenting a LAR Grizzle Big-Boar rifle. Elephant guns are great, but anti-material rifles do a lot more damage, and they do it from much further away.
This .50 BMG rifle is a single-shot design with a bullpup layout. This keeps the overall length at 45 inches or so and makes it perfectly portable. The 36-inch barrel is now slouch and helps propel the half-inch .50 BMG cartridge to its peak velocity. The single-shot design makes follow-up shots slow, but Burt is a hunter. Hunters typically only need a single shot. Burt describes the rounds as a World War 1 Anti-Tank cartridge, and that’s not too far off.
This massive weapon is used to turn the newly discovered shriekers into goo, but the round predictably perpetrates the little guy. It sends a .50 BMG though the shirker, a cinder block wall, a cement mixer, and into the engine block of a truck. Burt seems to like the rifle and keeps it around for the next film.
Tremors 3 – Back to Perfection – M2HB in M45 Quadmount
Burt Gummer doesn’t believe in the phrase overkill. In Tremors 3, he is a famed hunter of Graboids and, as such, is contracted around the world to disassemble them. At the beginning of the movie, he does so with a pair of M2 machine guns mounted onto an M45 quad-mount trailer. He guts them with a high volume of .50 BMG fire that looks like an absolute blast.
Is it sporting? No, but you don’t need sporting when fighting these monsters. The Browning M2 uses the same .50 BMG round as the Grizzle, but it fires them at a much faster rate. John Browning built the M2 right after World War 1, and it has remained the heavy machine gun of choice for our military since then.
The M45 Quadmount was designed during World War 2. It’s designed to support four M2 machine guns and was nicknamed the Krautmower for its insane firepower. The gun was designed for anti-aircraft use, and during Operation Plunder, they took down 30% of the attacking planes.
Tremors 4 – The Legend Begins – Punt Gun
Tremors 4 loses Burt Gummer, and in his place, we get his ancestor, Hiram Gummer. Hiram Gummer begins the film as a bit of a nancy boy who despises guns. He even recruits a gunfighter to help deal with the new youthful Graboids that leap from the ground. Hiram Gummer does eventually come around to guns, and in a big way. He brings a punt gun to the fight.
A punt gun is a massive shotgun designed for commercial harvesting waterfowl. These are dang near cannon-sized guns. They are massive weapons that had 2-inch bores and launched over a pound of shot. Admittedly it wouldn’t be great for a Graboid since it’s made for birdshot, but I guess you could make it work.
Tremors 5 – Bloodlines – FN MAG
Burt is sent to South Africa to hunt down Graboids and their demon spawn. As he arrives, his arsenal is confiscated by customs. Likely a reality of actually filming in South Africa. We don’t get any crazy over the top firearms for Tremors 5. However, Burt and his cameraman Travis Welker get their hands on a little firepower.
Both men career and use the famed FN MAG medium machine gun. In the United States military, we call it the M240. The FN MAG is spread across the world and is often the choice for western European general-purpose machine guns. It fires the powerful 7.62 NATO round at a fast but controllable fire rate. It’s insanely reliable and easily one of the best-made machine guns ever.
Tremors 6 – A Cold Day In Hell – Beretta 92FS
Burt and Travis travel to the Canadian tundra to hunt down ice Graboids. This movie is where things get rough. Creative weaponry takes a back seat, and while Michael Gross kills it as Burt, the movie really loses charm. Along with its charm, the movie loses any memorable guns. I’ll give the pick to Burt’s dual Beretta 92FS pistols.
Burt used the same sidearm in Tremors 2, and I love to see consistency. They are the modern option for the Cold Warrior. At the time of the first film, the Beretta 92FS would have been one of the most modern handguns on the market, and Burt was no fudd.
Tremors 7 – Shrieker Island – Throwflame XL18 Flamethrower
Oof, Tremors did not recover from a Cold Day in Hell. Shrieker Island has corrupt scientists experimenting with Graboids with plans to do the ultimate big game hunt. Burt is recruited for his expertise, but again, the film lacks charm and guns. I like setting characters against type, but Burt wouldn’t go anywhere unarmed. Luckily he finds some World War 2 flamethrowers and machetes. Those WW2 flamethrowers are actually Modern Throwflame XL18 Flamethrowers.
The movie sucks, but we get a little fun flamethrower action. I’m gonna drop a major spoiler. So stop reading now. They kill Burt!
Long Live Burt
The Tremors series had a sharp decline in quality. The first movie is perfect, the next two are fun, and the fourth and fifth are okay, but six and seven lose absolutely any charm the films had. What remained consistent is Michael Gross playing Burt Gummer. Sadly, they might have killed the entire franchise. Gross played the character to Perfection, pun intended.
What was your favorite gun or Bert’s? Share below!
