Archive of Our Own ^beta

I already thought the parallel was fascinating when I first noticed that Bucky's gun in TFATWS looked similar to Rumlow's, but the deeper I dug the more compelling the story got. They aren’t just similar, they’re the exact same gun. Which ordinarily wouldn't be that all that special either, since many people use the same type of gun, but this isn’t some generic off-the-shelf model. In fact, I now think this custom SIG Sauer P226 SCT is so unique as to be intrinsically linked to Rumlow, and I’m going to make the case that its reappearance in TFATWS is so remarkable that the gun (and therefore likely Rumlow himself) must hold some sort of significance for Bucky.

Buckle up, I’m about to overanalyze the shit out of this gun.

First, let’s look at the facts:

1. Out of the dozens of guns seen and used in CATWS, the only person to use a P226 is Rumlow. Even after he loses his customized SCT in the scene above, he's seen with another standard P226 in the next scene, which suggests he heavily favors this model. Side note: Knowing this, my new headcanon is that Rumlow is a former Navy SEAL since P226′s are famous for being beloved and carried by SEALs. Plus, everything we know about him lines up perfectly with that background.
2. Excluding the Winter Soldier’s P220, no one else in CATWS is seen carrying any SIG handgun model. All other SHIELD and HYDRA agents pretty much exclusively use Glocks, which further confirms this custom P226 SCT is undoubtably meant to be Rumlow’s personal handgun (he’s also seen with this same gun in the scene where they’re hunting Steve down at the mall).
3. Out of the dozens of guns seen and used in TFATWS, the only person to use a P226 is Bucky. Yet again, no one else in the show carries any SIG handgun model with Glocks by far the most common.
4. This is the only gun Bucky uses in the entire show. The only other gun Bucky even briefly holds is the submachine gun he takes from one of Selby's goons before dropping it seconds later. Additionally, the fact that Bucky has this gun in two completely different scenes, set days apart in different locations, confirms this isn’t just some random gun he borrowed temporarily in Madripoor, but his own personal gun that he purposefully chooses to carry.
5. Not only are Rumlow and Bucky’s guns the same basic model, they’re specifically the Super Capacity Tactical (SCT) variant, which is already fairly uncommon, but on top of that and more importantly both guns appear to have the same very specific, very unique customizationsto the point where I’m quite certain it’s the exact same prop. While the standard P226 SCT is pure black, multiple parts on both of these guns (hammer, takedown lever, magazine release, decocker, etc) have a silvery finish instead, which you can see a little more clearly here. Some of the parts are reminiscent of the Equinox version of the P226, but it’s not a perfect match and notably the SCT doesn’t seem to have ever been made in an Equinox variation anyway. The most interesting features to me though are the bare-metal front and rear cocking serrations, which again are reminiscent of the Equinox except the rest of the slide is still all black. In all of my research that’s not something I’ve been able to find on any other P226 and is not just a part you could potentially buy and swap out. To achieve that look the slide would have to be very deliberately hand-sanded or machined. This detail, combined with the other custom parts, undoubtably makes this gun one-of-a-kind.
6. Some may try to argue that if we look at other Marvel movies we might find that this particular prop has been reused before and this gun is not as unique in-universe as it might seem. Don’t worry, I’ve looked into this too. At least according to IMFDB’s current records, not a single P226 SCT, much less one with these customizations, has ever been identified in another Marvel property. Rumlow’s gun in CATWS and Bucky’s gun in TFATWS are the only instances this gun, or anything like it, has shown up.

Maybe the reappearance of this gun was just meant to be a cool Easter egg for eagle-eyed gun enthusiasts. Maybe it’s meant to be something more. I don’t know and I honestly don’t care. Because here’s the thing, regardless of what was originally intended (death of the author and all that), the facts remain and they paint an undeniably compelling picture of something that has actual narrative weight.

Whatever Doylist reasons this gun may’ve been chosen for Bucky out of the dozens, if not hundreds, of potential options, if we just look at the facts and try to make sense of them in-universe one thing is clear: there’s no way Rumlow and Bucky would both have this exact gun by pure coincidence. It’s not standard issue for SHIELD or HYDRA and it’s not some run-of-the-mill, off-the-shelf weapon Bucky could’ve easily picked up somewhere on a whim. He made a deliberate choice to acquire and carry this gun. And given this custom P226’s extreme uniqueness paired with Rumlow and Bucky’s likely history, there are really only two possible scenarios that I can see:

1. Bucky sought out and somehow recovered Rumlow’s gun from the wreckage of the Triskelion at some point, making it quite literally the exact same gun.
2. Bucky tracked down the same already uncommon model and specifically customized it to match Rumlow’s favorite gun (which he would’ve had to have been very familiar with to get all of the details just right).

Either option is intriguing, to say the least. It certainly brings up more questions than answers, namely: What is the significance of Rumlow and/or his gun to Bucky/the Winter Soldier, and why does Bucky care about it so much that he took the considerable time and effort to either recover the original or recreate an exact copy?