10-Hole Hero
and Delta Pulse Rifle
A convincing theory
fig. 1: 10-Hole Hero Pulse Rifle (top, movie still) vs. Delta Pulse Rifle (bottom, image from Propstore).
The Delta Pulse Rifle is the only surviving Pulse Rifle with a functional Remington 870 inside the SPAS cage, all other surviving Hero Pulse Rifles were equipped only with a dummy grenade launcher (see fig. 1).
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While there are people who argue that there were two Pulse Rifles with functioning Remington 870, this cannot be observed on screen. In the movie "Aliens", only the 10-Hole Hero Pulse Rifle can be seen firing the grenade launcher.
For this reason, the theory has been proposed that the grenade launcher section (SPAS cage with Remington 870, including front block) of the original 10-Hole Hero Rifle was "transplanted" to the Delta Pulse Rifle after filming was completed and that the grenade launcher section of the Delta Pulse Rifle is actually a remainder of the 10-hole Hero Rifle.
This theory is very credible for the following reasons:
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​The front block on the Delta Pulse Rifle is identical to the unique front block of the 10-Hole Hero Rifle (see the Front Block section for more infomation). No other Pulse Rifle featured that front block on screen.
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The Delta Pulse Rifle is the only "Hero" Pulse Rifles where the front block is not attached to the SPAS cage with a screw through the top right front of the SPAS cage (see the Front Block section for more infomation).
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On both the 10-Hole Hero and the Delta Pulse Rifle, the trigger guard of the Remington 870 can be seen below the SPAS cage. On the 10-hole Hero, the trigger guard was "hidden" by a bent metal plate, whereas on the other Hero Rifles, this plate was flat (see Remington 870 section for more infomation). The plate is also flat on the Delta Pulse Rifle, showing that the shrouds are different.
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The SPAS cage of the Delta Pulse Rifle is the only surviving Hero Rifle to have the additional holes for the pins of the Remington 870, like the 10-Hole Hero (see SPAS cage section for more information).
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These are all unique features of the "prototype" pictures mentioned above, leading me and several others to believe that the Delta Pulse Rifle is now equipped with the (most likely only) functioning Remington 870, while the 10-Hole Hero was most likely retrofitted after filming with one of the SPAS cages with mock-up shotguns.
Lastly, in one of the images of the Delta Pulse Rifle on the Aliens Pulse Rifle Information & Resource Page by Willie Goldman, the serial number of the Remington 870 is visible. The serial number of the prototype Pulse Rifle is also visible in one of the Bapty images of the prototype Pulse Rifle. Let's see how they compare:
fig. 2: Serial number of the Remington 870 inside the Delta Pulse Rifle.
fig. 3: Serial number of the Remington 870 inside the Prototype Pulse Rifle.