The Bren Ten shot to be the U.S. Military’s side arm. The best it mustered was becoming pop-culture trivia.
To that end, the most notoriety the 10mm pistol achieved was becoming Sonny Crockett’s gun in the 1980’s T.V. show Miami Vice. But what exactly was the hitch in the handgun’s giddyap relegating it to the ashbin of history?
First and foremost, the company that built the gun — Dornaus & Dixon Enterprises Inc. — was hamstrung by fulfillment problems. But as the above video by Larry Vickers shows, the Bren Ten also has some design flaws that made the pistol less than desirable.
One of troubled points was the gun’s cross-bolt safety. The featured was engineered with safety in mind, as a way to ensure no negligent discharge when decocking the pistol. But it had a nasty habit of engaging — unbeknownst to the operator — when the slide was racked. This, for obvious reasons, is not a desirable trait on a self-defense gun.
These troubles led to less than 1,500 Bren Tens being produced. This scarcity, however, does increase the value of the pistol with the Standard Catalog of Firearms listing certain models at $2,800.
Be sure to watch the entire video. Not only is it chocked full of great history on the Bren Ten, it also has some spectacular slow-motion footage of the pistol lobbing 10mm rounds down range.
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