Tag Archives: spy gun

The Quiet Pocket Jaguar

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A Cold War era classic with smooth lines, a legendary back story, and an exotic-sounding name, Beretta’s Model 71 was definitely a mouse that roared.

Debuted in 1958 as a downsized companion pistol line to complement the recently introduced 9mm Beretta M1951, the company’s 70-series guns would span no less than 14 variants and sub-variants before ending production in the mid-1980s.

Using a fixed barrel and open slide – a hallmark of the M1951 that would later carry on to the 92-series pistols of today – the compact 70-series guns were blowback action pistols with a skeletonized bobbed hammer, a frame-mounted manual safety, and a smooth single-action trigger.

Chambered in .380 ACP, .32 ACP, and .22 LR flavors, they proved a hit both domestically in Italy and on the commercial market. While the Model 70 would see a modicum of Italian police use, such as with the CFS – the federal forestry service – it would be the Model 71 that shined the brightest in the series.

Why?

Spies and liquidators.

 

More in my column at Guns.com.

OSS “Bigot” Dart firing 1911

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My homie Ian over at Forgotten Weapons got his hand on a modified standard 1911 pistol from the WWII era that uses a rather harsh looking dart via a blank round which fires a piston into the dart’s base. Was designed by the special weapons, gags and gimmicks guys for use ‘somewhere in occupied Europe’.

Check the video out

 

The Semmerling LM-4 Pistol: Sleek, strange, secretive, sought

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Sure, it looks like a smooth little semi-auto mouse gun but, as with many things in this crazy world, under it’s sleekness hides some strangeness. First, it’s not a pee-shooter, but rather a 5-shot .45 ACP hardballer. Second, its not semi-auto at all but rather more of a pump-action. It’s the Semmerling LM-4, and though it may look like a swan to some, at its heart it’s still one odd little duck.

Since the beginning of modern time, there have been rough handed individuals whose services are retained by certain quiet branches of the government to maintain a fragile system of covert operations. These individuals are sent to exotic places, meet interesting people, and occasionally have to fight for their lives to make it back home.

In the 1970s, a small shadowy company in the Boston area by the name of the Semmerling Corporation began producing a compact little gun for the special purpose of arming such individuals. The primary tenants of the pistol was that it be a small and durable as possible, with absolute reliability but crucially pack a decent punch—no mouse guns, as the gun was to allow a covert agent working deep cover, to have a concealed firearm to engage in violence if they could not otherwise extract themselves from the situation.
Read the rest in my column at GUNS.com

semmerling holster stainless