Cleaning out some of the hundreds of photos stored on my computer I came across a picture of one of my favorite lost autos, the Bren Ten. I had the 45 conversion unit for this too, but due to the NYS Safe Act, I chose to sell it out of state rather than modify the 10 round magazines to only seven rounds. We all have regrets about selling a gun we should have kept, but this one was a tough loss. It was more of a novelty, and I never used it, but it was one of those interesting firearms with an interesting history, being the creation of the late Jeff Cooper.

I always wanted a Bren Ten, but it's probably good I never found one that I could afford. About the closest thing to a Bren Ten you can find easily today is the steel frame EAA Witness, and I do have one of those, with both .45 ACP and .38 Super barrels and slides, plus a 9mm barrel (which can be used with the .38 Super slide). Never was tempted to buy the EAA 10mm slide and barrel.

Model39:

Seems to me that Bren Ten magazines hold 10 rounds of 10mm ammunition-not 11.

Bruce

Ex Brother in Law #2 is very fond of anything 10mm. As I acquire empty brass from shops and ranges, ALL 10mm brass is still forwarded to him!

Ivan

I've read in a CZ forum that there is factory interest in a 10mm version of the CZ 97 B, but current production is maxed out and new models are tough to bring out.

Might be a close cousin if it happens.

Always wondered how many Bren Tens were sold due to 'Sonny Crockett'.....

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Ret'd LEO
SWCA #2275

A bunch no doubt!

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Dave Ramsey Cultist

And shoulder holsters.

Had one, total disaster, sights could not be adjusted to zero, initially no magazine, Cooper made a mistake in hyping that ***

One of our club members was a very early purchaser, and when he received it it had no magazine. The magazines didn't arrive for over a month.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

There has been a great deal written about the poor business model used by D&D for the Bren Ten. Google is your friend.

All of them is my guess. That's why I wanted one.

And I bought one of those, although it was three years after Miami Vice cancelled. I'd love to have bought a Bren Ten to go in it, but instead I got a Glock 20 for it.

I wanted a Bren from the time I saw the Cooper Boxed in Shooting Times when I was a kid. Then Miami Vice came along and I really wanted one. Never found one I could afford. Got sucked into the Vltor debacle, still won't buy a single thing that company produces. One day I am going to cash out some savings and just buy one, even if I never shoot it.

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Plastic has no soul

What Vltor did was a galactically larger Charley Foxtrot than anything Dornaus and Dixon EVER did. Don't get me started on that debacle.

Dornaus and Dixon had essentially shut down before the peak of Miami Vice's popularity. The show debuted in fall of 1984.

I was unaware that Shooting Times ever did a feature article on the Bren Ten or that Jeff Cooper had a by-line in that gunzine. Maybe Guns & Ammo or Guns magazine?

Bruce

Jeff Cooper was a man of honor if not a very shrewd businessman. I'm sure that the Bren Ten D&D shipped him had been gone through a dozen times at their factory/mom's basement and that he got several extra mags with it.

I don't think that Shooting Time did an article on any 10mm until 1987.

Guns & Ammo did one on the Bren Ten in 1984.

.

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Waiting for the break of day

Bruce I was talking about the ad for the Commemorative boxed set, not an article. There has always just been something about how Brens look that has done it for me. I've only handled a Bren one time and that was back in the early 90's at a gun show when I was freshly married and broke.

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Plastic has no soul

The first Bren Ten I saw was at the Dallas SHOT Show in 1983 or 1984 (I don't remember which it was). Anyway, I still have all of the advertising propaganda items they were handing out there about it.

Quote:

Anyway, I still have all of the advertising propaganda items they were handing out there about it.

They gave out a lot of different items at the S.H.O.T. Show booths. These included catalogs, net back adjustable baseball caps in a couple of colors and owner's manuals. The owner's manuals were really something. They are about 70 pages and included a very large numbers of photo's and illustrations along with technical illustrations of all three models and complete parts lists. It's the best owner's manual I've ever seen and it, in fact, won an award. You see them for sale on eBay occasionally. However, you can always tell the "promotional" manuals from those issued with guns because the latter include three loose single sheet addenda.

Bruce

The one and only Bren Ten I ever saw in person was around 1998 at Planet Hollywood in Aspen, Colorado...as luck would have it I was seated in a booth that had what was supposedly Don Johnson's Bren Ten from the Miami Vice series in a small glass case right there on the wall. It was scratched all to heck, but still a thrill to see. I mean, was there ever any other Bren Ten on the planet of any real significance?

That was an interesting time and those were interesting guns. I saw Col. Cooper's cased Bren Ten while visiting his armory at Gunsite years ago. Tom and Michael gave me a tour of the factory one time and I worked the Bren Ten booth at SHOT with them in Dallas, 1984 I believe it was. I sure thought at the time that they'd bitten off a lot attempting to successfully introduce a new gun, in a new metric caliber to boot. This, at a time when metric calibers were not accepted as readily as they might be now days. I still have my Bren Ten jacket, shirt, some of the advertising literature I was pictured in, etc. After D&D's demise, I still had a case of Bren Ten owners manuals. I thought, why do I need these things? I dumped them in the trash. Only later did I learn that people had started collecting all things Bren Ten. I got an early Bren Ten for dealer cost, but never did get a magazine

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NRA Life, COTEP 640

Cool pistols

I have one of those still NIB...

The ultimate Bren Ten, it had a magazine! Sad tale of a good idea gone bad. Thanks for sharing!

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Stay safe people!

The Bren Ten displayed at Planet Hollywood was one of two blank firing guns built by Tom Dornaus especially for the show. A collector in the eastern US owns the other. It was mislabeled as a Detonics Combat Master in the display. Don Johnson owns another Bren Ten with a vanity serial number.

Bren Tens shipped without magazines which were never returned to the D&D plant never had their magazine wells machined to final dimensions because the production magazines hadn't been received from MEC-GAR yet. This is something to keep in mind if somebody should acquire a magazine and decide to shoot the gun (something I don't recommend for safety reasons).

Any Bren Ten jacket is a one of a kind item which is highly collectable. They were never offered for sale by the factory or from System Ten Associates. All System Ten items are highly collectible. I own the last of their old inventory including T-Shirts, jacket patches, brass belt buckles. tie tacs/lapel pins and wall posters. Their baseball caps are extremely rare. I've only actually seen two.

Jeff Cooper's Bren Ten is actually one of the limited edition Commemoratives; actually a prototype. They found that while shooting, the gold plating on the hammer would chip off. They then decided they would ship a standard hammer along with the plated one with all Commemorative models. Whether they actually followed thru I don't know.

Bruce

Want to sell it? ....

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Plastic has no soul

Model39: Those grips are amazing; do you know who made them? I have never seen those before. They look like Tyler Tru-Fits. I know that Hogue allegedly made white grips for the Bren, but have never found a pair.
I bought mine in 1997, and grab spare parts and accessories when I can:


Even though the prices have really shot up, I'd still like to pick up an M&P Model.

The grips in the picture were made for me by a friend about 12 years ago. They are made of Ivory, and I had two blue and gold Bren Ten emblem pins which my friend inlaid in the grips to finish them off. I also had factory wood grips and the black plastic grips which originally came on the gun. I had three dual caliber magazines, and four designated 10MM magazines to go along with it. I NEVER shot the gun as I had read horror stories about slides cracking and was worried that something might go wrong and make the gun useless if I did. I chose to put the Ivories on the gun (for show only) since I was never going to fire it,and was not concerned about any damage that might be caused to the grips from the recoil of the gun. Sadly Ivory grips cannot be sold legally anymore. Thank You for your interest.

A lot of folks are tempted by the all dark colored Military and Police Model but are then disappointed with the finish. The black finish on the Special Forces Dark and M&P frames have a very porous texture and show burnish marks quite easily. The types of dark finish available for stainless steel in 1983 was nowhere what is is now in terms of color, texture or durability.

Guy Hogue manufactured the original black fiberglass reinforced nylon grips and the white ones. I have only seen one pair of the latter and wasn't impressed. They are rare to the extreme. The mold for the grips could also produced the follower for the magazines. All OEM wood grips for the Bren Tens were manufactured by Herrett. A few years back a boatload of repro's were made so be aware that those are out there also if you are looking for the collectible variety.

That's interesting in that the Initial Commemorative magazine ad was an artist's rendition and not a photo. I personally don't care for engraved and inlayed guns but I'd like to have one of the twelve or so Commemoratives actually built complete with everything including the certificate signed by Mike Dixon, Tom Dornaus and Jeff Cooper.

Bruce

There was a magazine article a few years back about modifying 1911 magazines to shoot in the Bren.

Seems to me it was a "bit more" than a few years ago.

Bruce

I have been a fan of the 10mm Auto and the Brens for years.

Here is a purchase I made in the last year. Two NIB Dual Masters, consecutive serial numbers.

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Dual M 19 r.jpg (91.2 KB, 30 views)

BruceM - I have heard of (and seen) the finish issues on the M&P frames. Too bad, it's a really cool variation. The white Hogues I have never seen in person. I'm still looking for a set of smooth Herrett's.

BEEMER1:

Did you buy those from a guy in Indiana? Serial Numbers 2xx and 3xx?

The smooth Herrett's are definitely nicer than the checkered version. I suspect the OEM's will set you back $200-$300.

Bruce

Yes, I figured you would know him.

Yah. He picked them up in 2011. He has (or had?) a thing for Bren Tens in consecutively serial numbered sets. Class III weapons also.

Bruce

Before he would really talk about selling he certainly questioned my intentions of keeping them together or not.

I think that was more important to him than the price. I believe that I have purchased 6 Brens form him.

He is a real gentleman to deal with.