Gary Reeder
Soldier Of Fortune magazine promoted it
Friday, August 23, 2024, 16:22

with stories from Mercs who carried one. Another instance of magazines or movies making certain guns almost non-available due to demand. Like Dirty Harry's 6½" model 29 44 Magnum and then the 2½" model 66 in 357 Magnum, both in movies. I was in radio back then and worked part time at a gun shop in Clarksville Tennessee in the afternoons. The Model 29 retailed for around $250 but if you found one for less than $450 you were doing good. The owner of the shop got one in from time to time and even the guys that worked there had to pay about double retail to get one. When the Gauntlet movie came out and Dirty Harry used the 2½" model 66 in 357 Magnum over night you couldn't find one at all. I don't remember what they sold for but they weren't cheap.

Don Johnson used a Bren Ten in Miami Vice and they would have been even more popular except magazines were almost non available. Even some of the new guns didn't come with a magazine. That pretty much killed what would have been a huge seller and killed the company.
In the Beverly Hills Cop movies Eddie Murphy used the Browning High Power. Bruce Willis used the Beretta 92 in the Die Hard movies ,as did Mel Gibson. The movies with these three kept the High Power and Beretta 92 back ordered forever.
I am sure there were more than just these but I can't remember what they were right now.