GENESIS: Creating The Ultimate Fighting Handgun

The pursuit of perfection is a journey that includes a range of successes, from 'getting better' to 'utter failure.'  If you take the 1873 Colt SAA as the starting point for modern handguns, then the Bren Ten is a firearm with over a little over 100 years of product improvement behind it.

The Colt SAA was purpose built as a military sidearm.  While it could certainly fulfill many other roles (and it did), it was not initially designed for concealed carry, target shooting, or hunting.  This need continues on today with the U.S. military's recent adoption of the Sig P320/M17.

The moniker of "combat handgun" brings with it certain specific characteristics.  Basically, a gun being used for this purpose should be durable, reliable, ergonomic, reasonably accurate, and easily maintained.  It should be easy to reload quickly, hold as many rounds as possible (without compromising ergonomics), and chamber a cartridge powerful enough to quickly incapacitate a human.  As an example, the Colt SAA satisfied all of these requirements when compared to other sidearms of the time period.

When the Bren Ten was being designed, its main competitor would have been the Colt 1911, which like it's Single Action Army ancestor, fulfilled all of these attributes.  Dornaus & Dixon, with the help of Colonel Jeff Cooper, envisioned a new pistol that would do the venerable 1911 Government Model one better by building a full-size combat handgun with a double action trigger system, higher capacity, and a more powerful cartridge.

Tom Dornaus and Mike Dixon knew their dream was a big one.  Success required two simple but vital criteria.  First, the gun had to be better than anything currently available.  Second, it had to be embraced by the gun community.  There was only one person that could help them in both of these areas, and that was Colonel Jeff Cooper.

The .45 caliber 1911 Government Model had long been Col. Cooper's primary sidearm, but he was well aware that it had its limits. Unfortunately, there was no other pistol available that offered a substantial improvement over the 1911.  In 1977, however, Cooper was able to get a hold of a CZ-75.  Being from a Soviet Bloc country the gun was banned from importation into the United States, but a few copies had managed to sneek into the country via Canada.

"This new pistol from behind the Iron Curtain is possibly the most advanced 9mm service automatic in the world.  I hold no ill will towards the Czechs, a people held prisoner in communist bondage by force of arms, but it is disquieting to see them producing what appears to be a better sidearm (if one can accept its marginally effective 9mm cartridge) than anything made on our side of the barbed wire."

The Colonel was quite impressed with the Czech CZ-75, but its 9mm chambering was still a deal breaker.  (Remember that at this time hollowpoint ammunition was still in its infancy and FMJs ruled the day in semiautos.)  What Col. Cooper really wanted was a CZ pistol chambered in his trusted .45 ACP.  While this would not be the final answer for Dornaus and Dixon, it was at least a point of departure.

When considering the purpose of a 'combat handgun,' the ultimate objective is to send a projectile of sufficient size and weight at a velocity high enough to render the target incapacitated as quickly as possible. This incapacitation is done by the projectile, not the firearm, and so it is important not to put the cart before the horse.

Interestingly enough, though the Bren Ten and the 10mm Auto cartridge are often discussed in tandem, the fact is that a new cartridge was NOT part of the original plan.  If you think about it, it's very possible that it should probably have been rejected as being too ambitious for a brand new company considering the work involved in convincing ammunition manufacturers to produce ammo for a single gun that wasn't even in production.  (More on this later!)