Bren Ten - History

History

In the 1970s the police and some military forces used a mix of semi-automatic designs and revolvers. Automatics offered high rates of fire and quick reloading, but generally used small rounds that would neither overstress the mechanism nor the shooter. Revolvers were generally more accurate due to the availability of longer barrels, and were offered in calibers with considerably more power than the automatics, but held only a small number of rounds and were fairly slow to reload. Neither could be considered ideal.

On December 15, 1979, Thomas Dornaus and Michael Dixon decided to start the development of a new semi-automatic pistol to address the gap between revolvers and automatics. What was needed, they believed, was a semiautomatic pistol with its greater ammunition capacity and faster reloads, but one that would deliver power exceeding both the .45 ACP and the .357 Magnum. They hoped the new design would become as popular as the then-aged Colt 1911.

On January 15, 1980, they went seeking advice from the most knowledgeable sources available. This effort led to Jeff Cooper. Upon seeking his advice, the two discovered that he had already been working on such a pistol. The trio combined their efforts: Dornaus and Dixon provided the engineering, development, manufacturing, and marketing, while Cooper provided conceptual design criteria and technical advice. The company was formally incorporated as Dornaus & Dixon Enterprises Inc. on July 15, 1981 in California, and a new factory was set up in Huntington Beach.

After some experimentation with wildcat loads like the .40 GA and "centimeter" cartridge, they worked with ammunition manufacturer Norma to standardize the cartridge and design the pistol to fire it. The pistol, meanwhile, was adapted from the CZ-75 but heavily modified, including a stainless steel frame, easily visible sights, and various other features that would normally only be found on heavily customized arms.

Production of the Bren Ten ran from 1983 to 1986, with a production run of fewer than 1,500 total pistols according to some sources. They had started taking orders in 1982, forcing them to ship out examples as soon as possible, before any sort of in-depth testing could be done. The first batch of pistols was sent out to the customers with one magazine from a pre-serial batch. The much needed magazines could not be available on the US market for two years because Italy prohibited their export and customs seized them as war material. Customers cancelled their orders and in 1986 Dornaus & Dixon Inc. was forced to file for bankruptcy.