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Armsel Striker and variants: Difference between revisions

From Internet Movie Firearms Database - Guns in Movies, TV and Video Games
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== SWD/Cobray Street Sweeper ==
== SWD/Cobray Street Sweeper ==
[[File:CobrayStreetSweeper.jpg|thumb|right|500px|SWD/Cobray Street Sweeper with short barrel and top folding stock - 12 gauge. Note the Cobray logo on the side.]]
[[File:CobrayStreetSweeper.jpg|thumb|right|500px|SWD/Cobray Street Sweeper with short barrel - 12 gauge. Note the Cobray logo on the side.]]
[[File:SWD-StreetSweeper.jpg|thumb|right|500px|SWD/Cobray Street Sweeper with 18 inch barrel - 12 gauge. Because all legally owned Street Sweepers in the United States are "destructive devices," very few remain in this configuration as there is no law governing the required barrel length of a DD.]]
[[File:SWD-StreetSweeper.jpg|thumb|right|500px|SWD/Cobray Street Sweeper with 18 inch barrel - 12 gauge. Because all legally owned Street Sweepers in the United States are "destructive devices," very few remain in this configuration as there is no law governing the required barrel length of a DD.]]



Revision as of 17:45, 11 October 2022

The Armsel Striker shotgun and its variants appears in the following films, TV shows, and video games used by the following actors:

Specifications

(Mid-1980s ~ Present)

Type: Shotgun

Caliber: 12 gauge

Capacity: 12-round revolving cylinder

Fire Modes: "Clockwork" tension-operate drum on most models, manual operation only on Protecta

Armsel Striker

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Armsel Striker - 12 gauge

The original Armsel Striker is a South African-manufactured cylinder shotgun, designed by Rhodesian Hilton Walker in the 1980s. Production was financed by the Armsel company, but actual production was done by another company called Aserma Manufacturing. Various versions existed, some with the top-folding stock, and others without.

The Striker featured a unique revolver-like cylinder drum, giving it a rather high capacity for the time at 12 rounds. Unlike a revolver, the cylinder isn't turned by the trigger itself (which would give the weapon an extremely heavy trigger pull); instead, the drum is wound up with a clockwork mechanism, and every time the trigger is pulled, the tension from the mechanism turns the cylinder.

Reloading the Striker is a long and drawn-out process; the Striker lacks an automatic extraction system, and the user needs to manually extract spent casings with an ejector rod, load in new rounds one by one (manually advancing the drum with the rear drum advance lever), and finally wind up the drum with the knob in front of the drum.

Strikers are identified not only by the unique 'knob' that serves as the winding key in front of the drum, but also the drum advance lever on the back of the receiver. The Cobray guns don't have this lever.

Film

Title Actor Character Notation Date
Observe and Report Yuen Brother 2009
District 9 Gunman barrel extension; laser sight 2009
House of the Dead Jürgen Prochnow Captain Kirk 2003
In China They Eat Dogs Slavko Labovic Ratco 1999
The World Is Not Enough Maria Grazia Cucinotta Cigar Girl extended barrel 1999
Bulletproof Jeep Swenson Bledsoe full automatic sound effects 1996
Escape from L.A. 1996
Fair Game 1995
Point of No Return One of the thugs 1993
RoboCop 3 Daniel von Bargen Moreno 1993
Patriot Games Patrick Bergin Kevin O'Donnell 1992
Hard Boiled Anthony Wong Johnny Wong 1992
RoboCop 2 Gun store robber 1990
Laser Mission Brandon Lee Michael Gold 1989
American Ninja 2: The Confrontation Steve James Curtis Jackson 1987
Hostage South African Soldiers 1987

Television

Title Actor Character Notation Date
Strike Back - Season 3
Strike Back - Season 2
Primeval
Tremors: The Series
Miami Vice

Video Games

Game Title Appears as Mods Notation Date
Enter the Matrix 2003
Cross Fire "Armsel Striker" 2007

Armsel Protecta

Armsel Protecta with 12" barrel - 12 gauge
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Armsel Protecta with 7" barrel - 12 gauge

The Armsel Protecta is an improved version of the original Striker designed for quicker reloading. It features an auto ejection mechanism, whereby some of the propellent gasses are vented off into the chamber and used to blast the previously fired shell backwards out of the ejection port into a large shell deflector, which is the most obvious external difference between the Protecta and the original Striker (the original Striker had to manually eject its fired rounds via an ejector rod).

In order to prevent a live shell being ejected when a fully loaded Protecta is fired, a special loading gate was added which prevents the first round being ejected, but opens as the drum rotates after the first shot so subsequent empty shells are ejected. Because a used shell is only ejected when the next round is fired, the last shell in the drum still has to be manually advanced to the ejection port position and ejected with the ejector rod.

The clockwork mechanism on the drum was also removed in order to speed up reloading (resulting in the deletion of the winding key and also the rear drum advance lever). The drum of the Protecta is manually advanced after each shot by rotating the entire barrel shroud and attached forwards grip slightly to the right and then back again. Due to this the Protecta is not actually a semi-automatic shotgun so any depictions of it as such are incorrect.

Film

Title Actor Character Notation Date
Kick-Ass Thug M4 style stock 2010
Battlestar Galactica: The Plan 2009
Doomsday Chris Robson Miller 2008
Battlestar Galactica: Razor 2009
The Punisher Mark Collie Harry Heck 2004
Vares: Private Eye Tuula Nyman Jarmo's mother 7 inch barrel 2004
Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever Antonio Banderas Ecks 2002
Rapid Fire Mobsters 1992
American Ninja 4: The Annihilation Commandos and rebels 1990

Television

Title Actor Character Notation Date
Battlestar Galactica 2004 - 2009
Stargate: Atlantis 2004 - 2009
Stargate: SG1 Richard Dean Anderson General Jack O'Neill Configured to fire grenade rounds 1997-2007
Stargate: SG1 Ben Browder Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell Configured to fire grenade rounds 1997-2007
Alarm für Cobra 11 - Die Autobahnpolizei . Thugs . 1996-present

Video Games

Game Title Appears as Mods Notation Release Date
Söldner: Secret Wars 2004
Army Of Two DAO-X Automatic 2008
Grand Theft Auto Online Sweeper Shotgun with Striker drum advance lever and clockwork mechanism; added with the "Bikers" DLC 2013

SWD/Cobray Street Sweeper

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SWD/Cobray Street Sweeper with short barrel - 12 gauge. Note the Cobray logo on the side.
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SWD/Cobray Street Sweeper with 18 inch barrel - 12 gauge. Because all legally owned Street Sweepers in the United States are "destructive devices," very few remain in this configuration as there is no law governing the required barrel length of a DD.

The Street Sweeper is the American-made copy of the Striker; the standard commercial version was recognizable by its longer 18" barrel, which was necessary to comply with U.S. firearms laws for over the counter shotgun sales. There were short barreled versions of the Street Sweeper, but like all short barreled shotguns, it required a tax stamp and was a strongly regulated device. When the Clinton Administration declared the civilian version of the Street Sweeper to be a 'destructive device' (like a mortar or a rocket launcher) in 1993, nearly all commercial sales ceased, all existing owners were contacted by the ATF with demands to register their weapons, and the remaining samples in the chain of commerce could only be sold to holders of Federal Destructive Device Permits.

Although it is a copy of the Striker, there is a relatively low interchangeability of parts between the two guns. The Sweeper lacks the rear drum advance lever of the Striker and has its own distinctive key in the front of the drum to wind the 'clockwork' mechanism like the original Striker shotgun. The Sweeper's winding key has an oblong, flat grip, as opposed to the thicker, more squared key of the Armsel or Sentinel Strikers.

The Street Sweeper is usually seen in American action films, whereas the Striker and Protecta are more likely to appear in films made outside of the U.S.

Film

Title Actor Character Notation Date
Class of 1999 1990
Another 48 Hrs. David Anthony Marshall Willie Hickok 1990
Total Recall Michael Ironside Richter Heavily Modified 1990
Total Recall Mars Colony Troops Heavily Modified 1990
Hard Hunted Bruce Penhall Bruce Christian 1992
Hard Hunted Dona Speir Donna Hamilton 1992
Rapid Fire Henchman 1992
Fit to Kill Dona Speir Donna Hamilton Footage from Hard Hunted 1993
Men of War Dolph Lundgren Nick Gunar added muzzle-brake 1994
The Dallas Connection Gerald Okamura Fu 1994
Bad Blood Lorenzo Lamas Travis Blackstone 1994
Top Dog A Neo Nazi terrorist 1995
Set It Off Dr. Dre Black Sam 1996
Godzilla U.S. Army Soldiers 1998
American Dragons Don Stark Rocco wielded with Desert Eagle 1998
Return to Savage Beach Cristian Letelier J. Tyler Ward 1998
In China They Eat Dogs Kim Bodnia Harald Blixen 1999
In China They Eat Dogs A gangster 1999
A.T.F. US Senator 1999
The Crew Mike Moroff Jorge 2000
Route 666 Russian mobster 2001
In Her Line of Fire David Keith Vice President Walker 2006
In Her Line of Fire The rebels 2006
Death Sentence 2007
Smokin' Aces Kevin Durand Jeeves Tremor 2007
The Interceptor (Zapreshchyonnaya Realnost) Kurylo's special forces soldier 2009
Elephant White Djimon Hounsou Curtie Church modified with unknown custom-made attachment 2010
Jerry Cotton Oliver Kalkofe Big Morrow gold plated 2010
New Kids Nitro female Schijndel gang member 2011
Wicked Blood thug 2014
Tokarev Nathan O'Neil Smith Anton's thug 2014
Tokarev Russian Mafia 2014

Television

Title Actor Character Notation Date
Burn Notice 2007- 2010
Supernatural - Season 5 Bruce Ramsay Paul Short barreled / "99 Problems" (S05E17) 2010

Video Games

Game Title Appears as Mods Notation Release Date
Enter the Matrix Street Sweeper Shotgun 2003
Resident Evil 4 Striker With Protecta automatic ejection and no wind-up key 2005
Resident Evil 5 Jail Breaker 2009
Alliance of Valiant Arms With Protecta automatic ejection and shell deflector 2007
Battlefield 3 DAO-12 8-round default magazine, various optics With Protecta automatic ejection and shell deflector 2011
Battlefield 4 DAO-12 correct 12-round magazine, various attachments With Protecta automatic ejection and shell deflector 2013

Anime

Title Character Note Date
Desert Punk 2004

Sentinel/Penn Arms Striker-12

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Sentinel Arms Striker-12 with civilian-legal 18" barrel - 12 gauge
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Sentinel/Penn Arms Striker-12 with stubby 7" barrel - 12 gauge
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Penn Arms Striker-12 with 12" barrel - 12 gauge
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Penn Arms Striker-12 with 7" barrel - 12 gauge

The Sentinel Arms (later Penn Arms, now a part of Combined Systems) Striker-12 is a licensed American version of the Armsel Striker (Cobray's Street Sweeper was a cheap knock-off copy of the Striker). Patent rights to produce and sell the Striker in the United States was purchased from Armsel by Grant W. Stapleton of Sentinel Arms Corporation in the early eighties, who then upgraded the shotgun to commercial U.S. standards.

The Striker-12 improved on the Armsel design, featuring an improved winding key and the addition of a thumb tab on the right side of the drum magazine next to the trigger guard, used to open and close the ejection port (which is the distinguishing feature differing the model from all other variants). Unlike the original Striker, initial models lacked the rear drum advance lever; the manual instead tells the users to advance the drum with the winding key during reloads.

Later models also adds the auto ejection mechanism from the Protecta and the rear drum advance lever from the Striker, essentially combining all the best parts of all the variants into one variant. This variant can be distinguished by having the thumb tab on the side of the magazine, and the rear-mounted drum advance lever from the Striker, and the large shell deflector from the Protecta.

A large number of video games depict the ejection port button as a drum advance lever, following its depiction as such in the 2009 video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. There is no evidence that this works in reality.

Film

Title Actor Character Notation Date
Point Break (1991) Vincent Klyn War Child 1991
Desperado Antonio Banderas El Mariachi 1995
Spawn John Leguizamo The Clown Short barreled version portrayed as a grenade launcher 1997

Video games

Game Title Appears as Mods Notation Release Date
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne Striker w/ 7 inch barrel Later model 2003
Battlefield 2 DAO-12 Early model 2005
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned Assault Shotgun w/ cut-down 18-inch barrel, full auto mode and 8-round drum Later model 2009
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Striker Various optional attachments Early model with Armsel Protecta automatic ejection and shell deflector; ejection port button depicted as drum advance lever 2009
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Striker Various optional attachments Later model; ejection port button depicted as drum advance lever 2011
Payday 2 Street Sweeper Various optional attachments Later model; ejection port button depicted as drum advance lever 2013
Warface "Cobray Striker" 2013
"Cobray Striker Special" red dot sight heavily customized
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Streetsweeper Various optional attachments Released during Season 1 2020