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Armsel Striker and variants
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
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
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
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 | ||
| Kite | India Eisley | Sawa | 2014 | |
| Steyns' bodyguard | ||||
| Wicked Blood | thug | 2014 | ||
| Tokarev | Nathan O'Neil Smith | Anton's thug | 2014 | |
| Russian Mafia |
Television
| Title | Actor | Character | Notation | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burn Notice | Jeffrey Donovan | Michael Westen | "Breaking and Entering" (S02E01) | 2007- 2013 |
| 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 | |
| Conflict: Global Terror | 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 |
| Battlefield 2042 | DAO-12 | Striker front sight post | 2021 |
Anime
| Title | Character | Note | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Desert Punk | 2004 |
Sentinel/Penn Arms Striker-12
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 | ||
| Gun Club VR | "Striker" | 2018 | ||
| Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War | Streetsweeper | Various optional attachments | Released during Season 1 | 2020 |
| Resident Evil 4 (2023 VG) | Striker | Later model | 2023 |