The Guns of Miami Vice: Every Weapon Identified

I’ve watched a lot of eighties cop shows for work, and none of them took guns as seriously as Miami Vice. Michael Mann treated a pistol like wardrobe. It had to match the jacket, it had to read on camera, and it had to be the newest thing on the market that year. That’s how a bankrupt Californian gun company ended up with the most famous sidearm on television.

Here’s every significant weapon in the series, who carried it, and the production stories behind the ones that matter.

Sonny Crockett’s Bren Ten

The Dornaus & Dixon Bren Ten was Crockett’s primary sidearm through seasons one and two, and it’s the reason a lot of people know what 10mm is.

Mechanically it was a beefed-up CZ 75 chambered for the original 10mm Norma Auto. That case runs slightly different from the 10mm loads you’d buy now, and it was hot enough to knock the guns around. In 1984 nobody cared, because it was new and it was loud and it looked like the future.

The screen guns weren’t production pistols. Mann’s company ordered two, and Tom Dornaus built them himself from parts that weren’t up to production standard but were fine for a gun that would only ever fire blanks. They were purpose-built around .45 ACP blank cases, which the Bren Ten’s oversized ejection port swallowed without modification. Mann asked for hard chrome on the slides so the pistol would pop against dark scenes and pale suits. Both guns carried special serial numbers, and both ended up in private collections.

Then Dornaus & Dixon went under. The production had a policy against featuring discontinued guns, so the Bren Ten was retired. It’s the only pistol I can think of that became legendary specifically because the company making it failed.

You can’t buy a new one. What you can buy is the same basic architecture: the EAA Witness runs the CZ 75 pattern the Bren Ten grew out of, in 10mm.

If the cartridge is what interests you, we’ve covered it properly: best 10mm pistols, 9mm vs 10mm, and 10mm for bear defense.

The SIG Sauer P220 in the pilot

Before the Bren Ten arrived, Crockett carried a SIG Sauer P220 in “Brother’s Keeper,” the feature-length pilot. There’s a scene at the climax where he runs the P220 in one hand and a Colt Model 654 with a twenty-round magazine in the other, which is exactly as sensible as it sounds and looks fantastic anyway.

The Smith & Wesson 645

From season three Crockett switched to a Smith & Wesson 645, and the reasoning was the same as it had been for the Bren Ten. Smith’s second-generation autos had just landed, and the producers wanted Crockett holding whatever was current. Big stainless .45, square slab sides, and it photographed beautifully. He carried it through season four.

The Detonics Combatmaster

This is my favourite gun in the show and almost nobody mentions it. Crockett wore a Detonics Combatmaster in an ankle holster as a backup, and there’s a nice moment in “Calderone’s Demise” where he’s just loading it up like it’s a boring part of getting dressed.

The Combatmaster was a properly chopped 1911, one of the first serious attempts at making a .45 small enough to actually carry. An ankle gun on a vice detective is the single most realistic detail in Crockett’s entire loadout. He also used a Detonics Scoremaster, the full-size version, in later episodes.

Ricardo Tubbs’ Beretta Cheetah

Tubbs favoured a Beretta Cheetah with wood grips, seen in “Calderone’s Demise” and “Smuggler’s Blues.” It’s a smaller, more discreet gun than anything Crockett carried, which fits a character who spent most of the show pretending to be someone else. Berettas run all the way through the series, and the 92F turns up constantly once you start looking.

Switek’s Browning Hi-Power

Detective Switek carried a chrome Browning Hi-Power, and there’s a well-known continuity slip in “The Hit List” where he’s suddenly holding Crockett’s Bren Ten instead. The usual explanation is that the chrome Hi-Power wasn’t available that day and the armorer grabbed the nearest bright pistol.

The Hi-Power itself went out of production, then came back. Springfield’s SA-35 is the modern take and it’s a genuinely good gun.

What the bad guys carried

Miami Vice had a very consistent visual grammar for villains. If a man pulled a MAC-10 or an Interdynamic KG-99, he was not going to be alive at the end of the episode. The KG-99 shows up repeatedly, including in Crockett’s own hands during “Smuggler’s Blues,” and the Uzi is everywhere across all five seasons.

Heavier hardware appears more often than you’d expect for a cop show. The Franchi SPAS-12, the Smith & Wesson M76, M16A1s, HK94s and even a Steyr AUG that Crockett runs in “Out Where the Buses Don’t Run” and “Free Verse.” One hitman, Ludovici Armstrong, uses a shortened Ruger AC556 with jungle-taped magazines in “The Hit List,” and that one genuinely is an AC556.

Shotguns

The Mossberg 500 is the workhorse of the series, appearing in all five seasons, with the Remington 870 close behind. There’s also a Mossberg 500 Bullpup, which was a very eighties idea that has aged exactly as well as you’d guess.

More options in our best pump-action shotguns guide.

Frequently asked questions

What pistol did Sonny Crockett carry?

A Bren Ten in seasons one and two, then a Smith & Wesson 645 from season three. He carried a SIG Sauer P220 in the pilot and a Detonics Combatmaster as an ankle backup throughout.

Why did Crockett stop using the Bren Ten?

Dornaus & Dixon went out of business, and the production had a policy against featuring discontinued firearms. The Smith & Wesson 645 replaced it because it was new to the market at the time.

Was Crockett’s Bren Ten a real production gun?

No. Two guns were built by hand by Tom Dornaus specifically for the show, made to fire .45 ACP blanks, with hard-chromed slides requested by Michael Mann for on-camera visibility.

Can you buy a Bren Ten today?

Only used, and originals are expensive collector guns. The EAA Witness in 10mm shares the CZ 75 lineage, and the Glock 20 is the most common modern 10mm pistol.

Keep exploring

This one sits inside our wider guns of TV legends rundown. On film, try Dirty Harry and The Equalizer, or see what an on-screen arsenal actually costs.