Rarity in the gun world usually means one of two things: a one-off custom that only ever existed once, or a factory gun that left the line in tiny numbers and has been hunted by collectors ever since. This list is about the second kind.
These are the rarest production guns in the world, real catalog firearms that you could once have ordered, now so scarce that finding one is the work of a lifetime. Some are priceless pieces of history. A couple are just gloriously strange.
1. Colt Walker Model 1847
Only about 1,100 Colt Walkers were ever made, roughly 1,000 on a U.S. military contract and another hundred for civilians. Today somewhere between 100 and 200 are believed to survive, and a cased example sold for $1.84 million at Rock Island Auction Company, one of the most expensive guns ever sold at auction.
It is the gun that saved Colt as a company. Designed with input from Texas Ranger Samuel Walker, it was the largest and most powerful repeating handgun of its era, a black-powder monster that put Colt back in business. Genuine martial examples routinely clear a million dollars. Most of the survivors are locked in museums or private collections, which is part of why even a worn one is a seven-figure gun.
2. Winchester Model 1873 “One of One Hundred”
Winchester test-fired its rifles and set aside the most accurate ones for special designations. The famous “One of One Thousand” is rare enough, with about 132 made. But its bigger brother, the “One of One Hundred,” is the true holy grail: just eight were ever made, and only six are known to survive.
Eight guns. That’s the entire production run of one of the most desirable Winchesters in existence. When one surfaces, it’s a landmark event in the collecting world, and the price reflects it. Winchester never advertised the grade in its catalogs. It was an internal mark reserved for the most accurate barrels that came off the line.
3. Walther WA 2000
Walther built the WA 2000 to be the finest semi-automatic sniper rifle money could buy, a sleek bullpup that looked like it came from the future. It was so complex and expensive to manufacture that Walther reportedly lost money on every single one.
That is why only 176 were made between 1982 and 1988, with just a handful imported to the United States. Today they trade hands for $50,000 and up. James Bond carried one in The Living Daylights, which only added to the legend.
4. The LeMat Revolver
Imagine a revolver with a shotgun built into the middle of it. That’s the LeMat, a Confederate cavalry sidearm with a nine-shot cylinder that revolved around a separate underslung smoothbore barrel loaded with buckshot.
Flip a lever on the hammer and your revolver became a single-shot shotgun. Only about 2,900 were made between 1856 and 1865, and they were carried by Confederate generals like J.E.B. Stuart. Genuine martial examples now sell from $20,000 well into six figures. Reloading all ten chambers by hand in the field was a nightmare, but in the chaos of a cavalry charge that extra shotgun blast could save a life.
5. The Smith & Wesson Registered Magnum
When Smith & Wesson launched the .357 Magnum in 1935, the first version was built to order. Each Registered Magnum was hand-fitted to the customer’s exact specifications, barrel length, sights, grips, even the trigger, and came with a registration number stamped inside the frame and a numbered certificate.
Roughly 5,200 to 5,500 were made before Smith & Wesson killed the program because it was simply too expensive to keep hand-building guns at the price. It remains the holy grail for S&W collectors, and an example with its original certificate is the real prize.
6. The MBA Gyrojet
The Gyrojet did not fire bullets. It fired tiny self-propelled rockets. In the 1960s, its makers genuinely believed rocketry was the future of small arms, and they built a pistol that launched miniature missiles instead of conventional cartridges.
About 2,000 were made across all models, and it was strange enough to earn a cameo in the Bond film You Only Live Twice. The surviving rocket ammunition is now so scarce that a single round can be worth more than a conventional gun. It’s one of the genuinely weird ones.
7. The Dardick Series 1500
The Dardick blurred the line between revolver and semi-automatic in a way nobody has tried since. It fed triangular plastic cartridges called “Trounds” from a magazine into an open-sided chamber, and the same gun could even be converted into a carbine.
It was a commercial flop. Fewer than about a hundred were made between 1958 and 1962, and they’re so odd that the NRA’s National Firearms Museum keeps one as a curiosity. For collectors of the strange, it’s a genuine grail.
What makes these the rarest production guns
Look down this list and a theme appears. Most of these guns were rare because they were too expensive to build, too strange to sell, or too good for the mass market. Quality and weirdness, it turns out, are both enemies of mass production. At this level, provenance matters as much as the gun: a documented chain of ownership and the right serial number can multiply the price, which is why the Colt Walker and the registered Smith are chased as hard as they are.
That’s what makes them so collectible now. They are the guns the market rejected, vindicated by history. If you like this corner of the gun world, see the most expensive guns ever sold and the most famous guns in history.
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What is the rarest production gun in the world?
The Winchester Model 1873 "One of One Hundred" is a strong contender, with only eight ever made and six known to survive. One-off custom guns can be rarer, but as factory firearms go, that is about as scarce as it gets.
What is the most valuable rare gun ever sold?
The Colt Walker holds the record. A cased example sold for $1.84 million, the most expensive single firearm ever sold at auction.
Why are some production guns so rare?
Usually because they were too expensive to build, too strange to sell, or made in tiny numbers before being discontinued. The Walther WA 2000 and the Smith & Wesson Registered Magnum were both killed off because they cost too much to hand-build at their sale price.
What was the MBA Gyrojet?
A 1960s pistol that fired tiny self-propelled rockets instead of conventional bullets. About 2,000 were made, and the surviving rocket ammunition is now so scarce that a single round can be worth more than the gun itself.
Was the LeMat really a revolver and a shotgun in one?
Yes. The LeMat had a nine-shot cylinder that revolved around a separate underslung smoothbore barrel loaded with buckshot. Flipping a lever on the hammer let the shooter fire the shotgun barrel through the center.
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