The CIA's New Liberator: the 9mm Deer Gun
Forgotten Weapons
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8m 17s
The Deer Gun is a covert CIA pistol inspired by the Liberator. In fact, the initial desire was to pull Liberators out of storage to use in the 1950s, but out was found that they had all been scrapped in 1947/8. So instead, a new gun was designed with the same criteria of simplicity and low cost. Instead of being stamped like the Liberator, this would be made primarily form a single aluminum casting, and chambered for 9x19mm. It was loaded by unscrewing the barrel and manually inserting a cartridge, then replacing the barrel and manually cocking the striker. A hollow in the grip held a couple spare rounds and an ejector rod.
Russel Moore of American Machine & Foundry was given a contract for $300,000 to build 1000 of the guns, which he did in 1962. The intend was that once tooled up, subsequent contracts would cost only $3.95 per gun - but no further purchases were made. The use of the Deer Guns are largely unknown, as the CIA has rejected all FOIA requests related to them.
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