Page 281 - 89-FLIPBOOK2

Ralph Hagan's FP-45 Liberator Display was Awarded an NRA Silver Medal for "One of the Ten
K) Extremely Rare C.I.A. Deer Gun Pistol - NSN, 9 mm Luger cal., 2 inch round tapered bbl., bright finish, metal grips. This is an extremely rare assassination pistol as manufactured in the early 1960’s for the C.I.A.’s Clandestine Operation and was the successor to the Liberator pistol. According to Chapter 6, “The CIA’s Deer Gun” in the book “Zips, Pipes and Pens” by David Truby, the Deer Gun was designed by the then legendary ordnance designer Russell J. Moure, the chief engineer for American Machine & Foundry’s special firearms division. The Deer Gun was intended as the successor to the FP-45 Liberator pistol and were made between 1962-1963. By 1964, the Deer Gun was listed in the C.I.A.’s special weapons inventory and carried a regular stock number (139-H00-9108). After President Kennedy’s assassination, congress passed a law that all Clandestine devices be destroyed. Almost all of the Deer Guns were destroyed and of the 1,000 produced, according to collector/historian Keith Melton only about 20-25 remain in circulation. Approximately 150 reportedly were sent to Southeast
Asia for field testing according to a consensus of sources. Although there is
no official record that any of these pistols were used beyond controlled non- combat testing, a U.S. military officer disagreed saying that he accompanied a patrol of U.S. and Vietnamese Special Forces who were carrying the pistols for “active evaluation”. Any other usage is undocumented. How this pistol came to be called the Deer Gun is a mystery. It has nothing to do with deer or hunting.
It was suggested at one time that it was an Agency code name with sardonic reference to a survival weapon. It was packaged for “air drop” like the Liberator. The cost at the time to make the Deer Gun was $3.95. prompting one of Moure’s colleagues at AMF to refer to it as “basically a crude, ugly, but damn decent four
dollar zip gun for our Third World allies to use to kill bad guy soldiers.” The Deer Gun measures 4 1/8 inches high, 5 inches long and has a 2 inch screw on rifled barrel. It weighs approximately 12 ounces. It has a one piece cast aluminum body with a raised cross-hatched grip area and dark blue steel barrel. Extra ammunition can be stored in the hollow grip. It has no trigger guard and the sight is a single grooved notch across the top of the receiver. The pistol has no markings to indicate its origin and all components were fabricated from non- domestic sources outside of the U.S. for further “operational denial”, which is how the C.I.A. described its attempts to hide the weapons origin. To fire the pistol, the barrel is unscrewed, a cartridge inserted and the barrel is screwed back on. The cocking lever is then pulled back and the user pulls the trigger to fire. An extremely rare and little known Deer Gun pistol. The display includes a visual instruction manual of the Deer Gun.
CONDITION: Excellent plus overall with 99% plus original blue finish on
the barrel and only a few scattered minor dings and very light scratches. Mechanically excellent. The display and accessories are in very fine condition. The display has a few cracked/separated and absent pieces of acrylic that act
as retaining pieces all but one of the retaining screws are absent, but otherwise the display stands sturdy but needs work. This is a ONCE IN TEN lifetimes opportunity to acquire the most significant display ever gathered, or ever will be gathered, of the important World War II FP-45 Liberator pistol from the author and collector Ralph Hagan!
Provenance: The Ralph Hagan Collection; Property of a Gentleman. Estimate: 90,000 - 140,000
Best Arms Exhibits"
279