The Armsel Striker, also known as the Sentinel Arms Co Striker-12, Protecta, Protecta Bulldog and SWD Street Sweeper is a

12-gauge The gauge (or commonly bore in British English) of a firearm is a unit of measurement used to express the inner diameter (bore diameter) of the barrel. Gauge is determined from the weight of a solid sphere of lead that will fit the bore of the f ...

shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge known as a shotshell, which usually discharges numerous small pellet-like spherical sub- pr ...

with a revolving cylinder that was designed for

riot control Riot control measures are used by law enforcement, military, paramilitary or security forces to control, disperse, and arrest people who are involved in a riot, unlawful demonstration or unlawful protest. If a riot is spontaneous and irratio ...

and

combat Combat (French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict meant to physically harm or kill the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is sometimes resorted to as a method of self-defense, or ...

History

The Armsel Striker was designed by Hilton R. Walker, a

Zimbabwean Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Moza ...

citizen, in 1981. Walker subsequently emigrated to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

, bringing with him the design for the Striker shotgun. His shotgun became a success and was exported to various parts of the world, despite some drawbacks. The rotary

cylinder A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an ...

-type

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

was bulky, had a long reload time, and the basic

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

was not without certain flaws. Walker redesigned his weapon in 1989, removing the cylinder rotation mechanism, and adding an auto cartridge ejection system. The new shotgun was named the ''Protecta''. A copy of the Striker was made by the US gunmaker

Cobray The Cobray Company was an American developer and manufacturer of submachine guns, automatic carbines, handguns, shotguns, and non-lethal 37 mm launchers. These were manufactured by SWD. In the 1970s and 1980s, Cobray was a counter terrorist tra ...

and marketed as the SWD Street Sweeper from 1989 through 1993.

Design and features

The weapon's action is similar to a revolver's, using a rotating cylinder. Since the Striker uses a conventional

double action Double action (or double-action) refers to one of two systems in firearms where the trigger both cocks and releases the hammer. *Double-action only (DAO) firearms trigger: The trigger both cocks and releases the hammer. There is no single-action f ...

only trigger and a very large and heavy cylinder (compared to

handguns A handgun is a short-barrelled gun, typically a firearm, that is designed to be usable with only one hand. It is distinguished from a long gun (i.e. rifle, shotgun or machine gun, etc.), which needs to be held by both hands and also braced a ...

), Walker added a pre-wound clock-work spring to revolve the magazine. This made loading slow, in exchange for a shorter and lighter trigger pull. The design was changed into having a cocking lever on the right side of the

barrel A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, ...

. The first designs were criticized as having a slow and cumbersome firing mechanism. The shells had to be individually loaded and then the drum's clockwork spring wound. Shells were ejected by an ejector rod along the right hand side of the barrel. The last version has the clockwork winding mechanism removed, the ejector rod replaced by an automatic ejection system, and a cocking lever in the rod's place that winds the drum automatically. The Striker has a twelve-round magazine capacity and short overall length. Compact variants hold 7 rounds.

Availability in the United States

The Striker and Street Sweeper were declared

destructive device In the United States, a destructive device is a type of firearm or explosive device regulated by the National Firearms Act of 1934, revised by the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 and Gun Control Act of 1968. Examples of destruct ...

s under the

National Firearms Act The National Firearms Act (NFA), 73rd Congress, Sess. 2, ch. 757, was enacted on June 26, 1934, and currently codified and amended as . The law is an Act of Congress in the United States that, in general, imposes an excise tax on the manufact ...

with no sporting purpose by Treasury Secretary

Lloyd Bentsen Lloyd Millard Bentsen Jr. (February 11, 1921 – May 23, 2006) was an American politician who was a four-term United States Senator (1971–1993) from Texas and the Democratic Party nominee for vice president in 1988 on the Michael Dukakis t ...

in 1994, and their transfer and ownership is regulated by the

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), commonly referred to as the ATF, is a domestic law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice. Its responsibilities include the investigation and preve ...

(ATF).

Variants

*Armsel Striker—Hilton Walker's first design. *Armsel Protecta—An improved version of the Armsel Striker. Readying the weapon for firing was simplified and the weapon's reliability was improved. *Armsel Protecta Bulldog—An extremely shortened, stockless version of the Armsel Protecta. It is intended for building entry and vehicular duties. *Sentinel Arms Striker-12—A fully licensed and improved copy of the Armsel Striker for the American market made by Sentinel Arms Co. It was available with an 18-inch barrel and a 7-inch stockless version. *

/SWD Street Sweeper—A lower-end clone of the Armsel Striker, having a limited parts commonality to the original weapons system. *Cobray/SWD Ladies Home Companion/ LHC—A reduced caliber version of the Streetsweeper. The trigger group is attached to a

.410 bore The .410 bore is one of the smallest caliber of shotgun shell commonly available (along with the 9mm Flobert rimfire cartridge, and the less common .22 rimfire shot shell). A .410 bore shotgun loaded with shot shells is well suited for small g ...

or .45/70 Government drum and barrel.

References

External links