• Joe Don Baker (1973): General Brad Whitaker in The Living Daylights; Jack Wade in GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies
• Michael Billington (1973, 1979, 1983): Sergei Barzov in The Spy Who Loved Me
• Julian Glover (1962, 1967): Aristotle Kristatos in For Your Eyes Only
• Sean Bean (1987): Alec Trevelyan in GoldenEye
• Colin Salmon (2004): Charles Robinson in Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough, Die Another Day

Richard Burton declined to play Bond.

Dalton denied the offer again in 1979 when he felt the plot directions of the Bond films were becoming less realistic and more dependent on gadgetry and repeated plot formulas. Roger Moore was also a runner up for the role of Bond in 1962, but was rejected in favor of Sean Connery. Dalton also did not accept the role for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service feeling that at the time he did not want to be looked at as the man who replaced Connery.

A number of actors, who more or less got the green light for a serious consideration into playing James Bond, however declined the offer for various reasons below:

• Cary Grant (1961): Felt he was too old at time being 58
• Richard Johnson (1961): Terence Young’s choice but did not want a contract
• Patrick McGoohan (1961): Felt the role was too promiscuous
• Rod Taylor (1961): Felt the role was beneath him
• Richard Burton (1959, 1961, 1968): Felt the role was a new untested concept/wanted more than the producers would pay
• Burt Reynolds (1968): Felt Bond should be British
• Adam West (1968): Thought the role belonged to a proper Englishman
• Colin Farrell (2004): Was not satisfied with plot direction
• Hugh Jackman (2005): Was not satisfied with plot direction
• Ewan McGregor (2005): Feared typecasting

After the project’s collapse, without his collaborators’ permission, Fleming based his Thunderball (1961) novel upon their joint work. In 1963, McClory and Whittingham sued him in a very public and acrimonious trial. This history features unpublished letters, private lawsuit documents, and cast-crew interviews. The author obtained five Thunderball screenplays, two by Fleming, three by Whittingham, and two treatments by Fleming that document the creation and development of this seminal James Bond project.

The Battle for Bond is a story of bitter recrimination, personal and business betrayals, million-dollar lawsuits, and death: Ian Fleming was accused of and sued for plagiarism; months into the lawsuit and trial, the fifty-six-year-old writer died of a heart attack. Kevin McClory won the film rights and chose a single, co-production deal with Harry Saltzman and Albert R Broccoli: Thunderball (1965) that was released at Christmas.

McClory’s court victory entitled him to remake Thunderball as >Never Say Never Again (1983), again with Sean Connery as James Bond, the cinematic competition Broccoli had desperately tried to legally ban. With the success of the remake, McClory attempted to continue with his own James Bond film series, but was legally thwarted by Broccoli and MGM. In a later unsuccessful lawsuit, McClory went further and now claimed that he created the cinematic James Bond, and demanded a share of the three billion dollars earned by the official EON film series.

Apparently, in late February 2008, the Ian Fleming Will Trust threatened legal action against the publisher of The Battle for Bond, per a posting on the publisher’s website. It has been suggested that these threats have their basis, at least in part, on the usage of Fleming’s private correspondence as a primary source. At the current time, the book has been pulled from publication, although copies remain in stock at online retailers. The implications of the threatened litigation remain undetermined.

Sean Connery with Ian Fleming.

The 2006 film Casino Royale is a reboot of the film series. Unlike its source novel where Bond was already a veteran, jaded 00-agent, the film depicts his first mission as 007. The film’s official website gives a biography of the Bond that parallels the backstory of Fleming’s literary character, but it is updated to reflect Bond’s new birth date of April 13, 1968; April 13 being the day in which Casino Royale was published in 1953 and 1968 being the year in which Daniel Craig was born. This version of the character was born in West Berlin, Germany. His parents, Andrew Bond and Monique Delacroix Bond, died in a climbing accident, so he was brought up in Kent, UK, by his aunt Charmain.

Like the original character, Bond is kicked out of Eton College and attends his father’s alma mater, Fettes College. Bond attends the University of Geneva while at Fettes through an exchange program. After Fettes, Bond joins the Royal Navy and attends Britannia Royal Naval College at the age of 17. The modern biography clarifies Bond’s military service by stating he joins the Special Boat Service while in the Regular Royal Navy, where he obtains the rank of Commander, and then is placed in the 030 Special Forces Unit (a reference to Fleming’s 30th Assault Unit during World War II, a unit he nicknamed his ‘Red Indians’).

Bond serves covertly in Iraq, Somalia, Iran, Libya and actively in Bosnia. He is then recruited by the RNR Defence Intelligence Group. Bond attends specialised courses at Cambridge and Oxford universities during this period, earning a degree in Oriental Languages from Cambridge. Bond is noted to be fluent in English, French, German, Russian, and Italian, and writing passable Greek, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese at the time he joins MI6. In training, he receives exceptionally high marks for physical endurance, logic, and Psychological Ops exercises. He serves in the Royal Navy from age 17 to 31, joining MI6 at age 30, and is promoted to 00 Agent at age 38 in 2006.

During the 1963 production of From Russia With Love, photographer David Hurn was commissioned to photograph the actors of the film in their costume. When the theatrical property Walther PPK did not turn up for the shoot, Hurn volunteered his own Walther LP 53 air pistol and said he would airbrush out the long barrel; the airbrushed stills appearing in a US “JAMES BOND IS BACK” poster. However, Renato Fratini a film poster artist saw the original stills of the weapon and used it in his UK posters with the weapon appearing in several more film posters up to The Man With the Golden Gun. On 14 February 2001, Hurn had his LP 53 (serial number 054159 )in its original presentation case and letter of provenance auctioned off at Christie’s where the weapon fetched US$20,437.41.

From Tomorrow Never Dies to Casino Royale, Bond used a Walther P99. However, in Quantum of Solace he reverted back to his Walther PPK (possibly a tribute to the classic Bond films).

Official films:

1. Dr No
• Unknown Beretta .25 caliber pistol, most likely the Beretta 418, as this is the gun which is used in this role in the book, but also possibly the Beretta 1934 or 1935, or the Beretta 950 Jetfire, which was introduced in 1953- the year the Bond character was “born”. Bond, reluctantly, has to hand this gun over to M
• Walther PPK. Bond is forced to use the Walther PPK as his issued sidearm
• Walther PP in at least one sequence on the island of Crab Key, Bond is seen with the longer barreled PP, but his is considered a continuity slip in the film
• FN Model 1910 with suppressor. (This pistol was apparently used because there was no PPK in the prop department that could be fitted with a suppressor at the time)
• Silenced Colt .45 or similar. Used by the Three Blind Mice assassins
• Sten submachine gun. Used by Dr No’s men during Quarrel’s death and the decontamination scenes
• Lee-Enfield No 4 bolt-action rifle. Seen in the hands of Royal Navy sailors towards the end of the film
• L4A2. Used by Dr No’s men on the high powered boat when Bond meets Honey Ryder
2. From Russia with Love
• Walther PPK. Bond’s issued sidearm
• AR-7 “sniper” rifle, kept in his attache case. Originally chambered in .22 Hornet (Early US Air Force and Israeli Survival Rifle variants of the AR-5) and .22 Long Rifle for basic civilian usage
• Flare gun. Used as a weapon in the boat scenes. This gun can be seen at Planet Hollywood, Orlando, Florida, where it is incorrectly labelled as being used in Thunderball. He used a pen flare from Q in that film
• Mauser C96. Used by Red Grant in the gypsy bazaar to protect Bond from Krilencu’s men
3. Goldfinger
• Walther PPK. Bond’s issued sidearm
• Walther P38. Used by several guards and Bond himself
• M14. Seen carried by US Army soldiers during the gas attack
• Mauser Kar98k rifle. Used by Auric Goldfinger’s men during the Fort Knox raid and gunfight
• MP40. Used by Goldfinger’s guards in the gunfights in Switzerland and in Kentucky
• Thompson M1A1 submachine gun. Used by US Army soldiers in the Fort Knox gunfight
4. Thunderball
• Walther PPK. Bond’s issued sidearm
• Speargun. Used to kill Vargas and during the underwater battle. Compressed-air powered, it might be a Technisub Jaguar, or one of the Nemrod Commando range
5. You Only Live Twice
• Walther PPK. Bond’s main gun
• Sterling L2A3 sub-machine gun. Used to “kill” Bond at the start of the film
• Lee-Enfield No 4 bolt-action rifle. Used by a Royal Navy honour guard at Bond’s “funeral” in Hong Kong
• Lee-Enfield No 5 Jungle Carbine. Seen in the hands of one of Ernst Stavro Blofeld’s guards
• Cigarette rocket. Used to kill one of Blofeld’s guards
• MBAssociates Gyrojet rifle. Used by Tiger Tanaka and his ninja commandos on the raid on Blofeld’s base
• Smith & Wesson Model 36 .38 caliber revolver. Used when killing an assassin
• Webley Mk VI. Dropped by Blofeld, which Bond uses in the assault on the control room
6. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
• Walther PPK. Bond’s issued sidearm
• Sterling L2A3 sub-machine gun. Used during the assault on Piz Gloria
• SIG 510 battle rifle. Used by Ernst Stavro Blofeld’s forces at Piz Gloria through the entire film
• SIG P210. Used by Blofeld himself
7. Diamonds Are Forever
• Walther PPK. Bond’s issued sidearm
• M16 rifle. Used by Ernst Stavro Blofeld’s guards in the opening sequence
• Thompson submachine gun. Used by Felix Leiter’s men when rescuing Willard White
• Madsen Model 1946.Used by Blofeld’s guards in the oil rig battle
8. Live and Let Die
• Walther PPK. Bond’s issued sidearm
• Smith & Wesson Model 29 .44 Magnum revolver. Used during the rescue of Solitaire
• Smith & Wesson Model 36 .38 Special revolver. Used by Mr Big’s henchmen and by Rosie Carver
• MAC-10. Used by Mr Big’s henchmen on the Voodoo island
9. The Man with the Golden Gun
• Walther PPK. Bond’s issued sidearm
• “Triggerless” rifle. Made by Portuguese gunsmith Lazar for an assassin with only three fingers. It was fired by squeezing a recessed trigger in the butt. Because it was designed to be fired with only three fingers, a person with a full hand would cause it to hit below where he was aiming, something which Bond made use of in threatening Lazar
• M16 rifle. Seen carried by Hai Fat’s guards
• Possibly a Derringer. Carried by Nick Nack
• Francisco Scaramanga’s golden gun. A custom made, gold-plated single-shot handgun chambered in 4.2 mm caliber. The gun can be disassembled to avoid detection into a gold cigarette lighter, a gold cigarette case, a gold cuff link, and a gold pen. Bond does not actually use this gun
10. The Spy Who Loved Me
• Walther PPK. Bond’s issued sidearm, though in some scenes it appears to be the longer-barrelled PP
• Sterling L2A3 sub-machine gun. Used by British sailors during the battle on board the Liparus supertanker
• M16 rifle. Used by American sailors during the battle on board the Liparus supertanker
11. Moonraker
• Wrist-Dart gun. Used by Bond on two occasions
• Holland & Holland Royal side by side shotgun
• Moonraker Laser. A laser gun that can be shot in space, used by the astronauts
• M16 rifle. Used by Hugo Drax’s henchmen in the Aztec Temple Base/Launch Site
>MAC 10. Used by Jaws when chasing Bond in a speedboat in South America
12. For Your Eyes Only
• Walther PPK. Bond’s issued sidearm
• Tokarev TT-33. Used by Milos Columbo
• MP40. Used by men during boat scene
• VZ 58 automatic rifle. Used by a guard at Hector Gonzales house
• Luger. A henchman for Aristotle Kristatos is seem attempting detatch Bond’s climbing ropes from a cliff, using the butt of the pistol as a hammer
• Sterling L2A3 sub-machine gun. Seen in the hands of Columbo’s henchmen when assaulting Kristatos’ monastery-hideout
13. Octopussy
• Walther P5. Bond’s issued sidearm. He is clearly wielding a P5 in the taxi chase, but later tells Q “I appear to have misplaced my PPK.”. This confusion is most likely a script issue. It would appear that Walther asked the producers to have Bond use the new P5, which Walther was trying to market to German police agencies at the time. However, no one changed the script
• VZ 58 automatic rifle. Bond takes this gun off one of Kamal Khan’s men and fires it while sliding down a banister
• Lee-Enfield bolt-action rifle (both the No 1 MkIII* and the No 4). Used by Khan’s men at his palace in India
• Steyr AUG. Wielded by General Orlov’s men during the train yard battle
14. A View to a Kill
• Walther PPK. Bond’s issued sidearm
• Shotgun loaded with (non-lethal) rock salt which he uses to send off some of Max Zorin’s hired goons
• Uzi. Used by Zorin and Scarpine when the mine workers are massacred
• Smith & Wesson Model 36. Wielded by Zorin and crew when they break in and set fire to San Francisco City Hall
15. The Living Daylights
• Heckler & Koch MP5 paintball markers. Used by SAS guards during the mock Gibraltar operation
• Silenced Heckler & Koch P9S. Carried by the imposter during the mock Gibraltar operation
• Walther WA2000 sniper rifle. Bond uses this to shoot the rifle out of Kara Milovy’s hands
• Walther PPK. Bond’s issued sidearm
• M1911 pistol. Carried by Austrian border policemen
• Makarov PM. Carried by Czechoslovakian police, Necros (used to assasinate General Pushkin) and General Koskov’s second-in-command in Afganistan
• Walther MP. Carried by Czechoslovakian police
• Beretta M12. Carried by police forces in Tangier
• Kalashnikov AKM automatic rifle. Bond takes this gun off a Russian soldier and uses it during the airfield battle
• RPG-7. Wielded by Mujahideen in the airfield battle
• Silenced Skorpion vz 61. Used by Pushkin’s men to break in to Brad Whitaker’s lair
16. Licence to Kill
• Taurus 92 9 mm pistol (a Brazilian copy of the Beretta Model 92FS 9 mm pistol, as per the film’s armorer in “The Making of Licence to Kill” by Sally Hibin), given to Bond by Felix Leiter during the opening sequence when Bond does not have a gun on him
• CAR-15 rifle. Seen briefly being used by Leiter and the DEA agents chasing Franz Sanchez in the pre-title sequence
• Heckler & Koch P9S. Seen used by one Sanchez’s henchmen, Braun
• Walther PPK. Bond’s issued sidearm
• Beretta 950 Jetfire. Carried by Pam Bouvier in a concealed leg holster, and used by Bond for his “family reunion” with Q
• Speargun. Bond uses this to kill a guard on the Wavekrest
• “Signature gun”, .220 (sic)(probably .220 Swift) sniper’s rifle that is disguised as pieces of a Hasselblad camera, and only responds to his palm print. Bond uses this gun in an attempt to kill Sanchez, but is thwarted by a ninja. When a ninja tries to use the gun himself, it won’t fire. The .220 is also tongue in cheek at the 220 roll film the gun can take when a camera
• Mini-ERO, copy of an Uzi. Sanchez uses this when he tries to shoot Bond off of the tanker trucks during the final battle
• Beretta 92FS. Milton Krest fires this weapon at Bond, unsuccessfully, when he jumps into the water after killing the deck guard
• Walther P5. Seen used by Dario in the climax
• FIM-92 Stinger man-portable SAM. Esed several times during the tanker chase
17. GoldenEye
• Walther PPK. Bond’s issued sidearm
• Kalashnikov AKS-74U. Bond uses this gun on two separate occasions. Xenia Onatopp uses it to massacre the Severnaya facility
• Kalashnikov AK-74. Bond takes this from a Russian soldier in Cuba. Xenia has one strapped to her back before Bond indirectly uses it to kill her. Alec Trevalyan wields one in the final battle with Bond. The folding stock version AK-74s that were seen were Chinese-made NORINCO Type 56/AKM rifles that were fitted with AK-74 muzzle breaks and with Russian-made, AKM magazines made of red bakelite
• Browning Hi-Power. Used by Trevelyan during the chemical facility shootout
• Browning BDM. Trevelyan uses this gun
• Makarov PM. Used by a Russian pilot from the chemical facility, General Ourumov and Natalya Simonova
18. Tomorrow Never Dies
• Beretta AR70/90 rifle. Bond uses this during the opening sequence
• Browning BDA9. Used by terrorist pilot during the opening sequence
• Walther PPK. Bond’s issued sidearm
• Sig Sauer P226. Used by Elliot Carver
• Glock 17. Used by guards, and Carver in the last scene
• Calico M950 submachine gun 9mm. Bond uses this gun to escape from Carver’s Media Headquarters in Saigon
• Walther P99 9 mm. Bond takes this gun from the Chinese safehouse before he joins Wai Lin in searching for the stealth boat. (It became Bond’s new sidearm for the next three films)
• Heckler & Koch MP5. Used by Carver’s men, and by Wai Lin
• Heckler & Koch MP5K. Also used by Carver’s men—most notably in a failed attempt to break into Bond’s car. Bond uses this submachine gun during the final battle
• Heckler & Koch P7. Dr Kaufman uses one to hold up Bond in his hotel room and to kill Paris. Bond later kills him with it after he is stunned by his phone’s taser
• M60E4. Used by Stamper to gun down Devonshire survivors loaded with the ammunition used by the Chinese Air Force
• M16 rifle variants used by Carver’s men. Stamper uses an M4 Carbine fitted with an M203 grenade launcher in the final battle. A henchman in the parking garage car chase also uses one, and one of the weapons that shatters the BMW’s windshield
• Armsel Striker. One of the many weapons wielded by Carver’s men in the parking garage chase
19. The World Is Not Enough
• Walther P99. Bond’s issued sidearm
• Heckler & Koch MP5K. Used by Renard’s men
• Heckler & Koch G36. Used by Giulietta da Vinci at the start of the film
• Steyr TMP. Used by Parahawks, Bullion, and Renard’s men
• FN P90. Bond briefly uses this submachine gun during the shootout in the nuclear test facility. Renard wields this as well
• Colt M1911A1. Used by Bond on two occasions
• Cane Gun. Valentin Zukovsky can convert his walking cane into a single shot rifle. He uses it to free Bond from Elektra King
20. Die Another Day
• Walther P99. Bond’s issued sidearm
• AK-47. Used by North Korean Army at the start of the film
• Stechkin APS. Used by Zao
• OICW. Used briefly by Colonel Moon in the DMZ sequence
• Ingram MAC-10. Bond only uses this machine pistol during the hovercraft chase
• Makarov PM. Used by Colonel Moon during the hovercraft chase and General Moon in the climax
• Smith & Wesson Model 15. Bond borrows the revolver from a fellow agent while in Cuba
• Heckler & Koch MP5K.Used by Gustav Graves men in Iceland with a silencer on it
• Heckler & Koch G36. Used by one of Graves’ men in Iceland
• Accuracy International AW sniper rifle. Used by Bond when he and Jinx infiltrate North Korea
• Browning Hi-Power. In the sailboat scenes
• Beretta M84 Cheetah. Jinx’s gun
21. Casino Royale
• Walther P99. Bond’s issued sidearm (in 9×19mm a.k.a. 9mm Parabellum)
• Browning Hi-Power. Used by Bond in the embassy in Madagascar, taken from a local diplomat
• Walther PPK was featured only in promotional photos
• WASR 3. Used by the embassy guards in Madagascar
• M4 Carbine. Used by the Miami-Dade Police at the Miami International Airport
• Glock 17. Carlos steals this gun from a police holster in an equipment room at the Miami Airport
• Jericho 941. Used by Adolf Gettler
• Nailgun. Used by Gettler and Bond in the Venice scene
• Sig-Sauer P226. Supressed versions used by Venice henchmen
• Heckler & Koch USP. Used by Mollaka, and bathroom henchman
• Heckler & Koch UMP, two UMP45 .45 Caliber models with suppressor. Used during the Venice scene leading to the drowning death of Vesper Lynd. A suppressed UMP9 9mm model used by Bond to maim Mr White
• MAC-11. Used by one of the Venice henchman
22. Quantum of Solace
• Walther PPK. Bond’s main sidearm
• SIG-Sauer P226. Bond uses this gun in climax scene. Removed from guard in elevator during his escape
• M249 SAW. Used by villains in car chase scene
• Rohrbaugh R9. Camille’s pistol
• Heckler & Koch UMP. This gun was pictured in promotional shots for the film as well as the trailer. It was fitted with a suppressor. An unsuppressed version was used by Bond in the opening car chase. A UMP is also used by General Medrano’s guard on the yacht
• Heckler & Koch G36. Some of Medrano’s men use this 5.56mm assault rifle in the boat chase
• Heckler & Koch MP5 9mm MP5 submachine gun. Used by CIA officers in a bar in Bolivia, when they try to arrest Bond
• M4 Carbine. Used by some CIA men
• SG 540. Used by one of Medrano’s henchmen in the boat chase in Haiti

Unofficial films:

1. Never Say Never Again
• CZ Model 25. Bond uses this submachine gun in the opening sequence
• Walther P5. Bond’s main gun. Coincidently, Roger Moore used the same make of gun in Octopussy, also released in 1983. Connery’s gun can be seen in Planet Hollywood in London, where it is inaccurately labelled as a Walther PPK
• Ingram Mac 10. Used by Bond and Felix Leiter in the final battle

1. Licence Renewed
   • FN M1903 9 mm. Bond chooses this to replace his Walther PPK, which is now banned by the service
   • Ruger Super Blackhawk .44 Magnum. Bond keeps one of these (illegally) in his Saab 900 Turbo, and uses it during a car chase, firing it through his car’s gunports
   • Antique dueling pistol
   • Colt Python .357 Magnum. Bond uses this briefly in an airborne shootout with Murik’s men
     MBA Gyrojet
2. For Special Services
   • Heckler & Koch VP70 9 mm. After criticism from fans over the choice of an old gun, Gardner replaced Bond’s FN M1903 with a more modern DAO 9 mm polymer pistol
3. Icebreaker
   • Heckler & Koch P7 9 mm becomes Bond’s issued sidearm in this adventure
4. Role of Honour
   • ASP 9 mm. Gardner finally settled on the ASP as Bond’s issued sidearm
5. Nobody Lives For Ever
   • ASP 9 mm, Bond’s issued sidearm
6. No Deals, Mr Bond
   • ASP 9 mm, Bond’s issued sidearm
7. Scorpius
   • ASP 9 mm, Bond’s issued sidearm
   • Browning Compact 9 mm
8. Win, Lose or Die
   • Browning 9 mm, Bond’s issued sidearm
9. Brokenclaw
   • ASP 9 mm, Bond’s issued sidearm
10. The Man from Barbarossa
    • ASP 9 mm, Bond’s issued sidearm
11. Death is Forever
    • ASP 9 mm, Bond’s issued sidearm
12. Never Send Flowers
    • ASP 9 mm, Bond’s issued sidearm
13. SeaFire
    • ASP 9 mm, Bond’s issued sidearm
14. COLD
    • ASP 9 mm, Bond’s issued sidearm

1. Colonel Sun
   • Walther PPK, Bond’s main gun

1. Casino Royale
   • Beretta 418, Bond’s issued sidearm
   • Colt Police Positive with sawn barrel. Bond keeps one under his pillow while he sleeps
   • Long-barreled .45 Colt Army Special, which Bond keeps under his Bentley’s dashboard
2. Live and Let Die
   • Beretta 418, Bond’s issued sidearm
   • Colt Detective Special. Bond takes this off Tee-Hee’s corpse and uses it to kill two more of Mr Big’s men in the car park
   • Champion speargun. Bond uses this to fend off a barracuda during his swim to Mr Big’s island
3. Moonraker
   • .38 Colt Detective Special, Bond’s gun he uses when training at the Services Shooting Gallery
   • Beretta 418, Bond’s issued sidearm
   • Long-barreled .45 Colt Army Special which Bond keeps under his Bentley’s dashboard
4. Diamonds Are Forever
   • Beretta 418, Bond’s issued sidearm
5. From Russia with Love
   • Beretta 418, Bond’s issued sidearm
   • Red Grant’s .25 electric gun hidden inside a hollowed-out copy of War and Peace
6. Dr No
   • Walther PPK, Bond’s new issued sidearm
   • Beretta 418. James Bond is forced to hand back this gun over to M
   • Smith & Wesson Centennial Airweight for “long-range work”. Bond decides to take this to Crab Key island instead of the PPK as there will be no time for close encounters
   • Smith & Wesson .38. Bond finds this gun on Crab Key and uses it to kill three of Doctor No’s men
7. Goldfinger
   • Bond carries his Walther PPK in a hollowed-out copy of The Bible to be Read as Literature
   • Long-barreled .45 Colt Army Special which Bond keeps in a trick compartment under the driver’s seat in his Aston Martin
8. For Your Eyes Only
   1. From a View to a Kill (short story)
      • Long-barreled .45 Colt Army Special. Bond’s issued sidearm as he hunts for a Russian spy
   2. For Your Eyes Only (short story)
      • Walther PPK, Bond’s issued sidearm
      • Savage 99F. Bond is given the gun by an Canadian police Colonel, a “Colonel Johns”
   3. Quantum of Solace — No gun is mentioned or used
   4. Risico (short story)
      • Walther PPK, Bond’s issued sidearm
   5. The Hildebrand Rarity (short story)
      • Champion speargun. Bond used this to kill a Stingray in the Seychelles
9. Thunderball
   • Walther PPK, Bond’s issued sidearm
10. The Spy Who Loved Me
    • As this book is told from the point-of-view of the “Bond-girl”, the identity of Bond’s gun is not mentioned. But it is presumably his Walther PPK
    • Smith & Wesson Police Positive. Bond gives this gun to Vivienne Michel “in case she needs it”.(Fleming likely intended this to be a Colt Police Positive, but he had suffered a heart attack during the final editing process and the error was never corrected)
    • Submachine gun. Bond mentions in an anecdote that he used a submachine gun on his last mission in Canada, and that he fired from the hip which is “the correct way to fire” an automatic weapon
    • Bond keeps a gun under his pillow as he sleeps, but this gun is never identified
11. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
    • Walther PPK, Bond’s issued sidearm
12. You Only Live Twice
    • Walther PPK, but Bond isn’t allowed to take it with him when he faces Ernst Stavro Blofeld
13. The Man with the Golden Gun
    • Cyanide gun
    • Walther PPK, Bond’s issued sidearm
    • Francisco Scaramanga’s gold-plated single-action Colt .45 which Bond uses once to shoot a pineapple off a showgirl’s head
14. Octopussy and The Living Daylights
    1. Octopussy (short story) — No gun is mentioned or used
    2. The Property of a Lady (short story) — No gun is mentioned or used, though the cyanide water pistol from ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’ is alluded to
    3. The Living Daylights (short story) —
       • Winchester .308 International Experimental target rifle. Bond uses this to shoot a KGB assassin in West Berlin
       • AK-47, used by the KGB assassin Trigger. Bond identifies it as a “Kalashnikov”, but incorrectly as a “submachine gun”; The AK is an assault/automatic rifle. Actually, such a weapon would be a terrible choice for a sniper, as it is quite innacurate at long ranges, though Bond quips that it would turn the target into “strawberry jam”
    4. 007 in New York (short story) — No gun is mentioned or used

Shortly before the publication of From Russia with Love in 1956, Fleming received a fan letter from an author and gun collector, Geoffrey Boothroyd. He told Fleming that he admired the Bond novels apart from the hero’s choice of weapon. Boothroyd felt the Beretta 418 was “a lady’s gun” with no real stopping power. He also objected to the choice of holster. Boothroyd proposed that Bond should use a revolver like the Smith & Wesson Centennial Airweight. It had no external hammer, so it would not catch on Bond’s clothes. The Smith & Wesson could be kept in a Berns-Martin triple draw holster held in place with a spring clip which would decrease Bond’s draw time. Boothroyd also said the suppressors Bond occasionally used were rarely silent and actually reduced the gun’s stopping power.

Fleming thanked Boothroyd for his letter and made a few points of his own in his reply. He felt that Bond ought to have an automatic instead of a revolver; perhaps Boothroyd could recommend one? Fleming agreed that the Beretta 418 lacked power, but pointed out that Bond had used more powerful weapons when necessary, such as the Colt Army Special he uses in Moonraker. Fleming also said that he had seen a silenced Sten gun during the war and the weapon had hardly made a whisper.

Unless Fleming was describing a pistol and not a revolver under the dash in Bond’s car in the first and third novels, “Colt Army Special .45″ is a misnomer. Colt did produce a double action revolver early in the twentieth century that was given the name “Army Special,” but Colt built that revolver on what it called its .41 caliber frame, first introduced in 1888 as the “New Army and Navy.” Colt released a smokeless powder version in the early 1900s, now called the Army Special, a name Colt continued until it released the Official Police model in the late 1920s, typically chambered in .38 Special or .32-20 Winchester, but never in .45 caliber. That large caliber was restricted to Colt’s New Service, first released in 1905, and the Colt Shooting Master, issued in the 1930s.

Ultimately Boothroyd recommended the Walther PPK 7.65 mm as being the best choice for an automatic of that size, with its ammunition available everywhere. He suggested, however, that 007 ought to have a revolver for long-range work. Fleming asked Boothroyd if he could lend his illustrator Richard Chopping one of his guns to be painted for the cover of From Russia with Love. Boothroyd lent Chopping a Smith & Wesson .38 revolver that had the trigger guard removed for faster firing.

Fleming had Bond’s Beretta caught in his holster at the end of From Russia with Love, an event that almost costs the secret agent his life. In the next novel, Dr No, a Major Boothroyd recommends that Bond switch guns. Bond is issued a Walther PPK but is told to carry it in a Berns-Martin triple draw holster, which is designed only to carry revolvers. This mistake was possibly due to an error in Fleming’s notes, transposing the Walther PPK for the Smith & Wesson Centennial Airweight. However, Fleming lore says that Fleming had bought such a holster and had it sent to Jamaica, making this error all the more puzzling. It has been argued over the years that Q-branch could have modified this legendary holster to accommodate automatics, but this is unlikely- the design of the holster was centered around the cylinder of a revolver, where the spring clip would “grip” the pistol.

The Killing Zone is an unauthorised James Bond novel by Jim Hatfield. It was privately published in paperback in 1985 under the guise that it was officially sanctioned by Glidrose Publications (later Ian Fleming Publications), the company that held the rights to publish James Bond literary works. At the time, the official author of the Bond series was John Gardner who wrote from 1981 to 1996.

It was first published in the United Kingdom as “A Charter Book” but is no longer in print. The text is available on the Internet, however.

Plot summary: The novel begins with the murder of Bill Tanner by Klaus Doberman, a German-South American drug lord. Much like he does after Felix Leiter’s maiming in Licence to Kill, Bond goes off for revenge. The synopsis of this book is as follows: “In this new high voltage spy thriller, Secret Agent 007 must “liquidate” ruthless billionaire kingpin Klaus Doberman. But James Bond has his hands full as he battles a luscious lady assassin who offers lethal love Russian style and a slit-eyed Oriental sadist who is an elusive and deadly Ninja. Aided by his sex-galore confederate Lotta Head and his old CIA buddy Felix Leiter, 007 is pitted against Klaus Doberman in his heavily armed fortress high in the Mexican Sierra Madres… in the most bloodcurdling death duel in the great Bond saga.”