Tag Archives: Rifle

Cooper Firearms of Montana

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founded in 1990
Stevensville, Montana

“Rifles should shoot as well as they look and vice versa”

 

  • 1990 founded  by Dan Cooper and two others in Stevensville, Montana
    – all former employees of Kimber of Oregon
    – over 50 years in combined experience
  • created to build affordable custom-quality accurate rifles
  • 2009 under new ownership

Cooper Firearms
3662 Hwy 93 North
Stevensville, Montana 59870

406-777-0373

cooperfirearms.com

Semi Automatic Rifle Import Ban (1989)

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  • Wed March 15, 1989 – spring suspension
  • July 7, 1989 – Signed into law
  • Bush Administration
  • banned imports of semiautomatic assault rifles indefinitely
  • announced by William J. Bennett, the director of national drug policy
  • requests from importers to bring in the rifles had nearly tripled those for all of 1988
  • Law enforcement officers have complained they are often outgunned by drug-traffickers and other criminals who carry high-powered weapons that fire many rounds without needing reloading.
  • Doctors and nurses in major cities have reported sharp increases in the numbers of deaths and serious wounds from such weapons
  • firearms dealers attributed the sharp jump in import-permit applications to a fear by the gun-owning public that purchase of the weapons soon would be prohibited
  • Stephen E. Higgins, the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, estimated that half the owners of assault rifles are collectors.
  • The permanent ban affected all 43 of the 50 models included in the spring suspension

 

B

Imports cited by Bennett

  • 1988 = 113,732
  • 1987 = 40,000
  • 1986 = 4,000

SASS

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Single Action Shooting Society

  • 1981 Cowboy Action Shooting created
  • April 1982 first END of TRAIL was introduced
  • 1987 formed by Harper Creigh
  • at Coto de Caza, California
  • 1987 – The Single Action Shooting Society formed
  • SASS is the governing organization of Cowboy Action Shooting, worldwide
  • SASS is headquartered in Edgewood, New Mexico
  • a staff of 5 employees
  • 1999, SASS expanded its national Cowboy Action Shooting Championship program to include SASS Regional Events
  • 2004, SASS purchased a rustic 480-acre ranch in the rolling hills 20 miles east of Albuquerque, New Mexico “Founders Ranch”
  • over 97,000 members in all fifty states and 18 foreign countries
  • 700 SASS affiliated clubs

Cowboy Action Shooting is the fastest growing outdoor shooting sport in the country. Attracting competitors from around the world, Cowboy Action Shooting is not only a sport that tests the shooters accuracy, but also a forum that brings back the days of the Old West in a veritable celebration of the cowboy lifestyle.

SASS publications

  • The Cowboy Chronicle
  • SASS Rule Book
  • Territorial Governor Bulletin
  • END of TRAIL Publications

Single Action Shooting Society
215 Cowboy Way
Edgewood, NM 87015

(877) 411-SASS

https://www.sassnet.com/

FCSA

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Fifty Caliber Shooters Association

  • 1985 established in 1985 by a small group of dedicated individuals who set for themselves the mission to advance the sporting use of the .50 BMG Cartridge.
  •  FCSA is a non-profit organization
  • Registered in Tennessee and Utah
  • primary sport is 1000 yard shooting competition
  • mission to advance the art of extreme long-range accuracy with the fifty caliber rifle
  • 2009 NRA club of the year

FCSA has a sister organization, the Fifty Caliber Institute (FCI), whose role is education, media representation and political advocacy on behalf of .50 caliber owners and manufacturers.

Fifty Caliber Shooters Association (FCSA)
P.O. Box 1601 Theodore
AL 36590

435-527-9245

Goncz Armament, Inc

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1984 – 1990
North Hollywood, CA

  •  Lajos John Goncz invented
    – Hungarian
  • Goncz Armament GS-9 (9 mm)
    – GS-4 (.45 ACP)
    – GS-3 (.30) Mauser
    – 5.5 inch threaded barrel
    – 16-round magazines
    – closed-bolt
  • Goncz Armament GA-9 (9 mm)
    – GA-4 (.45 ACP)
    – GA- 3 (.30) Mauser
    – 9.5″ shrouded button rifled match
  • Goncz Carbine GC-9 (9 mm)
    – walnut forearm
    – GCL-9 (9 mm) has integral laser
  • receiver made of 4130 alloy
    – machined out of solid piece
  •  produced a few hundred

Calico

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Calico Light Weapons Systems

founded October 1982
California, Nevada, Oregon

  • Oct 1982 in Bakersfield, California
    – California Instrument Company
    – totally new concept in firearms magazine technology was developed
  •  Pistols and pistol-caliber carbines
    – with 50 and 100 round magazines
  • May 1985 first working 100 round helical feed .22LR carbine prototype  successfully tested
  • 1985 first guns
  • June 1987 first 50 and 100 round 9mm “double helix” firearms were produced
  • 1998 moved to Sparks, Nevada
    – replacement parts produced
  • 2006 moved to Hillsboro, Oregon
    – full production of firearms resumed

Calico Firearms
1090 Hemlock St
Elgin, OR 97827

(541) 437-1031

calicofirearms.com

Shiloh Rifle

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began in 1976
New York, Montana

  • 1848-1881 32-year run of original Sharps rifle production
  • March 12, 1874 Sharps died (64)

Modern Sharps

  • 1976 started as Shiloh Products, Inc
    – in Farmingdale, New York
    – founded by Len Mulé & Wolfgang Droege
  • Len Mulé
    –  manufactured high quality bullet moulds for blackpowder shooters
    –  four-cavity design
    –  sold as the “Shiloh IV” moulds
  • 1975 the premiered New Model 1863 Rifle & New Model 1863 Carbine
    – worked with Pinetree Casting (a division of Ruger)
    – used original Civil War salvage parts from Dixie Gun Works
  • 1976 percussion rifles and carbines produced at Farmingdale, New York plant
  • 1976 Len Mulé began researching and working on the blueprints of the cartridge models Shiloh Model 1874
  • 1977 Model 1874 metallic cartridge rifle models went into production
  • 1983 Shiloh Sharps Rifle Company
    – moved to Big Timber, Montana
    –  Merged with C. Sharps Arms
    –  180/acre shooting range
  • 1986 Shiloh Rifle Manufacturing Company split from C. Sharps Arms
  • 1990 Quigley Down Under – Shiloh manufactured the Sharps rifle
  • 1991 purchased by the Bryant brothers
  • 1996 started in house Foundry

Shiloh Rifle
201 Centennial Dr
Big Timber, Montana 59011

shilohrifle.com

Weatherby

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 founded in 1945
California, Wyoming

  • 1945 founded by Roy Weatherby in Huntington Park, California
    – Weatherby’s Sporting Goods
  • original rifles  built on commercial Mauser actions
  • 1956  contracted Sako to build firearms
  • 1958 introduced the Mark V bolt action
  • 1964 .22 rimfire Mark XXII
  • 1967  first Weatherby over/under shotgun
  • April 4, 1988 Roy E. Weatherby passed
  • 1988 Weatherby Foundation International created
    – formed to“to educate youth and the non-hunting public on the beneficial role of ethical sport hunting and its contribution to wildlife conservation, and to protect our constitutional right to do so”
    https://www.weatherbyfoundation.com/
  • January, 2018 relocated from Paso Robles, California to Sheridan, Wyoming

high-powered magnum cartridges

  • .257 Weatherby Magnum
  • .270 Weatherby Magnum
  • .300 Weatherby Magnum
  • .340 Weatherby Magnum
  • .460 Weatherby Magnum.

Weatherby, Inc.
1550 Yellowtail Dr
Sheridan, WY 82801

307.675.7840

weatherby.com

NMRA

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The National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association exists to promote, support, nurture, and preserve our Nation’s rich historical heritage in the sport of muzzleloading through recreational, educational, historical, and cultural venues such as match competition, hunting, gun making and safety, historical re-enactments, exhibits, museums, libraries, and other related programs.

 

  • 1933 founded
  • home range in Friendship, Indiana
  • 2010 NMLRA Education Building opened

https://www.nmlra.org/

National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association is the National Governing Body for most black powder shooting competitions in the USA. They hold a Spring National and Fall National at their home range in Friendship, Indiana, plus a Winter National in Phoenix, Arizona. They sanction events for black powder rifles, pistols, shotguns including primitive events.

leading the effort to preserve the history of the United States through muzzleloading shooting sports & living history events.

 

 

Savage Arms

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founded in 1894
Westfield, Massachusetts & Canada

  • 1892 Arthur Savage designed a rifle for Colt
    – magazine in the stock, not under the barrel
    – but contract was won by the Krag–Jørgensen
  • 1894 Savage Arms founded by Arthur Savage in Utica, New York
  • 1895 Model 1895 the first hammerless lever-action rifle
    – Savage invented the rotary magazine rifle
  •  one of six companies to participate in the United States Army trials for a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol
  • 1897 – 1999 Model 99 lever-action rifle made for 102 years
  • 1908 invented the removable box magazine
    – but his patent expired in 1942
  • .300 Savage. Savage
  •  merged with the Driggs-Seabury Ordnance Company
  • World War I
    – produced Lewis machine guns in Sharon, Pennsylvania
    – produced Model 1899 muskets
  • 1919 approached by Chief Lame Deer to buy rifles for his tribe in New York
    – Lame Deer offered Savage to use his image as its logo in exchange for discounted rifles and an annual fee
  • 1091 – Arthur Savage moved to Duarte, California, and formed the Savage Tire company, he invented radial tires
  • 1920, Savage Arms bought Stevens Arms of Chicopee Falls, MA
  • 1929 Savage acquired the A.H. Fox Gun company of Philadelphia and moved production to Utica, New York
  • 1939 Model 24 combination gun
  • World War II
    – made most of the Thompson submachine guns used in World War II
    –  produced the British No. 4 Lee–Enfield bolt-action rifle
  • 1969 Canadian operations began called Lakefield Arms
    –     Lakefield, Ontario
  • 2002 the AccuTrigger
  • 2018 Savage Arms is still paying the annual fee to Lame Deer

Ammunition

  • 1894 –  .303 Savage
  • 1912 – .22 Savage Hi-Power
  • 1915 – .250-3000 Savage
  • 1920 – .300 Savage