Category Archives: Ammunition Manufacturer

Federal Premium Ammunition

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April 27, 1922
in Anoka, Minnesota

  • April 27, 1922 Charles L. Horn founded Federal Cartridge Corporation in Anoka, Minnesota
    – four factories
    – 700,000 square feet
  • 1941 Federal won an $87-million contract from the U.S. government
    – to build and operate the $30-million Twin City Ordnance Plant (TCOP)
  • 1977 William B. Horn introduced Federal’s Premium line of centerfire rifle and shotshell ammunition
  • 1987 – 2020 worked with a local non-profit group to employ people with disabilities
  • Premium line with projectiles from Nosler Partition and Sierra boat-tail
  • 2014 built modern water-treatment plant
  • February 2015 owned by Vista Outdoor
  • 2019 started selling directly to consumers through online store
  • customers can order hand-loaded ammunition customized for their needs

 

Sako

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Suojeluskuntain Ase- ja Konepaja Osakeyhtiö
(Firearms and Machine workshop of the Civil Guard)

Established in 1921

  • to build and service firearms for the Civil Guard in Finland
  • 1921 Separate company established in Helsinki
  • 1929 Manufacturing of ammunition begins
  • 1932 Manufacturing of rifle barrels begins
  • 1938 Manufacturing of rifle stocks begins
  • 1939-1944 275 mil. machine gun rounds
  • 1945 new owner Finnish Red Cross
  • 1962 New owner: Suomen Kaapelitehdas Oy
  • 1967 New owner: Oy Nokia Ab
  • 1993 rifle production is concentrated in Riihimäki
    – Tourula manufactures ammunition
  • 1994 acquires a majority stake in Stoeger Inc
    – operates in the USA and Canada
  • 1995 entire ammunition production line was sold
    – to Vammas Oy
  • 2000 New owner: Beretta
  • 2006 85 anniversary

Sako 
P.O. BOX 149
FI-11101 RIIHIMÄKI
FINLAND
(+358) 10 830 5200

sako.fi

Western Cartridge Company

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founded in 1898 – 1944
East Alton, Illinois

Cartridges made by Western are stamped WCC

  • 1886 Franklin W. Olin received an engineering degree from Cornell University
  • 1892 one of several investors in the Equitable Powder Company in East Alton, Illinois
  • 1893 they made blasting powder for coal mining in southern Illinois
  • 1898 Olin formed Western Cartridge Company
    – manufactured rifle powder and shotgun shells
  • 1900 Union Cap and Chemical Company (UCC)
    – formed with the Austin Cartridge Company (Ohio)
  • 1907 purchased the Alliance Cartridge Company
  • forerunner of the Olin Corporation (1944)
  • 1931 Western Cartridge Company acquired the Winchester Repeating Arms Company
  • 1935 formed Winchester-Western
  •  World War II produced 3 billion rounds of ammunition
  • 1944 Olin businesses were brought together as Olin Industries, Inc.

Western Cartridge Company

Rio Royal

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1872
Texas

  • Alfred Nobel
    – 355 patents
    – owned 90 factories
    –  left his fortune to the Nobel Prize
  • 1857 first patent for gunpowder filed in Sweden
  • 1863 invented a new kind of detonator
  • 1864 major explosion killed his younger brother Emil
  • 1865 invented the blasting cap
  • 1867 invention of dynamite
  • 1875 invented gelignite
  • 1887 invented ballistite
  • 1896 RIO founded by Alfred Nobel
  • 2002 Introduced to the U.S. market
    – McEwen, Tennessee
  • 2012 the Nobel endowment was worth $472 million
  • 2014 original factory in McEwen, Tennessee (exploded)
  • 2015 moved to Texas
    – headquartered in Irving, Texas
    – warehouse in Marshall, Texas
    – 105,000-square-foot
    – produces approximately one million shotgun shells on a daily basis

RIO Ammunition
433 E Las Colinas Blvd., Ste 900
Irving, Texas 75039

214-389-1896

RioAmmo.com

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

Hercules Powder Company

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formed in 1882
Santa Cruz, California
Wilmington, Delaware

  • 1874 special formulation of dynamite was patented
    – by J.W. Willard
    – superintendent of the California Powder Works
    – “Hercules powder”
  • 1877 California Powder Works manufacturers Hercules powder
  • 1877 J.W. Willard moved to Cleveland, Ohio
  • 1882 – 1904 Hercules Powder Company
    – California Powder Works & DuPont and Laflin & Rand Powder Company
  • 1890  first smokeless powder manufactured in the United States
  • 1897 Sharpshooter
    – a flake powder
    – introduced by Laflin & Rand
    –  to replace black powder in .45-70
  • 1898 Bullseye
    – introduced by Laflin & Rand
    –  rapid combustion in short-barreled handguns
  • 1900 Unique 
    – introduced by Laflin & Rand
    – designed for shotguns
    – can be used in handguns
  • 1911  Sherman Antitrust Act ordered a breakup of the explosives and gunpowder manufacturing
    – Atlas Powder Company = explosives manufacturing
    – Hercules Powder Company = gunpowder
  • 1912 incorporated as the Hercules Powder Company
    – following the breakup of the Du Pont explosives monopoly
  • major producers of smokeless powder
  • 1932 Red Dot
    – for light and standard shotgun loads (12, 16, and 20 g )
    – can be used in handguns
  •  1940, the Kenvil, New Jersey plant explosion
    – twenty-five tons of explosives
  • 1965 Green Dot
    – for medium & standard shotgun loads (12, 16, and 20 g )
    – can be used in handguns
  • 1966 changed name to Hercules, Inc
  • 1972 Blue Dot
    – for magnum shotgun loads (10, 12, 16 g )
    – can be used in magnum handguns
  • 1995 sold to Alliant Techsystems Inc (ATK)
    –  “Bullseye”, “2400”, “Reloder”, “Unique”, and “Red Dot”
    – Radford, Virginia.
  • 2008 sold to the Ashland Corporation and dissolved.

 

 

Tula

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1880
Tula & Ulyanovsk, Russia

  • 1880 Tula factory established
    – 100 miles South of Moscow
  • 1916 Ulyanovsk factory added
    – 550 miles South-East of Moscow
  • 1920s switched from brass to steel cases
  • WWI = 25% of Russia’s ammunition production
  • WWII = 400 Million rounds per year
  • 1999 Alexei Solovov  began working at Tula
  • Today
    – 40 types of small arms ammunition
    – commercial and Russian military
  • 2005 TulAmmo took over Ulyanovsk Cartridge Works
  • 2009 500 Million rounds imported into the United States

 

Fiocchi

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1876
Lecco, Italy

  • Giulio Fiocchi a bank manager assigned to oversee a defaulted musket and black powder factory
  • Giulio & his brother Giacomo bought the factory
  •  focused entirely on brass cased cartridges w/ modern primers
  • company has been passed down through the Fiocchi family
  • WWII = Nazis seized control of the Fiocchi factory
  • rebuilt after the war
  • 1950s  partnered with Smith & Wesson to operate a factory in Illinois
  • 1983 built an importing facility in Springfield, MO

U.S. Cartridge Company

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Established in 1869
Lowell,

 

  • 1869 Established in
  • patented a metal cartridge
    – Joe  Meigs
  • primarily cartridges, paper-shot-shells, and primers
  • 1875
  • July 1903  explosion killed 22 employees and nearby residents
    – injuring more than 70
  • 1910s constructed  brick factory buildings
    – along Lawrence Street and the Wamesit Canal
  • 1911 National Lead Company purchased an interest
  • 1915 a number of work stoppages because of the American Federation of Labor
  • Sept 1915 largest strike in the firm’s history
  • 1917, U.S. Cartridge, inundated with orders for munitions from the United States
    military and its allies in World War I
  •  His Majesty’s government pay in advance to guaranteed the British ammo supply
  • 1918 National Lead Company bought half the shares
  • 1922 family sold its remaining interest in the company to National Lead
  • 1926 National Lead Company also owned Winchester Repeating Arms Company
  • 1926 cartridge manufacturing machinery was moved to New Haven, CT
  • January 1, 1927 – U.S. Cartridge closed 

U.S. Cartridge Company

Barnaul

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1869
Barnaul, Russia

  • manufactured by Barnaul Cartridge Plant in Russia
  • One of the first cartridge plants founded in St. Petersburg
  • originally known as “Arsenal P”
  • 1920 renamed “Factory P”
  • 1928 renamed “Factory 17”
  • World War I  provided Russians with ammo
  • 1941 factory was evacuated
  • 2009 began steel-cased with a lubricious polymer coating
    – Centaur brand
  • 2018 MKS Supply began importing Barnaul-branded ammunition
  • Barnaul Machine Tool Building Plant
    – Academy Sports Monarch name
    – Centaur brand
    – lacquer-coated Brown Bear
    – zinc-coated Silver Bear
    – brass-coated Golden Bear steel-cased