Category Archives: Firearm Manufacturer

Yankee Hill Machine

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1951
Massachusetts

  • 1951 founded by Wallace Judd & James Graham in Yankee Hill, Massachusetts
  • 1960s government contract to design and produce cleaning rods for the M16
  • 1980s son Jay took over
  • 2000s began manufacturing suppressors
  • 2008 YNH-15 first complete rifle
  • 2013 Grandsons took over

Yankee Hill Machine
412 Main St.
Easthampton, Massachusetts

yhm.net

 

Sturm, Ruger & Co

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founded in 1949
Connecticut, Arizona, North Carolina

Ruger is currently America’s largest firearm manufacturer

 second largest handgun manufacturer after Smith & Wesson

second largest rifle manufacturer after Remington

 

  • 1949 founded by Alexander McCormick Sturm and William B. Ruger in Southport, Connecticut
  • Rugers first pistol, serial Number 8, was “hand delivered” to Warren Page
  • Oct. 6, 1949 first shipment of pistols
  • 1,138 pistols produced and shipped by end of 1949
  • November 1951 Alexander Sturm (28) died unexpectedly
    – Bill switched the company eagle logo from red to black from then on
  • 1953 first single action revolver
  • 1960s rifles were added
  • 1969 publicly traded
  • 1980s Opened the Prescott, Arizona factory to manufacture semi-auto pistols
  • 2000 Bill Ruger retired
  • Bill Ruger passed
  • 2006 Bill Ruger, Jr. retired
  • 2008  LCP semi-automatic pistol
  • 2013 Factory in Mayodan, North Carolina
    – 24-year old vacant yarn plant
    – built in 1989 and has over 194,000 sq. feet
  • 2018 Bill Ruger, Jr., passed
  • 700 variations of more than 40 product lines
  • the only American firearms company that is not as a part of a parent company

Arms Makers for Responsible Citizens

Sturm, Ruger & Co., Inc
411 Sunapee Street
Newport, NH 03773

Telephone: 336-949-5200

Nosler

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began in 1948
in Bend, Oregon

“Quality First”

 

  • April 4, 1913 John Amos Nosler was born
  • 1946 unsuccessful moose hunt inspired Nosler to develop a new bullet design
  • Nosler Partition bullets used a specially designed jacket enclosing two separate lead alloy cores
  • 1948 Nosler began to sell the partition bullets commercially, forming Nosler Partition Bullet Co in in Ashland, Oregon
  • 1958 moved to 6,000 sq. ft. building in Bend, Oregon
  • 1963 Norma became Nosler’s first commercial loader.
  • 1969 Nosler Partition Bullet Co. became Nosler Bullets, Inc.
  • 1974 Federal Cartridge Company commercially loaded Nosler bullets for the first time
  • 1976 Reloading Guide #1 was released
  • 1981 Reloading Guide #2 was released
  • 1982 moved to Bend, Oregon
  • 1988 John Nosler sold the production facilities to his son
  • 1989 Reloading Guide #3 was released
  • 1990 Nosler Bullets, Inc. became Nosler, Inc
  • 2002 Reloading Guide #5 was released.
  • October 10, 2010 John Nosler died (97)
  • 2011 Nosler gains ISO 9001: 2008 certification
  • 2012 Bob Nosler elected to NRA Board of Directors
  • 2013 Nosler® Defense Ammunition was introduced
  • 2014 M48 Patriot and Heritage rifles introduced
  • 2020 Nosler Rifles production moves to Redmond, Oregon

Nosler
107 SW Columbia St
Bend, Oregon

1-800-285-3701

nosler.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

High Standard

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1926 – 2018

  • 1926 founded in Hamden, Connecticut
  • 1932 purchased by Carl Gustav Swebilius
  • During World War II supplied .22 pistols for pistol training
  • D developed a silent, flashless pistol for use by OSS agents behind enemy lines
  • 1962 – 1984 High Standard D-100
    hammerless, double-action derringers
  • 1968 acquired by the Leisure Group
  • 1976 relocated to East Hartford, Connecticut
  • February 1977 stopped production of long guns
  • 1978 Clem Confessore led management buyout from Leisure Group
  • December 1984, its assets were auctioned to Gordon Elliott
  • 1990 American Derringer obtained the rights to High Standard Derringer design
  • 1993 High Standard of Houston, Texas acquired the company assets and trademark Arcadia Machine & Tool (AMT)
  • March 1994 first Houston manufactured pistols
  • 2000s acquired Interarms
  • 2001 Acquired Arcadia Machine & Tool (AMT)
  • 2018 went out of business

High Standard Manufacturing Company

Stoeger

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established in 1923
New York, New Jersey, Maryland

  • 1923 Alexander F. Stoeger
    – issued a price list from his New York City shop
    – sole authorized importer of Mauser and Luger Guns & Ammo
  • producer and importer of firearms
  • biggest firearms retailer in New York City
  • located in South Hackensack, New Jersey
  • Stoeger Publishing Company
    – Stoeger Publishing Co is the author of Shooter’s Bible
  • 1990s, the Stoeger company was purchased by Finnish rifle manufacturer Sako
  • 1994 American-made version of the Luger
  • 2000 Sako was acquired by Beretta Holding Group
    – placed under Benelli USA
    – moved to Accokeek, Maryland

Stoeger Industries
901 Eighth Street
Pocomoke, MD 21851

(301) 283-6981

stoegerindustries.com

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

O.F. Mossberg & Sons

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Started March 1919
New Haven, Connecticut

O.F. Mossberg & Sons the oldest family-owned firearms manufacturer in USA

  • 1866 Oscar Frederick Mossberg born in Sweden
    1866–1937
  • 1886 emigrated to the United States
  • worked at the Iver Johnson Arms
  •  managed C.S. Shattuck Arms Co
  •  worked for J. Stevens Arms & Tool Co
    –  he designed a small four-shot novelty pistol
  • 1907 – 1909 made 500 four-shot pistols in old barn behind his house
  • 1914 worked for Marlin
    moved to New Haven, Connecticut
  • 1919 Marlin went out of business
  • March 1919 at 53-years-old O.F. Mossberg
    his two sons, Iver and Harold
    started O.F. Mossberg & Sons in New Haven, Connecticut
  • 1920 -1932 4-shot .22-caliber pocket pistol the Brownie
  • 1921 the company purchased a new building
  • 1922 first .22 rimfire rifles
  • 1922 pump-action repeater designed by Arthur E. Savage
    (son of the owner of Savage Arms Corp)
  • 1937 built a third factory
  • 1937 O.F. Mossberg passed the business continued under his son Harold
  • made parts for Browning M2 during World War II
  • 1960 new facility in North Haven
  • firearms production moved to Eagle Pass, Texas

O.F. Mossberg & Sons

Auto-Ordnance

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Aug 1916

Auto-Ordnance

  • August 1916 founded by John T. Thompson
  • 1919 first short run production
  •  Model 1921 made by Colt
  • 1950s, Auto-Ordnance was owned and operated by Numrich Arms Corporation (N.A.C.)
  • 1999 bought by Kahr Arms

1437 Railroad Ave
Bridgeport, Connecticut

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