Category Archives: Resources

Olin

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started 1944
Connecticut, Missouri

  • 1892 Founded in East Alton, IL by Frank W. Olin
    – blasting powder for coal mines
  • 1898 Franklin Olin formed the Western Cartridge Company
    – competitors got suppliers to limit raw materials
    – Olin diversified
  • 1931 Western bought the Winchester Company.
  • 1935 formed Winchester-Western
  • 1944 Franklin Olin companies organized under Olin Industries, Inc
  • 1954 Olin Industries and Mathieson Chemical merged
    – Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation
  • 1963 John Olin retired
  • 1964  “re-tooled” the Winchester line, which damaged their reputation of quality
  • 1969 became the Olin Corporation
    – sold off many of its acquired businesses
  •  December 12, 1980  Olin sold Winchester firearms to the employees
    – with the name US Repeating Arms Company
    – Olin kept the Winchester brand and licensed it to US Repeating Arms Company
  •  2006 entered a new license with Browning Arms Company
    – to make Winchester rifles and shotguns
  • World’s number one chlorine producer
  • #1 producer of small ammunition globally

Thell Reed

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1943

  • Downey, California
  • competed in Jeff Cooper’s Big Bear “Leatherslaps” shooting competitions
  • one of the six “Combat Masters”
  • Gene Autry’s Wild West tour
  • trained actors for acting roles involving use pistols
    – Russell Crowe
    – Brad Pitt

Speer

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started in 1943
Lewiston, Idaho

  • 1943 Vernon Speer started building bullets
    –  reloaders couldn’t get components from ammo companies during World War II
  •  initially focused on hunting rifle bullets
  • he also built the first mass-produced jacketed handgun bullets for hunting and law enforcement
  • 1960 Lawman line
  • Speer Gold Dot
  • Vista Outdoor

Speer
2299 Snake River Ave.
Lewiston, ID 83501

1-866-286-7436

speer.com

RCBS

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Rock Chuck Bullet Swage dies

 founded in 1943
Oroville, California

 leading manufacturer of ammunition reloading equipment
for rifles and pistols

  • 1943  founded by Fred T. Huntington in Oroville, California
  • made a die to swage .22 rimfire cartridge cases to form jackets for bullets
  • in the back of a laundromat
  • 1948 relocated to a small shop
  • 1954 expanded into 7,500-square-foot factory
    – grew to 50,000 square feet
  • 1976 acquired by Omark Industries
  • 1985 purchased by Blount, Inc
  • 2001 purchased by Alliant Techsystems (ATK)
  • 2015 Vista Outdoor Inc. spun-off from ATK

 

 

(800) 533-5000

RCBS.com

 

Larry Pratt

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(November 13, 1942)
– 1976 – 2018 executive director Gun Owners of America
– 1980–1981 Virginia House of Delegates 19th district
– Reagan delegate to the 1980 Republican National Convention
– Author: Armed People Victorious (1990)
– Author: Safeguarding Liberty: The Constitution and Citizen Militias (1995)
– Author: On the Firing Line: Essays in the Defense of Liberty (2001)
– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Pratt

Margaret Thompson Murdock

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First markswoman in history to win an Olympic medal
(men and women competed against her)

August 25, 1942

  • She learned how to shoot by following her father to the rifle range
  • Attended Kansas State University
  • competed on the Kansas State University men’s rifle team
    – winning two Big Eight Conference championships
    – the university’s first female student to earn a varsity letter
  • four-years in the U.S. Army,  assigned as a shooting instructor at Fort Benning, achieved the rank of major
  • 1966 World Champion in Women’s Standard Rifle
  • first woman to win an individual open World Shooting Championship
  • 1967 she won two gold medals in small-bore rifle at the Pan American Games and set a world record, for men or women, in the kneeling rifle shooting
  • 1976 first woman ever on the U.S. Olympic shooting team
  • 1976 silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics
  • first woman to win a medal in Shooting at the Summer Olympics
  • 1977 retired from competitive shooting at age 35 and become a registered nurse
  • 1992 named to the U.S. International Shooting Hall of Fame
  • In international competition Murdock set four individual world records and nine team world records
  • She is a member of five halls of fame, including
    USA Shooting Hall of Fame and Kansas Sports Hall of Fame

My first year at K-State, I couldn’t shoot on the team because I was a female. I could practice with the K-State team but I couldn’t be on the team. They got a new coach and he thought it would be a good idea for me to be on the team since I was shooting better than everyone else. ”
— Murdock, reminiscing in 2011

Tom Givens

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  • 25-year career in law enforcement 
  • 1996 Rangemaster
  • Rangemaster Firearms Training Services
  • Author of over 100 magazine articles in S.W.A.T. Magazine, Combat Handguns Magazine, Concealed Carry Magazine, Soldier of Fortune, Peterson Handguns Magazine, and others
  • 1998 Tennessee IDPA State Champion
  • 1999 Mississippi IDPA State Champion
  • Former Member IDPA Board of Directors
  • Armed Citizens’ Legal Defense Network, Inc.

Dick Heller

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1942

– took his 2A-based legal case all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States
– His case impacted the legal interpretation of the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights of the US Constitution, the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to possess a firearm, unconnected with service in a militia

A licensed special police officer for the District of Columbia.
– Heller carried a gun in federal office buildings, but was not allowed to have one in his home
– Robert A. Levy and Alan Gura were counsel for Heller
– 1984 founded the “Children’s Birthright Trust Fund” – a charity that supports and raises funds for youth projects, such as computer access
– 2004 until 2011 served as the Treasurer of the D.C. Libertarian Party