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
About O.F. Mossberg & Sons
O.F. Mossberg & Sons is an American maker of shotguns, rifles, pistols and scopes, and it remains the oldest family-owned firearms manufacturer in the United States. Swedish-born Oscar Frederick Mossberg spent decades at Iver Johnson, C.S. Shattuck, J. Stevens and Marlin-Rockwell before starting the company with his sons Iver and Harold in March 1919, working out of a rented loft on State Street in New Haven. Their first product, the four-shot .22 Brownie pocket pistol, was marketed to hunters and trappers, and about 37,000 were made between 1920 and 1932.
For gun owners, the name is tied above all to the Model 500 pump-action shotgun, introduced in August 1961 and designed by lead engineer Carl Benson with a lightweight aluminum receiver and a minimum of machined parts. Variants of the 500 and the later 590 have been adopted by the U.S. military and law enforcement agencies and are common home-defense guns. Corporate headquarters remain in North Haven, Connecticut, while more than 90 percent of Mossberg shotguns and rifles are now built in Eagle Pass, Texas. In January 2019 the company returned to handguns with the MC1sc subcompact 9mm, its first pistol since the Brownie.
Key Facts
- 1886: Oscar F. Mossberg emigrates from Sweden to the United States.
- March 1919: O.F. Mossberg & Sons is founded in New Haven, Connecticut.
- 1922: The company introduces its first .22 rimfire rifle, a pump-action designed by Arthur E. Savage.
- 1960: Production moves to a new plant in North Haven, Connecticut.
- August 1961: The Model 500 pump-action shotgun is introduced.
- 1989: Affiliate Maverick Arms opens a plant in Eagle Pass, Texas, enlarged in 2013.
Sources
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