Lee Jurras

1934 – 2017

Invented the first commercially successful hollow point ammo “Super Vel”

  • 1963 founded Super Vel ammunition
    – Shelbyville, Indiana
  • 1974 – Super Vel closed
  • 1975 involvemed with the Auto Mag
    – in New Mexico
  • co-authored several books on firearms
  • published the Auto Mag Newsletter
  • L.E. Jurras Custom Model 100 Auto Mags
    – offered in all three calibers
    – with serial numbers with an LEJ prefix
  • co-authored the book Handgun Hunting

July 27, 1934 – April 24, 2017

Bill Woodin

December  16, 1925 – March 18, 2018

  • William Woodin III
  • His grandfather (also named William Woodin) was President Franklin Roosevelt’s first treasury secretary
  • Bill’s Step-Father was a founder of the American Quarter Horse Association
  • bachelor in zoology at the University of Arizona
  • master in zoology at the University of California, Berkeley
  • 1950 kingsnake species named after him: lampropeltis pyromelana woodini
  • volunteer for the Desert Museum before it opened
  • 1954 to 1971 – Executive Director Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
  • called “the most promising young naturalist in the United States” by Roy Chapman Andrews, a former American Museum of Natural History director
  • 1955 – co-founder International Ammunition Association
  • active in European Cartridge Research Association
  • compiled “one of the great collections of ammunition in the world,”
  • 1973 Woodin Laboratory built
     3,000-square-foot underground vault
  • 1975 – Consulted on the Kennedy assassination research
  • 160,000 cartridges tracing the evolution of small arms ammunition
  • 1998 co-authored three volumes A History of Modern U.S. Small Arms Ammunition
  • Technical Advisor to and Distinguished Life Member of AFTE
    (Association of Firearm and Tool Mark Examiners)
  • Consultant to the U. S. Army Armament Research and Development Command (Armament Concepts Office)

Federal Premium Ammunition

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

 

Western Cartridge Company

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

Savage Arms

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

Winchester Repeating Arms Company

founded in 1866
New Haven, Connecticut

  •  1855 the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company
    – Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson partnership
    – Norwich, Connecticut
    – largest stockholder was Oliver Winchester
  • 1856 moved to New Haven
  • 1856 Volcanic Repeating Arms Company went bankrupt
  • 1857 Winchester and partner John M. Davies purchased the assets
    – New Haven Arms Company
  • 1860 Benjamin Henry perfected the .44 Henry cartridge
  • 1860 Henry rifle based loosely on the Volcanic to use the new ammunition
    – manufactured by the New Haven Arms Company
  • 1866 reorganized as Winchester Repeating Arms Company
  • Model 1866
  • Model 1873 the first Winchester center fire cartridge, the .44-40 WCF
    “Gun That Won the West”
  • December 1880 Oliver Winchester died
  • 1881 his son William Wirt Winchester died
    – his widow , Sarah Winchester, built the Winchester Mystery House.
  • 1883-1898 John Browning worked with Winchester Repeating Arms Company
  • Winchester had borrowed heavily to finance its massive expansion
  • 1931 went into receivership
  • December 22, 1931 bought at bankruptcy auction by the Olin family’s Western Cartridge Company
  • 1944 reorganized as the Winchester-Western Division of Olin Industries
  • World War II produced the M1 Garand rifle
  • post-war  first civilian manufacturer of the M14 rifle

Winchester Repeating Arms Company