Gun Digest 2011. Dan Shideler
research, the R&D department was required to continue with the Sears commercial gun design program. This expansion obviously required increased R&D personnel, so the workforce was expanded to 10 designers and six tool makers, plus the use of subcontractor tool companies. It was during this period that I designed, built and tested the world’s first gas-operated autoloading shotgun. This unique shotgun was produced by High Standard as the Supermatic and the Sears JC Higgins Model 60.
Many thousands of the Higgins Model 60 Sears guns were sold. It employed the patented hollow gas piston which surrounded the magazine feed tube, thus allowing greater magazine capacity without lengthening the forend stock. High Standard enjoyed a fine reputation for creative design and excellent workmanship in that era.
The momentum and drive of the of the original High Standard company were sadly missing with the deaths of Carl Swebilius, George Wilson Sr., Fred Humiston, and a number of management and key employees who either resigned or retired at that time. I went to the Bellmore Johnson Tool Co. as chief engineer, in which capacity I designed the .22 caliber Whitney Wolverine sporting pistol, the 12-gauge Browning BPS pump shotgun (see above), and the .45 Winchester Magnum Wildey gas-operated pistol. Harry Sefried, after designing the popular Sentinel .22 revolver in the High Standard R&D department, went to the Sturm-Ruger Co. as the Chief Engineer and designed a number of Ruger’s finest guns, including the famous 10-22 rifle, several of the Ruger revolver models and the Mini-14 .223 caliber rifle.
In 1968 the original High Standard top management had changed and they decided to sell the company. It was acquired by the Leisure Group, a non-firearms company selling sporting goods equipment. A turbulent period followed. The original High Standard facilities in Hamden were moved to the Leisure Group location in East Hartford in 1976. in 1978 the property changed again with a buyout of the Leisure Group. In 1984 the assets were sold by the buyer.
Corporate stagnation followed until 1993 when a progressive, up-to-date company bought High Standard and completely reorganized it. The new owner is the High Standard Manufacturing Company, Inc., of Houston, Texas.
This new owner invested in facilities and the very latest technology and equipment. In 1994 They began to ship the newly manufactured High Standard .22 pistols. They are dedicated to returning the High Standard reputation and quality back to equal or better than the excellent pre-1968 standards. I pray that the new organization will continue with the legacy, spirit, and success of the Swebilius area.
DESIGN OF THE ITHACA MODEL 49 RIFLE
After the Whitney Wolverine pistol development with the Bellmore Johnson Tool Company in the early 1950s, I took a close look at the various firearms manufacturer’s product lines to determine if there were any opportunities for marketable products. I was aware that many progressive sales departments were undoubtedly searching for the same thing. One company stood out as obviously in need of new product design: the Ithaca Gun Company of Ithaca, New York. They were well-known for producing a very high quality product that often needed precision hand-fitting by highly skilled workman. This type of labor, while greatly admired, was gradually placing itself out of the competitive price range. Other companies were using advanced designs with newer machines and the latest technology. This ultimately limited Ithaca’s competitive abilities.
Gun Digest editor-in-chief John T. Amber personally reviewed the Ithaca M49 .22 in the 1962 edition.
Ithaca had for a long time lacked an aggressive design staff. Aside from their excellent old double guns, their greatest design achievement had been the redesign of the Browning-designed Remington Model 15 pump shotgun as the Ithaca model 37. It was universally accepted by the shooting public and it even outsold and outlasted the fabulous Winchester model 12 pump gun! Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to sustain this early landmark company, which was founded way back in 1880.
World War II provided some relief for the financially troubled Ithaca. They produced a number of .45 Colt 1911-A1 service pistols and M3 grease guns between 1943 and 1945. This activity served only as a temporary band-aid, however. They were hurting for a new product to augment their only winner, the rock-solid Model 37 pump gun. Ithaca’s president, Sheldon Smith, and his brother and director of manufacturing, Charles Smith, made a valiant attempt to create a business turnaround after the great war by producing a .22 autoloading rifle which developed numerous function problems, and they also made an ill-fated attempt to have MIT personel design a semiautomatic shotgun for them. As one might expect, it was a brilliant study but thoroughly impractical to mass produce as a competitive sporting shotgun.
These post-war failures made Ithaca understandably cautious despite the fact that they were extremely anxious to produce a single-shot .22 rifle that I designed, the BJT Saddle Gun, after witnessing a flawless demonstration of the prototype rifle. The Smiths personally contacted a large number of leading firearms merchandisers and surveyed their estimate of the volume sales at different price levels. Because of the extremely low direct labor and low cost material to produce the rifle, the retail price was established at an amazingly low $21.95. This price was established extremely low to dramatically produce a very high sales volume at a minimum profit. This was in stark contrast to prior Ithaca sales philosophy. In 1960, the Ithaca Model 49 sold for $21.95 – and the Ithaca single barrel trap gun sold for $2,500!
In setting up the project objectives for the first presentation of what became the Itaca Model 49 rifle, I figured it must be compatible with Ithaca’s current capabilities and finances. With this in mind I established the following objectives.
1. It must include the lowest possible tooling expense.
2. It should require an absolute minimum of direct labor to produce.
3. It must be unique in design and appeal to a vast new potential market.
4. It must have eye appeal.
5. It must be safe, accurate, and durable.
From a design point of view these project objectives were extremely difficult to achieve. A high-cost, expensive and complicated mechanism would be infinitely easier to design, but it obviously would never be compatible with Ithaca’s immediate requirements. To meet these five objectives I reasoned that a low-cost single shot “boy’s first rifle” with the eye appeal and look of “the gun that won the west” would add considerably to its sales appeal. The legendary Winchester 94 was Hollywood’s standard equipment for the western lawmen and the bad guys. It would have great appeal to the movie-going teenage shooters. If the price of the rifle was rock bottom and the gun was accurate and safe, it should be a winner!
To meet the cost objectives, the single shot and safety requirement seemed the most logical answer. To preserve the Model 94 look, the lever action would be used for loading, extraction and ejection only. Lever function would not cock the hammer. For safety reasons, the hammer had to be manually cocked for each shot. With the hammer forward in the down or fire position, the gun would not discharge if the gun were dropped or suffered a hard blow on the hammer. This required the shooter to perform deliberate, separate motions to load and fire the gun.
To meet the low cost objectives, a concentrated effort was centered on reducing the direct labor wherever possible. The two main components that presented the greatest cost savings were the bolt and the receiver. The bolt did not move horizontally but its front end swung vertically, Martini fashion, thus exposing the barrel breech for loading and ejection. This normally would require a complex bolt that was expensive to machine from a solid bar. A tremendous cost saving was employed here by using a new process utilized by Chrysler and Ford for certain engine parts at great savings: the forming of parts by compacting powdered iron under tremendous pressure and then sintering them under high heat. The advantage of this process is extreme accuracy and very low cost. The cost saving for the bolt was substantial and the strength was more than adequate, as attested by the performance of many thousands of rifles. The powdered metal process today is common and utilized by many industries.
The receiver was fabricated from die-cast zinc, and it saved a lot of difficult machining from a forging or bar stock. This