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My Ghost Gun Factory post was immensely popular, people really seemed to like seeing where their guns came from and what happened to the factory. I
decided to make it a monthly post, focusing on one company and the
factories they occupied. The posts will go a little deeper into the
history of both. This month's focus is the Hartford Arms and Equipment Company.
As you could guess from the name Hartford Arms was based in Hartford Connecticut.
The Hartford Arms and Equipment Co. was started by Hartford resident and former Colt employee by the name of Lucius M. Diehm in 1925. Mr. Diehm had no doubt been inspired by the Colt .22 pistol (which became known as the Woodsman) which had been built by Colt for 10 years before Hartford Arms started production. It was August 6th, 1921 when Mr. Diehm filed for a patent on his .22 pistol, it was awarded patent number 15111510 on Oct 14th, 1924. No one would argue that the gun doesn't look a copy of the Colt Woodsman
Here is a picture of the Hartford Arms model of 1925, below it a 1921 vintage Colt Woodsman
While it was not that uncommon to have two companies making pistols that resembled each other, the similarities seem like there should have been some breach of patent. I could find no record of Browning or Colt defending their patent. It could be that Diehm's design differed enough internally as to not infringe on the Browning patent. My guess is that Diehm thought he had a better "mousetrap" and sought investors. In 1925 he opened production in a building located at 618 Capitol Avenue in Hartford. It is doubtful that Hartford Arms rented the whole building, most likely they rented some space in the building already set up for manufacturing. This could explain the #28 next to the street address (618-28 Capitol Ave).
As far as I can tell the building was built for the Hartford Woven Wire Mattress Co. sometime before 1898.
Some records indicate that the 80,000 sq ft building was built in 1920, so maybe the original was torn down and rebuilt? I am not certain the records are accurate, as I have found records of a brick building of the same size and shape to be at that location prior to 1920, some more searching may be in order. Moving on.... In 1931/32 The Hartford Arms & Equipment Company had fallen on hard times, it was the Great Depression. Unemployment had doubled to 16.3%, many companies were shutting their doors. During the six years they were in production Hartford Arms had only managed to make 5000 pistols.
The news of Hartford Arms finical situation found its way to a Carl Swebilius who was working for Winchester in New Haven and running a small enterprise called High Standard Manufacturing Company to make tools used in the manufacture of guns and other items. He got some coworkers to invest and for $800 he purchased the Hartford Arms and Equipment Company and all its patents. That is the equivalent of $13,229 today.
High Standard was able to turn the company around and by 1935 they relocated the business to New Haven.
Other occupants of the building over the years included:
The Hartford Woven Wire Mattress Co. The Organ Power Co. The Spencer Turbine Cleaner Co. The Sachs Company Capitol Archives and Record Storage.
The old factory still stands, it is currently occupied by Capitol Archives and Record Storage.
It sits at the corner of Capitol Ave and Laurel Street in Hartford, just west of downtown Hartford and north of Pope Park.
If you missed my 1st post on this subject (last year) you can see it here
1. Custom Butt Plate: A butt plate does two things, it provides gription (grip + traction) for your shoulder and provides protection for the butt stock when setting or (god forbid) accidentally dropping the gun. This guy made his own butt plate from aluminum and then dimpled it with a Dremel tool and carbide ball mill. See his work here
If your gun has a smooth plastic butt plate, you could stiple it (see below for more stipling).
Another option would be to use a checkering file and checker the butt plate, I would not advise using aluminum though as it is very difficult to checker
A third option is to make one of wood, this guy used scrap pieces of veneer, laminated together, to make his butt plate, see the video here
2. Butt Plate Storage This is nothing new, many military and some hunting rifles came with a storage compartment behind the butt plate. There are a few ways to accomplish this. The first is to adapt an old military rifle butt plate to your gun
You could cut holes in the butt plate, drill out recess and make a plate that pivots from one of the screws
4. DIY Gun Socks Gun socks made from old flannel pajamas, wool blankets, the sleeves from lined jackets or fabric from the fabric store. While it may seem silly to make one when you can buy a silicone impregnated one for less than $10, if you have the time and material, why not get creative?
This guy made his from old Crown Royal bags.. photo courtesy of Pintrest
5. Plastic Stippling This has been around for a while now, but it seems to be gaining momentum and people are getting creative, so I thought I would include it. While I would never do this to my own Glock, I would consider doing it on a plastic rifle stock or magazine. The options are almost limitless as to the size and shape of the dimples. You can even make your own tips for your soldering iron to get a unique pattern.
This guy did a "gator skin" (although it looks more like fish scales to me) style by using a wide, flat tip and laying it at a 40 degree angle. Search youtube for lots of great how to videos
6. Shotgun Shell holder: This one has been around a while, using pieces from 3/4" PVC pipe, you slit the pipe (removing a 1/4" of material), then heat the pipe with a heat gun or in the oven and squeeze it together until cooled. Here are a couple of examples I found on youtube:
The Nordic Marksman makes a product for this (used in Biathalon competition
Another fellow on the Rimfire Central Forum, modified the comb of his .22 to hold spare cartridges.
8. Camo Wrap You may have seen this stuff before, it has been around a while now. Made from 3M Coban (originally used as a medical dressing to hold bandages on), it is a non-permanent modification that you can perform in minutes. It is also inexpensive, comes in a multitude of colors and camo patterns and will protect your items from dents and scratches. The stuff only sticks to itself and is reusable (up to a point).
9. Ejection Port Smoothing If your pistol is having issues with extraction, the culprit could be the edges of the ejection port. Similar to smoothing out the feed ramp, the exit ramps of the ejection port may need the same attention.
10. Clay Pigeon Holder You can buy these pre-made or you could build your own from some sturdy cardboard
See this guys video for the step by step
11. AK Grip Racks? Take some surplus AK grips and some wood and you can make coat racks or a rifle display rack. The grips are affordable, plentiful and they have a perfect swept back angle to fight gravity. I am guessing this would work with AR grips as well
12. DIY Gun Sling Re-purposing an old belt into a gun sling is easy and can add something different to your build. Cryptic Cricket found one at a junk store that had animal shaped medallions
This guy used an old guitar strap on his "battlefield pick-up" AK
I used an old leather belt that was 1.5" wide, which worked perfect with the military slings that I installed on my 10/22 Spencer rifle project
13. Wood Stipling Just like with the plastic stipiling, you can stiple wood (in lieu of checkering) with a Dremel tool. This tidbit comes from DIY_guy on the Firearmstalk forum.
Another example
14. Small Bore Reactive Targets This home built set-up uses 2x4s, PVC tubing, golf tees and paint balls to provide a reaction when struck with a .17 or .22 caliber rifle (air or firearm).
If you place a piece of canvas as a backstop, you could make a work of art while you are at it.......
