The Shotgun Side Hustle
Not Every Parker Shoots
Only two Winchester motorcycles are known to exist and in 2013,
one sold for nearly $600,000. Photo: James D. Julia
Say the name “Parker” at a gun show and you’ll see some folks go weak in the knees. But wind the clock back a century or so, say the same name around the family dinner table and odds are good you’d get a different view of “a Parker.”
That’s because of the five Parker Bros factories, only one — The Gun Works — made firearms. The other four made anything to do with metal or wood, including common household items. The Parker Brothers knew which businesses increased their net profit and that’s why 80% — four of five factories — were devoted to the manufacturing of non-sporting items. In a way, it kind-of makes shotguns a side hustle!
Winchester and Remington were two business-savvy companies.
Not only did they produce shotguns and non-sporting equipment
but they used their wood and metal shops to make clay target hand throwers.
Broader Horizons
While I’m kidding to a degree, that view does make sense. When skilled workmen weren’t making barrels or building stocks, they used those same skills to construct other products made from metal and wood. Machinists produced hardware like screws, hinges, latches and knobs. Woodworkers probably enjoyed checkering forends more than building shipping crates, tables or chairs, but I suspect this is true — with families to support they enjoyed cashing a pay check more than not. So when there were gaps in shotgun production, good business dictates production time gets filled making other items.
Take New Haven, Conn.’s, Winchester Repeating Arms for example. Winchester identified the sporting, adventurous set as an area of growth and for a very brief time they experimented with motorcycles. Around the turn of the 20th Century, the Edwin F. Merry Company of San Francisco was commissioned to build 200 motorcycles of which only two are known to exist. These motor bikes were sold between 1909 and 1911 and have come up for auction twice in the past decade.
Other sporting and consumer products came in the 1930s when the innovative John D. Olin of Olin Industries bought Winchester in 1931. Those were tough years, with the First Depression hitting everyone’s wallets. Sporting arms sales were light because no one had money to buy a new shotgun. The post WWI peace caused lucrative military contracts to dry up. Instead of making Model 12s, production lines turned out refrigerators, flashlights, fishing rods, ice and roller skates, hatchets, saws, knives, screwdrivers, lawnmowers and many other products.
A few falls ago, I thought I hit a small-time jackpot; one I thought might catapult me into an early retirement. Angela and I were in between coverts, and we drove past an antique shop. I made a U-turn and crunched into the gravel driveway. We opened the door to a building that looked more tattered than its wares.
We coughed our way through the aisles containing bric-a-brac with more dust than a ceiling fan, and there it was, neatly tucked away in the corner. It was a shipping crate, a wooden one far more durable than the cardboard Amazon boxes we have today. I looked at the logo the same way I’d stare at an old friend: Winchester.
Were it packed with a top and bottom row of Model 21s I’d have done a dance, but this was still cool. Once upon a time the crate housed a Winchester reel lawn mower. You know, the push kind with blades that spun around and gave the grass a haircut? I’m told they’re making a comeback these days.
The owner saw me eyeballing the crate.
“Pretty neat, huh?” he asked.
“Sure is,” I said. “How much do you want for it?”
“A Lincoln will do.”
“Five bucks? Okay. Know where the lawnmower is?”
He laughed. “You think I’d be sitting here if I did?”
Earlier this year I saw one in great condition. It was a double gear version with cast iron wheels and an intact handle marked Winchester Ball Bearing. It didn’t sell for retirement money, but it fetched a good price just shy of a grand. I won’t be around to see if today’s gas lawnmowers will be coveted in 2124, so if we meet in Tinkhamtown let me know how that worked out, will ya?
According to Tom, adding items to your collection made by
firearm companies like these Parker Bros. coffee grinders is
almost as much fun as buying a new shotgun. Almost …
The Typing Pool
I work with a lot of writers every day, but I don’t know of any who still work on a typewriter. Writing machines were a side hustle of sorts for Big Green, also known as the Remington Arms Company, formerly of Ilion, NY. Remington had been making firearms for over 60 years, expanded into the agricultural business which included plows, tillers and cultivators but they revolutionized the writing game.
In 1878 an inventor named Christopher Sholes persuaded the firearm company to back his new QWERTY idea. You probably recognize those letters from the top row, left to right spot on your keyboard. The Remington No. 2 typewriter and its key configuration was so successful that we’ve been using it ever since. Think about that the next time you answer an email!
Lyman Cornelius Smith, better known as L.C. or Elsie, started producing breech loaded shotguns with his brother Leroy and gun designer, William H. Baker. After initial success, the group split, leaving Elsie to partner with his younger brother Wilbert and a new gun designer, Alexander Brown. They, too, were successful, but their company didn’t last long. By 1889 they sold the successful company to Hunter Arms and went on to produce typewriters. Add an Elsie typewriter to your Remington Adding Machine and you’ve got as fine a double barrel of office equipment as it gets.
“The Fox Gets the Game” was a tagline of the Fox Shotgun Company and it carried over to fishing. While the A.H. Fox Bakelite level-wind reel with adjustable bearings was most popular, the company also made a single-action trolling reel and fly reels. If you want the epitome of old school cool then match a Fox reel with a Winchester rod. That’s also a double in my book.
If you’re an addict like me you probably won’t pass on the next shotgun to buy a coffee grinder, but maybe you will? Adding a few collectibles made by those fine American companies add a new dimension to an obsession. And when seasons are closed you can get as much enjoyment by picking away at a keyboard, sawing a board, or grinding beans for a pot of coffee. For a sportsman, what could be better than that?
