Davenport's patent for the production of high quality rifle barrels. The acquisition of Bay State brought with it William H. After purchasing Bay State Arms Company in 1878, Hopkins & Allen began production of falling block rifles and tip-up shotguns.
38 rimfire calibers and featured barrel lengths of 4 ? to 7 ? inches. These larger six-shot revolvers were available in. H & A's product line also expanded to include the XL Army, XL Navy, and XL police models. Many of Hopkins & Allen revolvers were sold to distributors under trade names including Blue Jacket, Mountain Eagle, Ranger, and others.īy the late 1870s, Hopkins & Allen's sales had grown to the point that the company relocated to larger facilities in Norwich. In addition, a line of spur-trigger cartridge revolvers in. The firm was initially prohibited from manufacturing cartridge revolvers using Rollin White's patent for bored-through cylinders, on which Smith & Wesson held exclusive rights.Īfter the expiration of this patent, Hopkins & Allen began converting their percussion revolvers to accept cartridge ammunition. 31 caliber percussion revolvers that were essentially identical to those previously manufactured by Bacon. With a workforce of 30, H & A began to turn out five-shot. Briggs, Bacon Manufacturing's owner, as well as Samuel Hopkins' brother Charles, and Charles H. Hopkins, charged with carrying out the sale of their company, found that the post-war recession made the sale of the firm as difficult as it had been to find buyers for Bacon firearms. Hopkins & Allen purchased the assets of the Bacon Manufacturing Company when that firm ceased operations in 1868, a victim of declining government arms purchases after the end of the Civil War. of Norwich, Connecticut, was a major manufacturer of rifles, shotguns, and inexpensive cartridge handguns between 18.