Читать книгу Gun Digest 2011 онлайн

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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!