Читать книгу Gun Digest 2011 онлайн

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The receiver was fabricated from die-cast zinc, and it saved a lot of difficult machining from a forging or bar stock. This cost savings realized by the resulting elimination of many direct labor operations was tremendous. The construction of the barrel, however, did not save any direct labor. It was fabricated the same way all quality barrels have been made for many years. This became evident when the Model 49 demonstrated excellent accuracy over many thousands of rounds.

The western-styled wooden forend and stock were in keeping with their famous big brother, the Model 94 Winchester.

The overall appearance of this rifle and Ithaca’s low sales price of $21.95 was sensational. When the BJT prototype was first demonstrated to Sheldon and Charles Smith, they were extremely impressed with its appearance, performance, and low cost. They immediately opened negotiations with us to purchase the rifle.

Since this was the very first of many firearms which were designed to and built for outside production, instead of asking for a royalty we negotiated for a lump sum cash payment to cover our expenses for the designing and fabricating the prototype plus a nominal profit. Ithaca accepted this approach and Bellmore Johnson and I agreed to split the profit equally. This was virtually the end of our connection with Ithaca and we observed the initial activity and the successful introduction of the Ithaca Model 49 BJT-designed rifle.