26 American Shooting Journal // August 2019
heritage, its state legislators are
predominantly, and increasingly,
anti-gun. In 2014 this led Mossberg
to decide against expanding their
operations there and instead shifted
the majority of their manufacturing
facilities to gun-friendly Texas. Now
only a small percentage of their
manufacturing (less than 10 percent)
and their administrative offices remain
in Connecticut.LIKE A GREAT GOLDEN Age comic book
superhero, O.F. Mossberg & Sons has
an amazing origin story that begins
with its founder, Oscar Frederick
Mossberg. Born in Sweden in a small
village in 1866, he showed exceptional
mechanical aptitude while still a boy
and learned the boilermakers trade.
Emigrating to America in 1886 in
search of a better life, he saw the
Statue of Liberty as his steamship
sailed through New York harbor and
then waited in line in the great hall at
Ellis Island alongside the hundreds
of other foreign-born men, women
and children seeking entry to the
land of opportunity. When his turn
came before the uniformed customs
inspector, the 20-year-old answered
his questions satisfactorily and looked
healthy enough to be granted entrance.
Mossberg sought work among
his fellow Swedes and soon settled
in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. The
year 1892 was a major milestone for
him. In that year he got married and
began working at Iver Johnson Arms
and Cycle Works – making not guns
but bicycles! The 26-year-
old’s natural engineering
talents were quickly noted
and he soon became
heavily involved in design
work that culminated in
numerous patents that
made Iver Johnson’s modestly
priced, top-break pocket revolvers
wildly successful. His contributions,
though not always under his name,
were important and many sources
credit him with the development of
the “Hammer the Hammer” safety
system, which was a major marketing
feature of Iver Johnson revolvers at a
time when most revolvers could be
expected to discharge if dropped.Mossberg was allowed to work
on his own inventions in the factory
after hours and by the time he left
Iver Johnson in 1900, he already held
several patents in his own name. He
was a hard-working man of known
talent and imagination. As a father of
three, he worked for a series of New
England-based firearms makers,
where he continued to invent and
patent. He worked for C.S. Shattuck
Arms Company from 1900 to 1902,
J. Stevens Arms & Tool Company
until 1916, and then for the Marlin-
Rockwell Corporation until 1919.
At Marlin-Rockwell, Mossberg was
deeply involved with machinegun
production for U.S. Army contractsand designed the synchronization
mechanisms that allowed the guns
to fire between the blades of an
aircraft’s spinning propeller. After
the armistice, the company began
to rapidly downsize and at 53 years
old, he knew it was time for the
Mossbergs to be in business for
themselves. Stretching the family
resources to the limit, the partnership
of O.F. Mossberg & Sons was formed
while Oscar and his oldest son Iver
still worked at Marlin-Rockwell.
The new partnership’s first
product was not a shotgun as you
might guess, but the Brownie pocket
pistol, designed and patented by
Oscar. It was an extremely well-made,
four-barreled .22-caliber double
action with lines that were quite
advanced for the time. Around
37,000 guns were made from
1920 to 1932. During that time,
Mossberg conservatively made
progressive improvements to
their production facilities as the
availability of capital from stock sold to
friends and family permitted. Increased
efficiency reduced production costs
and allowed them to make the Brownie
more affordable by reducing its retail
price nearly 50 percent.
Historians Victor and Cheryl
Havlin recount in their book
Mossberg: More Gun for the Money:
The History of O.F. Mossberg & Sons,
Inc., how hard the early days of theThe Brownie pistol“A hard-working man
of known talent and
imagination,” Swedish
immigrant Mossberg held
numerous patents as he
refined his gunmaking
skills, first for other
companies, then his own.