Olympic Arms, Inc. was a manufacturer and marketer of

AR-15 An AR-15-style rifle is any lightweight semi-automatic rifle based on the Colt AR-15 design. The original ArmaLite AR-15 is a scaled-down derivative of Eugene Stoner's ArmaLite AR-10 design. The then Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation d ...

and M16 pattern rifles, carbines and pistols. The company manufactured

Colt 1911 The M1911 (Colt 1911 or Colt Government) is a single-action, recoil-operated, semi-automatic pistol chambered for the .45 ACP cartridge. The pistol's formal U.S. military designation as of 1940 was ''Automatic Pistol, Caliber .45, M1911'' for th ...

(M1911) series 70 style pistols under the name "Safari Arms" and the "Whitney" 22 caliber pistol.

History

Olympic Arms, Inc. was founded by Robert C. Schuetz and began as Schuetzen Gun Works (SGW) in 1956, manufacturing

barrels A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, u ...

Colorado Springs, Colorado Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

. Prior to that Mr. Schuetz had been partnered in business with well-known gunsmith P.O. Ackley. In 1975 the company moved to

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region. European ...

, and while its business in rifle barrels and barrel blanks thrived, it also began manufacturing complete custom bolt-action rifles. In 1982, Schuetzen Gun Works began to manufacture AR-15/M16 rifles and components under the trade name of Olympic Arms, Inc, while custom bolt-action rifles continued to be produced under the SGW brand. Olympic was the first to introduce features now seen as commonplace on AR-15 rifles. It was one of the first companies to produce free floating aluminum hand guards, pistol caliber conversions, and AR-15-based pistols. Olympic manufactured many AR-15s in calibers other than the standard 5.56×45mm. Olympic was the first in the industry to offer AR-15-style firearms in 9×19mm and

.45 ACP The .45 ACP ( Automatic Colt Pistol) or .45 Auto (11.43×23mm) is a rimless straight-walled handgun cartridge designed by John Moses Browning in 1904, for use in his prototype Colt semi-automatic pistol. After successful military trials, it ...

10mm Auto The 10mm Auto (10×25mm, official C.I.P. nomenclature: 10 mm Auto, official SAAMI nomenclature: 10mm Automatic) is a semi-automatic pistol cartridge introduced in 1983. Its design was adopted and later produced by ammunition manufacturer ...

7.62×39mm The 7.62×39mm (aka 7.62 Soviet, formerly .30 Russian Short) round is a rimless bottlenecked intermediate cartridge of Soviet origin. The cartridge is widely used due to the worldwide proliferation of Russian SKS and AK-47 pattern rifles, as ...

, and the Winchester Super Short Magnum cartridges. In late 1987, the company purchased Phoenix, Arizona-based M-S Safari Arms, adding the

M1911 pistol The M1911 (Colt 1911 or Colt Government) is a single-action, recoil-operated, semi-automatic pistol chambered for the .45 ACP cartridge. The pistol's formal U.S. military designation as of 1940 was ''Automatic Pistol, Caliber .45, M1911'' for th ...

to its lineup under the name Safari Arms. By January 2004, all 1911-style products were manufactured in the Olympic Arms facility in Olympia. In 2002, Olympic Arms revived the 1955

Whitney Wolverine The Whitney Wolverine is a semi-automatic .22 LR caliber pistol created in 1956. Notable for its advanced, "space-aged" looks and then-new aluminum construction, it has a 10-round magazine, a barrel long and a weight of only . History The Wolve ...

pistol for the

.22 Long Rifle The .22 Long Rifle or simply .22 LR or 22 (metric designation: 5.6×15mmR) is a long-established variety of .22 caliber rimfire ammunition originating from the United States. It is used in a wide range of rifles, pistols, revolvers, smo ...

cartridge, with a black polymer frame instead of the original Whitney's blue-finished aluminum alloy frame. In February 2013, Olympic Arms announced that the company would no longer sell its products to New York law enforcement officers or agencies, following the state's passage of an assault weapons ban. “After more than 40 years of business, it is with great sorrow that we announce that February 28th, 2017 will be the last day of operation for Olympic Arms, Inc,” noted the company on social media, January 26, 2017. Despite that announcement, they continued to sell parts and fill orders in a limited capacity until 2020, when they finally ceased all operations.

References

External links

Olympic Arms Official Web Site

Olympic Arms Owners Association
Firearm manufacturers of the United States Companies based in Colorado Springs, Colorado Companies based in Olympia, Washington Privately held companies based in Colorado {{US-manufacturing-company-stub