OT - DOC HUDSON, M&H is taking orders!

[Hobie]

http://www.merwinhulbertco.com/order.ph ... ertFireArm

[J Miller]

You know one of those with a 5" barrel in .45 Colt would be just the ticket.
I got the 20% down, but getting the other 80% would be the hard part.

Those are just cool looking six guns.

Joe

[Hobie]

I priced a tricked out two barrel, two-cylinder (.44 Special/.44-40 and 4" and 7½" barrels) at $1650. I could do the 20% but not sure how Mrs. Hobie would feel if she had to pay off the remaining $1320 OR if it came to light that the company folded and I lost $330! They ARE neat guns. Doc is a fan, I hope he sees this.

[Doc Hudson]

IIRC, back in 1999, or maybe 2000, Doc O'Meara told me that his sources told him that someone would be returning the Merwin Hulbert line to the market within 18 months to two years. In the ensuing eight or nine years, I've heard similar statements several times.

Yes I lust after a two barrel set, though I'd prefer a 3.5" barrel over a $". But given the track record of folks promising to reproduce M-H revolvers, I ain't ponying up any cash until is lies in my hot little hand.

I hope they actually get on the market this time.

[KCSO]

I was lucky enough to get to shoot an original M and H in 90% or better condition, after I rebuilt a latch for it. The gun was a 44-40 and I found out quickly why they never achieved a great deal of popularity.
They were too finely made, by Hopkins and Allen if I remember right. The gun when opened would build up a vacuum and suck itself closed. The cylinder gap was 6 thousands and the headspace was also very tight. The gun was a dream to shoot with SMOKLESS powder, but with black powder 8 shots hand you could barely turn the cylinder. The gun was made in the B/P era and was too well fitted for the only ammo available at the time. I shot about 100 rounds of smokless and a full box of B/P and IF the M and H could have been offered with smokless from the start it would have beat S and W all hollow.

[rjohns94]

Wow they are cool. Learn so much here. I would love one in 38/357, two barrel set.

[Doc Hudson]

Is it just me, or does anyone else have concerns a out the M-H being chambered for .357 Magnum or .45 Long Colt? Seems like Magnum pressures and "OHMIGOD" .45 LC loads might be more than the 130-year-old design can stand.

[Jeff Quinn]

Remember Dornaus & Dixon?
Remember the more recent leather holster rig deal?

I would not pay anyone up front a deposit on a product that has yet to be produced

[J Miller]

Is it just me, or does anyone else have concerns a out the M-H being chambered for .357 Magnum or .45 Long Colt? Seems like Magnum pressures and "OHMIGOD" .45 LC loads might be more than the 130-year-old design can stand.

Doc,
I agree with you about the magnum pressures, but I'm not concerned about the +P .45 Colt loads. The Colt SAA and it's copies are an older design and they do just fine. Not everybody is numb skull enough to shoot those heavy loads through guns not designed for it. And those that are, we'll they are no different than numb skulls of years past that have KABOOMED every other type of revolver.

Remember Dornaus & Dixon?
Remember the more recent leather holster rig deal?

I would not pay anyone up front a deposit on a product that has yet to be produced

Jeff,
Although I mentioned above I had the 20%, I would never put it down on an unknown. As a matter of fact I don't buy guns I can't touch and examine before hand.
We are in agreement on this one.

Joe

[Hobie]

Remember Dornaus & Dixon?
Remember the more recent leather holster rig deal?

I would not pay anyone up front a deposit on a product that has yet to be produced

Dittos!

[kimwcook]

Remember Dornaus & Dixon?
Remember the more recent leather holster rig deal?

I would not pay anyone up front a deposit on a product that has yet to be produced

Well, there ya go. I'm in total agreement. Kind of sounds like a DeLorean deal to me. Although, he did produce some cars.

[JustaJeepGuy]

DeLorean did produce some cars, and Dornaus & Dixon did produce some guns. They even produced some magazines, from what I have read. The purchasers of the guns didn't necessarily receive magazines at the same time, if I remember correctly. I didn't hear about the "leather holster rig deal", though. What happened there?

[Jeff Quinn]

DeLorean did produce some cars, and Dornaus & Dixon did produce some guns. They even produced some magazines, from what I have read. The purchasers of the guns didn't necessarily receive magazines at the same time, if I remember correctly. I didn't hear about the "leather holster rig deal", though. What happened there?

I believe the man's name was Dave Duclos. He presold a bunch of leather rigs, and never delivered to many of the buyers.

If a company has to raise money to produce a firearm by taking deposits, something is wrong. They need the capital to make the guns.
If they are simply wanting to get a list to ship out, and are wanting commitments, they could take a credit card number, and charge the card when the gun ships. I have been a business man for many years, and am always running across contractors who cannot buy the materials to do a job, and are always looking to be paid up front. The real professionals, the ones who are in business for the long term, do not need their customers to finance the start up.

[MerwinHulbertCo]

Fair enough fellas.

I'm always happy to see discussions about the company. We had a few internal reasons for the deposit, but I'm happy to say we aren't counting on them as the funding source for our production. For those of you out there that don’t want to drop a 20% deposit, emails stating thoughts and intent to Sales@MerwinHulbertCo.com would be appreciated. I definitely understand the skepticism as I've heard about Merwin's coming from all sorts of sources and I've been personally told by the Italians that they are almost impossible to make. We are taking the approach of working with the folks in the industry that really do the design work for the major companies out there. Of particular interest, through our larger operation we are finishing up the project to help Savage bring back the 99 which should be at next years shot.

Happily we've had several folks come out of the blue with fixes, updates, etc. that should help us avoid issues like the Black Powder lock ups that have been reported here and most famously by Mike V, but not cause major issues with the look of the historic models. Speaking of historic models, yes, that does mean we have modern models on the way. One finally teaser here, after 3 years of extensive research we are pretty close to a good formula or two for real black powder, not that stuff out there these days. That too should help with the fouling as well as helping you actually get 40 grains into a 44-40 case without having to scrounge for questionable balloon head cases.

357 Mag in the open top will be thoroughly tested and we are considering out options there, S-7 steel being one of those. We have a few open tops that have had catastrophic failures. The barrels survive, the cylinders survive, but the center pin/rod fails at about the same point, where the cuts are deepest, every time we've seen along with the front lip of the frame bending. The top strap models don’t have any issues of this type. It is interesting to note, we’ve never seen a scalloped cylinder that has shown any signs of stress cracks, even on the blown revolvers we’ve examined.

Well folks, again, I appreciate all the discussion about the company, and I look forward to keeping in touch with all of you as things progress. I’m hoping to get these out as soon as possible as I’ve got Hollywood on me as well, so with the silver screen calling, over a 1000 buyers, 2 dozen dealers, and 3 exporters calling, we’ve got all the incentive to get going and get it done.

And Jeff, if I get one to you, think you could torture the hell out of it?


Mike

[Doc Hudson]

Mike,

No offense intended toward you or your company, but I've just heard "Merwin-Hulberts will be on tthe market within X months," too often over the last ten years, and I've seen too many young gun companies go belly up to trust a cash deposit to an unknown company.

Believe me, I really hope and pray that you folks will get all the bugs worked out and get M-H revolvers on the store shelves in appreciable numbers real soon. I've had a hankering for a shootable M_H revolver for decades and I hope y'all can help me scratch the itch.

May I suggest that y'all consider a two barrel set with a 3" barrel available as one option and the other being a choice between 5" and 7 1/2", or even better a Deluxe Five Barrel Cased Set with 7.5", 6.5", 5.5", 4.5" and 3" barrels in a fitted case.

Best of luck to you.

[Jeff Quinn]

Mike,
I will do whatever I can to promote your gun. I am anxious to see the gun finally reach production, and we are always willing to review good products. I know that some of the paper magazines will try to shake you down for a big ad to review your gun. We don't do that. We just like shooting, and you will get your gun back when promised, or a check. Keep me posted.

[MerwinHulbertCo]

Doc,

No worries, none taken. Our order system is pretty easy, if you want 15 different barrels with 3 different calibers, order it and we'll make it. Part of the beauty of the design is that we don't have to caliber the revolver until the order comes in the door. So you tell us what you want, we pull the right frame size, the cylinder(s) you need and the barrel(s) you request and out the door they go. Same will go for the new revolvers. Dealers will be provided with cut-a-way example, on loan from the company, so that we can be sure they always have a test gun on hand. Ideally we'd like to drive most of the orders to an on demand basis so that the customer gets what they want and the dealers don't have to tie up capital in inventory. When production is in full swing we should be able to get delivery down to less than 10 days and hopefully down to significantly less than that.


Jeff,

Sounds good, we'll get you a copy as soon as I've got one that passes muster.


Mike

[Hobie]

Thanks for posting here Mike.