LeverGunner wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2024 10:41 am
Thank you very much for sharing that. I just did a little bit of searching about him. I knew that L.L. Hepburn designed the Model 1894, but I didn't know of all his other designs. Do you know if there is a book that covers all of his developments?
There is no one source for Hepburn information, and it takes looking at a couple books to get history on this great firearms inventor. He spent most of his working career designing first for Remington, and later for Marlin after Remington's bankruptcy.
His first recorded work in 1850 was as a blacksmith in Colton, NY, and by 1855 he did gunsmithing work from home also. He was 25 at that time and by the early 1870's he went to work at Remington. He was shop superintendent and chief designer for Remington from early on until their bankruptcy around 1887.
During bankruptcy he was hired by John M. Marlin in 1888 to help design the new Marlin lever action rifles. He had little or no input on the Model 1888, but the first side eject breech design of the Model 1889 was all Hepburn's work. After the 1889 he designed the side loading, side eject Model 1891 Marlin .22/.32 and every other side eject Marlin rifle up until his accident in January1910 when he had a horrible slip and fall while walking to work at Marlin. He suffered from the injuries for almost 4 years until his death in August 31, 1914 from those injuries.
Hepburn doesn't get the recognition some others have gotten, but of all his patents he designed a larger percentage were actually put into production than almost any gun designer ever. He seemed to have a knack for not just coming up with ideas, but ideas that worked well.
In addition to his design skills, he was also an excellent shooter and was on the first 1874 Creedmoor Match team that beat the Irish for the world long range championship. Hepburn oversaw and helped build all the Remington rifles used in the 1874 matches, and designed the guns Remington shooters used.
