Firearms

Whitney Wolverine · Deep Dive

Whitney Wolverine

The ray-gun look was not styling laid over a pistol: in 1956 the makers said their one-piece aluminium casting made shapes ‘hitherto impossible with practical machining’ — and the fixed barrel inside it is why there is no slide at all.

Robert Hillberg's 1956 aluminium-framed .22 — the ‘space age’ pistol — from the aircraft-armament career behind it and the contract that sank it, through the mechanism, serials, finishes and upkeep, to the Olympic Arms polymer reissue and its collecting and pop-culture life.

Photo: Presentation Wolverine Whitney Firearms Inc. pistol with box by Rock Island Auction Company

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    Volumes

    1. Vol 1 Robert Hillberg — From Aircraft Gun Decks to a .22 The designer of the Whitney pistol, what twenty years of aircraft armament and High Standard taught him, and the insurgency guns that came after
    2. Vol 2 The Company — Hillson, Whitney, Galef, Lowe, and the End How a machine shop financed a pistol factory on one distributor's letter, why a well-reviewed pistol lost money on every sale, and what the Eli Whitney name did and did not mean
    3. Vol 3 Serial Numbers, Markings, Finishes and the Rare Ones The presentation series, the five-digit production numbers and what they can and cannot prove, the factory bright finish against the professional polish, and the target pistol that never shipped
    4. Vol 4 The Look — A Casting, a Jet Fuselage, and 'Modern as Tomorrow' Why the Whitney looks the way it does, argued from how it was made: the cast aluminium envelope, the fixed barrel, the 1956 company's own case for styling, and where the pistol sits among streamline moderne, the jet age and Googie
    5. Vol 5 How It Works — A Fixed Barrel, a Sleeve, and a Magazine That Guides the Bullet The full cycle of operation part by part, from the patent, the 1956 description and the maker's parts lists: why the recoil ends up squeezing the frame, how one spring does two jobs, and the disconnector the sleeve works
    6. Vol 6 Field Strip, Detail Strip, Maintenance and Repair The takedown in the maker's words, what an original differs in, the two parts that escape, the magazine that must not be oiled, and where parts come from for a pistol whose makers are gone
    7. Vol 7 The Olympic Arms Reissue — Polymer, 2004 to 2017 Robert Schuetz's revival: what Schuetzen Gun Works, Olympic Arms and Schuetzen Pistol Works were, what changed from the original and why, how the two are told apart, and why it ended
    8. Vol 8 Collecting, the Law, and the Ray Gun in Popular Culture Every dated auction result located, what drives the top of the market, C&R status and Michigan, a buyer's checklist, the Star Wars claim tested, and the pistol's kindred designs