Hy Hunter Derringer .22WMR

[rosejm]

Friend acquired an heirloom from his father. Doesn't know much about it, and I know very little about derringers.
Seems to be a somewhat common platform/design with examples from multiple manufacturers (but how different can derringers be?)



Found some preliminary information:
Made in West Germany
Marked as a "Frontier Model Derringer" chambered in ".22 Magnum"

Not sure how old it is,
or how much it might be worth (seems to vary from $125-150 to $350-400 and we're not sure why)


What say you experts?

 

[Trebor657]

Hy Hunter was Haywood Hunter.
He had the Hy Hunter American Weapons Corp in Burbank, Ca.
That was renamed the Hy Hunter Firearms Mfg Co,

Hunter and the owner of Great Western (Wm Wilson) brain stormed the idea of making a SAA Colt clone revolver with hopes of high sales due to the renewed interest in Westerns in the US.

Something happened between the two, personal rift??,,but around '55 or '56, Hy Hunter was no longer a welcome figure at the Great Western Arms Co.
GW pulled their distributorship from Hy Hunter's co. and even printed in their ads and catalogs that they no longer had anything to do with the HH business or person.


HH started importing JP Sauer made S/A revolvers at that time to make up for the loss of the GW supply.
HH also sold many other imported firearms. Small semiauto pistols, cheap DA revolvers, derringers and some Milsurp, Even a copy of the Stevens single shot break open pistol but with an alloy frame.

HH was out of the business by the mid 60's.
It was then taken over and run by his Secretary named....Mary Hawes.
A familiar last name. The new imported SA revolvers were named 'Hawes'.
The GCA eventually forced the business under as the cheap handgun imports were banned as well as the Military Surplus in 1968.

HH was also said to be involved in some importation 'issues' (1950's) and at one point was called before Congress to testify about it. I don't know what ever if anything became of that.


I looked around and only found a couple like yours for sale...1 sold at $125 and the other for sale at $150....hope this helps

 

[MrSmitty]

Looks like a neat gun...choot it!

 

[sairax]

Friend acquired an heirloom from his father. Doesn't know much about it, and I know very little about derringers.
Seems to be a somewhat common platform/design with examples from multiple manufacturers (but how different can derringers be?)

View attachment 368613

Found some preliminary information:
Made in West Germany
Marked as a "Frontier Model Derringer" chambered in ".22 Magnum"

Not sure how old it is,
or how much it might be worth (seems to vary from $125-150 to $350-400 and we're not sure why)


What say you experts?

Hah! Beautiful, looks like a nice little Bible gun for grandma if she ever gets mugged... not that there is any city where that could happen out in IN