SSK Industries, Inc. is an American designer and manufacturer of firearms and accessories in Wintersville, Ohio. Founded in 1977, the company is known for its custom Contender and Encore barrels.[1]

SSK Industries
IndustryArms industry
Founded1977; 47 years ago (1977)
FounderJ. D. Jones
ProductsFirearms, ammunition
Websitehttps://www.sskfirearms.com

Started by hunter and gun enthusiast J. D. Jones, SSK Industries began by manufacturing and marketing specific products related to hunting handguns[2] and ammunition. It has grown to a company that makes hundreds of different types of rounds.[3]

Lehigh Defense acquired SSK Industries in 2019, re-branding it SSK Firearms.[4]

Notable products edit

SSK produced the largest center-fire rifle in history, the .950 JDJ. It is a .950 caliber which produces recoil equivalent to shooting ten .30-06 rifles at the same time.[5] SSK manufactured three of these rifles, and no longer produces the ammunition.[6][7]

The Whisper family of firearm cartridges were developed in the early 1990s as a line of accurate, multi-purpose cartridges using relatively heavy rifle bullets for a given caliber in subsonic loads.[8][4] The intention was to create an extremely accurate cartridge family for military, police, competition and specialized hunting markets that could also be easily sound-suppressed. While initially a group of wildcat cartridges, many of them now have SAAMI and C.I.P. specifications.

References edit

  1. ^ "Exclusive: Popular .338′s In Handguns". American Handgunner. April 2012.
  2. ^ "About Page". SSK Industries.
  3. ^ Fryxell, Glen E. "The Bullets of SSK". Sixguns.com. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
  4. ^ a b Guy J. Sagi (20 August 2022). "SSK Firearms: A Pioneer In Cartridge & Arms Design". American Rifleman. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  5. ^ James Clark (2016-10-28). "This 950-Caliber Rifle Kicks Like A Beast". Task and Purpose. Retrieved 2020-11-22.
  6. ^ Barnes, Frank C. (19 December 2014). Cartridges of the World: A Complete and Illustrated Reference for Over 1500 Cartridges (14th ed.). Iola, Wisconsin: F+W Media, Inc. p. 416. ISBN 978-1-4402-4265-6.
  7. ^ Rottman, Gordon L. (2013). The Big Book of Gun Trivia: Everything you want to know, don't want to know, and don't know you need to know. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 288. ISBN 978-1-78200-950-4.
  8. ^ "Loading the .300 Whisper". American Rifleman. May 11, 2009. Archived from the original on August 4, 2021.