The Grant Hammond Automatic Pistol
by Ed Buffaloe

Grant Hammond was a chemist, engineer, and inventor who was born in San Francisco on 14 August 1868.  Apparently Hammond worked for Winchester during the same period of time as Gus Swebelius, who later purchased the Hartford Arms and Equipment Company and renamed it High Standard.  In 1917 and 1918, Grant Hammond was at least part owner of the Grant Hammond Manufacturing Company, which was engaged in the production of parts for the Liberty aircraft engine in New Haven, Connecticut.  We can probably interpolate here that since everyone involved in U.S. manufacture at the time was getting government contracts, Hammond was actively seeking a government contract to manufacture his pistol design.  He was already manufacturing parts under what was almost certainly a government contract or subcontract.  Historical evidence we have available are the remaining prototype pistols (said to number no more than 18), a number of U.S. patents, and various records of the U.S. Ordnance Department.

I probably haven’t located all of Hammond’s patents, but I have found enough to know that he was actively working on various firearm designs between 1912 and 1919.  On 25 October 1912 he filed a patent application for a gas operated blow-forward pistol, and on 16 July 1913 he filed another application on what appear to be improvements to the same design and a third patent on a magazine catch and release.  These patents were all granted on 4 May 1915, and this is the patent date that appears on most of the Hammond pistols.

Patent Drawing of Grant Hammond Gas Operated Blow-Forward Pistol

But during the same period, Hammond was also developing another pistol design for the .45 ACP cartridge that was somewhat less complex, but retained the fixed barrel concept with a reciprocating bolt (albeit one that did not lock by rotating) and a self-ejecting magazine.  This is the pistol he sought to obtain a military contract for, and of which there are a dozen or so known prototypes.  The breech was locked by a single plunger on the underside of the bolt which interfaced with a lug on the frame just behind the magazine.  The bolt is retracted by two checkered extensions on its rear face.  The gun has something analogous to a slide, which R.K. Wilson refers to as a barrel extension, which does not have nearly the range of motion of a true slide,

Grant Hammond .45, S/N 13

and which is held in its forward position by a short return spring just above the trigger guard.  When the gun is fired, this barrel extension recoils for a short distance with the bolt.  During this short recoil, the bullet leaves the barrel.  As the bolt moves rearward, the locking plunger in the bolt is forced upward, unlocking the action and allowing the bolt to move all the way to the rear, ejecting the spent cartridge, cocking the hammer, and chambering the next round as it moves forward again.  When the last round has been fired the breech stop inside the barrel extension is actuated by the lip of the magazine, holding the action open, while a lever mechanism on the left side of the grip releases the magazine.  Wilson indicates that the magazine release mechanism “...is ingenius, although complicated and somewhat frail.”  The gun held 8 rounds.  It was said to feel very good in the hand and to point well.

Sometime in 1917 Grant Hammond Manufacturing contacted the Chief of Ordnance to request a test of their new pistol, which they claimed was superior to the Colt Model 1911.  Major J. T. Kenyon, Chief Inspector of Small Arms, detailed Major Charles F. Armstrong, Assistant Chief Inspector of Small Arms at the Winchester plant, to visit the Grant Hammond facility and report on the pistol.  Major Armstrong fired a full 8 round magazine, offhand, from the Hammond and shot out the center of a target.  He declared in his report, dated 13 November 1917, “I believe it to be the most accurate automatic pistol I have ever seen.”  He noted problems with the bolt stop and the magazine, but recommended that the pistol undergo further testing.  We presume that the Hammond company made some improvements to the pistol, and Major Armstrong and three other U.S. Army representatives test fired the gun again on 8 December 1917 at the Hammond facility.  They fired a total of 252 rounds and experienced 11 malfunctions, all of which were attributed to faulty magazines.  Again, they recommended further testing.

Detail from Grant Hammond Patent Drawing showing a design similar to his .45.  This is from the patent for the magazine catch and release.

The Grant Hammond .45 showed great promise because of its accuracy, but important parts broke on a regular basis, including the locking cam, the locking bolt plunger, and the firing pin, and the gun experienced regular failures to lock, feed, and eject.  The magazine was temperamental as well.  It remained an experimental gun and never attained the reliability of a true production weapon. 

There are two known examples of a High Standard .45 automatic pistol prototype that are quite similar to one of the last of the Grant Hammond prototypes.  It is probable that Hammond took the design to his friend Gus Swebelius in the hope that he could turn it into a viable commercial product.  One gun, pictured in Petty’s book, is believed to have a barrel and barrel extension adapted from original Grant Hammond parts.  The gun is unmarked.  The other gun, pictured in Meadows’ book, is marked “MADE BY THE HIGH STANDARD MFG. CO. / NEW HAVEN, CONN. / UNITED STATES OF AMERICA / .45 CAL. / PAT. PENDING”.  Apparently, High Standard was unable to work out the bugs in the gun, as it was never manufactured commercially.

Copyright 2008 by Ed Buffaloe.  All rights reserved.
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