Smith & Wesson Smith & Wesson Smith & Wesson (S&W) is an American manufacturer of firearms, ammunition and restraints. The corporate headquarters are in Springfield, Massachusetts. Smith & Wesson was founded in 1852 and after various corporate changes is now a unit of American Outdoor Brands Corporation. Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson founded the Smith & Wesson Company in Norwich, Connecticut in 1852 to develop the Volcanic rifle. Smith developed a new Volcanic Cartridge, which he patented in 1854. The Smith & Wesson Company was renamed Volcanic Repeating Arms in 1855, and was purchased by Oliver Winchester. Smith left the company and
Smith & Wesson Model 2 Model". In 1880, Smith & Wesson offered the Model 2 in a double-action format, whereby a single squeeze of the trigger both cocked the hammer and fired the revolver. These revolvers are easily recognizable by their fully enclosed trigger guard. The first such revolvers made by Smith & Wesson. These revolvers were available in nickel or blued finishes and a smaller version was offered in .32 Smith & Wesson. The Model 2 in .32 S&W was made in 5 iterations. The initial version was a batch of 30 revolvers that were the first of such made by Smith & Wesson