Charles Daly firearms

Charles Daly is a brand of firearms licensed to Chiappa Firearms located in Italy. It used to be a firearms manufacturer and importer, located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in the United States.

Charles Daly
TypePrivately held company
IndustryFirearms
FateAcquired
SuccessorHenry Modell
FoundedNew York City, US (1875 (1875))
Defunct1919
Headquarters
US
Key people
Charles Daly Founder, August Shoverling co-Founder, Joseph Gales Partner

History

Charles Daly was born in New York City on October 12, 1839. In the late nineteenth century, around 1875, in New York City, Charles Daly and August Shoverling began a business importing firearms into the United States, primarily from the city of Suhl in what was then Prussia.[1] Manufacturers for Daly at that time included Heym, Shiller, H. A. Lindner, Sauer, J&W Tolley of England, Newman (of Belgium) and Lefever Arms.[2]

Charles Daly combination gun advertisement (1887)

In 1887 Shoverling and Daly were joined by a third partner named Joseph Gales, and the company began doing business as Shoverling, Daly and Gales, before settling simply on the name Charles Daly.[3] The original Charles Daly died suddenly in 1899, but the business continued with his son, Charles Howard Daly, taking his place until 1919, when the partnership was sold to Henry Modell.

The new owners continued the tradition of importing firearms and marketing them with the Charles Daly name until the late 1920s, when the company was sold to the Walzer family, which owned Sloan's Sporting Goods in Ridgefield, Connecticut. The Walzers established a branch of Sloan's in New York City known as Charles Daly & Company. Manufacturers from all over the world produced Daly guns for the Walzers, including Beretta, Bernadelli and Miroku.

In 1976, Sloan's sold the Charles Daly trademark to Outdoor Sports Headquarters Inc. (OSHI), a sporting goods wholesaler in Dayton, Ohio. In 1996, OSHI was itself sold to another firearm wholesaler, Jerry's Sport Center in Forest City, Pennsylvania.

In 1996 the brand was acquired by KBI, Inc. of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which expanded the import line to include semi-auto and pump-action shotguns and 1911-style pistols and re-christened the company as Charles Daly, The Shooting Sports Specialist.[1]

In 2008, KBI formed a new division of the company named Charles Daly Defense to manufacture and market the hugely popular AR-15 type semi-automatic carbines and rifles for law enforcement, target shooting and home defense. In a departure from the tradition of selling only imported firearms, Charles Daly Defense AR-15s were manufactured in the United States.

A letter from Michael Kassnar posted on the Charles Daly Website on January 29, 2010 indicated that Charles Daly and KBI were going out of business and closing their doors effective January 29, 2010.

At the SHOT Show held in Las Vegas in January 2012, Charles Daly and CD Defense announced their return to the US market with distribution by Trans World Arms LLC of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

During 2017 the Charles Daly trademark was acquired by Chiappa Firearms of Italy.

Sale of trademark

In September 2012, Samco Global Arms, Inc. (SGAI) located in Miami, Florida, acquired the Charles Daly trademark and is importing firearms under the Charles Daly brand for the US market.

Firearms imported and manufactured

The firearms they import and manufacture are of all varieties and styles from all over the world:

  • Handguns: 1911 steel-framed pistols, from 1998 until 2008 from Armscor in the Philippines. Beginning in 2009, the new G4 model is being produced by BUL Transmark in Israel. M-5 polymer-framed 1911 pistols from BUL Transmark since 1997. A clone of the Browning Hi-Power was produced in the US from 2002 to 2006 with components from FEG in Hungary and final manufacturing by either Dan Wesson Firearms or Magnum Research in the US. 1873 style single action revolvers were manufactured by F.LLI Pietta of Italy in the mid-2000s.
  • While not technically under the Charles Daly brand, KBI resumed importing the Jericho 941 Pistols from Israel Weapons Industries (IWI) Ltd. in 2009.
  • Rifles: Bolt action Mauser and Mini-Mauser rifles were produced by Zastava Arms in Serbia from 2002 until 2005. 1892 lever action rifles are produced in Italy by Armi Sport de Chiappa. In 2008 they entered the AR-15 market with a US produced line of AR-15 type rifles and carbines under the Charles Daly Defense brand.
  • Shotguns: Over and under, side by side, pump action, and semi-automatics are currently produced in Turkey. All of the pumps and semi-autos are made by Akkar in Istanbul, but Sarsilmaz and ATA also produced semi-autos for Daly during the mid-2000s. SGAI is importing over and under, pump action, and semi-automatics made by Akkar factory in Istanbul, Turkey. Between 1996 and 2005, side by sides came from Zabala Hermanos in Spain and over & unders came from Sabatti in Italy. From the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, Miroku of Japan, the producer of Browning shotguns and rifles, manufactured the over & under shotguns for Daly.

Notes and references
  1. Sapp, Rick (20 October 2009). Gun Digest Book of Trap & Skeet Shooting. Iola, WI: Gun Digest Books. pp. 89–90. ISBN 1-4402-2432-3.
  2. Lee, Jerry (2013). 2014 Standard Catalog of Firearms: The Collector's Price & Reference Guide. Iola, WI: Krause Publications. pp. 362–364. ISBN 978-1-4402-3716-4.
  3. Campbell, A. J. (June 2002). Classic and Antique Fly-Fishing Tackle: A Guide for Collectors and Anglers. Globe Pequot Press. p. 251. ISBN 978-1-58574-485-5.

Additional information updated on September 16, 2013 by Ghulam Jilani Dossul, President of SGAI, importer of Charles Daly Firearms.

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