For Kenneth Thompson, a New York toolmaker, the end of World War II marked the birth of his own company. From his Long Island garage, the entrepreneur began shipping molds and tooling for the investment-casting industry. His products proved as good as his business sense, and soon he was hiring. Ken Thompson must have been a good man to work for because some of his employees stayed a very long time. Two decades ago, while gathering background for my book, America's Great Gunmakers, I spoke with men who'd been with the firm 40 years.

By then the business had grown considerably. A big change occurred in 1963, when Thompson and crew moved the operation to Rochester, New Hampshire. The year previous, the company had grossed $180,000--not much by today's standards but enough to sustain a payroll of 25 in those days. The winter of '62-'63 was brutal in the Northeast, and frequent breakdowns plagued the move.

Rochester proved a fine place to reestablish. Its woolen mills and shoe factories were struggling at that time, so Thompson was able to get good workers at reasonable wages. But seasonal fluctuations in demand for investment-casting tools impeded efforts to keep the foundry humming. One solution was to design and sell a consumer product. Since Thompson's operation was already making gun parts, a firearm made sense.

In 1965 gun designer Warren Center joined the firm. Like Thompson, he'd worked as a machinist and die maker. He'd also built firearms for Iver Johnson and Harrington & Richardson. In his basement shop, Center had designed a single-shot pistol he called the Contender. He'd applied for patents and was looking for someone to manufacture the pistol when he met Ken Thompson. Teaming up on a pistol project meant doubling the size of Thompson's plant, to about 20,000 square feet. The two men forged ahead, and in 1967 the first Contender pistol came off the line.

The Contender could easily have failed. A single-shot, it targeted a narrow market and was by no measure the most aesthetically pleasing handgun. Nor was it cheap. But it had an ingenious barrel-switching mechanism, so one pistol could be fitted with several barrels by the owner. The Contender appealed to the sophisticated handgunner. Chamberings in rifle cartridges like the .30-30 and .35 Remington gave it the muscle for any North American game.

By 1970 Ken Thompson and Warren Center had formed Thompson/Center Arms and were hard at work on new gun designs. The Hawken muzzleloading rifle appeared first. State wildlife agencies were authorizing special seasons for "primitive weapons." Hunters eager for more time afield would ensure the Hawken's success. Other black-powder guns followed, including, in 1974, a Hawken kit. Adding 6,000, then 7,600, then 20,000 square feet of manufacturing space, T/C could barely stay abreast of orders. In 1982 the firm bought 15 acres for future plant expansion. The following year a centerfire rifle appeared, the TCR'83 single-shot. It and the subsequent TCR'87 featured interchangeable barrels like the Contender.

During the next 20 years Thompson/Center would distinguish itself as one of the most nimble and innovative American firearms companies. The Contender G2 and heavy-duty Encore, in pistol and carbine form, are hugely popular. While T/C resisted the move toward enclosed ignition on muzzleloaders (some states won't allow it for primitive weapons hunts), the company now catalogs both modern and traditional black-powder models. There's also a sleek autoloading .22 rifle and a line of muzzleloading accessories.