At the end of the nineteenth century, the vernier sights then in use worked by day but not in poor light. William Lyman, a hunter and inventor, patented one with a small disc and a large ring: the rim becomes almost invisible and the eye finds the target sooner. The Lyman Gun Sight Company grew from that patent, and the tang and receiver sights the company still sells work on the same principle.

The move into reloading came in 1925, when the family bought Ideal products and with them the Ideal handbooks. They are the ancestors of today’s Lyman manuals, now in their 51st edition, which remain the only manuals to publish data using bullets, powders and primers from several brands in the same table rather than only their own.

In 1970 the Leisure Group bought the company; at the time it also owned High Standard, Ben Pearson Archery and Sierra Bullets —another brand we distribute—. It did not last long: in 1978, on the eve of the centenary, James F. “Mace” Thompson returned it to private ownership.

What came afterwards is now found on any Spanish reloading bench: the vibratory Turbo Tumbler of the early eighties, which changed the way cases were cleaned; the ultrasonic line; and the rotary Cyclone of 2016. The company remains at 475 Smith Street in Middletown, Connecticut, together with Pachmayr, TacStar, A-Zoom, Trius, Butch’s and Targ-Dots.