WLM | business
Dick left high school at the age of
16, but his years there were full of
important events. It was during this
time that he met a lovely young lady
that rocked his world, Jeri. It was
love at first sight. It was also during
this time that Dick designed and built
a sleek .22 Single Action Revolver.
Salt Lake City, where Dick took a
job at Hunter’s Sporting Goods as
a salesperson in firearms. There he
met Jack Fulmer, their gunsmith,
and they became partners in gun
design. Fulmer designed a Jet rifle
and Dick designed and built the
prototype, all new .454 in 1957.
Shortly after leaving school, Dick
returned to his father’s automotive
shop, where he became friends with
Kerm Esckelsen, a body and fender
man who would teach Dick the
trade and come into his life again
later on. “Doing guns on the side
kept me going,” Dick explains.
Dick also ventured into a whole
different direction and took up
flying, purchasing a 180 Cessna
airplane. To support his new
endeavor he became a student in
aircraft mechanics and worked for
Alta Air Park, where he met up once
again with Kerm Esckelsen from
his dad’s automotive shop. Destiny
seemed to be guiding him back to
firearms. Dick had designed the .290
semi-automatic rifle and Esckelsen
was very impressed with it. They
formed a company called Western
Dick and Jeri married in 1951,
when Dick was 20, Jeri 19. They
decided to “go west” and moved
to California for a year. Longing
to be back home, they returned to
“Precision accuracy, extreme knockdown
power, and surprising shootability are
just some of the reasons why the .454
Casull is one of our all-time great biggame cartridges.”
–Layne Simpson,
Shooting Times, 2009
16
Wyoming Lifestyle Magazine | Spring 2015
State Arms in 1965, building
approximately 80 guns – quite a find
now due to their rarity. After a short
time they sold to Rocky Mountain
Arms and Dick transferred there.
“I had a small .22 short mini-gun
already designed,” Dick explained.
“{I} had built a proto mold of the
little gun. We built a number of guns
and it looked promising.” After a
short while the company fell on hard
times and had to be closed.
While at Rocky Mountain Arms
Dick met Wayne Baker. “Wayne
came to me and said he’d like to
continue a company in Wyoming,
so we formed a partnership.”
The company was named after its
hometown of Freedom, Wyoming –
and in 1975, Freedom Arms
was born.
As mentioned previously, Dick
had been at work on his .454
prototype since 1957. In 1976,
Dick had completed the prototype
for the now-famous .454 Casull,
but the company believed it to be
too difficult to produce without
unskilled helped. This directed
Freedom Arms to begin production
in 1978 with a .22 mini-revolver. It
was the world’s smallest handgun
at the time and could fit in the
palm of the hand – great for the
ladies. After sales topping 100,000
firearms, the mini-revolver was
discontinued in 1988.
Freedom Arms picked up the .454
Casull in the early 1980s. The first
production .454 Casull five-shot
revolver was built in 1983, naming
it aptly Model 83. Quickly
becoming known as the finest
revolver of its kind (our editor’s
father happens to own one!),
the gun is still available through
Freedom Arms. The world’s most
powerful revolver, 2.25 times the