"I researched Hunter Arms and their Crown Steel barrels in conjunction with a DGJ article I did several years ago on the Pigeon Grade Smith gun; and in the process received a copy of an old sporting goods ad dated August, 1894 from Researcher. According to that ad, the Hunter Arms Company was promoting their trademarked "new Crown Steel" barrels in conjunction with their "new Pigeon gun". People mistakenly believe that both the Smith Pigeon Grade gun and Crown Steel barrels were not introduced until 1895 because that is the first year these items were cataloged; but from this early ad we know that Hunter was already promoting both at least as early as August, 1894. Perhaps Researcher will post a photo of this early ad."
Catalogs are great at giving an idea when an item is first put out to the public. The thing that makes it tough, especially for Hunter Arms Co. catalogs, is that no one knows at what time of the year the catalog was put out. Very few have any date on them. Take the 1928-1938 catalog, the only way you know at what time frame it is from, is if you know when a particular gun was first introduced, to date that catalog.
You would think it would be in the begining of that year, and if the case, then most of their advertising in introducing a new grade would be from the 3rd or 4th quarter of the previous year, but I don't think it worked out that way. Kind of like the autos now, 2011's are already out for some.
