It does seem that at one time the company believed its start was in 1883, as they numbered their 1933 retail catalogues No. 50 and their 1934 retail catalogues No. 51. Then they dropped back to thinking their founding was 1880, probably for the two W.H. Baker patents, No. 228,020 granted May 25, 1880, and No. 228,165 granted June 1, 1880, which applied to their first guns. They stuck with that wrong date --