WTB: M16 mag marked "SPPI, Bellows Falls, VT"

My company (which has been bought, sold, merged, divested, etc. quite a few times since I've been there) used to be called Simmonds Precision Products Inc. (SPPI) and during the Vietnam war, they were contracted to make M16 mags out of their long closed Bellows Falls plant. I've known about the mags for years but just recently got the bug to try to find one for nostalgic reasons. I've never actually seen one, but the old timers who have since retired told me they were marked "SPPI, Bellows Falls, VT" but I don't know if that is exactly right or if they may have said "Simmonds Precision". Either way, it would be fun to find one.

Keep my eyes open for you, I come from western NH not far from Bellows Falls.
Still have some contacts around may get lucky. ps

Thanks ps.

I am now less certain that any are marked Bellows Falls - but that is what I recall from the old timers at the lunch table years ago.

A guy came up with one and sent a pic, and it is marked as being made in CT with this stamping:

SIMMONDS PREC. PROD. INC.
WEST HAVEN, CONN. U.S.A

I emailed a friend who has one and his also has the West Haven address.

I wasn't aware that we ever had a plant in CT. I knew about some long gone plants in NY.

Company was founded by a Brit, Geoffrey Simmonds, who came to VT to make airplane parts just prior to WWII. He saw the conflict in the 1930's and decided to be safe, he would get out of Europe and build his business here in the little town of Vergennes. He partnered with or bought out the Benton spark plug company.

When I started in 1986, the Bellows Falls plant was still operational, but I never had reason to go there. I think it was the first VT plant to close a few years later, followed by the one in Middlebury. There were 4 locations in Vergennes and slowly that got trimmed down to just one by the early 1990's. I think the Tarrytown, NY plants closed about the time when Hercules (of gunpowder fame) decided to sell off their aerospace assets to BFGoodrich (who was no longer making tires at that point) and those NY places may have been Hercules prior to buying us. The BFGoodrich tire name was sold off to a French company, I think Michelin, in 1985.

I recall seeing and using a number of Simmonds magazines both during and after my active duty career. I never paid any attention to where they were manufactured - only that they worked.

The three 20 round M16 magazines with alloy followers were Colt, Universal-Simmonds and Adventureline.

Unrelated to your original post, I am an Electrician and I worked on 3-4 phases of the additions in Vergennes, during 92-93, and if I remember correctly it had just become BFGoodrich at that time. I live in Central Vt and I have heard of a Ruger collector in that area and I assumed it was you after joining this site, I always enjoy seeing what you have available, I just never have the funds!

I will keep my eyes open for your mag.

Paul

I'm in Claremont, NH - not far from Bellows Falls VT. I'll ask around the local gun community and see if I can turn up anything.
Used to live in Middlebury, VT. If you are in the Vergennes area you are in a beautiful location. Did a lot of fishing and kayaking on Dead Creek, below Vergennes. Beautiful sunsets over the lake.

I looked through all my old metal mags, I had 1 Sanchez, 3 early Bushmaster and 2 original Colt

Blackmore said:

The three 20 round M16 magazines with alloy followers were Colt, Universal-Simmonds and Adventureline.

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I worked at Adventureline, Parsons,KS. Started running a machine that inserted a brass strip into an anodized steel clip, used to load 10 rounds into the 20 round mags. I was promoted to run the 100 ton press that stamped the mags out of anodized aluminum. The company had 3 M16's in the armory for testing the mags for QC! We also cast aluminum into grenades with BB's. Building burnt to the ground, was rebuilt and currently the name is DuCommun Aerospace. Overloadded

I have a few marked like this. Made in VT would be special to me as well, but I have never encountered any.

MikeJinVT said:

I have a few marked like this. Made in VT would be special to me as well, but I have never encountered any.

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The should be a UI logo on the spine of that magazine, IIRC.

PaulJ: yes, BFGoodrich bought Simmonds from Hercules in 1991 when Hercules decided to concentrate on flavorings and fragrances. Big change from gunpowder (sold to Alliant) and aerospace. Then they dropped the BF around 2000 in an attempt to distant their image as a tire company. Then United Technologies acquired Goodrich in 2012, I think it was. They had previously bought Hamilton Standard and Sundstrand, and combined them into Hamilton Sundstrand. Then they merged Goodrich with Hamilton to form UTC Aerospace Systems. They sold off Sikorsky a couple years later. Then most recently, they spun off Otis Elevator and Carrier Air Conditioner and simultaneously merged with Raytheon and so now we are a tiny little part of Raytheon Technologies. But we are still legally SPPI.

Hastings: yes, I work in Vergennes (or did, back when I used to go to the office, pre-COVID) and live about halfway between Vergennes and Middlebury. Not far from Dead Creek. If I need groceries and am starting from home, I go to the bigger stores in Middlebury since the one in Vergennes is kind of like a Soviet commissary - you just never know what they'll have on any given day - and now with social distancing, they sometimes make you stand in line just to get in to find out.

OVERLOADDED: In spite of the tragedy, there's just something amusing about the thought of a grenade factory burning down. When Hercules made black powder, that factory would burn down every few years. They'd slap it back up and carry on. I don't think it was much of a building. I remember that story from before my days at SPPI.

MikeJinVT: I am feeling a lot less certain that there were any made in Bellows Falls after all this info. The one old guy in particular that I remember telling that story retired about 15 years ago.

That logo on the left side of the mag plate is very similar to the SP logo, but it doesn't form the P the way the SP logo does:

Blackmore said:

MikeJinVT said:

I have a few marked like this. Made in VT would be special to me as well, but I have never encountered any.

Click to expand...

The should be a UI logo on the spine of that magazine, IIRC.

Click to expand...