SSK Industries, Inc. is an American designer and manufacturer of firearms and accessories in Wintersville, Ohio. Founded in 1977, the company is known for its custom Contender and Encore barrels.[1]
Started by hunter and gun enthusiast J. D. Jones, SSK Industries began by manufacturing and marketing specific products related to hunting handguns[2] and ammunition. It has grown to a company that makes hundreds of different types of rounds.[3]
Lehigh Defense acquired SSK Industries in 2019, re-branding it SSK Firearms.[4]
Notable products
SSK produced the largest center-fire rifle in history, the .950 JDJ. It is a .950 caliber which produces recoil equivalent to shooting ten .30-06 rifles at the same time.[5] SSK manufactured three of these rifles, and no longer produces the ammunition.[6][7]
The Whisper family of firearm cartridges were developed in the early 1990s as a line of accurate, multi-purpose cartridges using relatively heavy riflebullets for a given caliber in subsonic loads.[8][4] The intention was to create an extremely accurate cartridge family for military, police, competition and specialized hunting markets that could also be easily sound-suppressed. While initially a group of wildcat cartridges, many of them now have SAAMI and C.I.P. specifications.
