Selling The Idea
Baker had worked out the dimensions by May 9, 1978, and went to friend Herman Bockstruck at the Olin Corporation in East Alton, Illinois, to inquire if they could make the ammunition. Bockstruck looked at Spencer’s dies and Baker’s experimental cartridge, and told Baker yes, they could certainly make the ammunition under the Winchester marque if Smith & Wesson ordered it.
Armed with this assurance, the prototype gun and ammunition, and a series of successful tests, Baker pitched the idea to Smith & Wesson’s executives. Sadly, the Bangor Punta-era management team couldn’t recognize the significance of what they were looking at, and rejected it.
Today, knowledgeable enthusiasts remember the Bangor Punta era at Smith & Wesson as a dark time when accountants and bean counters nearly killed the brand and its reputation. Quality control took a dive in the wake of severe cost-cutting measures and misguided management initiatives that were dreamed up by executives who weren’t gun-guys. When a neglectful Bangor Punta finally bailed out, the damaged, but iconic, American company passed through the hands of several owners before a British conglomerate finally rescued it. They salvaged the tarnished operation and brought the quality back, but later signed an anti-gun pact with the Clinton administration that made the company an industry pariah and sent it into another tailspin.
So, the Bangor Punta crowd wasn’t known for its gun savvy, its keen leadership, or its stewardship of the Smith & Wesson brand. As one of the last gun-guys left in management, Baker knew a .40 caliber pistol would resonate with the shooting public, but the Marketing whiz kids said it wouldn’t sell, so the .40 B&S died on the spot.
Baker went back to working on the projects the bosses were paying him for, and finally retired from Smith & Wesson in 1986. After leaving Springfield, he did independent design work for companies like Fabrique Nationale, New High Standard Manufacturing, and Henry Repeating Arms, and did some work as an expert witness, but he never worked on the .40 B&S again.