Musgrave

Ben Musgrave (senior) began target shooting in 1933. At the time, all target shooting was conducted with contemporary service rifles such as the Lee–Enfield, Lee–Metford and P14. After experimenting with the accuracy of his rifle, he came to be in demand from other shooters to accurize and re-barrel their rifles. In 1950 he founded Musgrave with eldest son Trevor.

In 1952 Ben was awarded Springbok colours and selected to travel with the South African team to the NRA Imperial Meeting at Bisley in England. Whilst there he was introduced to barrel manufacturer W.D. Lain who was nearing retirement. Lain agreed to train Trevor in barrel making, with the intention of then selling his rifling machine and tooling to Musgrave. Trevor duly completed his training and the equipment arrived in Bloemfontein in 1953 when younger brother Ben Musgrave (junior) joined the firm aged 14. Ben Jr would go on to be regarded as a genius barrel maker. All three Musgraves earned full Springbok colours for rifle shooting.

Concerned with growing industrial isolation due to apartheid sanctions, ARMSCOR approached Musgrave in 1969 with a view to developing a production hunting rifle. Musgrave became a subsidiary of Armscor in 1971. Production hunting rifles became available in 1972. 1971 also saw the Musgrave RSA target rifle debut at the National Championships at Cape Town where it broke multiple records. Ben Jnr was proclaimed "Shooting Hero" after setting a record score of 294/300 - the highest score shot in Bisley matches in any Commonwealth country. Some countries would ban the Musgrave from competition as being "too accurate", with accurized service rifles unable to compete. Such bans were generally short-lived as other purpose-built target rifles such as the British Swing were also coming to market.

In 1972, work started on a new purpose built factory in Bloemfontain, which developed into a giant gunsmithing concern. RSA actions and earlier hammer-forged barrels were manufactured at Lyttelton Engineering Works. By 1989, Musgrave employed 220 people and produced 6,000 hunting rifles per year over a ten model range. Musgrave's product range diversified to include shotguns, sporting equipment, fuel locking devices and other items.

In 1992, Musgrave was one of the businesses moved from ARMSCOR into the new Denel conglomerate. Denel abandoned the name in August 1996 when Musgrave's Bloemfontein facility was closed down. Some of the equipment and personnel relocated to Lyttelton Engineering Works (new Denel Land Systems) where hunting rifles were built under the "Vektor" (Vector) name for a short while, alongside the R4 assault rifle, Z88 pistol and other small armaments which form Denel's main focus.

In 2009, the dormant Musgrave name was acquired by a private owner, Frikkie du Plooy. Manufacturing started at a new facility in Ermelo, Mpumalanga. The revived firm builds new semi-custom hunting rifles as well as an AR-15 variant - the Musgrave AR.