April 2026 (2) - Flipbook - Page 10
A Look into Shiloh Ri昀氀e’s Past and a Peek
Into Its Current History
By Lucinda Bryan Terry
Winston Churchill was
right when he stated: “A lie
gets halfway around the
world before the truth has
a chance to get its pants
on.”
I am here to share a little
history.
Shiloh Ri昀氀e Manufacturing
traces its roots back to Wolfgang
Droege, who began his journey in the machining industry
in 1951. Driven by a desire to
improve and advance, Droege
switched jobs frequently, striving for excellence. In 1953, he
entered a partnership with Mr.
Vogel, and together they established a machine shop called
Drovel Tool. Their commitment
to quality and precision opened
doors to the aerospace industry,
including collaborations with
Grumman Aircraft Company
and NASA. By 1972, their contract with Xerox was coming to
an end.
With that in mind, we would
like to introduce Len Mulé, who
is currently residing in New Jersey. We had heard his name before at gun shows, very sporadic
and yet vague, a name that came
up occasionally over the years
but without a face or story to
match. That mystery was solved
in 2006 when Mr Mulé contacted my brother Kirk Bryan by
phone and introduced himself.
He spoke numerous times with
Kirk and began mailing boxes
10
Lucinda with one of her cherished Harley Davidsons.
full of cherished documents,
original drawings, photos, and
a part of Shiloh history that had
been unknown to us all these
years. Here is his story.
Len worked for a company
called Remlin Products, a Company owned by his brother-inlaw. Len designed and patented
a varnish applicator and was
then instructed to design a
4-cavity minnie ball hollow base
bullet mold. Once the design
was completed, he needed to
昀椀nd a machinist and was given
the name Wolfgang Droege of
Drovel Tool in Farmingdale,
New York. They needed a name
to market his new bullet mold,
so Len started digging through
a Civil War book where he had
read about the Battle of Shiloh.
The name Shiloh and the 4-cavities of the mold was combined
to form “Shiloh IV”. In time,
both Remlin Products and
Shiloh IV came to an end due to
昀椀nancial problems. Len contacted Wolf and they agreed on a
partnership. Len kept the name
Shiloh which he had originated
for the mold, and the company
Shiloh Products Inc. was born,
a company incidentally, which
was never a part of Drovel Tool.
Driven by the fact that a new
product was needed to generate
a salary, Len Mulé designed and
helped bring the Sharps to life.
Unfortunately, though the partnership did not work and was
dissolved. Even more unfortunate was the fact that Len and
his contribution to the Sharps
legacy fell into obscurity, a
dream that was washed away in
the hands of a dispute. In 1973,
Droege began producing black
April, 2026 - Issue #2
