Like almost all great gunmakers, the story of Cooey begins with the story of a single man: Herbert William Cooey. After dropping out of an apprenticeship with the Grand Trunk Railroad and quitting a job on an assembly line, the then 23-year-old H. W. Cooey opened his first machine shop up at the corner of Queen Street and Spadina Avenue in Toronto in 1903, referring to himself as a “mechanical expert and practicing machinist.” Cooey is now known as one of Canada's best gun manufacturers.