I have one in 44 mag. I believe they bought the tooling from JP Sauer. I have numerous of those, marked Hawes mainly. Parts interchange between the ones marked Sauer and the Arminus. The only difference I see is in finish. My Arminus has a CC frame, blued everthing else. The Sauers had blue all over.
The Arminus was short lived, becoming another company, can't remember their name now. I think the third itteration produced the first Heritage series sold 10 or 12 years back through the outfit in Florida that were bringing in the Baikals.
Kinda vague, I know. But bottom line is the Arminus is a good gun, and hell for stout!