[6][7] The company's first iteration was when Peder Lund began operations in association with co-founder Robert K. Brown, in 1970 as "Panther Publications".

From 1970 to 1974, the company developed its stock of titles primarily by reprinting government military manuals previously available to the public only through purchase of purloined copies.

The newly named Paladin Press then went on to publish work from a variety of well-known and notable figures in the firearms, martial arts, self-defense, privacy, personal freedom and survival fields, among them John Plaster, Kelly McCann, Jim Arvanitis, Jeff Cooper, Col. Rex Applegate, William E. Fairbairn, Barry Reid, Adam Starchild, Detective John L. Russell and Ragnar Benson.

[8] In 1983, Paladin Press published a controversial book, Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors, under the author's pseudonym "Rex Feral".

[13] In the spring of 2006, Paladin announced that it had acquired the rights to reprint 40 books previously published by Loompanics Unlimited, including the works of Claire Wolfe and other popular anti-authoritarian writers.