#Manufacturing

Hot on the heels of FN America’s announcement that they will be opening a new, second facility at Liberty, South Carolina, the company has now announced their plans to expand their current site at Columbia. FN America will invest $18 million in the Columbia site to add 40,000 square feet to the site. The expansion will also see an extra 100 jobs added at the facility that already employs more than 600 people.

FN America, the US subsidiary of Belgium’s FN Herstal, has been in operation for more than four decades. Its current guise is the result of a merger of the two separate prior iterations, FN Manufacturing and FNH USA. Beyond the Belgian and American operations, the company maintains a UK branch as well. Today, FN America is headquartered in McLean, Virginia, and their manufacturing facility near Columbia, South Carolina primarily handles military arms, such as the M249 SAW and M240 machine guns. Now FN America has announced that they are expanding to a second domestic manufacturing operation. This new plant will be located in Liberty, SC, which is about two hours’ drive northwest of Columbia. This announcement came in the form of the following press release, where you can find some additional details.

Allen Engineering is a well-known name in the world of clone rifles. Their AEM5 silencer is the “clone correct” option for a Mk12 build. Recently, Trajectory Arms announced that they would be taking over production of the AEM5 silencers.

The well-known and oft-loved KelTec CNC Industries is making its first expansion out of the Sunshine State and into the Equality State with the recent acquisition of a new 33,000-square-foot facility in Rock Springs, Wyoming. This new facility will be home to an expanded wing of KelTec CNC Industries and will operate with a proposed 250+ employees over its gradual expansion from the initial facility. KelTec’s full press release covering the acquisition of the building is posted below.

Henry Repeating Arms are set to expand with a new 84,000 square foot facility in Ladysmith, Wisconsin. This will increase the Rice Lake-based company’s manufacturing capacity and future expansion at the new 13.5 acre site.

Smith & Wesson have announced that they will be relocating their headquarters to Tennessee in the mid-2020s but will retain operations in Springfield, Massachusetts. The company, founded in the 1850s, has long made Massachusetts its home.

Is everyone excited to still be talking about the growth of ammo prices over the last year and a half? Of course, we’re not. Unfortunately, although there has been some recent relief in some areas and for some calibers, for the most part, we’re still nowhere near pre-panic levels. Even more unfortunately, it looks like the journey to get back there may be slow or possibly never fully come. Between 2020-2021’s prolonged period of massively increased demand and logistical/supply chain problems, it’s been a tough time for most shooters’ bullet budgets. TFB has reported on some prior pricing increase announcements, and sadly, we now have to do so again. The quote below comes from a memo that Vista Outdoor recently sent their dealers.

You all know them and love them – Henry Repeating Arms. The company has enjoyed a lot of recent success over the years with the leadership of now-former company president Anthony Imperato. Now, Mr. Imperato is handing off the reigns of the Henry Repeating Arms brand to the new company president Andy Wickstrom. Andy has had a long history with the company dating as far back as 1998 and has now risen to officially be the company’s president after several years of being the de facto president.

Wilson Combat‘s history in the firearms industry stretches back nearly half a century. From his background as a trained watchmaker, company founder Bill Wilson made the jump into guns in 1974 with a retail store, then shifted to manufacturing three years later. From the late 1970s to today, the brand’s principal domain has been in high-end 1911 handguns. However, that isn’t all they do. They have also dabbled in other handgun models as well as some shotgun work, and particularly in recent years, they’ve concentrated ever more heavily in AR offerings. TFB has reported on Wilson’s various products quite a bit over the years, and a sampling of those past articles is listed for you below.

If you’re an experienced shooter, by this juncture you’re painfully aware of how brutal the ammo supply has been over the last year and change. Supply has been down, costs have gone up, numerous price increases have been announced, and there’s been precious little end in sight for months. Starting in early 2020, the industry saw something of a perfect storm of pressure factors squeezing the supply chain and skyrocketing demand. The cascading effects of Covid-related logistical issues, civil unrest, panic buying/hoarding, vast throngs of new first-time gun buyers in record-breaking numbers, and political/governmental concerns wreaked havoc on the balance of supply and demand for virtually every type and size of cartridges and shells, other than a scattering of more niche calibers like SIG’s 300 H’AMR offerings. TFB has covered the ammo shortage and related matters, like new gun owners, and a sampling of some of those articles from the past year are listed for you below.

Aero Precision has made plans to move to a brand new facility located in Lakewood, Washington. According to their recent announcement the new facility and move are to accommodate the increased amount of business the company has received over recent years. The company was originally founded in 1994, near Gig Harbor, Washington as a manufacturer of mostly aerospace industry parts but has since transitioned to the firearms which most of us are familiar with today.

Vortakt Barrel Works is a Wisconsin based barrel manufacturing company that is entirely focused on the barrel making process. The company provides both complete barrels in virtually any caliber from .17 all the way up to .50 and lengths of up to 30 inches. The company uses an interesting automated barrel blank production method to achieve consistency and quality results for their barrel making process.

Vietnamese weapons aren’t particularly mainstream in the Western world, however, we catch a glimpse of them, from time to time. Recently Vlad showed us the latest products of the Z111 Factory, the STV-380 and SVT-215. Now, thanks to the TV channel VTVcab, and its YouTube presence, we can see a few of their details and have a brief tour of the manufacturing facility.

High Speed Gear, Inc. (HSGI) produces some of the most popular shooting-related accessories in the business. From belts to bags, holsters, chest rigs, plate carriers and more, if you’re looking for a piece of gun gear there’s a decent chance they make something you could use. The products for which High Speed Gear is best known, however, are their TACO pouches. These mag pouches are used by warfighters, competitive shooters, and plenty of others. Last year HSGI was contracted to supply the US military with more than 30,000 TACO pouches in conjunction with Heckler & Koch’s fulfillment of the Army’s SDMR (Squad Designated Marksman Rifle) contract.

A few days ago Laugo Arms Czechoslovakia released a couple of new videos on its YouTube channel. For those who are not yet familiar with this name, the company is promoting the upcoming release of its first pistol, named ALIEN, which is going to offer the lowest bore axis of any semi-auto on the market.