The topic of guns seems to attract puns.
For instance, the state’s top economic developer, Clint O’Neal, called firearms and ammunition a “target industry” for Arkansas.
“No pun intended,” said O’Neal, executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. But there’s no question Arkansas-made gun, ammo and accessory sales are booming. And exports shot up in 2023.
Arkansas arms, ammunition and parts exports soared 167% in 2023 compared with 2022. Last year’s export total was $539 million, up from $202 million the year before.
Exports were $350 million in 2021, and firearms, ammo and parts now make up 8.3% of Arkansas exports, third among all product categories.
“I really don’t know the reason [for the export surge],” O’Neal said this month. “I can confirm that the arms and ammunition category is separate from the aerospace and defense category. Those numbers are up because of world conflicts,” he said. “When it comes to firearms and ammunition, that could possibly be a part of it as well.”
Aerospace and defense exports, including missiles and weapons systems built near Camden, are Arkansas’ biggest export: $6.45 billion worth in 2023.
Mark Oliva, a spokesman for NSSF, the Firearm Industry Trade Association, also couldn’t pinpoint why exports surged. “I don’t want to give you an obvious reason, but Arkansas companies are clearly meeting an increased demand from abroad.”
Oliva said Arkansas is one of several states unequivocally recruiting firearms and ammunition companies, and is home to one of the world’s top ammo factories, Remington Ammunition in Lonoke. Remington’s parent company, Vista Outdoor of Anoka, Minnesota, employs about 1,100 workers at the plant.
Oliva noted that Arkansas also has two of the nation’s better-known custom gunsmithing companies, both in Berryville: Wilson Combat & Scattergun Technologies and Nighthawk Custom LLC.
‘Clearly a Priority’
“The firearms and ammunition industry is clearly a priority for Arkansas,” Oliva said. “Governor Sanders made her way to the last SHOT Show [the Shooting, Hunting & Outdoor Trade Show held annually in Las Vegas] and participated in the Governors’ Forum. But this is nothing new for Arkansas.
“Gov. Asa Hutchinson came to the SHOT Show every time it was held while he was in office,” Oliva continued. “Arkansas, across the board, has been very aggressive in recruiting companies and letting them know the business opportunities that are available to them in the state.”
O’Neal said state officials make attending the SHOT Show a priority every year. “It’s an opportunity to meet with a lot of firearms and ammunition companies all at once,” he said. “We talk about our favorable cost of doing business, and how Governor Sanders has cut taxes three times in her administration. We talk about the strong emphasis we have on workforce development and manufacturing.”
The state also promotes its gun-friendly reputation and Arkansans’ fondness for hunting.
“We have a culture that’s accepting of the firearms industry,” O’Neal said. “There are some states that really do not welcome these companies, and companies want to go where they’re welcomed. Arkansas is very welcoming.”
Firearms and ammunition manufacturers in Arkansas employ about 8,300 workers and have an estimated payroll of $475 million per year, according to the 2024 NSSF economic impact report. The trade association said the industry employs 384,437 full-time workers nationwide.
No Sale Yet at Vista
Vista Outdoor, which acquired the Remington plant in 2021, is the industry’s biggest employer in Arkansas. Last month, the company postponed a shareholders meeting about a proposed sale of its ammunition brands after shareholder groups rose up against the plan. Vista’s board had pushed for a $2.15 billion, $24-per-share offer from The Czechoslovak Group of Prague for the company’s ammunition operations.
Mike Callahan, Vista’s board chairman, said in a statement that the board takes stockholders’ views very seriously and saw that “it is prudent to evaluate all strategic alternatives.”
The Remington Ammunition plant has been a fixture in Lonoke since 1969. One of the largest ammunition factories in the world, it is a major asset that several potential buyers clearly covet.
“When Vista bought Remington ammunition, I think there were a lot of people in the Lonoke area who were very happy to see that acquisition happen and to see the plant stay online,” said Oliva, the NSSF spokesman. “I had the opportunity to actually visit Remington ammunition about a year afterwards, and I was talking with some of the folks who were third- and fourth-generation workers. Entire families are employed at that facility, demonstrating how important it is not just to the local economy and the state economy, but also to their heritage.
“They were very proud that they were in the production of ammunition that’s being used across the country and around the world.”
The AEDC ranks firearms and ammo companies by number of employees, and doesn’t track sales. Big players include companies based out of state like Vista, as well as Sig Sauer, which has about 250 workers in Arkansas. In October, it announced plans for a $150 million expansion of its ammunition plant in Jacksonville. AEDC officials expect the expansion to create 625 new jobs over five years.
Sig Sauer President and CEO Ron Cohen said the expansion, including a new 250,000-SF building to house new manufacturing operations, was “essential to the growth and sustainment of our ammunition business.”
Headquartered in Newington, New Hampshire, Sig Sauer will do “component hybrid case manufacturing, primer manufacturing and load/pack operations” in Jacksonville to support “multiple contracts” with the U.S. Department of Defense, the company said.
O’Neal said it’s unclear what role, if any, the defense contracts play in the export numbers.
Another ammunition maker, Fiocchi of America, employs about 155 workers in Little Rock and has plans for a new $41.5 million, 120-employee primer plant at the Port of Little Rock. The company recently delayed that project, however.
Walther Manufacturing announced a $30 million expansion in Fort Smith in January. Walther officials said the German company would be adding 76 new jobs in Arkansas over the next five years.
The expansion will add more than 40,000 SF to the manufacturer’s 185,000-SF operation. Construction began in the first quarter of this year.
Walther made Fort Smith its U.S. headquarters in 2012. The company describes itself as “one of the world’s leading premium manufacturers of sporting, defense and law enforcement firearms.”
Walther’s Performance Duty Pistol is a global law enforcement favorite. The company machines the handgun’s slides and barrels in Germany, but assembles the pistol itself with remaining U.S.-made parts in Fort Smith.
How Berryville Wound Up in the Bull’s-Eye
How did the north Arkansas town of Berryville, population nearly 6,000, become an international source of custom 1911-platform pistols?
The story starts with a watchmaker and gun enthusiast, Bill Wilson, who had a jewelry shop on the town square before founding Wilson Combat & Scattergun Technologies in 1977. Very soon, he was a champion competitive shooter.
He built a small handgun magazine manufacturer into one of the nation’s most successful custom gun companies. Recipient of the National Rifle Association’s Golden Bullseye Pioneer Award last year, Wilson now owns several gun and ammunition companies and employs more than 200 workers.
In 2004, some of Wilson’s employees approached Mark Stone, who had a commercial building available in Berryville, with a plan to build their own gunsmithing company to compete with Wilson.
Stone eventually bought out his partners and now owns Nighthawk outright.
Nighthawk Marketing Director Landon Stone — Mark Stone’s son — told Arkansas Business that sales have been excellent lately.
“We’re just continuing to grow and expand,” Stone said. “We’re rocking and rolling up here, and we actually just acquired a rifle company.” That’s Cooper Firearms of Montana, a top manufacturer of custom bolt-action rifles. The company reached out to Nighthawk in late 2022.
Nighthawk formed Cooper Rifles of Arkansas to buy the name, assets and engineering of the Montana enterprise, and is doing research and development on a new rifle while completing rifles from Cooper’s acquired inventory and fulfilling outstanding orders. The company revealed no financial details of the deal.
“We moved everything up here to Berryville and got one of their main guys,” Landon Stone said. Nighthawk predicts that new Cooper Rifles from Arkansas will hit the market next year.
Even though Nighthawk and Wilson both sell shotguns, knives and custom parts, the semiautomatic .45-caliber M1911, developed by pioneer gunsmith John Moses Browning, is still a mainstay.
Nighthawk’s .45s sell from $3,700 up to $9,000 on modernwarriors.com; the same site lists Wilson Combat’s least expensive .45 at $3,226 and its most expensive, the Supergrade Commander Special, at $8,325.
A Favorite Sidearm
What tempts shooters to spend that kind of money?
“The 1911 is still a favorite, because of its history in the wars [it was the United States armed forces’ standard-issue sidearm from 1911 to 1985] and its trigger,” Stone said. “The customized 1911 is an extremely popular pattern. And the custom way we do it, with all parts machined here at Nighthawk, there’s just nothing like it.”
Mark Oliva, a spokesman for NSSF, the Firearms Industry Trade Association, said Wilson Combat and Nighthawk are widely known for making highly polished, accurate pistols that are customized to individual shooters’ needs.
“These handguns are attractive to people who want more accuracy and a firearm that’s attuned to them,” Oliva said, particularly competitors in shooting sports.
Bill Wilson said in a recent YouTube video that his company reached a milestone when it started building its own Wilson Combat-branded guns. “Then diversifying out into rifles and shotguns, ammunition and all that,” Wilson said. “That was a big goal. And really the last goal we’ve kind of accomplished and are still adding to now was being able to bring in a lot more manufacturing in-house, and having more control of our destiny.”
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