Vista owns Federal and other ammunition brands and a portfolio of other outdoor brands such as Camp Chef outdoor cooking equipment, Bell and Giro bicycle helmets and CamelBak hydration products.
It added Remington assets in October for $81.4 million. The deal included the Remington brand, trademarks and accessories business and the main ammunition-production facility in Lonoke. Remington’s other assets, including its firearms division, were acquired by other bidders.
The Lonoke plant typically employs 700 to 800 people, and during peak production has had more than 1,000 employees. But during the disruptions caused by the bankruptcies in 2018 and earlier this year, employment had dipped below 400.
Vista is now bringing back at least 300 more employees, including employees who had previously been furloughed or laid off.
The town of Lonoke has about 4,250 residents, and the Remington plant, built in 1969, is one of the town’s major employers and a source of community pride. Sachse said many Remington employees have more than 30 years of experience and families in the area who have had multiple generations working at the plant.
– Patrick Kennedy in Purchase of Remington ammunition already has meant hiring, manufacturing boost for Anoka’s Vista
Did they ever stop production?
hopefully they make primers otherwise it will be a short shift.
I need more 7 1/2 BR’s,badly.
Center-fire Remington ammo has always been good stuff. Their Golden Saber pistol rounds are reasonably priced for defensive JHP’s. Their ammo is Made in USA and was generally available until the Chinese Virus and the Biden / Harris supported AntiFa / BLM riots and arson induced panic buying and dried up the supply.
Here’s hoping that Remington ammo will be with us for generations to come.
“Center-fire Remington ammo has always been good stuff.”
I have had problems with their bulk rimfire ammo. Dud rate about 5-7 per hundred has been my luck…
I can find videos of the rimfire line at the CCI and Federal plants, but I can’t find one showing a rimfire line in the Remington plant in Lonoke in spite of there being multiple well-recorded tours of it. I suspect Remington rimfire was always a rebrand then, so that line may just disappear as Vista already owns the two aforementioned ammo brands.
Good Morning Geoff,
Yes Sir, their rimfire .22’s are the worst…that’s why I specifically said “center-fire”. I have had too many Thunderbolt’s and Golden Bullet rounds simply fall apart in my hands or fail to fire.
In the mid/late 70’s when I was shooting Bullseye competitions for my Department, I was issued Remington 148 gr Wadcutters which were accurate and reliable.
‘Thunderbolts’, I think that’s the spawn of Satan ammo. Conical round with a flat face. Extremely thin copper electroplate, more like a ‘copper wash’, your fingernail can easily scrape it off.
“I hates them, yes, I do, my Precious!” 🙁
I have a big stash of Remington .22s (both LR and Shorts) I bought in bulk a decade ago, before the infamous shortage that occurred following Obummer’s second term. I’ve never had any issues, and in fact have one of my trusty rifles standing at the ready with Shorts to handle intruding rabbits. Just shot another one two weeks ago.
Now that I think of it, I don’t recall experiencing issues with Remington in any caliber/load.
Good Morning Haz,
I purchased a couple buckets of the Remington Golden Bullet .22 LR’s during the Obama years…so many bad rounds that I eventually gave them away to a fellow “bullet whore” who is still shooting them (when they fire) through his Single Six.
I was “dogged” off and on by my regular retiree shooting group for purchasing a large amount of Aguila Super Extra Plated .22 LR / Shorts a few years ago* “….blah, blah, blah…something about it being hecho in Mexico blah, blah, blah”. It is reliable and is accurate…smells a bit odd when shot – kind of a sweet smell.
One of our group will not purchase / shoot Federal .22’s…go figure.
To each their own.
*back when TargetSportsUSA regularly had crazy good deals/prices for members.
@Geoff nope, Thunderbolts are waxed lead bullets. Clearly you guys are shooting some alternate-reality version of them since the ones I have are incredibly reliable in all my rimfires. In fact they’re the only ones that are reliable in my Henry survival rifle.
Edit to add: Their 22 buckets tend to be pretty low quality, though. You guys are probably thinking of those. Although now I think of it, a Beretta M9-22 will fire them extremely reliably too.
I use 1,000″s of Thunderbolts and find them nearly 100% reliable. I use them for trick shots such as hitting a 1mm object consistently from 50 yards; will also go straight thru a golf ball from 50 yards, dead center hits. Also shoot primers out of spent shotgun shells from same distance. Even had my neighbor try the SS shot, said he was not a good shot; did it 2nd try. I do not understand the Thunderbolt haters.
@Jeff K
“….a 1mm object consistently from 50 yards…” is some pretty fine shooting…even if you were using the best match ammo rather than Thunderbolts.
Old Guy. Aguila 60 grain subsonics are just about the most accurate round in my Winchester branded Russian Toz rifle.
Can’t mail order ammo in CA and can’t usually find it local. But I did look for some in Utah over the holiday. No luck.
@jwm
I’ve tried the Aguila 60 gr. This round doesn’t work well for me and could be a very expensive repair if I shoot shoot it through my .22 LR suppressor. I wanted to like the cartridge, unfortunately, none of my .22 LR’s have a fast enough twist rate to stabilize the 60 gr bullet.
Old Guy. One of the joys of living in CA. I don’t have to worry about damaging a silencer. 🙂
@jwm
I’m truly sorry that California’s “enlightened leadership” continually poops on the Constitution…all of the document, not just the 2A.
If u ever get up to NW Montana we’ll spend a day at the range with some of the toys ur currently prohibited.
their 22 thunderbolt easily the worst ammo i’ve ever used. leaded the barrel of my sr-22 to the point it looked like a smoothbore after a few mags
It really is bad. Had I known, I would have paid more. I just saw a big box of cheap brand name ammo at Walmart, so I grabbed it.
I agree. I had a batch of it that was out of dimensional spec. back about 20 years ago. The diameter was too large to chamber easily and the way I found out was that I was shooting some cheap-ass offbrand semi-auto .22 and even though the round was sticking half out of the chamber, and the bolt was gapped open at least 3/8″ the trigger was still functional. It blew out the side of the case and ruptured my right eardrum. I was stupidly not wearing ear protection because “.22 rifles aren’t loud!” Still have tinnitus in that ear. I’m a lefty shooter so the sound basically rammed directly from the breech to my right ear.
Last time I ever went without ear protection, and last time I ever fired that rifle. Destroyed it rather than give it to someone else. The Remington Thunderbolt wouldn’t chamber in my Ruger Mark II, either, but at least the Mark II had the good design to not fire when the bolt was that far back.
You could still shove it in a revolver or my break-action rife, so I used the rest of the 500-round brick up that way rather than throw the ammo out.
I’ve fired plenty of that stuff, and for me it’s maybe 2 per brick, if any. Might want to have the gun looked at.
“Vista is now bringing back at least 300 more employees, including employees who had previously been furloughed or laid off.”
Great News!!! 🙂
Now there’s a fine Holiday’s Present for a small town and its citizens.
The Remington factory is to the west of town. It has a company owned shooting range too.
Maps showing factory and gun club:
https://goo.gl/maps/DhNyf4ZttZtEeUxm9
https://goo.gl/maps/hpLkiVQwX6XrMrZg7
Less competition is NOT a good thing, but I’m glad most of the employees will keep their jobs. Hopefully they can hire more in time.
Went to some old guys home to pick up a MAS49 magazine from Armslist and ended up also bringing home a Lee Enfield No4. that he was looking to get rid of.
When I get home I go to Ammoseek for 303 British and I get this…. “Nothing Found”
Really?
U.S. Lee Enfield owners felt it necessary to hoard purchase 303 Brit?
One good side of panic is that I went to gun show last weekend and unloaded 6 tins of 54R for $180 each (double what I paid for it).
I’m also an Enfield owner and fortunately have been able to secure ammo before the communist revolution, but it is almost an obsolete round any more. I’d be surprised if any domestic company made any this year.
I’d imagine manufacturers were busy trying to keep up with the demand of more popular cartridges. That said, each time I’ve been in my LGS (primary one I visit) they’ve always had .303 in stock.
I wonder if its just that 303 (and similar) ammo is dispersed amongst stores already and its not worth their listing it online for time and shipping hassle involved. Also wouldn’t be surprised if such cartridges do not receive priority in the current production.
Calibers that aren’t very popular are only made in short runs every year or two and sold off to distributors. If there is a panic situation it isn’t worth the downtime to swap tooling, when they can run the machines 24/7 and sell everything they make.
If you are a hunter and like a certain load, it is always a good idea to buy enough for several years. Otherwise you might not be able to find what you want when you want it.
303 and 30-40 are in good supply in pretty much any gun store within 70 miles of Albany NY. No idea why but can always find both……….10mm and 357 sig as well.
Cool😎….I don’t think I’ve ever used Remington ammo. I sure don’t see ammo deals today!
Stability….pfft. Consolidation only brings price increases.
It’s in Arkansas. In case anyone else was wondering were Lonoke is. I had to google it.
Dont feel bad.
Nobody more than 1 state from Illinois knows any city in Illinois outside Chriaq.
Lonoke is close enough to Little Rock so muckity-mucks can fly in but far enough out to avoid big-city taxing and permits.
Empress KAMALA will put a 1$ per bullet tax to start a reperations fund for all the oppressed victimized gang members to pay for their gunshot wounds.
This is what dumbocracy looks like.
She said that?! Time to buy reloading equipment.
Eff the anti Constitutional duo Joe & the Hoe.
Stability is a good thing.
But I do worry about one less competitor in the market.
As mentioned by others, Remington defense and practice ammo was a better value many other brands.
Much of my second-tier defensive rounds are Remington Green and White Hundred packs bought for 22 dollars at Walmart.
I imagine those days are gone with Remington’s purchase along with Walmart’s betrayal.
I hold high hopes for Rural King to be a calming effect on the ammo market.
Right now the most consistent (and cheapest) prices I get are at Cabelas.
Fun times….
Remington was unable to sustain itself during a long term national firearm and ammunition buying binge. One truly fucked up company.
Exactly! Must have been some serious mismagement and horrendous overhead expenses.
Future ammunition sales for military contracts only.
Remington 22lr Target Ammo: At least 3 per 100 ftf’s.
So don’t buy Remington 22lr…..
Consolidation in the firearms industry continues………..until the Soros group buys all the ammo manufacturers and turns them into pin 📍 📌 manufacturers.
Consolidation in the firearms industry is NOT what you want.
Stability? Vista Outdoors has already reported a one-year ammunition backlog of over $1 billion dollars. The last thing I want right now is stability. Vista’s market dominance is not helpful at all.
Screw stability. What I want is a disruptive manufacturer to shake things up by entering the fray with product for us. Not for the military. For us.
“Screw stability. What I want is a disruptive manufacturer to shake things up by entering the fray with product for us. Not for the military. For us.”
That’s why I’m ragging on Mr. Jon Wayne Taylor to get off his ass and use his Mexican business contacts to build a POTG ammo plant in Meh-he-co.
I’m not unreasonable, keep it to make primers and .22lr only, and I’ll be a happy boy.
Jon, I recently discovered 5,000 rounds of .22lr fills a .50 cal. ammo can to about one inch from the top. That saves you a shit-ton in packaging costs right there. 5,000 round cans *only*.
“Build the plant! Build the plant! Build the plant”…
Aguila makes its ammo in Mexico. My LGS wants $50.00 for a brick of 500. And my LGS is not gouging.
Man, oh man. I could make some serious bucks off loading half the ammo I’ve hoarded through the years.
I’m over here re-shaping and reloading spent primers with commonly available material and 3d printing bullets.
How’s that for disruption?
the whole takeover by Ruger needs to be completed ASAP. They finally sent all rifles in the shop/factory back to their owners and left unrepaired. The note included in my case stated that due to the bankruptcy cast they couldn’t repair rifles at this time. They had previously told me a NEW replacement rifles was at the same factory waiting for me. Instead they sent me back my malfunctioning rifle with another defect…a damaged stock. Each time this rifle went in for repair it came back worse than it did when it was sent to Remington. Now the rifle has a crack in the stock which I only noticed due to the stock being loose on the receiver. I removed the stock and noticed an internal crack where the wood had been damaged, loosening the support it provided even when the screw was tightened to secure it to metal. It has been one screw up after another and there’s been no resolve. If I seek to get the gun repaired now it is on my dime unless the Ruger buyout happens and they honor previous warranties. I have filed a complaint with the bankruptcy court and also moved forward with filing a claim for the cost of the gun along some associated expenses. If I can just get back the cost of the gun itself I’ll be satisfied. If they had just sent back the new rifle I was promised this might have been avoided, but it I had steered clear from Marlinin the first place none of this would have happened. Remington as a company is a joke and its no wonder they drove themselves into the ground. Been fighting this since June.
Sorry to hear this.
I’m afraid that this will be more common as manufacturer liability suits and regulatory oversights by progressive authorities loom in the wings of the court system if, or when, the economy takes another big drop.
Ruger, S&W, and other companies showing a profit may get unwanted attention from the SJW crowd who push “responsible investing” as an agenda.
How come foriegn ammunition imports haven’t made up for the shortage?
If you have ammunition it’s a firearm, if you don’t it’s an expensive paperweight.
Foreign manufacturers where whipsawed just as badly as domestic manufacturers. Mines producing the copper and lead closed, supply chains broke, factories were shut down, demand accelerated — you know how it went. This disruption is global.
I hope Remington Accutip shotgun rounds come back. They were the best I tested in my gun and I’m a little low .
Remington took a hornady SST and loaded it with very high quality control to achieve a slug with rifle accuracy.
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