Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Savage sold

Vista Outdoor Inc. (VSTO) ("Vista Outdoor") (NYSE: VSTO) announced yesterday that it has completed the sale of the legal entity operating its Savage Arms and Stevens firearms brands to a financial buyer for a total purchase price of $170 million, comprised of $158 million paid at closing and $12 million to be paid upon maturity of a five-year seller note issued by the buyer to Vista Outdoor in connection with the transaction.

The buyer is an llc set up in Delaware in may. A guy named David Wittels signed for the buyer and as of Dec 2018, Wittels worked for this guy:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton_E._James

savage ? who ? what ?


Jerry

Exactly.....

Maybe the new owner will lower costs by eliminating the barrel roughening step of rifle manufacture.

What an idea!

The new owner is a democrat would hosted a fund raiser for Obama and he buys a gun company? What's wrong with that picture?
Paul B.

I'm detecting some animosity. Money knows no politics.

Be happy that it wasn't bought by Freedom Group.

I don't think that the Savage product line is very attractive, value, design, and price wise.

Ron Coburn rode the 110 series for all it was worth, but now there is much more competition in Savage's traditional low price market niche. Savage has tried to move up into a higher price market niche, but they couldn't even think outside their box far enough to make the 110 series action more attractive, Marlin did it with the X guns and Freedom Group foolishly opted for the Remington 783 design over the superior, IMO, Marlin X guns.

Marlin made a better looking entry level bolt action CF rifle, the X guns, by combining the best attributes of the Savage 110 and Remington 700 series rifles.

Mossberg, despite a history of repeated failures in the bolt action CF rifle market, has found success in the 4th(?) generation Raptor.

Ruger seems to have found a winner in the American Rifle series.

When the market retracts, the marginal players get squeezed. In the automobile industry Chrysler dropped Plymouth, GM dropped GEO, Hummer, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Saab, and Saturn, and Ford dropped Mercury.

The point being that if Savage can't find a product that will spark greater consumer demand, it is likely to go the way of the defunct car lines list above.

I'd say you pretty much nailed it. I've never cared much for the 110-series rifles, despite their virtues. Other rifles look better, are lighter, constructed more in line with my notions, etc etc. The RARs really nailed it and have evolved in regard to magazines, barrel twists, and such, plus are available for all kinds of niche cartridges. Not only have they hammered the Savage market, but probably the TC Encore line too, with complete rifles roughly the same as barrels. Many, I suspect, have picked up an RAR to cheaply try out something new, and end up just keeping it instead of trading up to a nicer rifle for the same round (I've never owned one of either, btw, so this is an unbiased observation).

Those who like the easy barrel swap or other Savage pluses will continue to use them, and that's fine. Whatever works.

to be honest as a gun dealer for many years Browning seems to just continue to make great guns the way they want to . now Savage has made some good rifles but Vista was smart to get rid of Savage this year ,Savage is at a stand still time. i think Savage needs to bring back the Savage 99 in a real nice rifle and even a average Joe rifle too .too many of these gun manufactures produce to many cheap rifles and the truth black guns too. another gun Savage produces is the old reliable Savage 24 over/under that would be a great seller in some more different configurations like a 556 - 20 gauge 3inch,S.S. plastic stock and a permanent picatinny base on top . things like this might help sales i know i would inventory 6 - Savage 24 5567/20 ga. right away and in Alaska would also be a super seller in a take down S.S. !

But this could lower the accuracy to Remington standards!

I always thought rifle making had to be a terrible business. It’s basically a low margin, high ticket item that never really wears out. I’m sure the economics on reloading components is better, lower sticker price and it’s essentially a disposable item so consumers are always going to have to buy more.

I read that this would be so cost prohibitive even with today's CNC machinery that they wouldn't be able to sell enough at the correct price point to make it worth while.

Pete,

There's more than one problem with bringing back the 99. First, as Savage discovered when they considered they idea a while ago, it would cost a LOT to make them like the classic pre-1960 99's many older hunters (like me) remember using.

The next question would be how many can they sell? The market for lever-action rifles isn't all that hot anymore, and what there is tends to "using" guns, even synthetic-stock or "tactical" models, not classics like the original 99's.

Plus, there are enough used 99's still floating around that Savage would be competing with those for the "classic" market. If I recall correctly, around two million were made, the reason a .300 in decent shape can still be purchased for $600 or thereabouts--another indication the market isn't hot for lever-actions. Can Savage make new 99's to compete with that?

There would be a lack of skilled labor to make these rifles on top of the cost of manufacture. If they made them to the standard the early 99s were made to, they would have to be a high end rifle.

>Mule Deer ,yes your right maybe but Savage needs to do something to improve sales somehow. Remember Bill Ruger against what his people told him he still decided to build Ruger #1`s and looked how that went on for a long time . but this black rifle market someday will end everyone is trying to make black guns now. so if Savage can figure out a gun to sell for 5% of the market just might help them some ? I don`t know what the real answer would be but Savage needs to find a gun niche somehow ? the 110 is a great rifle but ?

I think the market for lever action rifles is very hot. Just not for hunting style leverguns. Pistol caliber lever carbines seem to be all the rage.

moosemike,

All the rage among what part of the market? Maybe, for a very small segment, like Cowboy Action shooters. But they're not going to buy Savage 99's.

And neither are the vast majority of big game hunters. They're buying bolt-actions, or sometimes AR's.

I have long wondered if Miroku could make 99s that would be affordable.

I think that fans of the Model 99 would line up to buy limited run rifles in popular and getting harder to find every day configurations. For example, I think that a 1950's style lever safety 99F in 250-3900 with a 1-10" ROT would fly off dealer shelves, as would any of the pre-WW1 styles in 25-35.. The rifle is already designed, so programming a computerized milling machine can't be exceptionally tough.

That said, the Model 99 is a hunting rifle, not a long(er) range precision rifle, and today's buyers are more often shooters than they are hunters. Or so it seems to me.