Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Another Firearms Distributor Closes

WL Baumler has closed its doors. It was based in Lorain, Ohio and was one of the TALO group. They were bought by Crow Shooting Supply, which I believe is connected to Brownell's. It's surprising because they had a strong fishing department, also. I heard that Crow closed the warehouse but is keeping on the salesmen (working remotely) and is getting out of the fishing side of things. The firearms industry is very weak right now.

There may be more, too.

We've already lost Acusport, Ellett Brothers and Baumler. I expect some of the other smaller ones to close, maybe Camfour, Lew Horton, Bangers and Riley's. That will leave RSR, Sports South, Lipsey's, Davidson's and Bill Hicks. Am I missing any?

Dealt with Ellet & Jerry’s Sports Center many agreeable years.

Elliot Bros. had bought Accusport & company officers/etc. embezzled/stole from the company or it's lenders to the tune of getting caught & facing federal charges. This particular instance is not a sign of the of a weak firearms industry.

Not to say that the firearms industry isn't weak, but if they didn't build the company coffers during the Obama years they were doomed to go down no matter what.

Ellett bought Jerry's a few years ago and then shut them down.

I've read there are civil suits between investors, but that's all. What a company did 5 years ago has hardly any impact on their current financial situation. Acusport was flush with money and used some of it to build a very automated warehouse facility that had a lot of bugs. They would send out big boxes with one item in it where shipping cost more than the item. With big dealers, shipping is free. They went under and Ellett Bros (not Elliot) bought them so that they could close their smaller distribution centers and consolidate in Chapin and Bellefontaine. Then Trump was elected and they were stuck with high inventory, high borrowing costs and no sales.

A pro 2A president is bad for the firearms industry.

That, and the American people have become jaded to mass shootings. There used to be a run on guns after every one. The last few haven't even caused a blip. Everyone who wanted an AR has one now.

After Sandy Hook I personally knew guys who stock piled 25-50 AR lowers and more.

Yeah, Sandy Hook was a big one, but what about San Bernardino, Las Vegas and Parkland? Just a collective big yawn.

Legal mumbo jumbo if you like, the kocksuckers purposely mismanaged funds & somebody, somewhere gets left holding the debt. The closing of a company none the less. Crooks be crooks.

Ron Shirk's

I'd never heard of them before. They don't seem to have a website, which seems odd, but Riley's doesn't either. I just remembered another small one--Zanders.

Why does the industry even need distributors anyway? Why can't retailers just buy their stuff from manufacturers?

Would imagine that is what the big boys do.

Mom and Dad shops were the users of distributors.

Do you know how much bigger and more complicated the shipping departments of the manufacturers would be? Every time someone ordered one gun, they'd have to ship it. Just about every line of retail products have distributors. The only major manufacturers who only sell direct that I can think of are Kimber and Benelli, and it can be a PITA to deal with them. Think about it-- a dealer wants to order 40 guns--10 Smiths 8 Glocks 2 Berettas 3 CZs 4 Remingtons 3 Colts 2 LMTs 4 Springfields 2 Rugers and 2 Walthers. That's 10 invoices, 10 shipping charges, etc, etc. Instead, he can order all from one site and get one bill and free shipping.

It depends. There are a couple of buyers co-ops that dealers can use. Even then, they are just for big annual orders of stuff that you know you can sell. Any add-on orders, or special orders, still have to be done through distributors. I used to work for Sportsmans Warehouse and anything that wasn't a stock item in the warehouse had to be ordered from a distributor.

There is a good deal of old guys moving on, and the kids often are not interested in running the business, that and consolidations are simply a normal cycle of expansion and contraction.

JSC closed their doors less than 2 weeks ago...