Has anyone followed this? Any thoughts?
Czech Company to Purchase
Yes, I saw that a few months back. I followed it for a week or so and nothing else was said.
Well, at least those American companies (CCI, Federal, Speer, etc) are now owned by a hard core 'shooting/firearms/gunny' company which VISTA Outdoors isn't and never will be.
....but at the first hint of The Russian Bear sniffing at their doorstep where do you think CCI stuff will be funneled to?
Bingo.
About 2/3 - 3/4 of all the primers & rimfire ammo made in the nation included in this transaction.
The factories typically don't move, just a change in ownership (and investment), which means US made ammo is still subject to export restrictions.
The sale of America and it's values continues
Yurrup has plenty of factories making ammo and components already, hence the Ginex primers and scads of ammo exported here. Fiocchi makes most of its ammo here now, no doubt to reduce costs. There’s a whole slew of new independent ammo companies here now too. AAC, owned by Palmetto State Armory is one. Their 5.7x28 is cheap and good, and has the same VMaxes as the other brands, all of which BTW are loaded by Fiocchi using FN brass. AAC makes its own brass, and has a proprietary coating that seems just as effective and possibly more durable than the other stuff.
I’d probably have to take off my shoes to count all the shotshell brands I see online, domestic and imported. Regrettably, none of them is Hull, the excellent British brand. Aside from CCI, most of my .22 ammo is imported; serious users know why.
It’s Winter and supplies are pretty good in general right now, and prices of RF, 9mm, .223 and 12ga ammo are about as good as they’re gonna get in the Biden economy. We have an election coming up that if anything will be more contentious than the last General. Might be a good idea to skip some of those double no-fun habanero pumpkin lattes and pick up some needful things before the doody contacts the whirling blades, unless you already have what you’ll need for the next five years or so…….
Yep, I see ammo everywhere. Trouble is I don't buy 12ga., 9mm, .223, etc. because I either don't own a gun to shoot it (other than a single shot .223) or the fact that I haven't bought a loaded round of factory ammo of any flavor other than rimfire in a few decades. Walk into a LGS and you see stacks of cheap mass-market blasting ammo clogging the aisles - good for the mag dumpers and the folks who've never pulled a loading press handle in their lives, not so good for we folks who handcraft everything we shoot.
"Gotcha boss. We won't shut down the .223 presses just to run off a small batch of .32-20 brass for the yokels."
"Hey boss? Why's our loading docks crammed ceiling-high with 9mm ammo all the time?"
"Well boys, because that's what the hoi polloi demands. Capitalism writ large."
I don't know beans about corporate strategical buyouts and selling, but I think once you get above a certain level, size and money wise...companies like CCI just become markers or poker chips in a much bigger game. I wouldn't look for any radical changes any time soon. CCI may see some more money for modernization and automation.
We have no idea who owns the companies that make the products we use daily. SAP, Siemens, Nestle, VW, Airbus just to name a few we recognize. You cannot buy a wholly US made piece of construction equipment. Cat? Nope , Wujiang and Mitsubishi. John Deere, nope...every major maker in the world, especially Germany, is partnered with JD on something or the other.
Manufacturing has been international for 40 years...not necessarily a bad thing for American consumers. Let's wait and see.
A Czech company ownes Colt, probably a good thing.
CZ may make Colt great again. Bean counters haven’t historically helped it.
CZ is a gun company primarily, not just a financial conglomerate, an investment holding company per se. Bean counting is secondary to gun making, not the other way around.
IMO,
DF
100% agree DF. Colt's will be made the best they ever have been now.
Big Ed
Yep, I see ammo everywhere. Trouble is I don't buy 12ga., 9mm, .223, etc. because I either don't own a gun to shoot it (other than a single shot .223) or the fact that I haven't bought a loaded round of factory ammo of any flavor other than rimfire in a few decades. Walk into a LGS and you see stacks of cheap mass-market blasting ammo clogging the aisles - good for the mag dumpers and the folks who've never pulled a loading press handle in their lives, not so good for we folks who handcraft everything we shoot.
"Gotcha boss. We won't shut down the .223 presses just to run off a small batch of .32-20 brass for the yokels."
"Hey boss? Why's our loading docks crammed ceiling-high with 9mm ammo all the time?"
"Well boys, because that's what the hoi polloi demands. Capitalism writ large."
While I’m equipped and supplied to load my own, I buy 9mm because it’s not cost- or time-effective for me to do so. Same applies to .223 for use in my autoloader. I do load for hunting use and accuracy in my bolt gun.
That anyone would deny themselves the incredible pleasures of shotgunning, whether bird-shooting or clays, is beyond belief……
My shotgunning days are sadly behind me. I lived and breathed it to the tune of 10,000+ rounds/year, trap, skeet, clays, and hunting. Quit it all when my scoliosis in my back&neck went into overdrive making shotgun shooting a waste of good powder and lead for me. Sold all but a couple shotguns.