I find the move to Arkansas illogical when there is a trained and very capable work force in the Bitterroot, it seems to me that putting a couple of good supervisors in Montana would have been a less expensive solution.
One of the reasons they didn't stay in Montana may be because they didn't buy the machinery & I'm assuming the buildings or property. Basically they just purchased the name & intellectual property. It's possible that based on the property & facilities they owned in Arkansas, expanding their current operations might have been the better way to go. But that's just conjecture on my part. Below is part of an open letter from Mark Stone (Owner/CEO of Nighthawk Custom):
This asset purchase includes the Cooper name, the intellectual properties/drawings, tools, and all inventory. We did not purchase any of their CNC machines; however, we have ordered new machines and are currently waiting on them to be delivered. To summarize, we are completely rebuilding Cooper rifles from the ground up in Arkansas and plan to be operational in late 2023.
In the meantime, we are working on hiring some of the existing Cooper staff that will move to Arkansas and begin rebuilding Cooper, as Cooper Rifles of Arkansas.
As a left-handed shooter, any manufacturer that makes LH rifles gets my attention. Companies like Cooper are really attractive because I can get
ANY caliber they have while most other manufacturers only make a limited subset (or none) of their RH rifles available in LH versions. While I'm pretty good at using suspect logic or rationalizations to justify purchasing something I really want, Cooper's prices have so far stymied that particular weakness of mine. Every time I think about it seriously, I seem to wind up settling for a pair of LH Sako 85's in my mind instead.