As the future via wind/unwind/rebrand/whatever of Vista Outdoor (NYSE: VSTO) continues, there’s a frequently recurring question: “what’s going to happen to (your favorite Vista property here)?”
The honest answer? At this point, we haven’t a clue. That’s why most of the people employed by any of Vista’s plethora of companies are, putting it conservatively, “concerned” at their futures.
Yesterday morning, however, one piece of the Vista pie of particular concern to shooters and hand-loaders learned some good news about their collective future.
RCBS, the company founded by shooting enthusiast Fred T. Huntington in Oroville, California, in 1943 has been acquired by another longtime industry stalwart, Hodgdon Powder.
Both companies have grown well beyond their modest, and similar, beginnings. Hodgdon, unlike RCBS, has remained a family owned/run business. RCBS has passed through multiple corporate hands. It was first acquired by Omark Industries in 1976. Since then, RCBS has been owned by Blount, Inc, Alliant Techsystems (ATK) and eventually winding up in the ATK spinoff Vista Outdoor, Inc.
Now, two companies that have supported hand loaders and precision shooters since their founding will be united under a single ownership.
This acquisition that should please all parties. I’m told that despite the “trepidation” of owning any business in California, RCBS will remain in Oroville.
Adding RCBS to Hodgdon is noteworthy.
With RCBS, Hodgdon can offer a full-service collection of gear and propellants for the “load your own” enthusiasts. Hodgdon, IMR, Winchester, Accurate, Blackthorn 209 and Ramshot powders are “known” and respected powders for every shooting type from rifles, pistols, and shotguns to muzzleloaders. Hodgdon even makes Hodgdon Sporting Fuse -the flexible cord used by military re-enactors to fire their cannon.
RCBS brings the known and trusted paraphernalia necessary to perform the actual reloading, from dies and presses to case primers, powder chargers and all the miscellaneous tools, including kits for moulding your own bullets.
Hodgdon also offers something that’s likely very valuable to RCBS employees: stability.
Everyone working for a Vista property today is wondering what the future will bring.
Hodgdon officials have no plans to disrupt a stable and successful business. That means RCBS remains in Oroville’s immediate future.
Considering the companies across the business spectrum that are pulling up stakes and leaving California for a variety of well-known reasons, that should be good news to the state of California as well. Unfortunately, it is California and no one has accused anyone in Sacramento of being favorably disposed toward any firearm-related business.
Speaking of unfavorably disposed toward all firearm-related business, the Commerce Department’s BIS move to essentially punish the firearms industry by making export of domestic firearms more difficult- if not outright impossible, isn’t happening quite as seamlessly as the Biden administration had hoped.
Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) warned the Department of Commerce that the BIS import regulation changes would be a “no-go” with Congress. Now, other Senators are joining Hagerty in making their displeasure known.
Earlier this week, we told you that Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) was announcing a Congressional Review Act (CRA) Resolution of Disapproval to block the Commerce Department’s Interim Final Rule from taking effect.
That rule, in case you’ve not been keeping up, would make permanent export freezes the Biden Administration initially announced on October 27, 2023. Ostensibly only a “90 Day Pause” to review firearm export policies. The 90-day pause lasted more than 180 days, drove some small companies out of business, and became a clear attempt to undermine the Export Control Reforms for firearms and ammunition initiated under the Obama administration and completed under the Trump administration.
Senator Hagerty was joined by 10 Senate co-sponsors in the initial announcement. Today, we’re told there are others lined up to add their names to the Resolution of Disapproval.
Incidentally, the rule is still open for public comment. You can make your (respectful, non-profane) objections to the Interim Final Rule regarding “Firearms License Approval" known here. The comment period closes July 1.
The NSSF’s Larry Keane summed this administration’s position up pretty well in the NSSF’s support for the Hagerty Resolution. “…there is not a sleight-of-hand they won’t play to advance their anti-gun agenda,” Keane said, “President Joe Biden’s hostility against Second Amendment rights and our industry clearly shows no bounds and he’s used every government lever to crank up punishing restrictions that will have no bearing on improving national security or crime reduction.”
That’s the crux of the matter. The administration has unsuccessfully tried to label every anti-gun move they’ve made as “crime reduction” or “national security” steps, all designed to make us all safer.
There’s one small problem they can’t seem to overcome: none of the data that they claim to use as the reasoning behind their decisions says what they say it does. In “the pause” they claimed to be trying to stop the illegal flow of civilian firearms that were used in international crimes. In fact, only about one percent of guns recovered from crime scenes fit that descriptor.
Brings a childhood phrase to mind: “Liar, liar, pants on fire.”
We’ll keep you posted.
— Jim Shepherd
