Gun Companies, how big are they, actually?

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Staff
I got to wondering about this, a thought bought on by the wait times for repair different outfits have.

People seem to assume that the "big" gunmakers are like the "big" car makers, and have thousands or tens of thousands of employees.

I don't think this is the case. I think the big guys (S&W, Ruger, Remington, etc) have a few hundred, perhaps several hundred, but not thousands, even counting office workers and clerks.

Does anyone know, and have rough figures? Don't need precision, just wondering if, for example, S&W employs 300, 600 or 800 people or 2K+ kind of numbers.

Also would be interested in rough percentages of how many are actual shop floor workers vs management/sales types.

If, for example, you have 800 on your payroll, but only 250 are shop workers, and all but as few doing production work, not repair, some wait time seems inevitable.

Anyway, just looking to satisfy my curiosity, people seem to think the big gun makers have armies of employees like GM or Ford, so there ought to be no, or very little wait, but I don't think this is the case.

Anyone know?

Thanks.
 
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LeverGunFan

New member
Ruger is a publicly traded company and has numerous reports on their investor relations webpage. As of February 1, 2019, they had 1,830 full time employees.

Henry is a privately held company; the current year Henry catalog states that they have over 500 employees.

I'd guess that Ruger may the largest single manufacturer with their combined rifle and handgun production. Henry is about the 5th largest long gun manufacturer. The other companies are probably more difficult to pin down as to size and number of employees as their situation is a bit murky due to mergers and acquisitions by large holding companies.

Generally companies try to limit the size of overhead staff, as it's the product that makes money. As an example, one of the Ruger reports stated that there are 14 employees who service all of the distributors of Ruger products and also call on retailers and law enforcement agencies.
 
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Aguila Blanca

Staff
I've toured the Colt factory, but the front office handles both the military and civilian sides, and in the factory the defense arms part of the factory was off limits so I can't really estimate the size of the total work force.

I toured the Para-Ordnance factory when they were still in Canada. I would estimate the total work force at between 150 and 200 people, maximum.
 
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FrankenMauser

New member
Some things that I do know:

Ruger claims more than 2,000 employees, with all businesses and locations combined (including the commercial foundry - formerly "Pine Tree Castings").

Before Remington bought them, Marlin operated with up to about 300 total employees (depending upon market demand).

A few years ago, I heard that Remington had trimmed Marlin's head count to about 140; but that may just be the people involved in Ilion, NY, that worked both Remington and Marlin products - with additional Remington-only employees on location. I can't find current employment numbers for Remington at Ilion; but they claim to have hit more than 1,300 at the location in 2014.

Mayfield, KY, accounted for another 230 employees, before it closed. (Originally all Remington work. Later primarily Marlin, with some Remington.)

Huntsville, AL, was expanded to a claimed 450 employees in 2018, after a bunch of the "consolidations" that included Mayfield. ...But they laid off 200 employees just before Christmas. So who knows now?... They promised the state 1,000 jobs (and "hopefully" closer to 2,000) in Hunstville in order to get their tax deferments/breaks, and the state has complained that Remington is not living up to their end of the agreement.


Smaller side:
I was told by Cobra (SLC, UT) in 2015 that they were operating with just 23 employees, including the receptionist that never answers the phone. But most of their manufacturing - including the die-cast receivers - was done by contractors in California and northern Utah. They assembled, shipped, and serviced (ha!) in a small space, with a very limited number of people.

When I was a kid, LAR (formerly West Jordan, UT) had 6 employees. When they were shut down to move to Hunstville in 2014(?), 30 employees were reported to be laid off.
 
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FITASC

New member
I'd guess that Ruger may the largest single manufacturer with their combined rifle and handgun production.
Click to expand...

I would think Remington only because they also have their ammo manufacturing operations
 
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LeverGunFan

New member
In terms of firearms produced, 2017 data is the latest released by the ATF and can be seen at this link.

Not clear how to accurately equate production numbers to the number of employees, but it appears that the big producers have thousands of employees.
 
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Aguila Blanca

Staff
LeverGunFan said:
Not clear how to accurately equate production numbers to the number of employees, but it appears that the big producers have thousands of employees.
Click to expand...
I don't think numbers of guns equates to numbers of employees. Modern production technology changes that equation drastically.

I toured Colt and Para-Ordnance within a year or two of each other. Colt had far more employees in the civilian gun manufacturing end (excluding the military part of the building), but Para-Ordnance was making and selling as many guns (to civilians) or more than Colt. At that time, Colt had not yet moved heavily into CNC machining. I watched individual machinists working on things like 1911 sears and slide stops, as well as slides and receivers.

At Para-Ordnance, I watched one man set up a "Christmas tree" of a bout a dozen receivers, to be fed into a CNC machine. Once he pushed the button, it was all automatic, and the machine spit out a dozen finished receivers, machined to closer tolerances than Colt's most experienced unionized machinists working on 100+ year old milling machines, lathes, and drill presses. The head of quality control told me the CNC machines are adjusted to a tolerance of 1/10,000 of an inch, so the finished parts can be held to a tolerance of 1/1,000 of an inch. Manual machining can't hold those tolerances for piece after piece after piece, and can't come close to matching the throughput.

And Para-Ordnance used MIM manufacturing to produce small parts like slide stops, hammers, grip safeties, etc. Say what you want about MIM, it's what the large manufacturers are using, and it eliminates labor. Colt had to have someone manually machine each slide stop and sear. At Para-Ordnance, they came out of an oven on trays of fifty at a time, like Christmas cookies, requiring NO additional machining.
 
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