Montana News

Sales double for Kalispell gun parts manufacturer

Posted: Nov 26, 2012 9:40 PM by Dax Van Fossen (Kalispell)

KALISPELL - A Montana gun manufacturer has nearly doubled its manufacturing in just a year.

Montana Rifleman makes firearm barrels and actions at their business just east of Kalispell; when U.S. Representative Denny Rehberg (R-MT) toured the factory last summer, owner Brian Sipe spoke about how his company has produced a total of 143,000 rifle and pistol barrels in the past year.

Sipe estimated that they could produce many more than that in the future.

As of mid-November, Montana Rifleman now figures to have manufactured 312,000 gun parts in 2012.

The company is seeing new business from every direction, filling barrel orders for three major firearms companies in the U.S., Sipe said.

He noted, "We've gotten good contracts over the last five or six years, good customers and it's grown this year, it's out of sight. Probably three of the biggest companies in the country right now, I mean we're making barrels for Remington and Smith & Wesson, but that's just two of the bigger ones."

Sipe said the boom in the gun manufacturing business is due to several reasons, but he feels the largest is because of people worried that President Barack Obama will enact stricter gun ownership laws.