Supply-line strains caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, along with heightened awareness of the critical role guns play in self-defense, have extended lead times for firearms produced by Big Horn Armory (BHA). To address the situation, the manufacturer is hiring more employees, obtaining a new and larger building, purchasing additional machinery and doubling suppliers.
“We hope to increase our manufacturing capabilities two to three times over the next year,” said Greg Buchel, owner of BHA. “Much of this will involve new personnel in our assembly and quality control departments. We have a core workforce of excellent people right now and we intend to use these people to train and orient our new personnel to create more of the fine products that we currently produce for our customers.”
BHA will be doubling its workforce in the next few months in the manufacturing department. A new building will increase the manufacturing space by 500 percent and, in addition to providing more manufacturing space, will also offer better facilities for maintaining inventory. New machinery will include CNC mills and lathes and barrel-making equipment, which will help reduce dependency on outside vendors.
“Our firearms are not purchases made on a whim, but thoughtful investments in heirloom-quality rifles aimed at giving you the biggest bang for your buck,” Buchel said. “We know our customers want these rifles, and we want to give them to them. We’re working our hardest to get our firearms out the door and into our customers’ hands. We appreciate our customers’ patience as they bear with us as we continue to fulfill our orders and implement these changes to meet our customers’ needs.”
Big Horn Armory was founded in 2008 with the express intention of designing a Browning-type lever-action gun chambered in .500 S&W Mag. The resulting Big Horn Armory Model 89, made in America, closely follows the work of John Browning with refinements courtesy of modern metallurgy and machining capabilities. Since then, the company has expanded to offer a wide line of firearms, including the AR500 reviewed last year by American Rifleman seen above.
