DPMS (Defense Procurement Manufacturing Services) Panther Arms is an

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territor ...

n manufacturer headquartered in

West Columbia, South Carolina West Columbia, formerly Brookland, is a city and commuter town in the suburban eastern sections of Lexington County, South Carolina, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population was 14,988, and the 2019 population estimate was 17,9 ...

, known for its wide range of military and civilian rifles and accessories.

History

Randy Luth founded Defense Procurement Manufacturing Services (DPMS) in 1985 in Osseo, Minnesota, as a precision

machine shop A machine shop or engineering workshop (UK) is a room, building, or company where machining, a form of subtractive manufacturing, is done. In a machine shop, machinists use machine tools and cutting tools to make parts, usually of metal or pla ...

for manufacturing

M203 The M203 is a single-shot 40 mm under-barrel grenade launcher designed to attach to a rifle. It uses the same rounds as the older stand-alone M79 break-action grenade launcher, which utilizes the high-low propulsion system to keep recoil forc ...

, M14 and

M16 The M16 rifle (officially designated Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16) is a family of military rifles adapted from the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle for the United States military. The original M16 rifle was a 5.56×45mm automatic rifle with a 20-rou ...

parts for U.S. military contracts. In the later 1990s, the company employed 30 people selling

Colt 1911 The M1911 (Colt 1911 or Colt Government) is a single-action, recoil-operated, semi-automatic pistol chambered for the .45 ACP cartridge. The pistol's formal U.S. military designation as of 1940 was ''Automatic Pistol, Caliber .45, M1911'' for th ...

and

AR-15 An AR-15-style rifle is any lightweight semi-automatic rifle based on the Colt AR-15 design. The original ArmaLite AR-15 is a scaled-down derivative of Eugene Stoner's ArmaLite AR-10 design. The then Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporat ...

parts and accessories and moved the company to

Becker, Minnesota Becker is a city in Sherburne County, Minnesota, between the Mississippi and Elk Rivers. The population was 4,877 at the 2020 census. Becker is located 46 miles northwest of Minneapolis and 19 miles southeast of St. Cloud. U.S. Highway 10 ...

. DPMS later began producing

AR-15 style rifle An AR-15-style rifle is any lightweight semi-automatic rifle based on the Colt AR-15 design. The original ArmaLite AR-15 is a scaled-down derivative of Eugene Stoner's ArmaLite AR-10 design. The then Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporat ...

s. DPMS moved to

St. Cloud, Minnesota St. Cloud is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the largest population center in the state's central region. The population was 68,881 at the 2020 census, making it Minnesota's 12th-largest city. St. Cloud is the county seat of Stea ...

, in 2004. In 2007, the firm was named one of '' The Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journals "50 fastest-growing privately held companies". DPMS doubled its revenue between 2004–2007 and employed 65 people in 2008. Freedom Group purchased DPMS Panther Arms on December 14, 2007, the same year it purchased

Marlin Firearms Marlin Firearms Co. is an American manufacturer of semi-automatic, lever-action, and bolt-action rifles. In the past, the company, now based in Madison, North Carolina, and formerly based in North Haven, Connecticut, made shotguns, derringers, ...

. Freedom Group was a consortium of firearms manufacturers and was part of

Cerberus Capital Management Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. is an American private equity firm,Leaders Magazine"Providing Economic Opportunity: An Interview with The Honorable Dan Quayle, Chairman, Cerberus Global Investments, LLC". specializing in distressed investing ...

, a New York private equity investment firm. Cerberus combined DPMS with Bushmaster Firearms International,

Remington Arms Remington Arms Company, LLC was an American manufacturer of firearms and ammunition, now broken into two companies, each bearing the Remington name. The firearms manufacturer is ''Remington Arms''. The ammunition business is called ''Remington ...

and Cobb Manufacturing to form the Freedom Group. Remington was the company's immediate corporate parent. On December 20, 2012, Cerberus announced they were selling their Freedom Group brands, including DPMS, based on pressure from a California pension board. DPMS was purchased by JJE Capital Holdings LLC on September 29, 2020, during the Remington bankruptcy proceedings.

Products

The company manufactures AR-15 style rifles chambered in Remington/ 5.56×45mm NATO and

AR-10 The ArmaLite AR-10 is a 7.62×51mm NATO battle rifle designed by Eugene Stoner in the late 1950s and manufactured by ArmaLite (then a division of the Fairchild Aircraft Corporation). When first introduced in 1956, the AR-10 used an innovative co ...

style rifles chambered in Winchester and Remington, among others. The company attracted attention within the firearms industry with its version of the AR-10, the Panther LR-308, earning ''Shooting Illustrated'' 2005 Golden Bullseye Award for "Rifle of the Year". In 2006, the Panther LR-308AP4 earned ''

American Rifleman ''American Rifleman'' is a United States-based monthly shooting and firearms interest publication, owned by the National Rifle Association (NRA). It is the 33rd-most-widely-distributed consumer magazine and the NRA's primary magazine. The magazi ...

'' Golden Bullseye Award for "Rifle of the Year". In 2008, DPMS introduced the LR-338 chambered in the Federal cartridge.

Production relocation

DPMS's St. Cloud production facility with 115 employees was closed and production has been moved to Remington's new non-union facility in

Huntsville, Alabama Huntsville is a city in Madison County, Limestone County, and Morgan County, Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Madison County. Located in the Appalachian region of northern Alabama, Huntsville is the most populous city in th ...

. Remington's

Ilion, New York Ilion is a village in Herkimer County, New York, United States. The population was 7,790 at the 2017 census. The village is at the northern edge of the town of German Flatts, though a tiny portion is in the town of Frankfort. It is south of t ...

, production facility closed down two production lines for their Bushmaster-branded AR-15 style rifle and R-1 1911-pattern pistol, and moved them to Huntsville. In 2014, Remington moved production of two gun lines and 150 jobs from New York to Alabama because of

New York state New York, officially the State of New York, is a U.S. state, state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the List of U.S. ...

's gun laws which banned the sale of those products in the state, and consolidated its production from six locations into Huntsville in order to increase efficiency, and reduce production and labor costs. The six companies being relocated were: Advanced Armament Corp of Lawrenceville, Georgia; Montana Rifleman of Kalispell, Montana; TAPCO; LAR Manufacturing of West Jordan, Utah;

Para USA Para USA (Para) was an American-owned firearms manufacturer. It was the successor to Para-Ordnance, founded in Canada in 1985. It specialized in making M1911-style semi-automatic pistols and components. The company was acquired by Remington Ou ...

(formerly Para-Ordnance); and DPMS.

Notes

External links

DPMS Panther Arms
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dpms Panther Arms Firearm manufacturers of the United States Companies based in Minnesota St. Cloud, Minnesota Cerberus Capital Management companies