Favorite Brands Shouldn’t Vanish After They Get Acquired

There’s an undeniable truth in serving gunsmithing clients. They are hugely loyal to the name on a firearm or firearm accessory. The loyalty remains strong unless and until there’s a drop-off in quality or performance, or until the item has gone out of production. As an example, I’ve always favored a preference for Millett scope rings and bases on rifles. When properly installed they refuse to lose zero even after thousands of rounds have been put through the gun.

Of course, I omit any lost zeros due to dropping the rifle on a rock or trying to wrap it around a tree when a deer got away due to lousy marksmanship. I remember a time when it required a no risk guarantee from yours truly to convince a dyed-in-the-wool Brand Xlover to try the Milletts. They didn’t let me down. From then on it was Millett rings and bases installed on, or replace what was already installed on, every rifle and handgun the former Brand Xfan ever owned.

At a time not long ago Millett occupied SHOT floor space near or equal to room rented by the major firearm manufacturers. I always enjoyed spending some of my time in the Millett exhibit. I liked the products. I liked the people promoting the products. I trusted them, too. After Tom Millett, the company founder and guiding light, passed on the floor space shrunk. Eventually, it shrunk to zero. Though Brownells continue to offer the product line I still wondered what had become of the company and those people.

This year, the answer hit me right between the eyes when I turned a certain corner on the vast SHOT Show floor. The "booth" looked more like a general store. Huge letters over its entrance spelled out BUSHNELL. The light dawned. Millett is now an acquisition of Bushnell Outdoor Products. This, as I later discovered, was the result of a chain reaction begun by Mid Ocean Partners, a private equity firm, that acquired Bushnell in 1999 from another private equity firm, Wind Point Partners.

Mid Ocean wisely kept the chain reaction going and in 2008 Bushnell acquired the assets of Simmons Outdoor. This practice of acquiring companies whose products mesh profitably with and expand ones own line reflects the history of Bushnell. The company still bearing that name dates back to 1776 and built the first submarine used to wage war called the Turtle because it looked like one when in the water.

Its inventor and builder was David Bushnell, who also proved gunpowder would explode under water while still a student at Yale. In developing his submarine, Bushnell applied the use of water to submerge and raise it, a practice that remains the same today. A full size model of the Turtle is on display at the US Navy Submarine Force Museum in Groton, Connecticut. In amazing contrast to the model and permanently anchored in the river outside the museum is the world’s first nuclear powered submarine, the Nautilus.

A final connection between the Turtle came in 1948. In that year, an American entrepreneur, David P. Bushnell, a first cousin on the sub’s inventor, entered the optical business by importing and selling high quality binoculars most US citizens could afford. The binoculars sold well. Soon, Bushnell became a familiar name on rifle scopes, spotting scopes and telescopes and became Bushnell Corporation.

After extending its line to GPS devices, night vision equipment, laser rangefinders, holographic sights, game cameras and Weather FX, a personal forecaster for hikers and hunters, the brand name was expanded to include the present, more all-encompassing Bushnell Outdoor Products. All the acquisitions and resulting growth have followed the origi-

Above and Focus for both is done simultaneously, images can be viewed on the flip-out color LCD and saved on a SD card. nal Bushnell mission statement: To develop and market superior optical products that enhance the experience of outdoor and sports enthusiasts. Admirable and ambitious but followed up by what? More of the same. In my opinion, there isn’t a lemon or stranger on the Bushnell Outdoor Products tree. Sure beats acquiring a company or product just to milk it and dump it. Don’t you agree?

AG American Gunsmithing Association