What is Vista Outdoor?

In spite of being a huge player in the firearms and ammo industry, Vista Outdoor is a name you may not be particularly familiar with. But to be an educated member of the firearms community, it’s definitely a company you should know about. Let’s take a look at Vista Outdoor, their history, its products, and the uncertain future it faces.

What is Vista Outdoor: History and Background

Today, Vista Outdoor is one of the biggest ammunition conglomerates in the world. But it wasn't always the titanic company it is today.

Vista’s story begins in 2001. That’s the year aerospace and defense company Alliant Techsystems (also known as “ATK”) entered the ammunition sector. Through sales to law enforcement and private citizens, ATK started making a significant profit.

In 2014, ATK decided that it was going to shake things up. The company merged its defense aerospace wings with another company while spinning off their ammo holdings into a new company. That company, Vista Outdoors, launched in 2015.

Vista Outdoor’s Products and Brands

Vista is what financial bigwigs call a “house of brands.” That’s a fancy way of saying that it’s a big company that buys up individual brands and keeps them in its portfolio. Currently, Vista owns more than 40 brands.

The company is fairly diversified in the outdoor industry. Outside of ammunition, Vista owns brands like Camp Chef, Simms Fishing Products, and Jimmy Styks Stand-Up Paddleboards. It even bought Fox Racing in 2022.

However, ammunition is Vista’s bread and butter. In fact, it makes about 50% of its money from producing ammo. Vista owns several well-known ammunition brands including:

• CCI: Renowned in the gun world for making premium small-caliber rounds like 22 LR, 9mm, 45 ACP, .357 Magnum, 10mm, and .380 Auto.
• Federal Premium: One of my personal favorite ammunition brands. Federal has a reputation for making some of the best rifle, handgun, and shotgun ammo out there today.
• Remington Ammunition: After Remington declared bankruptcy in 2018, the company sold off various parts of its intellectual property rights. Vista bought the rights to Remington Ammunition, but not any of Remington’s actual firearms.

Additionally, Vista owns the firearms accessory brand Bushnell Outdoor Products. Bushnell is well-known in the firearms industry for importing affordable optics from factories in Korea and Japan.

At one point, Vista owned Savage Arms, too. But it sold that brand in 2016 to reduce some of its outstanding debt.

What the Future Holds

Things haven’t been going particularly well for Vista Outdoor recently. In 2023, years of financial losses led the company to announce it was selling its ammunition business to Czech conglomerate Czechoslovak Group (CSG) for $1.91 billion. Founded in 1995, CSG is one of the biggest companies in the Czech Republic.

In November of 2023, another Czech company, Colt CZ Group, made Vista a competing offer for its ammo brands. Colt CZ Group is famous for its iconic firearms, including the Colt Python and CZ Scorpion. The deal involved merging Colt CZ Group and Vista Outdoor into a new company.

Neither deal has been finalized, and they may still face some legal hurdles. Last week, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen asked the Biden Administration to probe the deals for any national security issues. Her logic is that a foreign company shouldn’t own a sizable portion of America’s ammunition capacity. I’d tend to agree with her.

We’ll see what the future holds for Vista Outdoor. For now, you can still find plenty of Vista products for sale, including some right here at Southern Defense Solutions.