Back in April 2008, the brains behind Cerberus Capital Management (the brains behind sticking the U.S. taxpayer with the bill for cratering Chrysler) bought Bushmaster Firearms. Cerberus Sig Sigma-ed the company. In December 2010, Cerberus shuttered Bushmaster’s Windham, Maine factory and transferred production to their under-utilized Remington manufacturing ops. This master plan left Bushmaster’s core behind: the man who ran the joint and the people who’d made the brand what it was (before they made rifles that jumped into full-auto mode). Six years after cashing the check, Bushmaster founder Richard Dyke’s wife has grown tired of his seeing him mope around the house [guessing]. And his non-compete is finally up. Dykes has formed a new firearms company called Windham Weaponry. According to pressherald.com the new manufacturer will . . .

make rifles and employ as many as half of the 73 people who worked at the Bushmaster plant, which closed earlier this year. More employees may be hired before the end of the year, said a news release.

“A group of investors felt there was a great opportunity for a new company when Bushmaster Firearms International LLC decided to relocate the company to another state and lay off all its employees,” said the release. “These employees in many cases have 25 years of experience in making one of the finest rifles in the world.”

Windham Weaponry will operate in the Windham Business Park and begin production in July, with initial shipments scheduled for September.

All great brands start with a great product. We’ll be watching.

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27 COMMENTS

  1. Sign me up I will take one!! Support small over large. Local over corporation. RF do you have a link for there products yet? Also if they need a product tester I will gladly take one for the team. :>)

  2. As a Maine resident, and firearms enthusiast, this is great news. I wonder if they are hiring Engineer/gun-nuts…

  3. The editor missed this little error: “Thirteen years after cashing the check…”

    Bushmaster sold in 2006. So more like six years after that deposit and the expiry of the non-compete.
    “The investor group is led by Richard Dyke, who founded Bushmaster and sold the company in April 2006 to a New York City-based private equity firm, Cerberus Capital Management, for an undisclosed sum.”

  4. Robert: Six sigma should have improved the company. Back in the old days we called it statistical process control and it is what saved post-war Japan, and Harley along with JIT. My current company practices something similar and we have extermely low defect rates. If Cerberus was truly practicing it, they wouldn’t be churning out lever-action baseball bats.

  5. The street prices of ‘Bushies’ have plummeted recently, and I suspect the factory move and layoff is the reason. A neighbor at the shooting range just picked up a Bushmaster AR, tricked out with lots of Magpul goodies, for under $700 new.

    I guess we should call them ‘Bushingtons’ now, and I’m glad Dyke is back in the game to show the Freedom Group how it’s done.

  7. I know it’s a pipe dream, but I sure would like to see my 15 shot .44 magnum or .357 magnum “M1 Carbine” made one day. Simple wood stock, Hi Viz sights, a lightweight and easily slung “jack of all trades” carbine with a steel heel and butt cap and just a simple small tactical light under the barrel, with a ventilated hand guard. It could be a close range hunter, security rifle, an American AK.

    • I like your idea yet I’ve read that the .357 cartridge is not well-designed to work in a magazine fed semi-auto carbine. I have a Ruger SP101 .357 and am considering the Marlin 1894C .357 lever action carbine to match it with. I’m not aware of any other categories of carbines (non-lever action) that will take the .357 cartridge.

      I’m considering matching my Ruger SR9C 9mm semi-auto with the Kel-Tec Sub2000 16″ barrel 9mm semi-auto that can take Glock magazines. That long 16″ barrel allegedly kicks up the velocity of those 9mm bullets to almost .357 velocities (if I understand that one correctly).

  9. What is more exciting is what innovations and quality standards Windham Weaponry will come up with. Given a few months to adjust themselves as they get together, i’m pretty sure that the future will show their real strengths. I’m getting an SRC as I mothball my original Bushmaster as a collectible. I would like to see WW come up with the 7.62 and the 6.8 versions in both GIS and piston actions not to mention their version of the 7.5″ pistol in 5.56. These guys are hotshots and I’m pitching my dollar to this new company. More power and God bless WW!

    • I read they are going to expand eventually to make state legal guns for california. as well as an assortment of other fire arms. I am hyped just got the WW MPC. I am so in Love.

  12. I have shot just about all the semi-auto and revolvers that have been in production over 23 years in law enforcement. I have shot a limited amount on the AR styles of semi-auto rifles. I found a “Bushington” type of AR in a nationally recognized discount store and I had considered purchesing it. However, I have a friend I work with who is a former Army Ranger (From Maine by the way) who turned me on to Windham. After finding the web-site I am sold and going out to a gun show this weekend and purchesing my first Windham AR type weapon in .223. If, all works out I would really like to find a Semi-auto AR style weapon in .44 Mag. specs. Y’all keep up the good work. John Bailey

  15. I am interested in purchasing an AR15 .223 from Windham Weaponry. Would like
    to know if i can get it direct or have to go threw a local dealer. Also, would like to
    purchase a hard case with that AR15 .223.

    Thank You,
    Franklin Allen

  16. Just bought one of you AR-15s,,I love that it is made in the U.S.A….Awesome product for a good price..Im happy Windham started up..Nothing is better than American workers building American products in America..Thanks guys..

  18. Purchased my first AR ever….SRC. The gun store helped with some modifications, but I was happily surprised with the quality and pricing. Visiting in the midwest and gun stores were unfamiliar with the brand. Not one model at the Virginia Gun show in Hampton. The word needs to get out. Even this web page does not have Windham listed as a manufacturer.

  19. do you also have a phoenix az manufacturing plant? i bought your ar carbon fiber version and phx az is stamped on it?

  20. Doesn’t matter whether it is Maine or Arizona, it is still made in the USA.

  21. I sell firearms retail, and I always suggest Windham over Bushmaster, for a multitude of reasons!

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