Tag Archives: atf annual firearms manufacturers and export report

Who Made the Most Guns in 2021?

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I visited Daniel Defense a few years back on a factory tour and really dug it. Surprisingly, they are only the 10th most prolific American rifle producer. 

The latest statistics from federal regulators point to a big jump in production for the most recent year available.

The current Annual Firearms Manufacturers and Export Report, released by the ATF late last month, covers the 2021 calendar year. The finalized AFMER is purposely a year behind to protect industry secrets and to allow for all of the data to be compiled. The total figures for 2021 amounted to 13,129,493 firearms* of all types– pistols (6,751,919), revolvers (1,159,918), shotguns (675,426), rifles (3,934,374), and miscellaneous (1,283,282).

*Keep in mind this is just for modern small arms made in America and doesn’t include imports from overseas or muzzleloaders.

When compared to the finalized 2020 year-end figures of 11,064,078, the latest figures represent a significant 18.7 percent increase.

Diving deeper into the overall totals for 2021, I did a lot of Excel spreadsheet sorting to look at the largest manufacturers in terms of quantity in each category.

Top 10 Pistol Makers

  1. Smith & Wesson (Columbia, Missouri) 1,648,885 pistols
  2. SIG Sauer (Newington, New Hampshire) 1,213,403
  3. Sturm, Ruger (Prescott AZ, Newport, NH & Mayodan NC) 1,058,080
  4. Glock Inc. (Smyrna, Georgia) 581,944
  5. Taurus Intl Mfg. (Bainbridge, Georgia) 290,780
  6. Kimber Mfg. Inc. (Troy, Alabama) 255,175
  7. SCCY Industries (Daytona Beach, Florida) 216,932
  8. Springfield (Geneseo, Illinois) 148,264
    FN America (Columbia, South Carolina) 132,205
  9. Beretta USA Corp (Gallatin, Tennessee) 129,965

Top 10 Revolver Makers

  1. Heritage Manufacturing (Bainbridge, Georgia) 492,584 revolvers
  2. Sturm, Ruger (Newport, New Hampshire) 276,015
  3. Smith & Wesson (Columbia, Missouri) 232,357
  4. Colt’s Manufacturing (West Hartford, Connecticut) 65,062
  5. North American Arms (Provo, Utah) 57,142
  6. Kimber Mfg. Inc. (Troy, Alabama) 16,975
  7. Standard Mfg. Co (New Britain, Connecticut) 11,602
  8. Automated Finishing Co (Attleboro, Massachusetts) 2,053
  9. Magnum Research (Pillager, Minnesota) 1,833
  10. Nighthawk Custom (Berryville, Arkansas) 1,110

Top 10 Rifle Makers

  1. Sturm, Ruger (Newport, NH & Mayodan NC) 735,857 rifles
  2. Springfield (Geneseo, Illinois) 442,486
  3. Smith & Wesson (Columbia, Missouri) 427,368
  4. Savage Arms (Westfield, Massachusetts) 392,880
  5. Henry Repeating Arms (Rice Lake, Wisconsin) 296,948
  6. Diamondback Firearms (Cocoa, Florida) 133,162
  7. Radical Firearms (Stafford, Texas) 99,954
  8. SIG Sauer (Newington, New Hampshire) 80,129
  9. Keystone Sporting Arms (Milton, Pennsylvania) 76,860
  10. Daniel Defense (Black Creek, Georgia) 76,729

Top 10 Shotgun Makers

  1. Maverick Arms (Eagle Pass, Texas) 292,944 shotguns
  2. Legacy Sports (Reno, Nevada) 161,099
  3. KelTec (Cocoa, Florida) 46,737
  4. RemArms (Ilion, New York) 45,277
  5. Beretta USA (Gallatin, Tennessee) 24,210
  6. IWI US (Middletown, Pennsylvania) 15,965
  7. Henry Repeating Arms (Rice Lake, Wisconsin) 15,865
  8. Savage Arms (Westfield, Massachusetts) 13,352
  9. International Firearms Corp (Midwest City, Oklahoma) 11,423
  10. Standard Mfg. Co (New Britain, Connecticut) 9,435

Top 10 Misc Firearms makers

This category, besides being a catch-all for everything that cannot be classified by the ATF as a pistol, rifle, revolver, or shotgun, gets its large numbers due to standalone receivers (which for instance can be assembled into rifles or pistols for instance) and non-shotgun “firearms” such as the Mossberg Shockwave and RemArms Tac-13/Tac-14.

  1. WM Anderson (Hebron, Kentucky) 471,787
  2. Aero Precision (Tacoma, Washington) 174,091
  3. Maverick Arms (Eagle Pass, Texas) 104,258
  4. Century Arms (Georgia, Vermont) 66,631
  5. Black Rain Ordnance (Neosho, Missouri) 62,343
  6. KE Arms (Phoenix, Arizona) 37,261
  7. Senga Engineering (Santa Ana, California) 23,324
  8. 3rd Gen Machine (Logan, Utah) 19,656
  9. RemArms (Ilion, New York) 16,516
  10. Noreen Firearms (Belgrade, Montana) 15,073