TexasCHLforum.com

A Spanish-owned ammunition manufacturer broke ground Wednesday for construction of a plant that will employ about 60 people in Marshall.

Rio Ammunition, a division of Maxam Outdoors, is building a 105,000-square-foot facility to produce shotgun shells and serve as its U.S. headquarters.

Story here: Longview News-Journal

News release say they plan to up and running by November. WoW! Dogwoods and Buckshot!

Hope they make .22's! LOL

Teamless wrote:Hope they make .22's! LOL

And .45, .40, .357, 9mm, .308 and .223, too.

TEA wrote:

Teamless wrote:Hope they make .22's! LOL

And .45, .40, .357, 9mm, .308 and .223, too.

They only have 5.56mm, but according to their website "Look for additional calibers in popular pistol and rifle chamberings to come in the future." The 5.56mm is made in Denmark, but we can hope!

AndyC wrote:I like Rio shotshells - this is good news

I agree!

Could have saved a bunch of money if they were willing to take one of the buildings available just up the road at the closed Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant.

That's my hometown.

couzin wrote:Could have saved a bunch of money if they were willing to take one of the buildings available just up the road at the closed Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant.

Perhaps they will save a bunch of money by custom-building a plant that meets all modern manufacturing needs.

An older building may not have the proper layout, electrical system, and the ability to expand (since they
appear to be ready to add more calibers to their offerings).

SIA

surprise_i'm_armed wrote:

couzin wrote:Could have saved a bunch of money if they were willing to take one of the buildings available just up the road at the closed Longhorn Army Ammunition Plant.

Perhaps they will save a bunch of money by custom-building a plant that meets all modern manufacturing needs.

An older building may not have the proper layout, electrical system, and the ability to expand (since they
appear to be ready to add more calibers to their offerings).

SIA

I would venture the old LAAP is rife with asbestos and other contaminants. They manufactured everything from TNT, to rocket engines to flares and other pyrotechnics in the past and the site was used to destroy Minutemen missiles. Rocket fuel has lots of "baddies" in it.
Asbestos abatement is extremely costly.

Without saying too much - I was part of the BRAC AMC 'team'. We sold fee simple what was uncontaminated, remediated or contained what could be and leased them, and secured areas that just were too sensitive (including wildlife or cultural areas) and either kept or leased or fee sold them to State, local, or Federal interests. Most of the fee simple 'deals' and even the leases came with both Federal and State/local incentives to modernize the buildings and/or properties. Of course, the point is moot - and I am happy to see Rio come to Texas, especially East Texas!

Motorcycle Field Trip.

couzin wrote:Without saying too much - I was part of the BRAC AMC 'team'. We sold fee simple what was uncontaminated, remediated or contained what could be and leased them, and secured areas that just were too sensitive (including wildlife or cultural areas) and either kept or leased or fee sold them to State, local, or Federal interests. Most of the fee simple 'deals' and even the leases came with both Federal and State/local incentives to modernize the buildings and/or properties. Of course, the point is moot - and I am happy to see Rio come to Texas, especially East Texas!

Thanks. I read originally the facility was on 10,000 acres, so I assume it has been parceled. What was the time frame for all this? I love east Texas and we used to try to get there for the Dogwoods. The kids always loved Marshall Pottery, too. Had a friend in Jefferson that owned a restaurant. Cool little town. I remember seeing little bunkers along the bayou used to store ammo manufactured there during the Civil War. Back in the 80's I met a guy from the Longview area who said he'd spent half his life getting out of East Texas and was spending the last half trying to get back.

Longhorn was about 8500 acres. About 900 went to the Caddo Lake Institute (Don Henley's group), the rest went to Fish and Wildlife Service. Cleanup continues out there, many of the buildings have been demolished, and as areas become available they are transferred to F&W. As an aside - LBJ was the proponent behind location of Longhorn. Directly benefiting from it was the Taylor family who owned a big chunk of the land. If you are a Texan - you already know that Lady Bird was a Taylor - the rest is history.