Made in Texas: The story behind Mossberg & Sons, the oldest family-owned firearm manufacturer in the US

Mossberg 4X4 30-06

HOUSTONWelcome to Made in Texas, where we write about products made in the Lone Star State.

Today, we’re featuring the shotguns created by the oldest family-owned firearm manufacturer in the U.S., O.F. Mossberg & Sons, Inc.

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The product

Mossberg firearms were originally created in Connecticut by founder Oscar Mossberg and his sons Iver and Harold. But since 1989, a significant amount of the company’s product has been manufactured in the Lone Star State.

The story behind the Mossberg company and why it moved to Texas

O.F. Mossberg & Sons, Inc., the largest pump-action shotgun manufacturer in the world and the oldest family-owned and operated firearms manufacturer in America, entered the firearm industry in March of 1919 out of New Haven, Connecticut, according to the company’s website.

By 1989, over 90 percent of the company’s total production was based in Eagle Pass at its subsidiary facility Maverick Arms Inc., according to the American Rifle Man website.

In 2014, Mossberg decided to have a 116,000-square-foot expansion of the Texas factory after the state of Connecticut passed a gun-control bill that banned some of the company’s most popular products, according to a Forbes article.

Today, the company still has its corporate headquarters in Connecticut but almost all firearms are manufactured in Texas.


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