If Montana Rifleman can find more of the machinists it needs to keep on top of orders, Flathead County’s third-quarter jobs numbers in the firearms manufacturing sector will outdo even its impressive second-quarter growth.

According to statistics from the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana, jobs in firearms manufacturing have more than doubled from the second quarter of 2011.

Firearms manufacturing jobs officially listed by the bureau were at 129 in 2009, dropped to 58 in the fourth quarter of 2010, but have rebounded considerably since then. 

While current numbers aren’t available, there are several hundred jobs connected to the firearms industry in Flathead County.

In Flathead County alone there are more than 120 federal firearms licenses.

Total payroll jumped from $891,000 in 2011 to more than $2 million this year in the local gun industry. 

State statistics show that there are 12 firearms manufacturing entities in Flathead County in 2012; in 2011 there were 10. The number was at four in 2004; manufacturing sites have tripled in less than a decade. 

Montana Rifleman alone provides around 170 of the jobs and could easily hire more, founder Brian Sipe said, if more trained machinists were available. Finding machinists trained in programming and operating Computer Numerical Control equipment is a challenge, he said.

Some of the area’s other major firearms employers include SI Defense, which makes AR rifles, with more than 50 in its work force. Proof Research of Kalispell, which creates lightweight weapons using carbon-fiber barrels, employs 29 people and says it is planning on hiring more. 

Defiance Machine near Columbia Falls had 44 employees earlier this year making rifle actions, trigger mechanisms and an assault rifle platform.

NEMO employs 12 people at its plant in south Kalispell where it assembles assault rifles, and has more workers in training to start in December. McGowen Precision Barrels has a staff of 16 and is expecting production growth to continue.

These are just the largest operations; there are many other smaller outfits involved in the firearms industry.  

Flathead Valley Community College started a gunsmithing program last summer, which will help fill the local need for gun-industry workers with technical skills. 

"The firearms industry is an important and quickly growing industry sector in the Flathead Valley,” said Joe Unterreiner, president of the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce. “Their innovative work with advanced materials and design and their quality workmanship are gaining national attention. We are pleased that this sector is providing an increasing number of well-paid jobs.”

The firearms industry is part of what drove the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce to recently create a Manufacturers Roundtable. The group aims to help the valley meet the unique needs of manufacturers, diversify the economy, drive innovation and create high-wage jobs. 

“One of the reasons we're forming the Manufacturing Roundtable is to better serve the firearms industry and other manufacturing sectors and to help advance the business climate in which they can thrive,” Unterreiner said.  

Reporter Heidi Gaiser may be reached at 758-4439 or by email at hgaiser@dailyinterlake.com.