DPMS (Defense Procurement Manufacturing Services) Panther Arms is an American manufacturer headquartered in West Columbia, South Carolina, known for its wide range of military and civilian rifles and accessories.
Randy Luth founded Defense Procurement Manufacturing Services (DPMS) in 1985 in Osseo, Minnesota, as a precisionmachine shop for manufacturing M203, M14 and M16 parts for U.S. military contracts. In the later 1990s, the company employed 30 people selling Colt 1911 and AR-15 parts and accessories and moved the company to Becker, Minnesota. DPMS later began producing AR-15 style rifles.
On December 20, 2012, Cerberus announced they were selling their Freedom Group brands, including DPMS, based on pressure from a California pension board.[3][1]
DPMS was purchased by JJE Capital Holdings LLC on September 29, 2020, during the Remington bankruptcy proceedings.[4]
The company attracted attention within the firearms industry with its version of the AR-10, the Panther LR-308, earning Shooting Illustrated's 2005 Golden Bullseye Award for "Rifle of the Year". In 2006, the Panther LR-308AP4 earned American Rifleman's Golden Bullseye Award for "Rifle of the Year".[5] In 2008, DPMS introduced the LR-338 chambered in the .338 Federal cartridge.[6]
DPMS's St. Cloud production facility with 115 employees was closed and production has been moved to Remington's new non-union facility in Huntsville, Alabama. Remington's Ilion, New York, production facility closed down two production lines for their Bushmaster-branded AR-15 style rifle and R-1 1911-pattern pistol, and moved them to Huntsville. In 2014, Remington moved production of two gun lines and 150 jobs from New York to Alabama because of New York state's gun laws which banned the sale of those products in the state,[7] and consolidated its production from six locations into Huntsville in order to increase efficiency, and reduce production and labor costs.[8][9][10] The six companies being relocated were: Advanced Armament Corp of Lawrenceville, Georgia; Montana Rifleman of Kalispell, Montana; TAPCO; LAR Manufacturing of West Jordan, Utah; Para USA (formerly Para-Ordnance); and DPMS.
^Rupp, J. Scott (October 1, 2020). "The Remington Sell-Off". RifleShooter. Archived from the original on December 10, 2021. Retrieved December 9, 2021.
