Have you ever wondered where the reloading equipment you use comes from? Where and how it is made, who designed it, how things are assembled and tested? I have! And I just got some related first-hand experience when I visited Lyman headquarters in Middletown Connecticut. During my visit I got to see the factory, meet the team, and even get a behind-the-scenes look at some products to come. So I wanted to share with you some highlights from my factory tour, here it is! 

Lyman Headquarters: 100,000 sf Facility

Above- The moment when I showed up at Lyman Headquarters talking with Marketing Specialist Chris Lindblom. I rolled up on a beautiful early Fall day- and I couldn’t wait to find out what was in store when I would go inside!

The building is HUGE! Engineer Spencer Karoll was my tour guide, and it took the better part of the day to see each area, meet the people that work at Lyman, and film the whole adventure. Here’s a snapshot from my discussion with Spencer in the CNC machining shop:

When you step into this area of the plan- it’s pure action! Lots of parts on racks, material waiting to be machined, CNC machines running, and machinists running machines. Lyman is one of the few companies to use American cast iron, an American manufacturing facility, with American labor start-to-finish. They are able to do this because of how efficient their process has become. Heavy iron comes from nearby and is machined/assembled on-site, and then shipped to distributors and retailers. Outsourcing (like powder coat) is done close-by as to avoid excessive transport cost and to quicken turnaround time. Quite an Impressive operation!

On-Site Engineering, Broad Job Descriptions

The great thing about a medium-sized corporation is the tight knit work environment. At Lyman headquarters you have the CEO (I’ll post an interview with him shortly!), the Engineering team, the Marketing team, machinists, laboratory staff, and warehouse workers all under one roof. As Spencer mentioned in the video: it’s great to be a Mechanical Engineer, and to also have involvement in manufacturing, assembly, product development, and marketing (see my SHOT Show interview from 2019 with Spencer). There’s an inherent efficiency as well- if you’ve worked in a large corporation like I have, I don’t need to explain!

One thing was clear to me during my plant tour at Lyman: these people care very much about what they do, and the products they bring to market. And that means a LOT!

Poised for the Future

Lyman as a company has quite a history and reputation in the industry, but they are 100% looking to the future. During my Lyman trip, I had the opportunity to talk with Lyman CEO Rick Ranzinger at length (both on camera and off camera). I was able to learn from him first hand how Lyman is looking to the future. There’s a lot of innovation they are working on with the Lyman family of brands. You can read about these brands if you click on this image:

When it comes to the future, you can’t leave out Lyman’s latest acquisition and partnership: Mark 7 Reloading! Completed earlier in 2019, this “joining of forces” will allow the technology and innovation from Mark 7 to benefit from the manufacturing scale that Lyman has in-house. I could tell from talking with Rick that he’s very excited about this new product category for Lyman.

Above: The Mark 7 Revolution: the most sophisticated and technically advanced reloading system outside of commercial equipment.

What will the future of Lyman look like? I really hope you’re subscribed because I’ll be bringing you all of the updates as new products are released. And how about Mark 7? I’ll also be bringing you a ton of stories covering this exciting technology. More on that very soon!

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Thanks,
Gavin