Bushnell Corporation is an American company specializing in sporting optics and outdoor products based in Overland Park, Kansas, and is a subsidiary of Vista Outdoor. Bushnell's products include binoculars, telescopes, spotting scopes, riflescopes, red dot sights, GPS devices, laser rangefinders, game cameras, night vision equipment and other high-end optical equipment. The company also sells Bollé® Performance Eyewear ski goggles and sunglasses (which includes the H2O Optix sunglasses brand) and Serengeti Eyewear all-purpose sunglasses.
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Company history
The company was founded in 1948 by David P. Bushnell when he returned to California from his honeymoon in Japan with two crates of binoculars and sold them by mail order. Bushnell made precision binoculars affordable to middle-class Americans for the first time through a strategy of importing from manufacturers in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan who provided optics to his patented specifications. Bushnell eventually expanded his business to include rifle scopes and spotting scopes. In 1971, Bushnell sold the company to Bausch & Lomb and it was renamed Bushnell Performance Optics. Three years later, Bushnell retired as vice-president of Bausch & Lomb.
In 1999, Bushnell Performance Optics was acquired from Bausch & Lomb by the private equity firm Wind Point Partners through a recapitalization of Bushnell's then parent company, Worldwide Sports & Recreation.
In 2001, Bushnell acquired the Bollé and Serengeti eyewear brands and the Moonlight line of night vision products.
In 2002, Bushnell bought the sporting optics company Tasco. Tasco is a major international distributor of telescopes. The company's line of products mainly target amateur astronomers but has grown to include many products besides telescopes. Tasco's other products include terrestrial spotting scopes, microscopes, binoculars, and telescopic sights and other rifle accessories. Tasco sells through specialty outlets, catalogs, and online vendors.
In 2005, Bushnell acquired Michael's of Oregon. Michael's sold holsters, scope covers, cleaning kits, and other gun accessories under and along the brands Hoppe's, Butler Creek, Stoney Point, and Uncle Mike's Law Enforcement. At the time of its purchase by Bushnell, Michael's earned about $60 million per year in profit. Michael's of Oregon was based in Oregon City. The deal was closed with debt and cash.
In 2007, Bushnell was acquired by MidOcean Partners, another private equity firm, which acquired it in a leveraged recapitalization. The same year, Bushnell acquired the Final Approach and Kolpin Hunting brands from Facilitator Capital Funds, a Wisconsin-based private equity firm. Both brands are well known among duck hunters.
In June 2008, Bushnell acquired the assets of Simmons Outdoor Corporation from Meade Instruments. Simmons manufactured optical goods such as binoculars and riflescopes. Simmons was Bushnell's seventh acquisition since 2001.
On Sept. 5, 2013, Alliant Techsystems announced it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Bushnell. Under the terms of the transaction, ATK paid $985 million in cash, subject to customary post-closing adjustments.
After ATK merged with Orbital Sciences in 2015, it spun off Bushnell and other subsidiaries as Vista Outdoor, a publicly-listed company.
Maps Bushnell Corporation
Brands
Bushnell Outdoor Products is the parent company of these brands:
Products
Optics
- Riflescopes: Bushnell makes variety of hunting and tactical scopes, most famously the "Elite", "Trophy" and "Legend" lines. They won an Editor's Choice award in 2007 for their Elite 4200 6-24x40 scope from Outdoor Life magazine.
- Binoculars: Bushnell sells a wide variety of binoculars and was awarded the Best Buy award from Outdoor Life magazine in 2005 for their Browning Sports Optics binoculars and in 2006 for their Legend binoculars.
- Microscopes
- Telescopes
- Spotting scopes for target shooting, hunting and birdwatching
- Game cameras
- Night vision devices: Bushnell won an OpticsPlanet Brilliance award in 2017 for its night vision products.
- Radar guns for detecting speed in sports
- Simmons Optics, a line of rifle scopes, binoculars, and other optical products.
Under license from EOTech, Bushnell also produced Holosight, a polymer-cased non-magnifying holographic weapon sight that generates an illuminated virtual crosshair that appears to be floating in front of the gun in perfect alignment. The Holosight line was discontinued in 2009.
Bushnell introduced the AR Optics 1-4 scope in 2018. It has a 30mm tube and has an objective lens diameter of 24mm. It has caliber-specific reticles that are illuminated for use in low-light. The AR Optics 1-4 is intended for use with modern sporting rifles.
Outdoor
Bushnell produces WeatherFX personal weather stations for hikers, campers, and others who can use it to keep informed of potentially hazardous weather issues while away from home.
Bushnell created two GPS products in 2006 that are the first such devices to integrate aerial and satellite imagery into the display. They also have integrated XM radio to provide real-time weather data and can overlay weather maps and weather radar info. In 2007 the Onix 400 GPS unit won the "Best of the Best" award from Field & Stream magazine.
Bushnell also has a line of simple GPS devices called Backtrack. They allow users to set up to five locations (depending on the model) and forget about the device until they have to return. The device then uses a digital compass and basic GPS technology to return to the set location.
Bushnell sells SolarWrap and SolarBook solar-cell charging stations for small electronic devices. The SolarWrap wraps around a battery like a scroll when in storage and is unrolled when in use. The SolarBook flips out like the page of an open book.
Radar guns
Bushnell Speedster radar guns are designed for athletes, coaches, trainers, etc. to track speed with an accuracy of +/- 1 mile per hour (1.6 km/h) within a range of 1,500 feet (460 m).
References
External links
- Official website
Source of article : Wikipedia
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