New Factory For Hydra Weaponry

Been to the Hydra Weaponry website lately? If so, you might notice some out-of-stock notices, but that should start changing soon. The Maine-based firearms maker has just announced an expansion to a larger manufacturing facility.

Hydra Weaponry @ TFB:

• Hydra Weaponry Introduces The Hydra 10 in 308 Win
• [SHOT 2024] Hydra Weaponry Has Survival Pistol and Modular AR Components
• Hail Hydra. MGI Multi-caliber AR

Survival story

If you aren’t familiar with the Hydra Weaponry name, it might be because they’ve gone through changes over the past years. They’re based in Maine, making designs pioneered by firearms inventor Mack Gwinn Jr.; while Gwinn died last winter, his family is still tied to the company and still builds semi-autos inspired by Gwinn’s experiences as a special forces soldier in Vietnam.

Those weapons include the BMP-23, which is basically a modern recreation of the old Bushmaster survival pistol. Gwinn originally designed this pistol to work as a survival firearm for shot-down pilots in Vietnam. It can be fired from either hand, with the grip shifting its angle to fit the user’s ergonomics. It uses AR-style mags.

These include AR-10 pattern rifles in full-power cartridges. Called the MARCK-10, these rifles can switch out the upper quickly to handle another cartridge of similar length to .308.

Caliber interchangeability is a key part of Hydra’s design ethos, and that’s especially on display with their Hydra Survival Package, which ships with an AR rifle with 5.56 barrel, along with a .300 Blackout barrel, a 7.62x39 barrel and parts to facilitate conversion to those calibers as well as conversion parts to turn the rifle into a pistol-caliber carbine. See more details here.

Hydra also sells individual parts to convert your rifle to other calibers, including their Modular Magazine Well. When used in conjunction with their Hydra System action/barrel design, these allow shooters to quickly change out their bolt and barrel to shoot any cartridge that’s capable of fitting/feeding from the mags. In other words, you can change your .223 AR to a 300BLK with little fuss or time wasted.

New factory

The versatility of these designs makes them desirable to many shooters, and now, Hydra should be better able to keep up with demand, as they move to a new 20,000 square foot facility.

“Our growth is a testament to the quality and craftsmanship that our customers have come to expect,” said owner Mack Gwinn III at the announcement of the move. “As a descendant of Gwinn Firearms, Bushmaster Firearms and Windham Weaponry, we carry a rich legacy, and this new facility will help us continue to raise the bar for firearms manufacturing in the USA.”

Hydra is Maine’s largest firearms manufacturer, and by the wording of the press release, it sounds like this new facility is an addition to the current manufacturing space.