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| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Arms industry |
| Founded | 1992; 33 years ago (1992) |
| Founder | Ray Dennis |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | United States |
| Products | Guntelescopic sights,spotting scopes and mounting accessories |
| Parent | Lightforce Performance Lighting |
| Website | www |
Nightforce Optics is anAmerican manufacturer of high-endtelescopic sights,spotting scopes and mounting accessories, based inLavonia, Georgia with factory headquarters inOrofino, Idaho. Established in 1992, the company is theopticssubsidiary ofLightforce Performance Lighting, anAustralian manufacturer of specialtylighting products based inHindmarsh, South Australia.[1]
The company's founder, Ray Dennis, is an Australiandentist whose parents wereGerman immigrants settled inSouth Australia after theSecond World War.[1] At a very early age he participated inrabbit andfox hunting with his grandfather, and became a keen hunter as he grew older. Due to thenocturnal/crepuscular nature of many Australian wild animals,spotlighting is the most common hunting method. After finding the contemporary spotlight products inadequate for his need, Dennis developed his own spotlight design usinginjection molded plastic, 7-inch reflectors and a 100-watthalogen projectorbulb, which is lightweight and capable of pushing beam illumination to over 400 yards (370 m).[1] At the same time, he also found the popular European riflescopes on the market were missing the right features needed for low-light hunting applications such asparallax adjustment and highmagnifications, and the American products often had smallobjective size and very finereticles and hence lacking inlight-gathering power and reticle clarity.[1]
When going to the 1986SHOT Show inNew Orleans to try market his spotlights, Dennis found a manufacturer inJapan that can produce scopes designed to his suggested specifications, and ordered a batch of 500 units to be made and sold in the Australian market. The sale was a success, and Dennis decided to establish his own company namedLightforce to sell his products, with the intention to also venture into theNorth American market.[1] The American branch was initially established inSeattle with only two staff members, and primarily focused on marketing spotlighting products as Dennis considered the American optics market was already well-established with little room for a small new competitor like his company. To his surprise, the American consumers responded rather coldly to the spotlights (as night hunting was rare in North America at the time, and spotlighting was outlawed in manyUS states), but very warmly to the scopes. The company then switched its focus to sell predominantly optics in America.[1]
The company changed its name toNightforce in the early 1990s after being confronted by aCalifornianlightbar manufacturer also named Lightforce, who demanded $25,000 fortrademark sharing — an amount Dennis found unacceptable. After that manufacturer later went out of business, the company acquired the legal rights to use the "Lightforce" brand name to its lighting products, and retained the "Nightforce" brand for its sporting optics products as the trademark already established a sizable market following with its 3.5-15× power Varmint scopes.[1]
In 1998, the company moved its operations fromWashington toIdaho. Soon afterwards, the company rolled out the famous NXS series scopes, which was their firstflagship product suitable for both military and hunting applications, aiming to appeal to top-tier organizations (such as theNavy SEALs) within theUnited States Armed Forces.[1] Military contracts started to arrive in the early 2000s, and the company bidded in thePrecision Sniper Rifle program in 2009 but lost out toSchmidt & Bender. However, in 2010, the company was awarded a $25.8 million firm-fixed-price contract to manufacture scopes forspecial forces andsnipers in the United StatesArmy,Navy,Air Force andMarine Corps, with accompanying service for spares, repairs and upgrades.[2]
