Cas City Forum Hall & CAS-L
Special Interests - Groups & Societies => Colt Firearms => Topic started by: Pettifogger on March 03, 2017, 10:21:11 AM
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Colt has had many problems the tast several years. Hope this truns out not to be just another rumor.
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2017/03/03/breaking-colt-lays-off-custom-shop-director-employees-company-rumored-gutted/
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I understand it's not a rumour. :-\
Brent Turchi no longer works for Colt.
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Keep in mind that this came from a blog.
'We' have no real idea what might be going on, so keeping a lid on it and waiting until some sort of official announcement comes out is the best course.
Scouts Out!
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Well, it's too late to put a lid on the nightsoil bucket, it's all over the webs in various forms.
Colt Defense LLC hasbeen in trouble for some time, and the only consumer products coming out of them have been from
the "Custom Shop", and it's just been a trickle...
to me, this looks terribly like the USFA Swan Song Debacle, and waiting for an announcement from the "Colt Turnaround Specialists" will be a long one.
When was the last time anybody got a straight story about an order from "Custom Shop"?
sadly
prof mvl
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If anyone thought USFA prices went crazy, watch Colt prices.
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long lingering ...but it been coming :(
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long lingering ...but it been coming :(
Oh My, Major!
those are quite .... fascinating.....
yhs
prf "marvelling at those screws......"
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So. Let's see if I get this right. Or Wright. Maybe even Rite. dot. dot. dot
The Custom Shop makes the SAA. There are two bakers who cook them up and third Management type whom holds the Recipe. You can the dude .... or .... dudette who holds the recipe for the SAA. Suddenly, nobody is baking SAAs. The Few, The Proud, The Colt SAA goes away ...... AGAIN. Perhaps much more permanently.
Then ..... TA DA ....... Beretta S.A., Buys the trademarks. Guess who will be making the guns "marked" Colt?? First two guesses don't count!!! ::)
Coffinmaker
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long lingering ...but it been coming :(
Well, I've always heard about "screwing someone up". ;D
But always thought it was "putt another nail to the coffin".
Hey! Coffinmaker! Where ya at?
You should be the "expert" on this. ::)
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Beretta has the Euro's it'd be sorta oddly poetic :-\
my bet is Ruger
Sturm, Ruger is the biggest gun maker in the USA., S&W is # 2 :-\
I also thought of Anthony Imperato of Henry Repeating Arms @ #7 there is Family history with Colt licensing @ the BP Series.
But they don't make pistols ( well yet )
I'm just musing....one of the above, buy the licensing rights to the COLT Brand , keep the Custom Shop open, expand it
and produce SAA's , 1911's , maybe the snakes & the Woodsman ... too much . yeah :-\ probably a pipe dream.
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And after appreciating the beautiful Original Henry I just purchased from Henry Repeating Arms, I was musing the other day that I sure wished they would start to manufacture the SAA. Maybe having a prescient dream? One can hope...............
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Hmm, this could be just the ticket for the Standard company, which announced their SAA at Shot Show this year. They have the tooling, they are an American company, and they already have a relationship with Colt (they do Colt's color case hardening).
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Hmm, this could be just the ticket for the Standard company, which announced their SAA at Shot Show this year. They have the tooling, they are an American company, and they already have a relationship with Colt (they do Colt's color case hardening).
Somehow buying a new SAA "Standard" doesn't sound right. I wouldn't buy one if for no other reason than I don't like the name. Sounds like a toilet. "Hey guys, I just got my new Standard!"
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I'm with Pettifogger. You come prancing up with "Hey I gust got my new Standard" and I'm gonna wanna know if it has "Power Flush??"
Coffinmaker.
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Hee hee, well what I was meaning was that if Colt is going to license someone to make their guns for them and mark them "Colt", it might be Standard.
And hey, if they marketed it with "Power Flush" it might appeal more to the liberals??? ;D
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According to a report by NRA's Mark Keefe, a report on the 'American Rifleman's' website is that reports on Colts demise are greatly exaggerated. I tried to attach the article to this post but it wouldn't let me, most likely I wasn't doing it right. The article is on the website, just listed, log on and scroll down, it's there. Hang tough Colt!!!!
Late Entry::: Hey Coal Griff'''Dat's thee one-I haven't figured out yet how to operate these computers to the Nth degree. I have the ability to perform delicate brain surgery, construct a nuclear bomb, or graft a knat's leg to a fly, but can't do simple puter' functions. Thank you
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How's this?
https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2017/3/7/the-keefe-report-hey-chicken-little-colt-isnt-falling/ (https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2017/3/7/the-keefe-report-hey-chicken-little-colt-isnt-falling/)
CC Griff
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Why not test it?
Put in an order to Colt for an SAA or one o' them thar new Cobra's
and report back "when" you get it...
yhs
prof (show me) marvel
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I haven't seen a Cobra but Colts new competition model 1911's are available out here in the Texas Panhandle.
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A gentile little reminder. Colt 1911s are built in the Philippines. Rock Island Arms.
Coffinmaker
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The O1991 series is ...
just thought..... it's not good business, to admit your Company is .... pouched , last leg's , death throngs , or belly up....
ask, SEARS, Sports Authority- K-mart , Pontiac , Oldsmobile , Blockbuster, USFA ,
Course the reasons vary, but ALL either did (or are)... loss big time in final sales.
Colt may indeed hold out , maybe restructure :-\ ....they are not even in the top 20 Arm manufacturer in the US
I hope they can....
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Colt may indeed hold out , maybe restructure :-\ ....they are not even in the top 20 Arm manufacturer in the US
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Therein is the rub.
Colt just isn't a major player any more. barely a player at-all .
They have had too many re-org's, RIF's, and "turnaround specialilsts" all designed to make their "non-gun investors" feel good.
Once they lost the Military contracts, I figured their days were numbered.
I have seen far too many restructures and failures of other corporations and this fits an ugly pattern.
I can hope otherewise, but there just no positive facts or positive financial indicators, only the "happy crappy pie-hole noises"
from the corporate mouthpieces who are literally paid to put a positive spin, even on a sinking Titanic (and the band played on).
yhs
prof grumbles.
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my point exactly ...Prof
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A gentile little reminder. Colt 1911s are built in the Philippines. Rock Island Arms.
Coffinmaker
That is just not true. Colt makes their 1911s in their West Hartford plant, from rough forgings in both frames and slides, supplied by another American company, based in Hartford too. And using the best American steel, by the way.
I have seen with my own eyes these forgings, in wooden boxes, I touched them... at one side of the machines, while we were touring the different steps in their manufacture until both frame and slide is finished, operations , carried out mainly in modern CNC centers, though it was interesting that the Colt representative showing us the factory told us that they were still using old machinery designed by John Mosses Browning and made before WW2 for certain operations. I saw those machines...they still had many in full working condition.
By the way, I can say the same about the Ar 15s and uppers. We saw and touched the initial rough forged parts from aeronautical aluminum, stocked in piles at one side of the CNC machines as they were being finished and ready to go to the next operations until ready to be deburfed, adjusted and sand blasted.
They also had a good stock of bar steel to make barrels, for both pistol and rifle. We were told that they are working, by the way, in a new totally new semiautomatic pistol design, in their engeenering department, that is, literally, located in the middle of the factory, face to face to the production line.
We were able to see also their much publicized sanding and polishing operations, made by hand as advertised in their catalog......and by the way, I didn't see robots there..at last, in the main manufacturing operations, including blueing, where I saw just one guy working with the salt baths ( it might be a Dulite but they didn't tell us).
The custom shop is just that, a small custom shop with just one engraver, working in house, and a few gunsmiths. Most of the factory is dedicated to the Ar 15 production, thought they are making the FN machine gun under license, and the handgun production for the civilian market is part of their business, but not all their business.
The factory works in batches, in other words, they don't make all models at same time, so if you are lucky enough to visit the factory, you'll see the manufacturing process, not in detail of course, of 3 or 4 models only.
We did that tour through the factory last Jan, current year 2017, just after the Shot Show, and of course, no photos or cameras were allowed in a factory that works for the US government among other customers.
Interesting how they tested their Ar15s, by the way, for reliability and accuracy : they were tested in machine rests with tv cameras and being computer monitorized all the time, with recorded data, five or six at the same time, I don't remember exactly, by guys dressed more like doctors or scientist than like shooters, with no human interference during firing. A noisy room, indeed. You pay more for these rifles for several reasons....American parts, and high attention to every step in production among them.
Just mentioning that we were touring the factory as foreign dealers and Colt distributors. Visiting the factory is extremely restricted.
Finally, let me add that Colts policy is using American parts in their products, and I can testify about it....I remember some foreing guys, in the Shot Show, offering them MIM and investment cast parts, but Colt representatives were clear about it: " only American parts, thanks."
Well...he didn't even say thanks.. I would say that the Colt representatives were somewhat..offended by the idea of using foreign parts in their catalog firearms, advertised as Made in USA. Which doesn't mean that in the future they may sell other products under a license agreement, of course.
Pd:
I know Brent Turchi in person. He was every year in the Shot Show, face to face to the customers from the trade..... allways helpful and friendly with everybody. Last time we sent them a couple of guns for refinishing and engraving, he had them ready in record time. I wish him the best and I have no doubt that his vast experience will be valued by other companies in the industry.
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Thank you for that interesting report of touring the Colt factory, llanerosolitario.