USFA's Worst? Your opinion...

[Capt. John Fitzgerald]

Greetings all,
Okay, we have cover the "best" of USFA in a previous post.  Now what, in your opinion, was the worst marketing idea USFA came up with (apart from the abominable Zip .22).
Number one on my list would have to be the .410 Shot Pistol.  It was ill conceived, poorly designed (lack of loading gate) and, as a result, ill-suited for it's purpose, defense against "slithery creatures."  S&W, Taurus, and others were already manufacturing D/A .410's that were more than adequate for the task at hand.  Much better suited than the archaic S/A.   I credit USFA's dedication to the production of the Shot Pistol to their demise.  It marked the end of their SAA production.
There were other, ill fated attempts at expanding their market.  Do any of you recall them?
CJF

[Buckaroo Lou]

Capt. John, I agree, the "shot pistol". Terrible looking S/A. Seems to me just a bad idea all around.

[Major 2]

I think you're correct

# 1 the Zip .22  
I give #2  to 410 Shot Pistol
The Lightening , hurt financially & the still birth Remington project and USFA Woodsman were stabs in heart at credibility.


 

[Advertising]

[yahoody]

Subtle but telling.   "100% USA made guns" that were actually a mix of parts, USA and Italian made.  And that is being generous when it came to their advertising schemes/claims.

I think that intentional and continued misrepresentation will  always reflect on the USFA guns.

[Coffinmaker]

The 800b Gorilla just has to be that ridiculous 410 Shot Pistol.  Although it (shot pistol) did exhibit a certain "tactical" flair with that Wowzers Mil style flash hider on it.  I think eliminating the barrel and including the "Tactical" flash hider was pure genius.

Then, of course, there were the incredibly well thought out "Pastel Pistols."  They didn't really make it to series production (thankfully) but
the "huge" splash they made in the market place was just awesome.  Probably could have sold in the thousa ............ one or two guns ...
maybe.  Maybe not.

The lightning wasn't that stupid.  Oh hell, yes it was.  Took a bath in R & D costs, tooling, then .... Warranty.  There was a perfectly good reason Colt quit the Lightning.

Coffinmaker

[Pangaea]

I have always loved the saying "Success has a thousand fathers, failure is always an orphan".  Could not be more true than with USFA's story.  I personally think the shot pistol is a cool oddity, worthless maybe, but still very cool.  I hope to acquire another one soon.

[Capt. John Fitzgerald]

Not many remember this, but several years ago USFA showed up at the Shot Show with a partially machined prototype for a "Forehand & Wadsworth" revolver.  This was back in the day when Doug Donnelly was buying up old, defunct firearm and ammo manufacturing names.
It was an odd duck!  Didn't look like a F&W, looked more like a combination of F&W, S&W and Merwin & Hulbert.  Strange looking! The gun, frame, cylinder and barrel, were in the white and obviously unfinished.  All I could think of at the time was the money and resources wasted on something that nobody would be interested in.   But… Doug Donnelly owned the F&W name and I suppose that he felt that he had to do something with it.  Too bad!  Yet another reason why he lost so much money back in his SAA days.