...a phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range...
Hey, just what you see, pal.
Posted on 04/13/2006 12:32:39 AM PDT by crushelits
Celebrated Winchester rifle may have fired last shot
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The famous Winchester rifle glorified in American Westerns may have fired its last shot as a plant where it had been manufactured since 1866 closed its doors last week.
One hundred eighty-six employees of the US Repeating Arms Company plant located in New Haven, Connecticut, were thanked for their work Friday, two days after the facility stopped all manufacturing activity, said Catherine Sullivan-DeCarlo, a spokeswoman for the city government.
She told AFP that the mayor's office has been searching for an investor, who would take over the plant, but has to overcome several obstacles on the way to achieving this goal.
US Repeating Arms Company and its New Haven plant belong to Belgian manufacturer Herstal, which has purchased from US firm Olin the right to use the famous brand name.
"Herstal owns US Repeating Arms and Olin owns the license to the Winchester name so they own the brand name," Sullivan-DeCarlo said.
"We've been talking to different gun manufacturers, and at the same time the mayor has been talking to Olin about possibly keeping the name Winchester here for whoever comes in the factory," she continued.
"Because otherwise, our fear is that the Winchester name will end up overseas."
That would be a rough turn for the celebrated lever-action 1873 gun that made rapid reloading and fire possible and helped conquer the West.
It was Oliver Fisher Winchester, who in 1853 founded New Haven Arms Company, which in 1866 became known as Winchester Arms Company.
The Winchester rifle was in fact based on the Henry rifle that was used during the Civil War.
Pioneers heading West adopted the rifle, and near-mythical personalities like Buffalo Bill made it their weapon of choice.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.netscape.cnn.com ...
Manufacturing wise...yes... but there is still plenty of old school Yankee ingenuity going on here...
from LASER development to cutting edge robotics....and that's just in CT.
pre-64's are better than post, and you'd be amazed how tight the actions are on pre-wwii lever actions.
I'm not interested in any lever action laser....I'll just stick with the .30-30 for now.
A beauty, that's for sure! (Sigh)
The sad part is that they'll go the route of companies like Singer or Schwinn or Westinghouse or Sorel (yeah, I know they were Canadian) and lot's more; some chinese firm will buy the name and put it all over the new plastic products and include something like "Since 1898".
I understand why, for dramatic purposes, this was the language used, but a story in the latest issue of "Guns & Ammo" states that there are some five million 94's out there, including one at the OldPossum's house. So, this piece of Americana certainly hasn't fired its "last shot."
...a phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range...
Hey, just what you see, pal.
I like my Marlin 45-70 (1895G) just fine. A real Winchester 30-30 level action would be a fine addition to the collection.
They never really recovered from that.
Old news...
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