Posted on 06/16/2015 9:02:38 AM PDT by servo1969
On June 15, 2015, Colt Defense filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11. How can that possibly be?
In Dwight Eisenhower’s Farewell Address, he warned the Nation of the growing influence of a vast “Military Industrial Complex.” In the next decade plus, 2,709,918 Americans served in Vietnam, witnessing astronomical amounts of ordnance dumped on the Southeast Asian jungles, the manufacture of which made many in the Military Industrial Complex obscenely rich.
Most of the troops were issued M-16 Rifles, provided by Colt, presumably one of the members of the complex that reaped the benefits.
The newest iteration of the M16 Rifle is the M4 Carbine, which was the standard issue weapon for our latest excursions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Colt makes those too.
How can a company whose largest customer is gullible enough to pay $400 for a hammer and $600 for a toilet seat go broke?
According to Bloomberg, Colt lost the military contract to provide the standard issue M4 (that procurement went to Fabrique Nationale Herstal USA) in 2013. Since then, only 7% of Colt’s business goes to military contracts. That means 93% of their business is dedicated to servicing the civilian and law enforcement markets.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
No, Back in the early 70s, the Colt Python out of the box was by far smoother and better than the S&W. it was the Smith's that need the expensive re-working of the internals to lighten the pull and make it acceptable. The Pythons, although more expensive, was by far the better firearm.
That being said, we did occasionally get in a Python that looked as if it was made by a high school drop out who came to work drunk. I recall one with a finish that was so bad the bluing was purple and the side plate had a fingerprint in it, and the polish job left it looking distorted it was so cupped from over pressure on the polishing wheels. I don't know how it passed quality control by any stretch of the imagination. We speculated the finish work was done by a new hire from the Winchester Commemorative Department. We shipped it back with a nasty letter.
S&W in the same period shipped some pretty bad workmanship weapons in the same period as well, but nothing that bad.
More likely to be Cerberus, IMO. Colt will end up alongside Bushmaster and DPMS.
How the heck is that accomplished? In this present age of oddball colors (mostly done by anodizing or cerakote) that might actually be popular.
The gunsmith said it was not kept in the bluing bath long enough. Who ever did it took it out too soon. He really thought it was a "Lunch box gun" that someone accidentally got into the shipment. That's an unauthorized gun an unqualified workman was building for himself to sneak out of the factory that somehow got put into the official factory product queue.
I have several old guns that the bluing has turned purple. None of them are new, but several of them are Colt. I suspect that the bluing neutralized properly after it was blued.
Interestingly, it usually is not the entire firearm. One part (or maybe two) is usually purple with the others remaining blue (such as the barrel being purple while the frame and cylinder are blue, etc).
Now, there was a period in the 1980s when Colt's labor force went on strike and the managers tried to build the guns. It was a mess. And those guns are still out there.
You need to get into the 21st century. Your way of thinking is why businesses fail. The Python is a machine and all machines can be mass produced if there is a market to support that. It is ridiculous to suggest that all of the internal parts have to be hand-made for a specific gun.
On the other hand, Colt's was making almost nothing anybody wanted. They also had awful reseller business demands and allowed their previous executive staff loot the treasury.
Some things cannot be mass produced the way you describe. Otherwise we would see that on the market. Why don't we see Python quality firearms currently produced? Because the guns were labor intensive and would cost too much to make.
There is a market for them, but they would cost too much to produce to be profitable. You don't know what you're talking about.
I do see where you spoke of 'market to support that', but the reality is that's just sophistry.
Colt's adventure into mass produced components designed to simulate the hand fitted assemblies of the craftsman's age Pythons was evident in the lower cost King Cobra line. They weren't very well received and compared to the more budget-conscious offerings from Ruger the Colt King Cobra was regarded as charging for the Colt brand name versus true quality.
What causes businesses to fail in the firearms market is when they don't stay in their lane, sticking to what they do best.
If you're looking for absolute superior quality in a mass produced firearm, go look at Heckler & Koch. Next, look at their price tags. Finally, go look at their recent publicized financial problems.
I bought a new plain-Jane Colt 1911A1 around 18-20 years ago. It worked OK, but the workmanship was not even close to the almost perfect older Colt handguns I have owned over the past 50-60 years. I sold that gun, but I still have 2 old timers in my gun locker, a circa 1930 .38spcl Police Positive and a circa 1950 1911A1 45acp. Both are built like a Swiss watch and both are reliable and accurate.
No matter what other guns I may buy, sell, or trade, those 2 aint agonna get traded in on some newfangled European "wunderwaffe" as long as I'm able to sit up and take nourishment.
All guns have handfitted parts. Stop twisting my words around. You know very well that I am correct. You are just being a troll.
I agree with all of your comments.
I wouldn't doubt it. The story I read in the WSJ seemed to be very upbeat on their continuing production after the matter is sorted out. I agree with some of the others that they became far too dependent on the government money, which is too bad, because they make one heck of a nice civilian AR in the LE6920. On which, incidentally, there doesn't appear to be much of a run, at least yet. That implies to me that the market isn't panicking.
They can make and have made terrific products, and whoever was in charge of the business plan the last decade or so probably needs to find other work. IMHO, of course.
The hammer was part of a package of spare parts. The contractor simply averaged the cost per item for the package, rather than itemizing them individually. Thus began the myth of a $400 hammer.
The item was not a toilet seat, but a large plastic shroud to cover the toilet on a Navy anti-submarine airplane, to keep the contents from splashing out when the airplane maneuvered. The Navy tried manufacturing the item in-house, and found it would cost more than to have it manufactured by a contractor. The contract price was indeed $600, and it was a comparative bargain. But the truth doesn't make for a good narrative.
You insist Colt Python quality can be had without precise handfitting. Pythons currently go for $2,000 for shooter grade. They command ~$3,000 for better. If your contention was accurate (which, it isn't; it's the ramblings of ignorance), then we would see similarly high quality Pythons on the market.
You're not just wrong, you're miserably wrong.
Stop wasting my time, clown. You know nothing of which you ramble.
You make totally ridiculous and laughable comments. High precision engines, transmissions, watches, and scientific devices are mass produced all the time with high tolerances. A revolver is no different and actually much easier to mass produce. There is nothing unique about the Python design that would negate mass production tooling.
Again, I'm not reading anything you say.
Modern gun factories today are assembly lines of automated CNC machines fabricating parts a hundred times faster than any human could. 99% of the effort in producing a gun in a modern facility is performed entirely by automation. Humans are still needed to do hand polishing, tolerance testing when parts come off the CNC, assembly, and final adjustments during assembly. However no modern company builds a gun from start to finish by hand on manual milling machines the same way the original Pythons were made. All modern gun producers use an assembly line operation with CNC produced parts because it is more efficient and the quality is better. If the Python were produced today, it would be made with CNC machines, not by hand.
Dog, boy. You’ve got some real issues. You’re an idiot. Stop posting to me. I’m not reading anything you have to say. Get a life.
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