Colt used to be the name in Handguns. The Colt Python was the gold standard but they don’t make it anymore. All Colt Products are insanely expensive. Why buy a Colt 1911 when there are cheaper ones that are just as good?
Sorry Sam, your company deserved better.
See ya, Colt, ya bunch of fedgov sellouts.
The colt python had outstanding fit and finish and a trigger that breaks like glass. One of he best handguns ever made.
The few remaining Colt products, 1911s, western style revolvers and the Colt branded civilian AR carbines are wonderfully made, gold standard products. Like real gold these are a bit too pricy for most of us.
If I had the money, I’d buy custom shop remakes of the snubby 6 shot detective revolver, the Python .357 four inch and any of the cowboy revolvers. I’ve seen used Pythons at gun shows and very used ones go for almost $1500. The Python trigger pull is so smooth, much better than most other revolvers.
Colt did apparently decide that the way to keep afloat was via military contract, which was reflected in their lackluster pursuit of the civilian market compared to other firms. That's actually being polite, as their public attitude towards civilians owning anything other than "match" ARs became hostile and continued until not that long ago. It also didn't help that their efforts to make more modern (and more profitable) weapons were slow-motion ways of catching their crank in the zipper.
(The Double Eagle was how not to design a pistol, and their Pocket Nine was how not to plagiarize a pistol.)
Colts are still the "gold standard" in ARs, but a BCM, Daniel Defense, Knight's, or Noveske equivalent will do a person just as well or better depending on configuration, and the good stuff always seems to be priced reasonably close to one another.
Mr. niteowl77
I was back in Connecticut last month. Drove along I91 on my way to/from Bradley International. The former Colt manufacturing plant along the interstate, the one with the blue Arabic style dome on top, was shuttered and boarded up.
When in New Haven, I drove past the Winchester-Western facility where I worked during the late 1960s. Most of the buildings have been torn down. The main office building where I used to have an office now has been converted to loft condominiums.
Connecticut, which used to be THE gun manufacturing state in the US has lost almost all of that industry. Thousands of jobs are gone, many now having migrated to the South.
For Connecticut, the gun industry is only the tip of the iceberg. It was shocking to see how many other industries have left the state for greener pastures.
Colt is turning over in his grave. The Colt Armory is a landmark in Hartford.
Never was a Colt fan. Overpriced for what you get.
Recently bought a piston driven Ruger for 1900....and AR in .308. A Colt in .308 (gas impingement) sell for $2500!
They are nuts!
So author Schaus thinks that selling guns to the Republic of Texas, and the US War Dept, before 1850, is just as bad as today’s “crony capitalism”?
If he thinks we should swallow that, it says more about today’s “journalism” than it does about gunmaking.
Heck, it was only within the last few years that Colt finally got around to deciding that a pocket pistol (the .380 Mustang) might be a good idea.
Only after Sig revived the 1911-ish micro .380.
And not to forget that Star did it, ages ago.