Colt remains troubled

[CGZ]

They make a gatling gun but not the python...

http://www.colt.com/Catalog/Special-Editions/1877-Bulldog-Gatling-Gun

[The Gleam]

They make a gatling gun but not the python...

http://www.colt.com/Catalog/Special-...og-Gatling-Gun

I'm quite sure they don't build this; that it's co-opted with a third-party custom builder to capitalize on the brand name.

They've done that with numerous guns over the years, both new designs and even their own vintage models.

[fred40]

a pre war comeback will make them some money. The bluing on those is a work of art.

[jyo]

Damn---I've never seen such a WASTE of a solid gold name like Colt---I was heavily involved in the retail/wholesale firearms business for many years---Colt has been mismanaged for decades! Always two steps behind the power curve---when there was a demand for 1911 types, Springfield Armory beat the crap out of Colt with reasonable priced 1911s that were well-made from Brazil while Colt's spudered along making pistols with questionable QC---some good, many just poorly made. Colt Single Action revolvers were shipped with shiit QC---poorly fitted but beautiful to look at sky high prices! Colt started the whole AR-15 thing, yet was out-manunered at every turn by dozens of companies. Just recently, with the hottest market for guns in probably forever, they can't make a profit… Don't even get me started on the piss-poor Colt 2000 9mm pistol---the first (and only) example my store received was field-stripped to examine and could not be put back together again---sent it back to Colt---never saw it again… Bad management, piss-poor QC, bad designs, high prices = failure!!

[jyo]

Oh, and their workers union did their best to kill off Colt as well...

[Merc1138]

a pre war comeback will make them some money. The bluing on those is a work of art.

I honestly doubt it. At least from the outside, Colt appears to be way too large to attempt to get by being a boutique gun manufacturer(and getting rid of their custom shop certainly indicates such, not to mention half of their consumer products being reproductions that don't appear to be selling, and the possibility that they aren't even making the things themselves, which is something they've already screwed up with guns as simple these days as their ARs).

That Colt "expanse" M4 that Mark77 posted from March 2016 is a great example of piss poor planning. Where was that gun in 2013? Way to fail at getting a $700 AR out the door after seemingly everyone and their mother were buying their 2nd and 3rd already. Not being prepared for the post Sandy Hook rush was one thing, but that took them almost 2 and a half years, and even before Jan. 2017 here in CA I had never heard of the thing! It's not as if I only browse CA gun shops, I had never seen that thing on an online retailer's website, never saw an article about it, never saw anyone discussing it(although it was getting to a point where it was easy to just start automatically ignoring anything that resembled an AR since they all look the same).

What I did see getting promoted by Colt was their incomplete $800 "OEM" rifles, which sounds ok but wouldn't exactly be the easiest thing to sell to the random Joe Schmoe who walks into a gun shop looking for a rifle.

Then as far as their pistols go, like I said, they hadn't done anything which could be considered "modern" since the absolute failure of the 2000 and OHWS. Sure, there's obviously a market for $1500+ 1911s and I don't fault them for continuing to sell those(really, they'd be dumb not to) but where was the <$800 polymer framed service/carry pistol to compete with the guns getting sold by the truckload from the likes of Ruger, FN, Sig, HK, Springfield, S&W, Walther, CZ, EAA, Glock, Taurus, Beretta, Kahr, Keltec, Diamondback, Bersa, and that's not even getting into the smaller more random stuff in the modern pistol market like Grand Power, SCCY, FMK, IWI, Magnum Research, and so on(there's really a lot more if I were to bother trying to count everything that's come over as an import independent of a larger company, or even larger companies that have attempted and fail to enter the market, hell even Remington seems to have done that twice in the past couple of years).

Imagine if Sony never bothered to sell LCD TVs and was still trying to push CRT TVs and monitors(there is a very limited market that would pay out the *** for newly manufactured CRT displays), while you could find LCDs from 10+ manufacturers at any department store ranging from 24"-70". It'd be absurd, and that is what Colt has done with handguns.

[sarbiker]

Maybe I'll start a GoFundMe page for them. How hard would it be to raise $500,000,000.00?

[Dezrat]

They need to get out of CT and lower their labor costs. Start fresh down south.

For a while last year it was being thrown around about a Native American Tribe in CA buying them out of bankruptcy and setting up on Tribal land in CA.
Seems CA does whatever it can to prevent Firearms manufacturers from large scale manufacturing in CA. It would be great to see a Sovereign Nation stick it in their face right in the midst of them.

[M1NM]

Well, deciding to not submit any pistols to CA for testing and getting thrown off the approved list can't be helping that very much can it...

Nobody is submitting any - Microstamping is a requirement and that doesn't exist so no gun can comply.

Don't look for them to bring back a 1950s quality Python. The hand work on those by highly skilled workers would price them out of the market even if you could train or find the skilled labor. I imagine the bluing would also be impossible to duplicate - again highly skilled polishers and probably a chemical process that won't comply with EPA of MA rules.

[enegue]

Sad about the company, but the Colts I have personal experience with are all really nice. 2014 Gold Cup Trophy, newer Delta Elite, 1960s Python, 6920 AR. All look and run good to me.

[IVC]

But much of the aforementioned half billion dollars in debt they were saddled with. As vulture "Private equity" firm (previously known as LBO's) stripped them of assets and saddled the company with debt as they sold the company and moved on.

No, they WANTED it. Leveraged buyouts don't just happen because there is "a vulture" nearby.

Yep they've certainly shot their own foot off in some ways but going from CT where working people actually make a living wage to a "southenomics" modern plantation system with a powerless minimum wage work force is not the answer to returning a company to profitability. Why is that the knee jerk reaction?

One look at P&L should answer that question.

Companies are not in the business of ensuring standards of living, Democrats are. CT has enough of those, so the workers will be fine. They can all work for the government or something, they don't need companies such as Colt.

Workers are to companies what plumbers are to you and me - they provide a service at the going rate. Do you pick the most expensive plumber with the fanciest truck so his kids can go to college, or do you pick someone who will get some work done at the price you are willing to pay for the work?

Take away the equity/asset stripping and saddling the company with huge debt just to enrich the 1% VC pr***s and despite the bad decisions the company would likely still be reasonably profitable.

That's a good one. Do you know the one about a Rabbi and a hooker? Oh, wait... you're serious... Never mind.

[559BearDown]

It's a damn shame Colt is run by fools. My 1991 is my most prized possession.

[IVC]

Yep they've certainly shot their own foot off in some ways but going from CT where working people actually make a living wage to a "southenomics" modern plantation system with a powerless minimum wage work force is not the answer to returning a company to profitability. Why is that the knee jerk reaction?

Forgot to add - minimum wage work is for flipping burgers, not assembling guns. Colt workers are paid above ANY minimum wage in the country and their dollar stretches much further in the south precisely because they don't have to pay for burger flippers to make 15/hr.

Talking about knee jerk reaction to how factory workers actually live...

[stormvet]

Yep they've certainly shot their own foot off in some ways but going from CT where working people actually make a living wage to a "southenomics" modern plantation system with a powerless minimum wage work force is not the answer to returning a company to profitability. Why is that the knee jerk reaction?

I had a Wiley Clapp Commander that was as good build quality as an Ed Brown or Dan Wesson.

Someone has been consuming the fruit of the progressive tree in the city by the bay for too long. 'Southenomics', modern plantation system, how very elitist and progressive of you.

As for the rest yeah, I don't think so. I've owned many a Colts, currently just a M45a1. Not one of them came close to the build quality of a Ed Brown, own a couple of those. While I don't have a DW for comparison, I'd doubt it also.

[PogoJack]

My Colt XSE Government worked on by the great Jim Hoag is my safe queen. I hope they get things right. An American legend.

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