Colt bankrupt

[Vonz90]

http://m.weeklystandard.com/blogs/gunma ... 71736.html

[PawPaw]

As they noted in the story, it isn't the first time. Colt has been bankrupt on several occasions. This is just the latest.

They spend a lot of their time courting government contracts, and as lucrative as those might be, I have a feeling that if they spend more time producing for the civil market they might do better. For example, in the last three months I've bought three Colt clones (actually, two Rugers and one Colt clone). I'll soon be in the market for another. I'll probably have five or six before I scratch this itch, and Uberti is getting my money rather than Colt.

A Colt SAA (or Model P, or Peacemaker) goes for north of $1200.00, and I can buy two Rugers or nearly three Ubertis for that amount of money. Colt isn't getting much of my coin these days.

[Netpackrat]

Serves them right for the contempt in which they hold the civilian market. Any gun company, let alone a manufacturer of AR type weapons, that is in poor financial condition after the buying spree of the past few years, deserves to go out of business.

[Darrell]

I wonder what this would do to the value of Colt firearms, if anything? Do you think they'll come back from the bankruptcy? As PawPaw said, they've done it before.

Weapons World has been advertising the Colt LE6920-OEM1 for $689.99:

http://www.weaponsworld.com/firearms-12 ... -post.html

It's their standard M4 semi-auto, without furniture, trigger guard or rear sight. The idea is that since so many people buy themselves ARs, then they swap out the furniture for Magpul/whatever, well, just sell them the gun sans furniture and cut the price a bit. If they're in the toilet, I wonder at build quality. Some fanboys think there's Colt, and then everything else. Is it still the case? I should say (and have before) that I have owned one Colt in my life, a Combat Commander. It was a POS, I sold it to some guy who intended to send it off for a custom rebuild. Someone said it had been built back during union problems in the '70s or something like that, scab labor and poor quality.

And speaking of Colts, I am, er, holding a 75 yr old Colt .22 lr revolver for my brother-in-law. He and my sister are moving to Hawaii, and he doesn't want to take it due to the strict laws, I guess. I should write about it, it's an old Police Positive or something of the sort. Neat old gun, it was his father's. I tried the action--hammer back and held down, pull and hold the trigger, then check for shake or such on the cylinder is how I was taught. The gun is as tight as a drum, zero play in the cylinder. I suspect it was shot a little and holstered a lot. Isn't that cool? He also turned over an old percussion pistol, single shot, small caliber, I have no idea what it is. Looks 1840ish, maybe later.

[McClarkus]

I've been happy with my Colt AR HBAR - Clinton era acquisition. I have developed a handload for it that hovers at about 1 MOA, which is a bit better than my eyes these days. It has no bayonet lug but I can live with that. I corrected the fact it had no flash suppressor, not because I felt I needed a flash suppressor but rather, I needed threads to screw a golf ball launcher on to. Side note - I scored 800 5.56 blanks at a garage sale last month for $30. Now I'm gonna hafta' get some more golf balls. I suspect Colt will eventually exit bankruptcy in some form or another. Hostess went tits up and they couldn't kill the Twinkie...... jus sayin.......

[Frankingun]

Darrel,

I also have a Colt Police Positive .22lr revolver that had been my grandparents. The single action trigger pull is sweet, and for me, with a revolver, it's more accurate than I deserve. It was stored in a flap holster, so there's some slight pitting on it in a few places, but other than that, it's in great shape and will be passed on in my will to a relative who deserves it.

As for my opinion of Colt, well, what the hell were they expecting to happen? First, they say "Meh!" to the non-government market. Then, they don't get as many of those .gov contracts as they thought they should, because MRAPs need a lot of maintenance, and there are about three dozen reputable manufacturers of AR pattern rifles that will sell the ones with the pew pew pew switch setting to your local police agency for less than Colt, and they will be just as durable and reliable. That frees up money for maintaining the MRAPs and putting 5'2" 110 lb. women through SWAT training.

Now, I have seen a few cops around Indy with 1911s, carried cocked and locked as God intended through his prophet John Moses Browning (PBUH). One was actually a woman, kinda cute... As PawPaw pointed out, there are dozens of good 1911s makes (and cowboy guns too) out there that don't cost as much as a high end home theater system. And, what is the other thing that not only .gov agencies but many regular folk want? That's right, another acronym, the MSFP. Colt does not, to my knowledge have a modern striker fired pistol in it's lineup. And that is what I think has been the final nail, the lack of a modern carry pistol.

[Jered]

So my Colt Commander will appreciate?

[HTRN]

Everybody keeps overlooking - they're are actually 3 companies with the name of Colt making firearms. Judging by what is said in the article, it appears to be "Colt Defense", which exclusively sells to governments.

[Aesop]

WeaponsMan's excellent blog has been covering the impending collapse of the Colt house of cards since back in early May.

Any company that could lose control of their own M1911 and M-16 stream, and who took >45 effing years to realize that their AR receiver pattern was the Betamax in the AR VHS/Betamax Wars before finally pulling their heads out of their fourth point of contact and joining the other 4,387 AR makers in making their stuff compatible with ten gazillion parts, doesn't just deserve bankruptcy; their board of directors, like most sitcom casts, should be shot live in front of a studio audience.

Colt stands for Clowncarnucopia Of Lost Technology.

[Captain Wheelgun]

Everybody keeps overlooking - they're are actually 3 companies with the name of Colt making firearms. Judging by what is said in the article, it appears to be "Colt Defense", which exclusively sells to governments.

The article over at Accurate Shooter (link) says that Colt split into Colt Defense for military stuff and Colt Manufacturing for civilian products back in 2002, but Colt Defense bought Colt Manufacturing back in 2013. And then there is whoever they subcontracted to make the repro 1903 Hammerless pistols.