Colt seeks to restructure debt or possibly file Chpt 11 bankruptcy

S&W and colt make a CNC and MIM guns that require minimal skill for line workers to assemble. Some parts require some fitting, but not many.
The Colt DA revolvers you mention were machined by hand and almost every part was extensively hand fit by a very experienced and skilled gunsmith. I don't think Freedom Arms now uses as much hand fitting as the old Colts did. Current production Rugers and S&W production revolvers aren't in the same sport, let alone the same ball park when it comes to production methods OR results.

Some of the hand fitting and cost could be reduced with CNC machines and other technology, but to get guns that match the historic production, quite a bit would still be required.

I have a small exposure to hand fitting/finishing high precision CNC parts in my work. It is surprisingly labor intensive, especially when dealing with very hard materials and requires some patience and training. What I deal with is much simpler than making all the interacting parts of a Colt DA design synchronize.

I think Colt could probably make a really nice snake, charge $5,000 for it and turn a profit. They could at least break even and have a flagship product everyone wanted to bring their brand into the forefront. There is so much money being spent on guns, collecting, investing, etc, I think a $5,000 Colt revolver sells ok if made to a high standard. Why bother when you can just make mediocre quality products and charge DOD high quality prices and not worry about competition. Oops.
 
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DaleA said:
If this was the mid 1980's the staff of TFL could all kick in a couple hundred bucks apiece and run a 'leveraged buyout' of the company. (I suggested this in another thread-anybody interested?)

Us?....US???? Bbbwwwhahahahaha!!!! If you add all of our yearly salaries as Staff, it would still be less than the money saved in a kid's piggy bank!

As much as I wouldn't want to see a firearms company file Ch. 11, I don't think they deserve to be bailed out by our government by way of General Motors' style. Either another private entity takes a stab at it or let them go under. It's the price they should pay for the way they managed the company.
 
I don't think they deserve to be bailed out by our government by way of General Motors' style.

No one deserves to be bailed out by our government, not GM and certainly not Colt. They either stand or die by their own products and business acumen. I like Colt and like Colt products. I have two beautiful Pythons; a nice Colt Mustang and a really nice Colt 1911 Series 80 Gold Cup - all very nice firearms.

I also have an old SP1 Carbine, which is nothing special in my opinion. I believe it was meant to be a cheap lightweight utilitarian rifle and never meant to be anything more than that. Probably sold for under $300 in the day. None of the Colt AR's ever impressed me all that much.

They completely missed the 9mm revolution and the concealed carry revolution. It's too bad. I really want Colt to make top quality firearms that still dazzle people.
 
Let's have Ruger buy them out after they file Ch.13.

Dismiss all of the senior mgmt., tear up the union contracts, and start over with a clean slate after they relocate operations.

Let Colt become Ruger's Custom Shop if you will.
 
As much as I wouldn't want to see a firearms company file Ch. 11, I don't think they deserve to be bailed out by our government by way of General Motors' style.
I agree. I also agree the company has been mis-managed for years. I understand, to a degree, those who are apathetic about Colt. What I don't understand, even after reading the stated reasons, is the venom some seem to have against Colt.
 
What I don't understand, even after reading the stated reasons, is the venom some seem to have against Colt.

Yeah, I don't get this either. Look, there was a time, not so long ago, that Smith and Wesson was the pariah among gun companies for the stance they took against gun rights. Look at Smith and Wesson now - making a variety of very desirable firearms that are now quite popular. I would like to see something like this happen to Colt, albeit Colt is now a much smaller company than S&W was in modern times.
 
What I don't understand, even after reading the stated reasons, is the venom some seem to have against Colt.

I think it is because of their deliberate (and very public) snub of the sport shooting public.
 
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