Colt moving away from selling ARs to civilians isn’t a sign that the company wants to stop selling guns to civilians altogether, however. Instead, the company will ramp up sales of pistols and revolvers, including its 1911 models, Cobra, King Cobra, and Single Action Army collectible series.
In a statement to NRA’s Shooting Illustrated, Colt’s senior vice president for commercial business, Paul Spitale, said that the civilian AR production cut was based on consumer feedback and a close analysis of the market’s ebbs and flows.
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According to Spitale, rifles aren’t heavily favored by the civilian market, resulting in lower profit margins for Colt while the company continues to go full steam on producing rifles to fulfill outstanding military and law enforcement contracts.
Which, of course, is an absurd declaration, i.e., that “rifles aren’t heavily favored by the civilian market.” It’s just that the civilian market doesn’t apparently favor Colt rifles. Ruger, Smith & Wesson, Daniel Defense, BCM, FN, and a whole host of other companies are doing well enough.
So they intend to focus on … wait for it … producing rifles to fulfill outstanding military and law enforcement contracts. I take this to mean replacement rifles and more particularly, replacement parts.
The revolver market was abdicated to Smith & Wesson and Ruger, and I doubt that Colt will regain support in this sector. This portends bad things for Colt’s future, in my estimation.
“We have just been notified by Colt Firearms that they will be discontinuing production of all Colt long guns to focus on regaining military contracts.
This isn’t surprising. After my son returned from Iraq and had a chance to work with the RRA rifle I had, he told me that the Colts they were issued were vastly inferior to my own rifle.
Colt has long ago jettisoned QA in favor of bulk government contracts. That isn’t the first mistake they’ve made, viz. the withdrawal from the revolver market to leave S&W the only manufacturer involved in revolvers, only then to see Ruger enter the market in a big way and then a resurgence of interest in wheel guns. Too bad they’ve lost all of their revolver mechanics and no longer make the Python (which still sells for $2500 – $5000 if you can find one).
Another aspect of their demise surely involves their commitment to Connecticut where the state hates them, their workers are union shop, and their senior management inept.
A Houston, Texas, woman used her firearm to defend herself from five male suspects when they attempted to rob her early Tuesday. Now, she says she is in disbelief that she was able to walk away from the incident unharmed, telling a local news station, “I saved my life.”
Lachelle Hudgins arrived home around 2:30 a.m. on Tuesday, and as she pulled into her apartment complex, she noticed a group of men lingering together roughly 20 yards away. According to Hudgins, the suspects approached her vehicle,and two of them reached inside her open passenger window — grasping for her purse — as she tried to roll it up.
“I couldn’t do anything except scream,” Hudgins told KTRK-TV. “At one point, they told me to stop screaming.”
But she was, actually, able to do more than just scream. Hudgins reached inside her purse and grabbed her handgun before the suspects could. She fired off the only two rounds in the firearm, striking one of the perpetrators. “It was all I had in the gun,” she explained to KTRK. “I shot until I couldn’t shoot anymore.”
Hey, wait a minute! This doesn’t fit the narrative of defenseless people who are too terrified to use firearms and when they do they shoot other, innocent, people rather than their assailant and firearms are more of a danger to the owner than anyone else and we must wait for the cops and you have to be a juiced up tactical super-Ninja to be able to fight like cops and none of us are like cops because of cop-land tactical training and … and .. breathless … hand wringing …
Obviously we’re going to suggest no one take a firearm to a bus stop to pick up a child, but as far as criminal behavior, we can’t find a criminal violation,” said Chris Honeycutt with the Stanly County Sheriff’s Office.
Ignoring the question whether it was wise to carry a rifle to a bus stop, the Sheriff’s office made the right call here. As we’ve seen before, North Carolina is an open carry state, and that includes any firearm.
I get to proudly link David Codrea for this tip. It goes right along with the running gallery of the greats. I’m not sure what a “double barrel magazine extended clip” is, but I want one. I really, really want one. Because. Double barrel. Extended. A clip and magazine all in one. And all of it double, not single. The only thing better would be a triple barrel, automatic, high caliber, magazine extended clip. Somebody get to work on that.
This Magpul Extended Minute demonstrates what I find to be good practice. But you can always shoot in single action with the hammer cocked (even with DA revolvers), which gives you a trigger pull as light as a 1911.
James is also an avid reloader. We had a good chuckle over the latest wonder rifle cartridge, the 6.5 Creedmoor. In 1896 the 6.5 x 55 Swedish Mauser was introduced to the shooting public. It was a smokeless powder cartridge. It became the most popular moose rife in Sweden and probably still is. When the .270 Winchester was introduced to the shooting public the date on the .270 was very close to the 6.5 x 55. In my teen years I wanted to get one but all that was available was war surplus.
Now comes the 6.5 Creedmoor which if you look closely at the 6.5 stats it is very close to the .270. I don’t remember the .270 ever being suggested as a 1,000-yard rifle. Don’t get me wrong, the 6.5 Creedmoor is a welcomed addition to the shooting community, but is the cost of the ammunition worth it? Next time you are at a retailer, check out the price of .270 ammunition compared to 6.5 Creedmoor ammo.
By the way, a friend of mine hunts with a 6.5, loves it, and has taken a monster Maine buck with it. As for me, when I am hunting in a rifle-authorized area, I will continue to use my .270.
There’s nothing wrong with either one, but remember, the 6.5 Creedmoor is a short action cartridge (based on the .308 case) while the .270 is a long action cartridge (based on the .30-06 case). That means the 6.5 Creedmoor is easier to deal with in semi-auto.
At any rate, I think he’s exaggerating the price of the 6.5 Creedmoor. There is a wider variability in prices for the 6.5, so for a 20-round box you can spend less than a dollar a round, but as much as $2 per round. On the other hand, pretty much all of the 6.5 is available for less than $1 per round if you buy in bulk through someone like Lucky Gunner.
6 years, 4 months ago
