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I’m ok with colt floundering on the verge of relevance like it has been for years. I didn’t mind picking up sub $700 6920’s recently and who could forget those OEM 2’s for less than $600. View Quote |
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@Undefined I think this has been sufficiently debunked to merit a change to the thread title.
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Folks, consider the source: TTAG. Rarely is there a gun blog that gets it wrong more of the time than TTAG. Colt is, in fact, filling a number of contracts at the moment. The RSR representative apparently didn't quite understand what he was being told and TTAG, the bunch of click-baity jagoffs that they are, failed to do any followup. Colt is apparently so short handed in filling some military contracts they have right now that they are dedicating personnel and production resources to filling those contracts. They are not leaving the civilian market. So put down the pitchforks. View Quote Now I can buy King Cobra Target from them without feeling bad about it. |
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Meh, just an over priced roll stamp...I'll stick to my $29 poverty ponies that work every bit as good and buy more mags, ammo and optics with the savings. View Quote |
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@Undefined I think this has been sufficiently debunked to merit a change to the thread title. View Quote Please @ me in your response. |
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So they are going to focus on lowest bidder contracts instead of selling high margin guns to idiots? Makes sense
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End of an era. https://cdn0.thetruthaboutguns.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-11-at-9.35.06-AM.png https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/colt-halts-sales-of-long-guns-to-the-retail-market/ View Quote You keep producing for civilians while seeking .mil contracts. |
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Good luck getting the contract away from FN... View Quote I would suspect Colt being Colt, is so inefficient in their commercial production that there is no way they can compete on prices, the guns simply arent moving at what they need to get out of them, and it just doesnt make sense. I suspect that they also know that if they arent able to produce some or all of whatever is adopted off NGSW, likely as a subcontractor for components, (assuming something is adopted and that's a big if still) they are totally dead in the water. Textron is working with HK, GD is working with Beretta, and Sig is doing it solo (ish). If big DoD procures off of it and Colt cant get its grubby paws in their anywhere they are done. |
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I think it is a smoke and mirrors move. Behind closed doors I bet the local politicians and SJW groups were demanding they stop selling AR’s to the civilian market. Their spin doctor PR firm probably came up with this idea so gun owners wouldn’t think they were caving in to the anti gun crowd, all the while their statement makes ZERO sense from a financial standpoint.
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I just bought an M4A1 Marked "Colt" but I think the lower is fake. I did the serial lookup on their website and it returned zero information. Anyone know what I can do to check to make sure it's legit without the fee from colt? View Quote Pics? would like to see the rollmarks |
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Never owned a Colt, but aren't they somewhat poorly made compared to others in the same price range?
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Wonder if they'll license the brand to another company to make commercial stuff like Colt Competition did?
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Never owned a Colt, but aren't they somewhat poorly made compared to others in the same price range? View Quote Colt had the TDP for a long time and made some of their guns...the 6920 being the chief example...to the TDP's spec. This means it's a pretty damn good quality rifle. It's not a guaranteed sub-MOA gun (then again, the ammo it was designed to be used with wasn't sub-MOA either) that came from the factory pretty durable and functional. All the little shit is done pretty well. Bolts typically don't crack within a few thousand rounds, the gun doesn't have functional issues because the gas port is out of spec, the materials are quality so you don't have problems like premature gas port erosion, the fire control parts don't give up the ghost early, the pins don't walk. Shit that's supposed to be properly staked is actually properly staked. Etc. Colt made commercial market stuff other than the 6920, of course, that wasn't bad as far as function, but they often did it so that mil-spec parts wouldn't work. Which a lot of people found rather annoying. But for the most part Colt just kept making M4 style weapons without really innovating. In the meantime, lots of other manufacturers popped up offering more options. Back in the day Colt was vastly superior to everyone else on the market as competitors (Bushmaster, for instance) couldn't reliably crank out rifles that worked. I bought a Bushmaster back in those days and mine works great, but I've seen shitloads of others that don't. And that was pre-Cerberus. I'm sure it's damn near abysmal now. The delta between Colt's flagship offering and other options on the market has closed a lot just in the last 10 or so years. Companies have innovated and gotten damn good at making components. Faxxon, for instance, makes lightweight barrels that don't suffer from the zero shift problems pencil barrels originally had. You can get one with a mid-length gas system. They are nitrided which makes them a little cheaper to manufacture, but they still deliver accuracy and service life equal to (or in some cases better than) chrome lined barrels. Etc. Colt didn't even release a mid-length gun until the CCU...and that seems to have been a limited run. The guns they are selling now with the Centurion rail seem to have the carbine length gas system. Nothing wrong with that, of course, as it works...but the mid-length is a little bit nicer in terms of controlling the gun in rapid fire. The M4A1 appears to have significant upgrades most especially using a barrel which delivers a higher level of accuracy than that achieved by the M4. But, as I mentioned, they aren't the only company capable of doing that. I've seen very, very accurate Faxxon barrels. I have a Sionics gun that is a legit sub MOA gun with MK262 ammo. (Which, unlike most people who say that on the internet, I actually have witnesses that can confirm) Colt isn't bad quality. They're pretty darn good quality. But they aren't the only game in town anymore. They are stuck with the UAW, which lots of people don't like, and they have a history of not really innovating to the same extent as other players in a now much more crowded market. |
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I assume this is just temporary until they catch up with the military contracts. View Quote Commercial sales always come second, military sales come first; always been that way with Colt. Sad to see the level of hate for Colt here on ARFcom... |
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What's their (actual cost manufacturered) market share?
No big deal. |
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I have two Colt 6920 Law enforcement ARs with restricted roll marks. Both never opened, still in factory SEALED boxes. Looks like it was a good move keeping these sealed. Would love to trade these and $$ for a FN M249s or something old school and knarly.
I have a 3rd LE6920 that's my shooter. |
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Sad in a way. I still remember when the Colt AR-15 was the gold standard of MSR's and the "Colt's Firearms Division/Colt Industries" rollmark meant something. Now? Don't let the door hit your a$$ on the way out. Colt lost it when they temporarily stopped making AR's in 1989 and then added features like the useless "sear block" to make things even more complicated.
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Dang, I remember when I signed up on this site and not having a Colt drew the "It's your funeral" crowd like moths to a flame.
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@fssf158 I have been dealing with other things and have not kept up with the past several pages of the thread. Could you provide a synopsis of what I missed and/or a suggestion of what you would like it changed to and any clarifying message you would like added to the OP? Please @ me in your response. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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@Undefined I think this has been sufficiently debunked to merit a change to the thread title. Please @ me in your response. "so, word is its a slow down for 60 days the guy at RSR has supposedly been fired for sending out that email and colt has told RSR to release a statement on that. waiting to see when and if that happens. Im hearing they are have orders for civilian production for this November with a big push for more of the SOCOM models" I'd recommend clarification in the title to indicate that this is temporary so we can cut down on the unnecessary panic and condemnation of Colt for permanently discontinuing civilian AR sales, which they are apparently not doing. Thanks. |
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Seriously, these fuckers could mess up when they have a printing press to press money! I’m a Colt fan boy and have several of their ARs, pistols, a Colteer and even a shotgun of theirs. All they need is to put their name on something and people will buy it. They came back out with the Cobra but nothing else. They can’t make SAAs fast enough but they’ve rested on their reputation for too long. Make snake guns again, innovate and make something more than SAAs, 1911s and ARs. All of which I love but when your newest design is 60 years old you gotta do something new to sell something else old that people will buy. View Quote I can't fathom how Colt could produce a handul of iconic weapons, one of which helped win the west, the 1911...around since the First World War up to and including the GWOT, two plus variants garnered once huge mil contracts and saw us through a few more conflicts and spawned the AR genre, the Python and Anaconda, and still be TU. |
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https://www.shootingillustrated.com/articles/2019/9/12/the-truth-about-colts-ar-15-production/
Recently, a story broke regarding an email communication from RSR Group, a firearm distributor that carries Colt firearms, that Colt notified them of its intention to discontinue production of all Colt long guns for the retail market in an effort to “focus on military and law-enforcement demand.”
This news caused many firearm enthusiasts to claim mismanagement on the part of company executives and to claim that Colt hasn’t changed its ways, a reference to popular perception that Colt’s 2015 filing for bankruptcy stemmed from the company’s focus on government contracts at the expense of the consumer market. However, the real story is a simple case of capitalism in action. View Quote “What’s true today is that the MSR market is much more price-driven,” Spitale said. “We’ve seen a pretty sharp decline in rifle sales, given our price points, resulting in significant inventory build-up held by our distributors.”
Colt considers its business anchored to four foundations of the market: government contracts, law-enforcement sales, international sales and the retail market. Though the company lost its primary contract for military-issue M16s and M4s in 2013, the company still retains a robust contract base that keeps production going. View Quote In fact, according to Spitale, Colt’s manufacturing capacity for AR-style rifles is currently tied up in producing guns for outstanding contracts. Given this demand and given the lack of demand from the retail side of the market, Colt’s determination to suspend retail production is good business sense. M16s and AR-15s are different rifles, and to tie up production capacity in producing commercial semi-auto-only guns that nobody’s buying at the expense of outstanding military contracts is just bad business. View Quote However, this recent news begs the question: when, if ever, will Colt resume commercial production of its rifles?
“It’s not forever,” Spitale said. “It’s to say that, at this moment, we’re listening to consumers and putting our resources where they’re most valued.” View Quote |
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Originally Posted By Dark Star:
https://www.shootingillustrated.com/articles/2019/9/12/the-truth-about-colts-ar-15-production/ More at link. View Quote |
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I have two Colt 6920 Law enforcement ARs with restricted roll marks. Both never opened, still in factory SEALED boxes. Looks like it was a good move keeping these sealed. Would love to trade these and $$ for a FN M249s or something old school and knarly. I have a 3rd LE6920 that's my shooter. View Quote good luck with that. |
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Sounds like Colt just gave in to the fact that people are buying less expensive alternatives, so they're concentrating on things people have apparently been hounding them for, like snake revolvers, for example.
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Quoted: Sounds like Colt just gave in to the fact that people are buying less expensive alternatives, so they're concentrating on things people have apparently been hounding them for, like snake revolvers, for example. View Quote Time will tell... |
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Quoted: There is a bit of that in there, the realization that the commercial market is offering up a great many options now at a lower price point. I'm cautiously optimistic on the Snake revolvers, but wonder how they'll build them to the levels they did in the past; all the hand fitting that was done is as much art as anything else. Time will tell... View Quote |
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Anyone taking bets that the new snake revolvers will have MIM internals? View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
Quoted: There is a bit of that in there, the realization that the commercial market is offering up a great many options now at a lower price point. I'm cautiously optimistic on the Snake revolvers, but wonder how they'll build them to the levels they did in the past; all the hand fitting that was done is as much art as anything else. Time will tell... |
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2 colt 6920s for a FN m249s? good luck with that. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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I have two Colt 6920 Law enforcement ARs with restricted roll marks. Both never opened, still in factory SEALED boxes. Looks like it was a good move keeping these sealed. Would love to trade these and $$ for a FN M249s or something old school and knarly. I have a 3rd LE6920 that's my shooter. good luck with that. Even had double $$ Homey. |
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According to the statement they want to focus on regaining contracts View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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What contracts? I think they are in the to M4--->M4A1 conversions. What else are the currently working on? ETA: I see things have been cleared up. Makes more sense now. |
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So basically a lot of people owe TTAG an apology. The guy who sent the email deserves his job back and an apology.
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What kind of bet would that be when Colt has used sintered internals since the advent of the MkIII in all but the Python? View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Quoted: There is a bit of that in there, the realization that the commercial market is offering up a great many options now at a lower price point. I'm cautiously optimistic on the Snake revolvers, but wonder how they'll build them to the levels they did in the past; all the hand fitting that was done is as much art as anything else. Time will tell... It became known pretty quickly but ''gunsmiths'' and the owners still did it with poor results. |
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