COLT Layoffs ?

[CoalTrain49]

So what you are asserting is that if those ARs were just chambered in a different caliber they would be flying off the shelves?

I don't agree. If someone's going to buy one, they're going to buy it in .223 unless they already own several. And if that's the case, they'll just buy uppers or barrels in the new calibers, not complete rifles.

Your dealer may very well have to dump those guns below cost, but having them chambered in 6.5 Grendel wouldn't make them sell any faster.

Those guns you are seeing won't be bought by anyone who already owns an AR. Why buy a gun that will be hard to sell for half of what you paid for it.

It also depends on what you are going to do with it. If all you want it for is to punch paper then I agree with you. I just bought a .223 bolt gun for that very reason. I've picked up about 1K of brass at the range and bullets are dirt cheap. Powder goes a long ways loading .223. I'm loading 23 grains of AR Comp.

If you want your rifle to double as a hog/deer rifle I seriously doubt a person will buy a 5.56/223 to do that. When you consider that a first time buyer may want a cartridge that will optimize his AR a 5.56/223 is a pretty poor choice. It isn't even legal in this state for deer. Grendel or SPC is a better choice.

I'm not in sales. I'm just relating what my dealer friend told me. He has AR's that he shoots every week and he shoots them all. We have a private range here a few miles away. He knows the market. He says the market is now medium/high end AR's in Grendel or SPC. Low end AR's in .223 will be done for first time buyers in about a year. Wolf is already selling steel cased ammo for Grendel.

The next rifle I buy will be a Grendel. .223/5.56 was never an effective combat cartridge. Why buy an AR in 5.56 when you know it's finished?

 

[Elkins45]

Those guns you are seeing won't be bought by anyone who already owns an AR. Why buy a gun that will be hard to sell for half of what you paid for it.

It also depends on what you are going to do with it. If all you want it for is to punch paper then I agree with you. I just bought a .223 bolt gun for that very reason. I've picked up about 1K of brass at the range and bullets are dirt cheap. Powder goes a long ways loading .223. I'm loading 23 grains of AR Comp.

If you want your rifle to double as a hog/deer rifle I seriously doubt a person will buy a 5.56/223 to do that. When you consider that a first time buyer may want a cartridge that will optimize his AR a 5.56/223 is a pretty poor choice. Grendel or SPC is a better choice.

I'm not in sales. I'm just relating what my dealer friend told me. He has AR's that he shoots every week. He knows the market. He says the market is now medium/high end AR's in Grendel or SPC. Low end AR's in .223 will be done for first time buyers in about a year. Wolf is already selling steel cased ammo for Grendel.

The next rifle I buy will be a Grendel. .223 is a varmint cartridge.

I'm not disagreeing with you about the usefulness of the .223 cartridge, but most people don't buy an AR because it's a .223. They buy an AR because it's a magazine fed semi-auto that is infinitely customizable and has cheap ammo. I wouldn't hunt deer with a .223 either, but most people don't buy ARs to hunt deer with IMO.

I'm not in sales either, but I've never seen an AR at the range where I shoot that wasn't a .223 or 300 blackout. If the other calibers are seeing an increase in sales it's because their sales numbers have nowhere to go but up.

My next AR will be a rebarrelling of an existing rifle in 458 SOCOM. I'm a bullet caster and I have an approved Form 1 for a 45 caliber silencer, so this seems like the perfect match. Go big or go home!

 

[CoalTrain49]

I like your Lab.

I shoot mostly 30 or bigger myself. Just fooling around with 22's.

 

[PabloJ]

I've been saying they need to do that for a long time. They are trying to compete where all the competition is. The SAA is theirs if they would bother making them.

US Arms which morphed into US Firearms is gone now. I heard their guns were superior to those from Colt made at the same time. The SA market belongs to Italians and Strum & Ruger. I though the only thing that kept Colt going were government contracts. If that was so this time around I think the writing is on the wall.

 

[CoalTrain49]

US Arms which morphed into US Firearms is gone now. I heard their guns were superior to those from Colt made at the same time. The SA market belongs to Italians and Strum & Ruger. I though the only thing that kept Colt going were government contracts. If that was so this time around I think the writing is on the wall.

In a way Colt (or it's owners) have prepared themselves for more gov't contracts. They now own LWRC, a company that builds and has sold a 6.8 piston AR to a foreign gov't. IIRC the number was 40,000. You might say that LWRC has a product that foreign gov'ts and the US military might want. Colt hasn't been doing anything with the new AR cartridges but they own a company that has. This doesn't help Colt survive as a company by itself but it helps the owners move pots of money around to avoid paying taxes. Colt operations may continue for a while for no other reason than being a tax shelter for it's owners. That can't go on forever though and I think time may be running out.

 

[Cowhide Cliff]

If they went under exactly how is Colt going to do any better building custom SAA's? It seems to me that there really isn't that much of a market for a custom SAA around 2K. If I recall USFA made some nice guns.

No but there is a huge market for a nice custom ones in the 1000 dollar range which is what they should cost and if they would bother making them.

I just received a custom Cimarron one for around 700 and there certainly isn't more than 300 bucks more value in the few extra things Colt does.

Add a few bucks for a little better quality steel, Colt may or may not do a little better job rifling a barrel and cylinder throats. Just a few other little nick nack operations but a Colt just isn't worth three times more. I do machining work, knifemaking, and some gunsmithing and know how much more work is involved, costs of steels, etc, and it just aint that much