Back in the 'old' machine days it was in fact extremely common for tooling to be adjusted during production without updating the documents, because updating blueprints by hand was extremely expensive and time-consuming.
Folks not having experience in manufacturing may not realize that documentation of product geometry & specifications, tooling geometry and specifications, and manufacturing process specifications are three different critters, and are historically done by different departments within an organization, or subbed out to entirely different organizations.
Machine shop tooling (work holding fixtures to hold parts in milling machines or lathes) is typically designed by machinists or tooling engineers who used to be machinist.
It's not uncommon at all for molds to be subbed out and if possession of the documentation is not clearly defined in the purchase order conditions, the mold maker will balk at turning over documentation, as he wants to ensure that he gets the follow on business for servicing and modifying the molds. It's also not unheard of for production tooling to be mysteriously damaged, when pulled from one subcontractor and transferred to another.
Manufacturing processes are often developed, tweaked and improved by supervisors "by the seat of their pants", in smaller companies that lack manufacturing engineers.
he manufacturing process was passed down from older workers to new workers
I always call this "tribal knowledge" and it runs rampant, even in larger organizations.
The bottom line is that documentation costs money, both to create and maintain. Even with solid modeling, CAD, CNC machining and 3D printing, you still have a lot of program tweaks, work holding tweaks, process sequence tweaks, supplier process changes, etc....
You really want to complicate things, transfer part of your operations overseas (or even to FL) and try to stand up a modern manufacturing process from the ground up. It's expensive and time consuming and you lose control of certain aspects of the gig.
If Colt gets sold, or shut down and then re-opened, it will be a major headache and expense for whoever the lucky one is, and you can expect problems negatively affecting the end product along the way.
Sciens has raped Colt of much of the companies value and saddled it up very heavy with debt. I suspect bagging the bond holders was part of their "lap top MBA", (ala Jack Welch) strategic plan since day one and they could really give a crap about the company, the product, the employees, or the customers. Corporate piracy at it's worst.