It's obvious that
Guillermo isn't in the gun manufacturing business.
He and others are lamenting that Ruger revolvers don't come with hand-polished lockwork and reduced tension springs. Well so far as polishing is concerned, "back when... " they used to do a lot of that - Colt in particular.
Today the only revolver they still make is the Single Action Army, with a MSRP well over one thousand bucks. For all practical purposes they are out of the business.
Ruger isn't.
Bill Ruger's goal from the beginning was to design and engineer firearms that were nearly (or actually) better then those of his competitors, but retailed for less. He knew full well that if his products sold for the same money as say, a Colt or Smith & Wesson that most buyers would buy the latter. To do this he used innovative manufacturing methods that allowed him to eliminate a lot of machining operations. Internal surfaces and inside the cylinder window of investment cast frames are left as they come out of the mold where Colt and S&W frames, that are made from forgings are machined. The difference is minor and makes no practical difference, but it is noticeable on the price tag.
You may want somebody's Granny to polish your lockwork, but I for one don't. Any gunmaker that has a service department can tell you horror stories about some of Granny's work that comes across they're work benches. If you really want a case of heart failure look inside a fine older Colt hand ejector (such as a Detective Special or Official Police) that someone who didn't have the slightest idea about what they were doing tried to "tune the action," or "adjust the timing."
The springs Ruger uses are intended to insure
absolute reliability under any and all circumstances," If you want to lower the tension that's your business, and if you speak to "someone with authority" at the company in private they may tell you that non-factory springs and polishing jobs don't upset them too much because they provide an iron clad defense if the gun doesn't work and someone tries to sue them. It also relieves them of any responsibility to fix the gun on their dime.
Now since this thread was supposed to be about Colt’s, maybe we can return to the original subject, and possibly do some serious thinking about what caused they’re downfall as a major handgun manufacturer.
