What does the future hold for American gun companies?

[cacoltguy]

The more time that passes after an event, the more fondly it is remembered regardless of reality. American products of the past may have more soul, and human craftsmanship, but better quality? That's a huge blanket statement. Try getting 100,000+ trouble-free miles out of a 1950's or 60's era American automobile. Just because something has more pounds of metal in it doesn't automatically make it better. I'd love to have a 1960's muscle car in my garage but there's no way it compares to the reliability, fuel economy or performance (believe it or not) of a modern Mustang or Camaro. Same goes for guns. Good luck finding a sub-moa rifle for a reasonable price decades ago. There will always be lemons. Remington has been producing some crap lately, same for Kimber and their recent 1911s. Nevertheless I would never in a 100 years trade our modern choice of firearms for that of 40-50 years ago.

 

[WinThePennant]

Good luck finding a sub-moa rifle for a reasonable price decades ago.

My understanding is that Springfield 1903s were quite capable of that.

 

[Sam1911]

My understanding is that Springfield 1903s were quite capable of that.

SUB-M.O.A. accuracy? "Quite" capable? From an issue grade 1903? I'd be curious to see some citations to establish that.

 

[Ole Humpback]

Sure, a company had to make a profit to stay in business, but that profit was based on a reasonable percentage, not "what the market would bear".

In my Ag Econ class in college we had the owner & founder of Beck's Hybrids, Sonny Beck, come and talk to us one day and he touched on this, not in a ton of depth but enough for us to understand why companies no longer charge what they need to make a profit. It has to do with the market maturing and what that market ultimately becomes at the end of its maturation.

In the 1980, Beck's was just another mid-sized seed company selling seed to farmers. In 1985, the seed market began to mature and the seed companies were going out of business unless they either joined an R&D ag division/company (Dow Elanco/Elanco, Eli Lilly, DuPont, ect.) or become a marketing firm (Beck's, Pioneer, ect.). The seed market ultimately became a marketing market with the actual seed production becoming an agricultural biotech & genetic engineering market. Beck's was making a killing as a seed producer & seller, but they did more selling & less producing so they became a marketing firm. They were well below the market average for price, but at the rate the market was maturing they had to charge what the market would bear otherwise they were going to be left behind and in the end collapse.

 

[Maple_City_Woodsman]

In general, to most of us who have grown up with firearms, a gun represents a set of ideals and personal pride. To companies and 'convenience' gun owners, a firearms is just a commodity.

BUT...

Lest we think any of this is new, Lets look back to the late 1800's. Companies like Iver Johnson and Hopkins & Allen each produced their guns at varying price points under nearly a dozen different brands, which were both outsourced and/or acquired through purchase of competing firms.

Sounds a lot like Remington and the other gun conglomerates today doesn't it?

 

[Ole Humpback]

And Remington and Winchester no longer produce ammunition at the Lake City Army ammunition facility.

And Federal Cartridge had to retool that plant in 2003 to handle producing over 20 million rounds of 5.56 NATO per day. I used to shoot at the Lake City Ordnance Facility DNR Range when I lived in Kansas City. Federal spent something like $30 million retooling the plant so they could meet military demands for 5.56 & 7.62 NATO rounds. When I left in 2005, that single plant was producing over 7 million rounds of 5.56 NATO per 8hr shift with 3 shifts per day just for military contracts. Thats excluding production of Civilian ammunition or large ordnance for heavy weapons and armored vehicle munitions. Remington had to open a new plant in KC because Federal was using so much of the Lake City plant to produce military ammo.

 

[mec]

The biggest area of fall off I see from today's manufacturing and that of years past is in customer service....

So much to do, so little time! There's the Summer Vacations, then the Thanksgiving through-New Year, then the SHOT then all of the other January-April trade shows with a week or so off in between to rest up. There's only so much you can get done with a four and a half day work week and all those backed-up voice-mail messages.