COLT OUT OF BANKRUPTCY !

[SEIndSAM]

My understanding of the previous problem was that the investment group that owns Colt squeezed money out without putting much back in to improve or even maintain the company. If that strategy hasn't changed, then new company management and "aggressive pricing" are not going to do much to avoid another crash.

 

[NIFT]

Anacondas were dogs when they were new, we could never sell the ones we had, they'd be foolish to try to make those again. When they reintroduced those SS detective specials those sold and would probably sell again.

I've always been a S&W guy for revolvers, but a re-introduction of the real Python would be great--talking 1970s quality, the gorgeous blue finish...everything the Python was at its prime and at a price a gun enthusiast could justify without a second mortgage!

 

[Leadeye]

I really don't see them bringing back any of the old school guns, that era of manufacturing is over. Wheel guns based on modern designs like the MK 3/J Frame platform will likely be what's made, the Python/New Service/Officers Model guns are a part of the past.

 

[JTScribe]

I've always been a S&W guy for revolvers, but a re-introduction of the real Python would be great--talking 1970s quality, the gorgeous blue finish...everything the Python was at its prime and at a price a gun enthusiast could justify without a second mortgage!

I would love a stainless new Python that I didn't have to pay a bajillion dollars for.

 

[24Carat]

Screwed over or saw the risks they voluntarily assumed when extending credit come to fruition?

^^^^^This^^^^^ !!

Learned professionals ventured into the fray with sound minds and intentions and got burned, to a certain degree at least, because none of us knows the details of the ruling.

Thankfully, risk and reward still have a relationship in our economy.

Take away that facet of the economy and we are nothing more than a true socialist state!

The desire for a risk free society is not thought through at all and hasn't been for decades.

It is the true bane of our economic engine and a hammer over the head of growth.

 

[calcot7]

Good deal! Glad to read this.

 

[trophyhunter]

Anyone know what they did to modify their contracts with the Union to get the 600 lb. gorilla in the room down to a more manageable size? I can't see them ever investing in the tooling to make DA revolvers again, never mind the skilled labor to make that happen is long gone from the plant and most of those guys have likely passed on by now.

Aside from gov contracts how they can turn a profit building M-4 knockoff's for the civilian market (albeit darn good ones) and a limited line of auto's and SA revolvers with union labor in a leased CT facility? The cost of just turning the lights on in that place every day on account of that has to be astronomical.

 

[IndyDave1776]

My understanding of the previous problem was that the investment group that owns Colt squeezed money out without putting much back in to improve or even maintain the company. If that strategy hasn't changed, then new company management and "aggressive pricing" are not going to do much to avoid another crash.

You are absolutely right, doing more of the same is predestined to replicate the same results. How about this...

1. Relaunch the King Cobra. Provided that the materials and workmanship are put into it like they should be, it is a good way to present a quality gun at a workable price point for the general market without compromising the gun.

2. Produce the 1873 revolver, including a basic model that isn't stupid expensive, and make it available in a number of popular calibers.

3. In tandem with this, reintroduce the Colt-Burgess rifle in calibers to complement the Peacemaker, with an eye on the cowboy market. It looks the part and from what I can tell was as good or better than the Winchester.

4. Relaunch the Python after shoring up the creaking ship.

5. Colt seems to offer a pretty good cross-section of the 1911 in spite of cutting most everything else.

6. Relaunch the Woodsman/Huntsman line. It may not work to re-release a base model given the manufacturing costs, but the target and competition models would be worth the necessary premium. Given the popularity of interchangeable barrels and other such modern features, I would make the entry level .22 something like the Cadet, only done right this time.

7. Put some new stuff on the market. Here is something that I believe would have gone over, especially after the mall ninja craze took hold, but it never saw the light of day in spite of the money already having been spent to develop it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt_OHWS

Now, put some imagination into more things, newer things, and better things than this, or even just cleaning it up a bit and putting it on the market.

Now to address the business model:

1. Move, shuffle ownership of the physical plant versus the corporation, whatever it takes, Colt needs to ditch that bloodsucking union. I generally do not have a problem with reasonable unions, but this one in particular has been a major problem with Colt's solvency problems and also with their quality problems which seem to come and go.

2. Stop automatically assuming that the prancing pony roll stamp makes the product worth anywhere from 150% to 300% the value of any competitor. That may have worked in 1875 when the Colt really was good enough to command a market price of $17 against $5 for a Smith and Wesson. Those days have come and gone. Get over it.

3. Treat wholesalers and retailers right. I seem to recall that one of Colt's problems was jerking the chains of the people who actually sold their guns. Don't. Just don't.

4. Approach customers with a proper attitude. If the lesson hasn't been learned by now that you cannot survive indefinitely by sucking Uncle Sugar's appendage, Colt is in deep trouble before even starting. Government contracts are fickle, subject to cancellation, and if nothing else, Colt should have learned this with their infamous handshake for sugar/backstab the people/reliable customers deal with Bush Sr.

5. Last but not least, Colt needs to get a grip on the concept of producing products that the customers want to buy. This nonsense of making what the company wants to make and assuming that people will scoop it up because of the prancing pony roll stamp needs to stop. How many times does it need proven out what happens on account of this before the lesson will be learned?

 

[IndyDave1776]

I really don't see them bringing back any of the old school guns, that era of manufacturing is over. Wheel guns based on modern designs like the MK 3/J Frame platform will likely be what's made, the Python/New Service/Officers Model guns are a part of the past.

Good point, but I just don't see Colt without an SAA, especially considering the renewed interest in such guns, long with lever rifles. Using modern CNC to produce the principal parts, I could see the Python as a Custom Shop offering. As for the general idea of revolvers, I don't think that most customers who need to live within a competitive price point really care that they could swap internals between their new revolver and the M1917 Great Grandpa carried in WWI, but do want the classic appearance of a good revolver that doesn't look like it got trapped in a mall ninja convention. As that goes, my understanding is that the vintage Colt double action mechanism could be a tad on the fragile side anyway.

Most important, I fail to see why the majority of this is not cost effective with modern machining techniques. As a favorite gunsmith of mine had said, the Miroku Browning A5 was actually a better gun than the Belgian, and explained CNC machining (this has been a long time ago, mind you, and I had not yet been introduced to much at all regarding machining processes) and how the parts just fit every time as opposed to having a row of manual machines running off belts on a common drive shaft with, as he put it, a bunch of toymakers fitting parts at the end of the production line. He may have been being a bit harsh on FN, but nevertheless, there is much potential. The way that union works, I have to wonder how Colt is keeping up with the times, particularly in regard to the way that some unions will attack any production innovation and won't relent until the per unit cost of production is right back where it was with the gain going to the workers involved. That has a way of making innovation less than cost-effective even as the status quo remains less than cost-effective.

 

[Leadeye]

CAS related firearms would be a good seller where Colt could get some mileage out of their brand name. Ruger has a good head start in this market though.

Management really needs to move the manufacturing to a new location, like Indiana.

 

[IndyDave1776]

CAS related firearms would be a good seller where Colt could get some mileage out of their brand name. Ruger has a good head start in this market though.

Management really needs to move the manufacturing to a new location, like Indiana.

Definitely. Assuming quality goods priced so that Donald Trump, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett don't buy the only 3 that they ever manage to sell, a good plain SAA with a Colt-Burgess should be a winning combination that would actually get people excited about Colt's products again.

 

[IndyDave1776]

Apparently I need sent to stand with my nose in a corner. I completely forgot about the Colt Lightning!

 

[ljk]

It ain't gonna last long without the fat .mil contracts.

I'd expect more "cheesy Special Edition" products coming off the line to maximize the profit margin. Bankers don't have the patience, they need thir ROI.

Don't think the current Colt has the tooling and skilled work force to mass produce their wheel guns.

 

[IndyDave1776]

It ain't gonna last long without the fat .mil contracts.

I'd expect more "cheesy Special Edition" products coming off the line to maximize the profit margin. Bankers don't have the patience, they need thir ROI.

Don't think the current Colt has the tooling and skilled work force to mass produce their wheel guns.

You have a point about a potential parade of everything this side of a "Dave's 43rd Birthday Special Edition".

My thoughts are that it is difficult to believe that they would have been stupid enough to have chucked all their tooling, and may well come out ahead through replacement of a lot of it anyway. I am going to say that they would definitely need to take some notes from the strategy used by Mercedes Benz immediately after the war, starting with the minutes from the first real reorganization meeting acknowledging that the company had for all practical purposes been destroyed by the war, and concentrating on more practical and affordable vehicles, leaving a return to the Grosser Mercedes (in form of the 600) for another 15 years or so. In the same way, I am of the belief that if Colt would reintroduce the revolver starting with the SAA, the King Cobra, and the Detective Special with more caliber variation than has been traditionally available, with emphasis on including rimfire variants, there is the potential to make it work with a solid product line and not just try to gimmick their way over the canyon.

 

[drillsgt]

They could make a 6" stainless python and ship it in a duty rig made for a 4" and call it a walking dead commemorative.

 

[IndyDave1776]

They could also make one with only one chamber drilled into the cylinder and call it the "Barney Fife Commemorative Edition".

 

[drillsgt]

They could also make one with only one chamber drilled into the cylinder and call it the "Barney Fife Commemorative Edition".

See, they could be on solid ground in no time!

 

[Lee11b]

LOL at the Barney Fife Edition.....the twists you guys add to some of these forums.....truly entertaining

 

[IndyDave1776]

See, they could be on solid ground in no time!

 

[01deuce]

Yes, and here is one of the newest that's coming out, all steel Clapp Commander from Talo.


All Steel Wiley Clapp Commander .45 O4040WC ? TALO Distributors Inc

Impatiently waiting for one of these to go along with my Wiley Clapp governments. Outstanding 1911's and a good value for what you get.

The new lightweight commander XE looks very nice, and can be had for under $800.