I’ll set this down right here and walk away for a bit.

Accipiter

Colt caves!



https://www.yahoo.com/gma/colt-stop-manufacturing-ar-15-assault-rifle-consumer-193400977--abc-news-topstories.html

earlyagain

So they lost the military contract. Now they stop civilian sales of a rifle that represents an inconsequential amount of over all sales. Make a pastey face self aggrandizing statement about it. And now?
Is there more than chirping crickets?

CaliFFL

Colt is trying to social signal, but the reality is nobody is buying their overpriced AR platform. The market is saturated...who wants to pay $1000+ that performs exactly the same as a $500 R-15? 

Seriously, what is Colt's recent market share? 

GunNut

Colt has painted itself into a corner. A premium brand that no longer makes a true premium product. There's not enough difference quality wise between a Uberti Clone and a Colt SAA but Colt can not make a TRUE Colt SAA in the USA and sell it for $500. They could of course make one for under $1,000... But they won't because they figure they would be eroding the collector's market out there. They also can not "improve" on the SAA because they tried that and failed miserably.

Change the above from SAA to 1911 and you have the same recipe. They recently tried to revive the Cobra snub nose revolver. But when you look at the old examples next to the new ones you can see in 5 seconds that the new ones are 100% machine made and the old ones are 100% hand fitted, and they are still trying to charge a premium for an ancient design. If they try to re-introduce the Python I'll personally burn their Corp HQs down. They simply can't build a gun like that one anymore, same with Anacondas and King Cobras.  No one can.  The magic is gone. The old artisans retired or dead.

So they can't be a premium maker, they are NOT innovators (their trash bins are full of failed examples since 198s) and their pride will not let them be just ANOTHER 1911 or SAA for the masses. So really they have no way out of the hole they have dug for themselves. I almost wish someone would put them out of their misery so they could go on to live forever in collections, history and legend.  Watching Colt is like watching Arnold or Sylvester Stallone still trying to be an action hero in a movie.

Linefinder

Colt did it to themselves. Colt products were way overpriced even 35 years ago. In the early 80's a Colt Python was a third more expensive against S&W's similar offering. I sure wanted a Python, but own a  S&W.

Mike

Varmintmist

I am pretty sure this is the second time Colt has done this. 1st AWB or thereabouts, Colt stopped selling to civilians to suck up to keep their mil contracts.

GunNut

Varmintmist said:

I am pretty sure this is the second time Colt has done this. 1st AWB or thereabouts, Colt stopped selling to civilians to suck up to keep their mil contracts.

That’s correct.

breamfisher

Look at the press release.  They admit they're in an over-saturated market.

Oddly they don't mention that Larue Tactical, Patriot Ordnance, Bravo Company,  Daniel Defense, LMT, LWRC, and others are selling ARs with a retail price of $1,500 to $2,000 and doing great sales.  Wonder why that is?

breamfisher

Varmintmist said:

I am pretty sure this is the second time Colt has done this. 1st AWB or thereabouts, Colt stopped selling to civilians to suck up to keep their mil contracts.

Probably more important now that FN also has a contract for M4s, and Remington was awarded the Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) contract.  Colt is no longer THE SUPPLIER for the military.

Bigslug

Press release from Colt on their site:  https://www.colt.com/news/2630

Looks like they're shifting to LE and military for the time being.

Current politics aside, if I was Colt, I'd probably tell the commercial AR market to take a flying leap as well.  The service weapon market at least knows what it wants - minimal Barbie-Doll accessories, carefully put together to a military checklist that was arrived at for a reason, and works.  Most of the commercial market wants all the Barbie-Doll out of the box it can get (and plans to add more), can't figure out a chamber dimension or a twist rate, and wants it all for free.

It really is two different market dynamics, and Colt is more geared toward building for the one than the other.  There is no shortage of companies willing to either cut corners or build fully Pimptacular race guns.  Colt makes cookie-cutter combat rifles in volume to a very high standard and sells them to the entities who want exactly that.  Not sure why this is a problem.

zorba

"Pimptacular"...

breamfisher

The plot thickens.  Looks like Colt has a new government contract.

https://www.guns.com/news/2019/09/20/colt-awarded-41-million-army-m4-contract-for-overseas-allies

Zee

I still run 2 Colts for work. 





And a BCM.........and a couple HK 416s.......and......😁

breamfisher

So, 2 working guns plus multiple pimptastics?

Zee

So I hear. 

Six-Gun

knitepoet said:

I see this as their attempt to get out of a market, that they're no longer competitive in, as "gracefully" as possible.

They haven't been relevant in the marketplace for a number of years.

edited to add: Just search the forum for  "new gun" and notice how many Ruger, S&W, etc come up in the results.Compare that to threads where someone mentioned having purchased a new Colt.

This forum is made up of a wide enough cross section of shooters, that I consider it a decent representation of the gun buying public

This is exactly how I feel.  100%.

I don't believe this is socially driven move in the least.  It simply doesn't make sense that it would be.  If there's money to be made by manufacturing AR-15s for the civilian market versus other revenue streams, they're going to make them.  

It's not like the anti-gunners are suddenly going to go, "oh, Colt stopped making AR-15s?  NOW I'll start buying their products!"  At the end of the day, they still sell guns as a business, so there's no PR campaign to be staged with the general public.

Super mass production military purchase contracts - where cookie-cutter, mostly plain-jane AR layouts can be sold without having to stop production to retool for a million-and-one civilian variant offerings (all the while priced far too higher than their competition's offerings) - is where they can at least survive.  

It should be noted that they are tiptoeing back into the revolver market, albeit at a snail's pace.  That's a place where they all but completely stopped production for a long time.  It's also a place where I think they have a much better shot at selling a product that they can ride on their history to sell, even when it's more expensive than their competition. 

earlyagain

Its untangling like media spin. Maybe spin that was predicted and manipulated.

sgtrock21

I saw fake media spin and was correct. I read the first 12  of 4,000+ comments and they confirmed this. Here are a couple:

 

This has ZERO TO DO WITH MASS SHOOTING NICE TRY FAKE NEWS!Colt will suspend production of AR-15 rifles for civilian sales, saying there's an "adequate supply" of the high-powered weapons already in the market, the famed gun manufacturer said Thursday.

The gun-maker, based out of West Hartford, Connecticut, said its decision is purely market-driven and made no mention of any public pressure over the AR-15's use in several mass shootings in the United States.

"The fact of the matter is that over the last few years, the market for modern sporting rifles has experienced significant excess manufacturing capacity," Colt President and CEO Dennis Veilleux said in a statement.

 

Typical Liberal media manipulating the news. Here is the real reason Colt stopped selling the AR-15 to the civilian market. The following is from the Hill:
Colt President and CEO Dennis Veilleux said in a statement that the company's "significant" law enforcement and military contracts "are absorbing all of Colt’s manufacturing capacity for rifles." He said that "the market for modern sporting rifles has experienced significant excess manufacturing capacity." "Given this level of manufacturing capacity, we believe there is adequate supply for modern sporting rifles for the foreseeable future," he added. He also stressed the company's commitment to consumer markets and gun rights, saying the company would continue to produce "expanding lines of the finest quality 1911s and revolvers." "We believe it is good sense to follow consumer demand and to adjust as market dynamics change," he said. "Colt has been a stout supporter of the Second Amendment for over 180 years, remains so, and will continue to provide its customers with the finest quality firearms in the world."

My issue rifle in Army basic training May 10 thru June 30 1978 was a Colt AR-15! A few years ago I finally discovered it was a 1 of 2,000 produced for field evaluation. I think the Air Force had a similar program. It had no forward bolt assist or chrome bore and chamber. It was stamped AR-15 as the military had not yet accepted the rifle and designated them M-16. I was Air Crew only until 1986 and was issued Colt or S&W .38 Special revolvers. My first issued M-16A1 was manufactured by Harrington & Richardson as was my later M-16A2. My final issue was a Colt M-4.