I remember back in the day when you could say that you'd love to get a new Colt handgun or a Remington rifle and folks would say, yeah, those are some good quality firearms. As the years went by things have definitely changed. Nowadays you couldn't pay me to buy a newly minted Colt or Remington. Their QC went down the tubes, their products have issues left and right and basically they've destroyed the good names of the brand. Remington basically destroyed the reputation of the 700 and they are trying to paw it back. To late though in my book as I'd love to have one of their older ones, but not sure exactly what year they turned into crap.
So what do you think happened? New owners, cost cutting, bad manufacturing machinery, etc'? It's a shame what they've turn into.
Colt has been a dumpster fire for 40 years. Ever since the strikes of the mid 80s.
The only way they stayed solvent was because of their very lucrative military contracts.
When they lost to FN, all the mess started to matter. Colt managed to go bankrupt during a gun panic buying spree in 2013-2016.
While the company struggled, management was pulling money out of the company and putting it in their own pockets.
As a 45 year CT resident I've known several people who worked for Colt. One was in accounting, one was in the custom shop, and one was a master machinist. All of them have stories of gross mismanagement and general terrible business practices.
Colt under CZ is a better colt than we've seen since the early 80s. Their products are or will be high quality with consistent quality. Have you owned a modern CZ or Dan Wesson? It's simply excellent stuff.
This is Colt's future, and it's far brighter than if the company had managed to stay independent.
The same can be said of Marlin and Ruger. I also know people who worked for Marling when it was independent, in North Haven, CT. They made great quality firearms for a reasonable price.
When Marlin was acquired by Remington, everything went to hell. They laid off all the old machinists and production workers in North Haven, moved production to NY. Then realized that they didn't have anyone who could run or maintain all the old machinery. Further, documentation on Marlin products was sparse, with most of the knowledge of how to make these guns left behind in CT in the heads of the people they laid off. Marlin was like a gun making guild, with knowledge passed down to new apprentices, rather than contained in proper documentation.
When Ruger bought Marlin, it was a total sh1t show. Ruger did what it took and essentially re-engineered the entire model line up to be made on modern machinery. This was something Remington wasn't willing to do.
Like Colt, Marlin has a bright future ahead of them BECAUSE an acquisition saved them (from a bad acquisition).
![[rofl]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/013.gif "ROFL [rofl]")
