Dupe! There is like 4 different threads about this same thing on here.

Since it is owned by the Herstal Group, and FN already produces a pump shotgun (just like the 1300) and the Self-Loading Police (just like the Super X2), I wonder if they will pick up the shotgun line.

Where did you get that article from?

2guntom
454 Casull +
AntiAmerican
Destruction

Quoted: Quoted: Since it is owned by the Herstal Group, and FN already produces a pump shotgun (just like the 1300) and the Self-Loading Police (just like the Super X2), I wonder if they will pick up the shotgun line. Where did you get that article from? 2guntomwww.2guntom.com/454/group/2gunsfiring_v1.gif 454 Casull + AntiAmerican Destruction Associated Press

Ya, thanks, I saw the AP note on the article.  What I meant was do you have a link to verify this by?  So much horsecrap is propogated via the internet because everybody quotes stuff, but nobody verifies anything.

AP Article link

Article from the Associated Press, BendBulletin.com

Jan 18, 4:09 PM EST

Winchester rifles to be discontinued

By MATT APUZZO
Associated Press Writer

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- The traditional Winchester rifles carried by pioneers, movie stars and Wild West lawmen will be discontinued in March, a Belgian manufacturer said Wednesday, confirming the end of an American icon that became known as "The Gun that Won the West."

Once the U.S. Repeating Arms plant closes March 31, the only new rifles carrying the famous Winchester name will be the modern, high-end models produced in Belgium, Japan and Portugal. The older models, including the famous Winchester Model 94, will be scrapped.

"The name will continue, but not with those traditional products," said Robert Sauvage, a spokesman for the Herstal Group, the Belgian company that owns U.S. Repeating Arms and the right to the Winchester name.

Herstal announced Tuesday that the U.S. Repeating Arms factory in New Haven would soon close, capping 140 years of Winchester manufacturing in the city.
 
"Economically speaking, we cannot continue. We have lost a lot of money," Sauvage said.

More than 19,000 Winchester employees worked in New Haven during World War II, but after years of a softening firearms market, the plant now employs fewer than 200. All will lose their jobs when the plant closes.

Officials and union leaders said they hoped someone would buy the plant and continue building the traditional rifles, but the Winchester name wouldn't necessarily come with the factory. Such an arrangement would need to be worked out separately.

Missouri-based Olin Corp. owns the Winchester brand name. In the late 1970s, after a massive strike by its machinists, Olin sold the plant to U.S. Repeating Arms along with the right to use the Winchester name until next year.
 
Sauvage said the Herstal Group wants to extend that right past 2007 but Olin has not decided whether to allow it. Spokeswoman Ann Pipkin said Olin is disappointed with Herstal's decision to close the plant and may sell the Winchester naming rights to someone else.

"The legendary Winchester name, we want it to be on a great-quality firearm," she said.

The Winchester model 1873 lever action rifle, popular among American frontiersmen at the end of the 19th century for its reliability, inspired the 1950 James Stewart film "Winchester '73."

John Wayne made the Winchester a signature of his movies and Chuck Connors posed menacingly with his Winchester on advertisements for the television series "The Rifleman."

President Teddy Roosevelt was also a Winchester devotee, using the 1895 model on his famous 1909 African safari, which historians credited with boosting the sale of Winchester sporting rifles.

While collectors were drawn to Winchester's many commemorative or special-edition rifles, sportsmen often still hunt with rifles that are generations old, a longevity that historian R.L. Wilson said became both the hallmark of the Winchester brand and part of its demise.

"It's not unusual in my work, I'll talk to someone, they'll say, 'I've got my rifle that belonged to my grandfather. I'm still using it,'" Wilson said. "These things get recycled as long as you keep a gun clean and you look after it."

Sauvage said Herstal is proud to have manufactured Winchester rifles for so long. He said he thinks customers will continue buying the new line of weapons, which can be produced quickly and for less money, because Belgium, like America, has a reputation for quality manufacturing.

Others say it won't be the same.

"It would be like Chevrolet going out of business or Chevrolet being made in Japan or China," firearms historian Ned Schwing said. "Winchester is an American legend, whether you're a gun person or not."

2guntom
454 Casull +
AntiAmerican
Destruction

Quoted: I ordered a 9410 Packer this morning. It's the 410 lever action. Just a fun gun to shoot. Always on my list of things to buy but this news moved me to action. MIKE.

This is an issue for me as well.  Damn.

Quoted: Yes it is true. I posted it in our board, yes for the dupe police it was in GD a couple of days ago, because some of us might want to order Winchester products before they are gone. I ordered a 9410 Packer this morning. It's the 410 lever action. Just a fun gun to shoot. Always on my list of things to buy but this news moved me to action. MIKE.

Good choice.

That is a fun gun to shoot.

Quoted: It will be sad not to see that big "W" on new guns anymore...but they have come back from the ashes before, so maybe they will again. I hope.

They will rise up from the ashes once again and be called............................

Phoenixchester.

Japanese owned, Korean labor, American sales force.

That is funny!  I needed that!

2guntom
454 Casull +

Quoted: It will be sad not to see that big "W" on new guns anymore...but they have come back from the ashes before, so maybe they will again. I hope.

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! You're trying to sabotoge my excuse for buying a rifle I don't need with money I don't have.

Too bad really.

I went to Walmart last night a bought a Model 94 and put a 12ga 1300 on layaway.  I would have gotten a 20ga too if they had one.

if i want a bolt gun i would get a 700.
pump gun...  mossy
lever gun...  marlin.

why get a winchester?

Quoted: if i want a bolt gun i would get a 700. pump gun...  mossy lever gun...  marlin. why get a winchester?

The name Winchester. The guy on the horse. I guess I should buy something they make and maybe it will be worth something. O wait i still got a box of 3 inch 12 gauge shells im set.