User Panel
Posted: 1/18/2006 12:19:56 PM EDT
Winchester Rifle Plant Prepares to Close
By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer Tue Jan 17, 4:37 PM ET NEW HAVEN, Conn. - U.S. Repeating Arms Co. Inc. said Tuesday it will close its Winchester firearm factory, threatening the future of a rifle that was once called "The Gun that Won the West." "It's part of who we are as a nation just like it's part of who we are as a city," Mayor John DeStefano said. The announcement touched off a lobbying effort by city officials and union leaders who hoped to find a buyer for the plant before it closes March 31. If no buyer comes forward, it could spell the end for nearly all commercially produced Winchesters, said Everett Corey, a representative of the International Association of Machinists District 26. "Winchester would be pretty much defunct," he said. "They're not going to produce them, other than a couple custom-type models." The company has been plagued by slumping firearm sales. More than 19,000 people worked there during World War II, but the plant employs fewer than 200 now. The Winchester model 1873 lever action rifle was popular among American frontiersmen at the end of the 19th century for its reliability. John Wayne made the Winchester rifle a signature of his movies and Chuck Connors posed menacingly with his Winchester on the poster for the television series "The Rifleman." "Marlin made lever-action rifles but nobody ever had a Marlin in films or TV series. They were always Winchesters," said Ned Schwing, a firearms historian. Perhaps the company's greatest unofficial spokesman was President Teddy Roosevelt, who used the 1895 model on his famous 1909 African safari, which historians credited with boosting the sale of Winchester sporting rifles. Since the plant opened in 1866, tens of millions of Winchester rifles have been produced, the bulk of which came between the late 1800s and the end of World War II, said firearms historian R.L. Wilson, who has written books about Winchester. More than six million copies of the Winchester Model 94, the company's most popular rifle, have been produced. "Several generations have worked at this place, a lot of fathers and brothers, sons, uncles and daughters," said Paul DeMennato, facility director at U.S. Repeating Arms. U.S. Repeating Arms, which is owned by the Herstal Group, a Belgium company, has said for years that it was on the brink of closing the plant. DeMennato said the company is negotiating the plant's sale. 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. Olin had no immediate word on its plans for the Winchester name. DeMennato said he hopes the name will be sold along with the plant. Nobody at Herstal's headquarters in Belgium could be reached Tuesday afternoon. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Connecticut plant that makes Winchester rifles to close By Greg Bensinger Bloomberg News Posted January 18 2006 U.S. Repeating Arms Co. will close its Winchester rifle factory in New Haven, Conn., after years of falling profits, ending American production of "the gun that won the West" and eliminating about 200 jobs. The factory will close March 31 and three rifle models will be discontinued, said Travis Hall, vice president of sales and marketing for Morgan, Utah-based Winchester Rifles and Shotguns, a unit of U.S. Repeating Arms. "That factory's just been unprofitable for years, it just got to a point where we needed to make some changes," Hall said in a telephone interview. At its height during World War II, Winchester employed more than 19,000 people in New Haven, The Associated Press reported. Production of the Winchester rifle line will continue in Belgium, Portugal and Japan, Hall said. There are no immediate plans to sell the New Haven plant, he said. The closing is "a devastating blow to New Haven," said Everett Corey, a spokesman for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents 186 workers at the plant. "Winchester was hugely successful, a gigantic company, really," said Bob White, curatorial assistant of the Cody Firearms Museum in Cody, Wyo. "They had the sales and resources to corner the market and really dominated the country." U.S. Repeating Arms is a unit of Liege, Belgium-based Herstal Group. |
|
Winchester is crap in every way. I wouldn't own anything with the Winchester or Olin name on it. Pay back is a bitch for all the people they have screwed when they built buildings to produce materials for them only to have Winchester say "oh well we don't need you after all".
There are better firearms and better ammo out there. Move on and let Darwin sot it out. |
|
200 workers down from 19k, hardly an industry. Obviously they do not produce what their potential buyers want at a price they want or they would be in good shape. |
|
|
Politics aside,its always sad to see an American Plant close while production continues overseas.
|
|
what about their line of ammunition?
guess that doesn't affect that part of the company, or maybe I'm thinking of a completely different corp. |
|
Olin makes the ammo. It is, IMO absolute crap unless you pay out the ass for the high end stuff. Much of it isn't even made by Olin but S & B. Quality varies from great to poor depending on the day. Besides, Winchester is owned by FN of Belguim, hardly another American industry going to the waysaide. |
|
|
edit to add; I really don't care about the Belgium based Company,I care about the 200 Americans who will be out of work. |
|
|
Like JOHNO, this is what I was getting at. I think its sad, another blow to the US. |
|
|
Get rid of the unions, start making quality products here for a decent price and you won't have that problem.
|
|
I actually saw this scrolled on bottom of foxnews today during the car chase.
|
|
the question was does this affect their ammunition which I buy on a regular basis. some of us enjoy $7.50 a box for 40 rounds of .223 at wally world for our ARs, and $11 a box of 9mm 100 rounds, and the quality is very good in my opinion for the cost. -mark |
||
|
Uhm, that $7 a box Walmart ammo you buy is made by Seller and Bellot, Israel...................
Could care less about you opinion as well. |
|
|
|
|
nice edit.
you accidentally took off: "because you never know what you're talking about anyway." |
|
Decided to take it to IM. |
|
|
for along time now unless you bought a lever action you were buying an FN or something else. sounds like winchester will soon be just another name traded around like Charles Daly.
|
|
It already was.
The first W in WWB was just a word, the plant thats closing has nothing to do with WWB ammo. |
||||
|
There are two different companies here. Olin owns the Winchester trademark. They make and sell ammunition. Olin allows USRAC to use the name. Had you read the original post, you'd know,
|
||
|
yes, and your message was even more immature. |
||
|
Uhhh... S&B is NOT Isreal, it is from the Czech Republic. Also, the only ammo that Winchester subcontracts (at least recently) is 7.62x54R!
I have a Winchester 1300 shotgun. But it is made at the same plant about to close. This is the ONLY pump-action shotgun that can reliably feed Aguila short shotgun shells (which litterally double the capacity of any tube fed mag). Also, Winchester makes the FASTEST firing pump action shotgun on the market, with their rotating bolt "SpeedPump" system. I have had this shotgun for around 7 years and it still looks excellent, shoots excellent, and was used to get me my FIRST squirrel and my FIRST deer. This was also my first gun. It was $200 at Wal-Mart, not only the best pump shotgun they had but also the cheapest. Winchester 1300= reliable, fast, cheap, durable, excellent. I hope the plant survives, as well as the workers there who are threatened by this potential close. |
|
I remember years ago wanting a Winchester lever action 30/30. But when I checked them out at the store the action seemed loose and cheaply made. The Marlin felt much better. Made me wonder if they were just getting by on their "name" instead of on their quality. But as it turned out my children absorbed the money and I couldn't afford the gun anyway.
Kids tend to do that. I'm glad they're almost grown now and both have jobs! |
|
Speaking of jobs,its time for me to go to my over paid Union job! Carry on,I'll be back tomorrow.
|
|
They could be selling the crap out of those right now. Cowboy action shooting is getting huge. They need to look real hard at the market, and what is selling.
I suspect that since their right to use the name goes away this year, there is no point in making 1894s there. They will be 'just another knockoff' if they don't say winchester. |
|
Just handled a Winchest and a Marlin lever action at the gun store the other day, and came to the same conclusion- the marlin wasa much better made gun for less money. Sad to see Winchester go, but it sounds like it was a dying husk of a company already. Most of the great firearms companies of the U.S. seem to be going the way of the dodo, sad to see that American industry has been gutted so badly. |
|
|
+200000 Bingo! |
|
|
Knock it off. Respect everyone's opinion in this forum, or find somewhere else to post. KF |
|
|
+1 |
||
|
Winchesters and Colts (and all their clones) are how I make my living, mainly. I know a lot about these guys and I will tell you this.........it SUCKS if Winchester disappears but there is tons of stuff they COULD be doing but don't! Aldo Uberti is selling the shit out of their Italiano 1860 Henry, 1866 and 1873 clones. All originally made by Winny. But Winchester can't because of Unions and labor costs and litigation problems (no safeties per se). Same deal with Colt coming up soon too.......you watch and see........the UNIONS and litigation keep them from making what they COULD sell the shit out of but can't.
Lawyers and Unions. What a country baby!!! |
|
Maybe if they made the M1 carbine (in a few diffrent calibers as well .357 etc.) again they might get some sales!
|
|
I live in Ct and today one of the local papers had some more info. Talking to one of the company bigwigs he claimed that winchester was doing about the same with market share but the market on the whole had dropped. I am not sure what time period he was talking about,this seems like bs if you look at the cowboy action shooting guys.
I have messed about with cowboy (not real thrilled about dressing up) and hang with lots of cowboy shooters. Most guys start out with a winchester but usually dump it in favor of a marlin,a repro or an original old gun. I have an older 94 30 -30 and it is a far better gun than lots of the newer 94's although some of the real new ones (last year or so) seem somewhat better. Three or four of the guys in my gun club work at winchester (new haven) and don't have a whole lot good to say about the way the company has been run. I don't know if that is just the usuall rank and file moaning and groaning or if there is some truth to it . Shame to see the history go by the wayside. Soft market Unions messing about Corporate money grabbers gutting company as they buy and sell Trying to compete against high tech upstart mfg's and cnc stuff with old machinery and technology Old factory building with nightmare enviromental problemns and little chance to modernise Old city with tax and crime problems Pick and choose from this list as you will,truth hurts. For the guys faceing looseing their jobs I will wish for some inovative new group to come up with a way to save things. |
|
Lawyers, politics and unions will do (are doing) the same to the auto industry.
|
|
The Henry rifle(a Winchester product,but H. Winchester was afraid it would be a bust. He did not want his name associated with failure) was the assult rifle of it's day.
I'm picking up a couple of Winchesters. Safari grades. They might come back later, maybe made in Japan or Spain or where ever the hell Herstel can do it cheapest but it will no longer be a Winchester. A sad day. |
|
If/When Winchester closes it will be a sad, sad day. In my opinion Winchester is a piece of Americana......its a name that brings backs thoughts and memories of the old West etc....
Having said that I am glad that my Great Grandfather was a Winchester fan. Thanks to him I have in my safe a custom 1885 from the Winchester Factory in .22 long, and a 1904 in .22 short, both of which I shot today. From my Grandfather a wonderful Model 88 in .308 that today put a 6 shot group in a 1 inch square at 200 yards, and I'm not a great shot. For me this is very sad news. Tint |
|
Sad to see an American Co. go and all that stuff, But Winchester has been one of those big boys with there noses in the clouds for a long time now. I like there guns and own one, but customer service was TOTALLY non existant. I've got some stories about that but I'll spare you. They have made few if any attempts at making anything slightly outside the norm or inovative in any way for,..um lemee see,..um.. You get the picture. If they had made something interesting for cryin out loud.
|
|
WINCHESTER IS NOT CLOSING!
Read: U.S. Repeating Arms Company to Close New Haven, Connecticut Facility U.S. Repeating Arms Company, maker of Winchester brand rifles and shotguns will close its New Haven, Connecticut manufacturing facility. Many efforts were made to improve profitability at the manufacturing facility in New Haven, and the decision was made after exhausting all available options. Effective March 31, 2006 the New Haven manufacturing facility will stop manufacturing the Winchester Model 70, Model 94 and Model 1300. Winchester Firearms will continue to see and grow its current line of Select over & under shotguns, the new Super X3 autoloading shotgun, the new Super X autoloading rifle and Limited Edition rifles. The company also plans to introduce new models in the future. There will be no change in Customer Service. This action is a realignment of resources to make Winchester Firearms a stronger, more viable organization. Winchester Firearms plans to continue the great Winchester legacy and is very excited about the future. Jim Shepherd, Editor/Publisher The Outdoor Wire 3550 Grandview Parkway #1217 Birmingham, Alabama 35243-1952 Tel: (C) 205 243 3393 eMail: [email protected] or [email protected] Website: http://www.theoutdoorwire.com So only one plant is closing. Winchester in name and Winchester in new guns will still exist. |
|
Sign up for the ARFCOM weekly newsletter and be entered to win a free ARFCOM membership. One new winner* is announced every week!
You will receive an email every Friday morning featuring the latest chatter from the hottest topics, breaking news surrounding legislation, as well as exclusive deals only available to ARFCOM email subscribers.
AR15.COM is the world's largest firearm community and is a gathering place for firearm enthusiasts of all types.
From hunters and military members, to competition shooters and general firearm enthusiasts, we welcome anyone who values and respects the way of the firearm.
Subscribe to our monthly Newsletter to receive firearm news, product discounts from your favorite Industry Partners, and more.
Copyright © 1996-2024 AR15.COM LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Any use of this content without express written consent is prohibited.
AR15.Com reserves the right to overwrite or replace any affiliate, commercial, or monetizable links, posted by users, with our own.