Not with a Bang but a Whimper: The Sorry Saga of Winchester Comes to a Close

April 06, 2006

By David E. Petzal and Philip Bourjaily

On Thursday, March 30, the U.S. Repeating Arms Company plant in New Haven paid out its last paychecks to its 186 remaining workers and closed its doors, probably forever. However, the City of New Haven and the State of Connecticut are unwilling to let the poor, 140-year-old company die a dignified death.

Governor Jodie Rell has pledged to save everyone’s job, and New Haven Mayor John DeStafano, Jr. has invited other gunmakers to inspect USRAC’s corpse. Apparently Smith & Wesson and Savage (which itself nearly died in the early 1990s) have taken a look, but have been unwilling to put the electric paddles to the Big Red W.

Who can blame them? About 20 years ago when Colt got into terminal do-do, the City of Hartford and the State of Connecticut and whatever union was involved tried to save the enterprise, but that combination could kill off kudzu. Colt continues to limp along, sort of, but it’s never been turned around. Old machinery, incompetent management, and a dated product line will do it every time. Just ask General Motors.

Back in the 1970s, an acquaintance of mine was hired as P.R. director at Colt. The poor man was not merely incompetent, he was crazy, and ended his short, unhappy life in a mental institution. When you see people like this being hired, you know it’s time to pee on the fire and call in the dogs, ‘cause the hunt’s over.

from Steve Ferber wrote 6 years 5 weeks ago

You might remember in the 1970s and 80s I started a national newsstand consumer magazine with Colt called simply, "Colt American Handgunning." It was published each year for 10 years and was the first national newsstand handgunning magazine. "American Handgunner," also a very good publication, came on the scene a year or two later...and many more titles followed. Circuituously, The PR guy Dave Petzal remembers was actually the marketing manager and while he did, deservedly, go to the loony bin for a while he actually died several years later, peacefully, while reading a book at historian/writer Larry Wilson's house. As an aside, that man invited me on a moose/black bear/caribou hunt in Alaska when Colt came out with their eight-inch-barreled Python Hunter. I was asked to take a moose with it "if given the opportunity". I had never shot a moose and had only seen one in the wild once, in Wyoming, having been chased back into my float-fishing boat by a troubled cow. So back in Alaska on the Ho-Holitna River, I shot a nice bull five times with the .357 Mag. from no more than 40 yards. First round was an attempted brain shot, perfectly placed, and the animal turned and looked at me wondering why I was annoying him. The next four were placed just behind the shoulder. As the animal started walking away off the gravel bar I picked up a sensible gun--a Model 70 Winchester in 7 MM Magnum and properly dropped the beast. What to do? Colt, in its good judgment, allowed me to write the story (I was shooting editor of Argosy Magazine at the time) the way it happened. I allowed my marketing Manager friend to be as crazy as he wanted after that.