My FFL just called me and said that Winchester has gone under and/or has stopped doing business as of today. He checked with two of his distributors and they told him the same thing. I had a grade 3 30-06 on order through him from them. Has anyone else heard this news? Is it true?

Yep, it appears to be contract time,, rumor mill seems to thinkthey are going to go to SC for the bulids now

My FFL also mentioned that they are thinking of going to Russia or the Eastern bloc for their production, if they even do so. I can't believe that if this is true, that they would fold up that quickly and no one would have some sort of advance notice of it.

I searched ABC News and Wall Street Journal and found nothing in regard to Winchester "going under." I would think that wou

Look at hikerbum's post above. ("Model 70 To Be Discontinued") Looks like it's true.

I meant to write above that you would think you would read about something like that in one of the news sources. I stand corrected, then.
Thanks...ScottW

They did not say they were going under when I called Winchester, just that they were eliminating certina models and adding the Semi auto.

But eliminating the model 70 and 94. American tradition will suffer. IMHO

I called Winchesters customer service out of curiousity, and the guy on the phone confirmed that all M70s, M94s and 1300s will cease to be produced.

I politely asked him if they'd lost their mind...

Unreal...I just called customer service too. The guy said he was sorry and simply stated it was a "managment decision"....well...nice to know my 30.06 just went up in value! It will be interesting to see who is at SCI RENO...bet there will be a lot of irate people milling around!

As the owner of several mdl 70s both pre and post '64 I couldn't care less they were mass produced junk post '64 anyway.

U.S. Repeating Arms announces plans to close Winchester plant
By MATT APUZZO
Associated Press Writer

January 17, 2006, 2:23 PM EST

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- U.S. Repeating Arms said Tuesday that it is preparing to close its flagship factory in New Haven, where Winchester rifles have been made for 140 years.

The announcement touched off a lobbying effort by city officials and union leaders who hoped to find someone to buy the plant before it closes March 31.

"It's part of who we are as a nation just like it's part of who we are as a city. It's the gun that won the West," Mayor John DeStefano said. "What are we going to have, Winchester rifles manufactured in China? Is this what we're coming to?"

Everett Corey, a representative of the International Association of Machinists District 26, said 186 workers will lose their jobs if the plant closes. The company said it had more than 19,000 workers during World War II.

"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. "A lot of marriages were people who met at Winchester."

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. The company said sales have fallen off steadily.

DeMennato said the company is negotiating the sale of its plant. The Winchester name is owned by Missouri-based Olin Corp., which had sold U.S. Repeating Arms the right to use the name until next year.

Olin had no immediate word on its plans for the Winchester name.

Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.

I spoke to customer service at Winchester. They will indeed quit the model 70 and 94 in MArch. Something is going on here.

.

It would seem a good time to buy up a couple of M70's. Future parts availability would be a concern except for the fact that the aftermarket custom parts sales seems to be alive and well.

there were so many mdl 70 made that I'd find it hard to believe one couldn't walk into any gun dealer in 25 yrs and buy a dozen of them. same goes for the 94

Well, this is sad news. I own several model 70 rifles in 06,338,375,and .416 rem. and was considering a .458 win. to replace the Interarms MKX I sold off when I got a CZ 550 in .458 Lott. I just like the .458 win. A good working rifle at around 950.00 to 1000.00. Was also looking at a Montana Rifleman barreled action. Custom stock, metal work bells and whistles and maybe a Sunny Hill drop box trigger guard unit. I guess this is a nobrainer now. Was leaning towards the MR and with build up will get just what I want in a custom package for about 3000.00. Still a shame, but there are plenty of M70 rifles in good calibers out in the market.

It's hard to understand how USRAC could end up in this position. After all the bankruptcies, reorganizations, union concessions, state and local tax breaks, etc. Their new, state of the art factory in New Haven is barely more than ten years old.

Plus, it's always seemed to me that demand for the recent editions of the Model 70 has consistently been high, especially demand for the classic, featherweight, super grade and safari models.

I have to think that a big part of the problem was all of the money spent--and apparently wasted--on the WSM and WSSM lines of cartridges and rifles (including the "controlled round push feed" action), which have always seemed to me to be solutions in search of problems.

Maybe the lesson for USRAC's successor--and I predict there will be one--is to stick to tradition and the basic models, which will, after all, sell themselves.

A newspaper article from 1998, but it gives some background information.


Published Friday, November 13, 1998


With chants of "Show us the jobs or show us the money" and "Don't throw good money after bad" resonating through St. Peter's Hall, the group Elm City Congregations Organized (ECCO) held a meeting last night accusing the U.S. Repeating Arms Company (USRAC) of backing down from an agreement made with the city and state.

New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. was present to discuss the issue with a panel of ECCO members.

In exchange for a $20 million assistance package offered in 1992, the company agreed to employ a minimum of 400 workers at its Science Park factory. At least 35 percent of these 400 employees had to be New Haven residents.

As of Tuesday, the plant had 353 employees, 46 percent of whom were New Haven residents.

Consequently, ECCO members asked for either more jobs or the return of tax money.

But USRAC officials said they cannot afford to hire any more employees.

"If we hired enough people to make the 400 mark, we would lose $2 million a year. Demand for our product has dropped 100,000 units or 35 percent since the agreement was made," said Hardy Merrill, Controller of USRAC.

Begun by Oliver Winchester as the New Haven Arms Company in 1856, the company has had its share of financial difficulties, including two bankruptcies in a four-year period from 1987 to 1991.

ECCO members asked the mayor last night to refuse to give USRAC tax abatements because they are not meeting their obligations.

But the mayor said that only the state has already provided the USRAC with tax breaks. The city's package for tax abatements will not begin until 1999, and he does not plan make any decisions until then.

The city and company signed an agreement Tuesday night stating "the level of 400 full-time employees shall remain -- but as a target, not a requirement."

Members of ECCO said the amendment gives too many concessions to the business.

"This is really a dreadful agreement. So when he tells us about the new agreement, we tell him we liked the old one," ECCO member Rev. Lillian Daniel said.

But even the ECCO members agreed that the USRAC has not been successful enough to maintain their workforce.

ECCO member Ian Skoggard pointed at a timeline to document the company's history over the past 150 years.

"This chart shows a company not in the best health. If this were a medical chart, this patient would not be in good shape. Actually, it died on the operating table twice. The mayor should look for healthy companies for New Haven," Skoggard said.

Ownership of the company has changed several times since USRA purchased it in 1981. Former owners include the French government (GIAT) and the F.N. Herstal Group, a Belgian firm. The government of Wallonia, Belgium is the current owner after purchasing the F.N. Herstal Group last year for $303 million.

The French government kept the factory in New Haven after purchasing the USRAC in 1991 rather than relocating it to South Carolina because of the financial package offered by the City and State, according to a letter from Mayor John DeStefano addressed to members of the New Haven Community and Labor Coalition.

I've been trying to locate a new in box 30-06 in the Model 70 Classic Sporter LT since the news broke and NO ONE has one. Two distributors said: Good Luck. Any ideas?

I dissagree, they haven't made anything worth a damn since before 1963.

I guess this lack of quality assurance is what killed the outfit.

Maybe someone will realize that.

Wake Up Call Folks!

Should we be pissing on Winchester's grave here or should we wake up to the deeper message.

Guns and Hunting are in danger of extinction in the US. Take a kid hunting today!

Herstal did what any other multinational conglomerate would do in an increasing cost, decreasing sales revenue environment. Cut costs by moving to cheaper production areas. If you want high quality products and new development in the firearms industry, introduce a friend or child to the joys of the hunt and to shooting in general.

OK, I am off my soapbox.

Hugh,

Get back up there on that box. You're making sense...

But, why aren't they able to compete in this enviroment? Really wondering why.

-Steve

quote:

Originally posted by Hugh W:
Wake Up Call Folks!

Should we be pissing on Winchester's grave here or should we wake up to the deeper message.

Guns and Hunting are in danger of extinction in the US. Take a kid hunting today!

Herstal did what any other multinational conglomerate would do in an increasing cost, decreasing sales revenue environment. Cut costs by moving to cheaper production areas. If you want high quality products and new development in the firearms industry, introduce a friend or child to the joys of the hunt and to shooting in general.

OK, I am off my soapbox.

Thank you sir, well said. Guess the NRA had a point about junk lawsuits hemmoraging gunmakers.

I don't think the WSMs or WSSMs are to blame either. I believe they were the "newby" rifleowners cartridges of choice. If anything it increased new gunowners. But obviously this wasn't enough to offset increasing costs.

Honestly, I believe a very real attack on american gunmaking is by making it too expensive a business to be worth it

don't blame the 300WSM as it is a great caliber blame management for trying to make a WSM an WSSM in everyother caliber cause that 300WSM worked out well!

Somebody else will buy it.

From the Forbes web site.
http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/ap/2006/01/17/ap2456054.html

Associated Press
Winchester Rifle Plant Prepares to Close
By MATT APUZZO , 01.17.2006, 04:37 PM

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.
---------------

quote:

Originally posted by Hugh Guns and Hunting are in danger of extinction in the US. Take a kid hunting today!

Hunting might be on the extinction list, but firearms ownership is far from dead.

The target shooting sports and self defense will be the bastions of gun ownership in the US as hunting continues to fade away.

So what? They haven't been able to make a decent gun since 1964 anyway, and even that was no more than a second-rate copy. Remington and all their junk guns could go the same way as Winchester as far as I'm concerned. The market deserves to be owned by manufacturers who know how to build a quality product.

I find this very hard to believe, in winchesters new catalog Via their website they have 25 new models of the model 70 listed and 6 new models of the 94 listed and numerous new versions of the 1300 listed. So if they close the plant where are they going to be manufactured?

Personally, I think they are probably going to move production elswhere overseas. and are using this ploy to break thier agreement with the city of Hartford.

But I definitely agree with Hugh W!!!!!!
Guns and Hunting are in danger of extinction in the US. Take a kid hunting today!

I stopped in my local gun shop tonight and asked if they could get me a model 70 in 416 rem mad. They checked the computer and couldn't get any model 70 from their wholesalers. The only model 9422 that was available was the collectable model at $1,000. needless to say I left without it.

TerryR

Remington's upstate NY plant has been in trouble for a while, too. They have been in a dispute over their energy costs. Seems they had been obtaining energy in the form of steam from a local power plant, and the owners no longer want to provide steam to Remington. The dispute has gone to court, and have been put under seal. The press has not been able to talk about it for a while...

Of course, Remington has other facilities in the US, too.

Dan

I currently have a .375 H&H on hold and a 416 Rem on hold. I should be making the purchases in the next day or two. Maybe the thoughts are unfounded. But I still like guns to say. "Made in USA"

You can BS a company, but you all know that you have liked a Winchester at once in your life. Shoot I grew up on them and loved to watch the old John Wayne movies at my grandfathers house. They are a nice gun, and will be missed. Even if they are still around I wouldn't want a Winchester to say. MADE IN JAPAN

quote:

Originally posted by Use Enough Gun:
My FFL just called me and said that Winchester has gone under and/or has stopped doing business as of today. He checked with two of his distributors and they told him the same thing. I had a grade 3 30-06 on order through him from them. Has anyone else heard this news? Is it true?

Two weeks ago I gave my prize Supergrade 30-06 to a close friend. It's sad news that they are now gone. Good luck in your search.

Gary

are you guys for real, i mean for real about winchester not producing rifles anymore? especially the model 94? or is this some sort of marketing ploy? if this is true, i'm almost in tears right now, serious! have is really came to this, something as "all American" as a model 94, in 30-30, made in japan, or china? fuck! sorry, but fuck! what a croc of bullshit! sara brady, feinstein, and all those other assholes that made this happen with their goddamn bullshit can go to hell! fuckin assholes motherfuckers!!!!!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by TerryR:
I stopped in my local gun shop tonight and asked if they could get me a model 70 in 416 rem mad. They checked the computer and couldn't get any model 70 from their wholesalers. The only model 9422 that was available was the collectable model at $1,000. needless to say I left without it.

TerryR

I was recently searching through a wholesaler for a 375 stainless classic when I was informed this model was discontinued. At that time I was given a tip to get the Safari Express ASAP. They just took delivery of a shipment of 416Rem models and I grabbed the pick of the litter. Glad I did as the rest are now gone.

Gary

GaryVA: By some miracle and the help of another AR member I was able to locate the rifle that I am looking for. Suffice it to say, the cashier's check is going out tomorrow by DHL, next day noon delivery, along with the FFL document. Yes, for the rest of you it is true. Winchester will no longer be making the Model 70's and Model 94's. Sad but true. I have taken everything from elephant to steenbok with a Model 70, plus a host of North American game. Despite those that don't like them and even despise them, they're still an American legend and a great gun. And, for those now looking to buy up Model 70's good luck. Most of the sporting goods stores that I contacted today did not have any in stock and wholesalers are out and could make no promises whatsoever.

quote:

Originally posted by byf42:
are you guys for real, i mean for real about winchester not producing rifles anymore? especially the model 94? or is this some sort of marketing ploy? if this is true, i'm almost in tears right now, serious! have is really came to this, something as "all American" as a model 94, in 30-30, made in japan, or china? fuck! sorry, but fuck! what a croc of bullshit! sara brady, feinstein, and all those other assholes that made this happen with their goddamn bullshit can go to hell! fuckin assholes motherfuckers!!!!!!!!

Well said.

If this isn't a ploy to get out of the agreement it truly is an ominous sign. If Winchester is really going under I wonder how the other big manufacturers are doing?

sorry about my language gentlemen, got a little upset. if i offended anyone, my sincere apologies! i just hate to see this, model 70 excluded, winchester has made legendary firearms now from 1849 to well, now. the model 1894, dare i say, the world's most popular rifle, the 1895, that was shot on the white house lawn by T.R. Roosevelt in preparation for his 1909 safari, the legendary model 12 shotgun, and of course, the most beautiful s x s shotgun, the model 21. records have been made with winchester rifles. real men, not these hollywood pretty boys types, have carried winchester rifles into jungles, savanahs, valleys, mountains, deserts, and of course, into war. wow! i wonder what those men of old would have to say if they saw this!! Teddy Roosevelt is rolling over in his grave right now, along with many nameless men who conquered the west, the rugged alaskan frontier, men who knew the quality of a good firearm, and trusted their lives with it! if this goes through, then we as a nation, as a people, are much much poorer with this great icon passing!

i feel better.... well, not really!

btw... NOT knocking the model 70, it too is a great rifle, a affordable rifle that is dependable and accurate.