Winchester Rescue Efforts Abandoned
Friday evening, word that the last-ditch attempts by Save Winchester.com and American Firearms Company to save the former US Repeating Arms Company (USRAC) facility in New Haven, Connecticut, had been abandoned.

On Tuesday of last week, Olin Corporation, owner of the Winchester trademarks, granted the license to produce Winchester firearms to Browning. That announcement, apparently, was the last shot for organizers hoping to resume the 140 year history of Winchester firearms in Connecticut. Principals in the newly-formed American Firearms Company announced their decision to abandon their attempts to purchase the license and further efforts to purchase the USRAC facility from owner FN Herstal of Belgium.

A lengthy letter from Michael H. Blank, a key organizer in the efforts to keep the manufacturing facility that had formerly built Winchester's historic models 70 and 94 rifles before being shuttered last March, made no attempt to hide the bitterness toward Herstal.

"The Belgian management teams at Browning & Herstal have been unresponsive to our last attempts to keep Winchester in American and return it to American ownership," Blank wrote, "We asked them to name a price, any price and the response was that they want us to tell them how much in continuance of the back and forth delaying game we've seen since January. So it looks like it's over for the dream of a completely American Winchester Firearm, at least for now."

Stephen Oster, the man behind American Firearms Company told the New Haven Register : "We wanted to keep Winchester in America, made by an American company. We were quite surprised and ... disappointed that Olin chose this route. We did our best."

Oster, who was backed by several Wall Street private equity firms, said he planned to build a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility within the United States, and to keep at least some parts of the Winchester operation in New Haven.

A spokeswoman for the city said New Haven officials will continue trying to find a buyer for the facility.

Attempts by The Shooting Wire to reach Browning spokespersons since the American Firearms Company announcement on Friday have been unsuccessful.

Industry observers point out that new license-holder Browning is no stranger to the famous Winchester 92. In the late 1970s, Browning built and sold a limited number of "Made in Japan" Browning/Winchesters, known as the B-92 in both .357 and .44 Magnum calibers. At that time, however, Cowboy Action Shooting hadn't reached its present levels of popularity and the B-92s were discontinue

It is sad that the possibility of American made Winchester firearms is now probably not ever going to happen again.
On the other hand, I guess it comes down to either having no Winchester firearms ever produced again, or having ones that are made in another country. There probably isn't a right or wrong here, just people's opinion.
I have seen some of the Japanese made Winchesters, B-92 Browning and the newer 1895's and 1886's and honestly think they are very well made.
I pesonally would rather have a nice M70 that was made in Japan rather than not have the opportunity to own one at all.

Can anyone say Kimber? Remington?, Savage, or Marlin.

quote:

Originally posted by SDhunter:
Can anyone say Kimber? Remington?, Savage, or Marlin.

No CRF big-bores.

As far as I know, Kimber does not chamber for cartridges larger than .338 Win. Mag., and the others are all push-feed, with the notable exception of the Zastava-produced 'vaporware' Remingtons.

George

leaves MRC, Ruger, Hein, Waffenfrabicken, and dakota

jeffe

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
leaves MRC, Ruger, Hein, Waffenfrabicken, and dakota

jeffe

Don't forget CZ! The rumor is that besides their wrong handed rifles, the left handed 416 Rigby will be introduced in mid 2007

makes less difference to me if it says winchester on the barrel than if it says "Made in USA". Little jingoistic, nationalistic fervor there!!

I like the CZ's and Rugers, but am at a point in my life where I more like the idea of building just exactly what I want in a rifle. Not cheap, but I will go happy with the MRC PH actions when they arrive, and perhaps an MRC std length for a 358W or 35 Whelen, perhaps even a wildcat 35-284,

Regards,

Rich

Yes, I forgot CZ and the fact that this is the big bore forum. I own three of them and in the process of buying another.

I feel CZ's are the best/$$ right now. Every CZ I own/owned just plain shoots.

Kimber is probably the best off the shelf rifle on the market right now. I have zero experience with them as their stock design just doesn't fit me.