The very name evokes imagery. A new-born stallion racing with the wind, Ferrari's rampant horse icon, and that of the Colt Firearms Company of Hartford, Connecticut!
Well, nobody has read "Black Beauty" for 20 years. Enzo Ferarri is dead, and so is Colt Firearms Company of Hartford, Connecticut.
Between the Single Action Army, and the Browning 1911, Colt managed for generations to sell every firearm they designed and produced. The phrase "Colt Legendary Quality" was well earned, as the fit and finish of Colt firearms were evidence of the craftsmanship of the near-unique production values of this famous company. Sons followed fathers into the factory, and took pride in their efforts to create the finest production firearms of their times.
The 1980's were the watershed for Colt. In 1984, when the U.S. Military replaced the 1911 with the egregious Beretta 92 as the standard-issue military sidearm, Colt (having largely ignored the civilian market, with the possible exception of small-niche revolvers) found itself a producer looking for a market.
Colt Firearms suffered a schizophrenic personality split, being divided between the "Colt Defense" military/leo/Private Security market and the lackadaisical "Civilian" market represented by Colt's Manufacturing Company LLC.
Somewhere between way-back-when and now, their union workers went on a wage-strike that lasted for four years. Colt hired unskilled workers to fill current orders, and the "Legendary Colt Quality" went straight down the tube. Eventually even their contracts for military firearms (such as the AR-16) went to foreign competitors.
The company tried to improve its relationship with the civilian market, but the lack of quality (and the misunderstanding of what their potential customers wanted) produced even more guns without a cause, and the few customers they had were even more disappointed with the quality.
The '90s were marked by another bankruptcy, somewhat mirroring that which the company had survived in the 19th century.
Colt sold to "Foreign Interests", which had no understanding at all of the American gun market. The new owners, eager to curry favor with the existing Clinton Administration, made public statements in favor of gun control. The American market for Colt firearms completely dried up in protest; the only mitigating factor was that the (foreign) owners of S&W made similar public statements. This did not actually relieve Colt's profitless misery, but perhaps it did help to spread the blame if only because S&W's 2000 official, formal accession to the Clinton White House coersion to require (S&W) dealers to accomodate extensive and intrusive Gun Control measures which impacted ALL of their trading, not only those which involved firearms obtained from the (S&W) manufacturer. For example S&W dealers might be proscribed from selling at gun shows.
This anti-gun movement was, of course, fueled by the gun control zealots who resorted to lies in their effort to demonize guns. But here we saw the very people who built the guns supporting those who would undermine their business and their customers' ability to buy their product.
Their customers reacted with acrimonious market boycots.
Where are we now?
Who knows?
One thing is for sure: Colt is looking for a sugar daddy.
According to Jim Shepherd of "The Shooting Wire" (unfortunately, an article available only to subscribers and not available as an independent Internet link), one possible buyer of Colt's Manufacturing Company LLC might have been STI:
Other stories, including the sale of Colt, have dragged on longer than the Florida elections. Today, there's still no definitive resolution to the saga. An arbitrarily high valuation of the civilian side of the business ended that outright sale option in the Colt soap opera.(Link to the "Texican" is mine; it does not provide any "Texican" content, only a reference to its perhaps-future into STI's "Legacy" line of products.)
STI, the company that was ready to buy the civilian operation, has moved on, announcing upcoming production of a single-action revolver called the Texican. It will be aimed at the upper echelon cowboy action competitors, following the same model that has made STI's "race guns" major players in practical shooting.
With a highly successful, manufacturing-oriented business model, STI may, indeed, make a dent in the cowboy market - especially if STI contributes bonus money to cowboy action the way it has in practical shooting. The Texican may find its way into the holsters of the new generation of single-action shooters, despite the fact SASS has continually shied away from the idea of "win money" and sponsorships. STI's move into cowboy action may lead to the recognition that professional shooters exist in cowboy action.
How 'dead' is Colt?
It's so dead, it hasn't even the organization needed to sell body parts.
If Black Beauty (to invent a parallel) can't even be sold to a glue-factory, that would be unfortunate. That Colt's Manufacturing Company LLC can't be sold to a solid, reputable and prosperous company like STI, which would certainly produce a resurrection 'in a manner reminiscent to Lazarus', is a sad commentary on the Firearms Industry in America today.
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