A Bloomberg article with a timeline of Colt's misfires.

Colt hitched it's star to fat gov'ment contracts, then they got in bed with the gun control crowd. In 1998, CEO Ron Stewart floated the idea of a permit system for gun owners. When Mr. Ruger of Strum Ruger & Co. did that he lost market share. Colt had the M-4 contract for years.

Then the AWB hit it's sunset, the M-4/AR-15 clones took off. Colt was priced out of the market. For the price of their rifles, ~$2,000US, you could get a black rifle with an optic, light, foregrip, 3-7 magazines and a cleaning kit.

And then the bottom fell out when the Army took possession of the M-4 blueprints.

Troubles with the M-4/M-16, a gun rush that passed them by and the market flooded with AR/M-4 clones.

Yeah, Samuel Colt is spinning in his grave.

edited 25th Jun '15 11:12:05 PM by TairaMai

Keep in mind that Colt Defense is only the military production side of the Colt corporation. They did a reorganization some years back to separate their civilian and military production into their own production companies.

Still, though, it probably wouldn't be that bad if Colt didn't have a history, the past few decades, of being dumbasses about corporate-type decisions.

The 16 as it is now is not really troubled at all. It is the M-4 that is a walking issue because of pressure issues from it being a carbine.

Speaking of the 16 the Marines earlier this year started their 8 month observation of civilian sources for OTS parts to upgrade the A4 even further. We find out in October or November if they will recommend them or not. The upgrades include a new reticle system with a more detailed range ladder set up and the addition of windage lines, floating barrel, new trigger group to replace the three step trigger pull weights, and a new charging handle. Some rumors suggest controls being made more ambidextrous.

edited 25th Jun '15 6:10:10 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Replacement selected for Canadian Rangers Lee Enfields

Any hopes they can be sold dirty cheap on the US?

Ok, so Friday before the start of Libertycon, a bunch of Barflies (nickname for posters on the Baen-hosted Baen's Bar) went out to an outdoor shooting range to put holes in paper in various chemically propelled ways.

I haven't shot in like forever, so I was in with the newbie crowd (including a few who had flown in from European countries where firearms are banned) and got to send some lead downrange. As was said on the alt.books.tom-clancy forum years ago, any day you can send rounds downrange is a good one, and I had a good bit of fun even when I wasn't the one shooting.

Among other things, fired a .22 of forgotten make, a CZ-75 in 9mm, a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver (model forgotten), a 1911 clone in .45, and emptied a full 30 round mag from an AR-15 chambered in 5.56mm. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pics, and range time ran out before I got an opportunity to shoot up a target all by myself (instead of sharing one with others) to take home as a souvenir.

Now I have to work on wrist strength for anything bigger than a .22 if I don't want my shots all over like they were at the range.

edited 29th Jun '15 11:20:20 PM by Nohbody

Man I've been having a trip at work talking about why Colt's gone downhill. Lotta rednecks can't get it through their heads that America is surprisingly shit at making guns. I keep wanting to tell these old postwar baby fucks that it's their generation that fucked it all up.

Apparently a California Native American tribe is looking at possibly picking up Colt.

Sauce Here

edited 2nd Jul '15 5:04:55 PM by TuefelHundenIV

And on the subject of California and firearms, former California state senator Leeland Yee pleads guilty to corruption, including facilitating an arms shipment that had man-portable missiles and fully automatic weapons.

Why does that matter in this thread? Previously he has pushed for more strict gun control legislation.

So, to quote Nelson Muntz: HA-HAH!

If Colt is to survive they need to clean house: all the beltway suck ups and bootlickers need to hit the bricks. They gots ta go!

Bring in some engineers and some venture capital people to restructure the business. Acknowledge that the AR-15 and M1911 are icons and should be marketed and priced to move not let's see how we can screw our fanbase, again. Uncle Sam won't save Colt now that the M-16/M-4 blueprints are Army property now. They need to look overseas and at who's buying black rifles.

The tribe might pull that off. They would be completely new players with different ideas and unwilling to take bullshit for their investment. I kind of watn it to happen.

What does Colt have to offer that other gunmakers don't? Like design wise? I can't really think of anything

edited 3rd Jul '15 4:33:22 AM by LeGarcon

At this point all modern gun designs are almost boringly similar.

Everything is either an AK or an AR.

When's the next big paradigm shift in guns gonna come? Like what'll be the next big thing?

CT Guns? Electro ignition rifles? Kraut space magic gun?◊ Polish ACR?

I for one would like to see a rifle based on the Kriss vector

Even AR and AK type lines are starting to blur a bit. I wouldn't surprised if we took the most advanced examples tore them apart and set them out together we would find a variety of mixed design similarity. Sure there would be different takes on the same tricks and features but they would have a fair bit of similarity.

edited 3rd Jul '15 5:26:04 AM by TuefelHundenIV

Is it possible to built an AK or M4 from scratch to be bolt-actioned?

The AR-15 can be as long as you have the right upper.

Simulation of a man down during CQB

Bolt Actin AK's

Aprilla: Good find. One thing that bothered me at the start when they stacked up the one guy was standing right in front of the window shutters. Usually you avoid doing that. Unless that was just closed up to simulate a wall that was a mistake in and of itself.

Speaking of AKs, Kalashnikov USA says they'll begin releasing proper AK pattern weapons for sale to US civilians despite sanctions with Kalashnikov Concern.

According to the video description the window really didn't exist for the purposes of the exercise.

And it's the Hague Conventions that ban hollow points. The US is not a signatory to the Hague Conventions.

edited 11th Jul '15 10:30:05 PM by TairaMai

And of course, just because they might add it to the inventory does not mean they'll issue it to all of the troops. M Ps are already authorized to carry hollow point ammo depending on what they're doing, for example.

So I just watched Jurassic World and now I'm wondering: what caliber for large theropods (that is, large tyrannosaurs)? It seems like the Should AR/AK platforms firing standard commonly available give sufficient penetration? And where should you be aiming?

Another way to phrase this is: we all know that an A-10 or a .50cal or a rocket launcher will tyrannosaurus rekt a dino's shit. What is the lowest we can go and still do that?

The smallest that can? Basically the smallest thing that will penetrate their flesh deep enough to hit vital organs. Smallest thing that could do so consistently? Probably more of a function of the smallest that will penetrate their skull.

I wouldn't be surprised if you could mess up the squishy bits with 5.56mm (provided that you use enough, such as with one of these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XM214_Microgun though a more conventional machine gun would probably suffice), but the bony bits would likely be a challenge. You'd probably want something in 7.62x51 or 7.62x54R or a similar .30 cal round at the least to bring it down it a reasonable amount of time, though. Given the size and relative squishiness and and placement of most vital organs (plus the small brain) of the target, though, after a point, number of boolits will probably be more helpful than size of boolits (at least for man-portable guns (but if grenade launchers are on the table, I doubt a T-Rex would take more than one or two 40mm grenades))- riddle its chest cavity with enough holes and it'll eventually go down.

EDIT: After further reading, at least in theory, taking down a T-Rex shouldn't be much harder than an elephant - you need a big gun to do it quickly/humanely, but smaller guns can still do the deed if you bring enough ammo or shoot right, and even the biggest guns a human can reasonably operate on their own are going to take multiple shots unless you're an expert.

edited 13th Jul '15 9:34:47 AM by Balmung