what's happening with Winchester??

Neanderthal said:
Winchester as you knew it is history.
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Winchester has been history for a long time. There hasn't been a company named "Winchester" since the 1930s. They went bankrupt in the Great Depression. The brand name "Winchester" has been owned by the Olin-Matheson Chemical company for most of a century. They use it on the ammunition they manufacture, which was called "Western" before they bought "Winchester" at a liquidation sale.

The United States Repeating Arms Co. has been licensed to use the Winchester name on the guns they manufacture for a couple of decades. I have seen rumours that Olin was going to yank their rights to the name, and USRAC would be sunk without it, so they closed their doors.

Olin is doing well financially and I would be stunned if they didn't grant the rights to the name to another company. But yes, it will likely be overseas.
 
FN said:
Do you when and how Olin Corp got the Winchester name if they only manufacture ammo?
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Here's a brief history lesson. The original Winchester Repeating Arms Company went bankrupt in 1931. Winchester borrowed a lot of money to expand its manufacturing capacity during WWI. When the war ended, the demand for firearms and ammunition decreased dramatically and Winchester tried to find alternate uses for its expanded facilities. For a period of time, they were making refrigerators, batteries and all sorts of other consumer goods. This strategy ultimately failed and being unable to pay off its debt, the company went into receivership and was bought by Olin.

By 1981, the firearms part of the business became unprofitable and Olin was looking to divest itself of it. A number of former Olin/Winchester employees founded the U.S. Repeating Arms Company, which bought the New Haven plant along with the license to use the Winchester trademark. USRAC went bankrupt in 1989 and was acquired by FN, who inherited the trademark license.

That license expired in 2006 and FN decided to shut down the old Winchester plan (which it was probably going to do anyway). Shortly afterwards, FN and Olin signed a new licensing agreement, which allowed FN continued use of the Winchester name (now put on guns manufactured by offshore subcontractors).

As you can see, Winchester was saved from demise on three different occasions in the twentieth century. For whatever reason, it just couldn't remain profitable. Sooner or later, somebody had to pull the plug.
 
It seems that Browning got their act together by going to FN and Miroku. I don't think Browning ever made any firearms themselves? I am looking forward seeing the Winchester name on some of these fine guns.
 
Covey Ridge said:
It seems that Browning got their act together by going to FN and Miroku. I don't think Browning ever made any firearms themselves? I am looking forward seeing the Winchester name on some of these fine guns.
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Personally I'd rather see the F/N or Miroku name on them.
 
Covey Ridge said:
It seems that Browning got their act together by going to FN and Miroku. I don't think Browning ever made any firearms themselves? I am looking forward seeing the Winchester name on some of these fine guns.
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Browning is just a North American distributor for various firearms. They are owned by FN (and ahve been so for most of their history).
 
Win/64 said:
Personally I'd rather see the F/N or Miroku name on them.
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Does not matter whose name is on the gunz, I would just like to see FN and Miroku sold here. I heard from a Browning rep that there is an agreement between the two and Miroku would not be marketed in north america and Browning would not be marketed in certain parts of Eurpope. I once saw two trap gunz side by side and I needed to read the barrel inscription to tell the difference between M and B. In any event I think that Miroku and/or FN be an improvement over the N. Haven product.
 
Balls said:
Well fellas.........when the lefty socialists Liberals come for your guns I’m sure the Chinese will go to bat for you......oh wait they don't allow their own "subjects" to own guns.........well at least they support NRA and CSSA and SCI....oh wait they don't do that either.......well at least they take good care of their "employees".......if a ration of rice counts!!! They do support getting women into the shooting sports...oh wait...they don't have rights!!! Well they sponsor "hunt of a lifetime" for terminally ill children....oh wait....nope they don't do that either!!!!!! So exactly how do they support you loyal customers????:confused:
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Norinco supports me by selling a good product at a competitive price.
Everything else is window dressing, I could care less about what regime a people chose to live under, or their religious/political beliefs. It's not my business to impose my will upon the Chinese, it's their issues if any at all to deal with ,same goes for Cuba as well.
My money is hard earned "sometimes", and if I can take advantage of a free market and buy a product such as an M-14s for 1/4 the price of an American produced equivalent, then that is what I will do. As to the causes a company supports, that’s great, show me the money, and most value I can get out of a transaction.

I just bought a Gerber LMF2 knife from a company in the states for $79.00US on par with the Canadian dollar. The local retailer here wanted to charge me double.
I also bought a new Honda Accord in the States 3 weeks ago and had it imported here. Despite the trip and import head aches(first time will be easier next time) I saved myself over $4000.00.
I go to the most competitive merchant. Support me by giving me a quality product at a fair price, produced, imported and sold in a responsible way. Norinco has done that with my M-14s.
 
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