Colt isn't selling ARs to the civilian market anymore. Oh, really?

Hm. Maybe it was just a publicity stunt to artificially increase demand for their middling-quality rifles, to prop up their failing business? :rolleyes:

EDIT: Or it's just them still selling off unsold stock to recoup expenditures on that line of products. That's honestly more likely.
 
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30+ years ago Colt ARs were something special and they set “the” standard imo, but there are plenty of better carbines out there now, I’ll probably piss a lot of Colt fans off by saying this, but I think it’s nuts to drop $800-$1000 on a Colt AR when you can spent $600-$700 for one that is its equal.
 
Climberman said:
Colt would tell you their roll mark makes it high end.
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And tons of people, who I would argue lack critical thinking skills, would agree.

I too noticed some 6920’s on sale for $999 today. Colt has been having cash and sales issues for a while now, wouldn’t be totally surprised if the “no more civilian sales” was part marketing + part a cop out to allow them to indefinitely de prioritize production of non-gov orders for the sake of cutting overhead.
 
Jerzsubbie said:
And tons of people, who I would argue lack critical thinking skills, would agree.

I too noticed some 6920’s on sale for $999 today. Colt has been having cash and sales issues for a while now, wouldn’t be totally surprised if the “no more civilian sales” was part marketing + part a cop out to allow them to indefinitely de prioritize production of non-gov orders for the sake of cutting overhead.
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But, enter a perceived panic market and, all of a sudden, they have enough to sell to us unwashed masses!
 
The Colt rollmark doesnt make it better but it does make it retain value quite well. Stripped Colt receivers are still in the $500 to $1000 or more range depending on the model. Colt barrels and bolt carriers are likewise expensive whether they are any good or not. Thats the market.

Theres a lot of people out there to whom the tactical excellence means nothing. Colt is the gold standard to them and they will pay for it. My dad used to say there's Colt and then there's everything else. Ive got a lot of inferior Colt items that cost me a crapload of money.
 
cubrock said:
But, enter a perceived panic market and, all of a sudden, they have enough to sell to us unwashed masses!
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Only they’re a couple months late... which is, in part, why I think it may have to do with cutting production and now trying to ramp back up to capitalize.

This thread got me reminiscing a little...
I’ll never forget the time I took on all of Arfcom, asking for objective reasons why a 6920 was factually superior to a Spikes Tactical for $300 less... lol people lost their minds!
 
It's all about "perceived" value and market. Some will say, Why buy Spikes when you can get...

I figure the announcement of no longer selling to the public is a future plan rather that immediate. What I mean is that large companies with huge production have "pipelines" that can be a year or longer. Plans for production can be years out, so were likely seeing the pipeline winding down but with still a lot of product and maybe even still some production to move. The decision to stop selling to the public means it's no longer in their production plan, but it could take a year to clear the pipeline.

It's like when Wally decided to discontinue lines of ammo. Warehouses still had stock and they probably had existing purchased orders coming in from manufactures. That's why it took so long for it to stop showing up on the shelves.
 
I suspect they may very well suspend all other sales as well, there was talk about them filing for bankrupcty again.
 
georgel said:
I figure the announcement of no longer selling to the public is a future plan rather that immediate. What I mean is that large companies with huge production have "pipelines" that can be a year or longer.
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Would still be enough of a reason for me to not buy their products starting today. Let em sit on their product.
 
MacEntyre said:
I don' care what they do now. I'm only interested in vintage Colts... jus' sayin'.
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They still make some good guns. Nothing newly designed but their current late 3rd gen/4th gen SAA's are top notch . The custom shop has recovered well from the bloodletting they had after 2008 and theyre far more interested in quality now than the two decades prior to that. Still not as good as Standard Manufacturing's rock solid SAA guns but Standard doesnt have the cache' Colt does.

Who cares about their AR's? They are just an institutional provider of those.
 
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It is simply market demand. There was very little demand for the Colt rifles when the market was flooded with $500 S&W Sport IIs and Ruger for $500. Then guys like PSA selling rifles that "look" the same for less. With the market changes in the last 3 months the gap between these starter rifles and a Colt are closer. Also there is some pent up demand from the build up of FOMO since the announcement they were no longer selling to civilians. I always assumed they would be back when they thought they could make money on them. It is also very possible that these are just contract overruns.

In the end the Colt M4 is a good rifle not a great rifle. It is a bit over priced in todays market at $1,000 but it will hold value better than almost any other AR15 out there. I know lots of people who have bought them for the right price over the years shot a thousand rounds or so out of the gun and sold it for what they had in it. For the same money I would take a LMT but I already have a 6920 LEO in the safe.
 
Anyone seen the 20 inch AR15A2 (Colt) in-stock anywhere?
 
No, I think that's the Vietnam tribute with triangular handguards and fixed handle.

The regular should be $1000ish-
 
Only ones I have seen are the AR15A4's they seem to sell in the $1400 range. None at MSRP.
 
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People forget, but they were not really selling them to civilians before. The little bit that was actually made by colt was crazy overpriced and under featured and the rest was...well the same actually.
 
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