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Old December 2, 2008, 08:30 PM   #20
ursavus.elemensis
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Join Date: February 15, 2007
Location: southcentral/southeastern PA
Posts: 375
During WW1, Winchester expanded significantly to make rifles for the British and the American armies. They borrowed heavily to expand. The Winchester Repeating Arms Co. went bankrupt in 1931 and has not made a rifle since then. The company was sold by the bankruptcy court to Olin in 1931, which combined Winchester with Western Cartridge. Rifles made after the sale were made by Olin's company, using the name "Winchester Repeating Arms" but it was not the genuine, original Winchester company (originally called Volcanic Repeating Arms Co., later called New Haven Repeating Arms Co. -- Oliver Winchester was the major stockholder and later re-named the company Winchester Repeating Arms Co.) Quoting from the Internet, "Labor costs continued to rise, and a prolonged and bitter strike in 1979-80 convinced Olin that firearms could no longer be produced profitably in New Haven. Therefore in December 1980 the plant was sold to its employees, incorporated as the U.S. Repeating Arms Company, together with a licence to make Winchester arms. Olin retained the Winchester ammunition business." Quoting further: "From 1981 until 2006, Winchester guns were made by the U.S. Repeating Arms Company. When U.S. Repeating Arms went bankrupt it was acquired by a French holding company, then sold to an arms making cartel sponsored by the Belgian province of Herstal, which also owns famous gun makers Fabrique National (FN) and Browning. ... On August 15, 2006, Olin Corporation, owner of the Winchester trademarks, announced that it had entered into a new license agreement with Browning to make Winchester brand rifles and shotguns, though not at the closed Winchester plant in New Haven. Browning, based in Morgan, Utah, and the former licensee, U.S. Repeating Arms Company, are both subsidiaries of FN Herstal. In 2008 FN Herstal announced that it would produce Model 70 rifles at its plant in Columbia, SC." Since 1931, the rifles have ALL been made by other companies that simply owned or leased the winchester trademark, but none of them were the original Winchester company.
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