The long, difficult saga of Colt’s Manufacturing has taken another turn. Firearms distributer RSR Group has sent an email blast to their retail customers announcing that Colt will no longer produce long guns for the retail market.

Recall that Colt filed for bankruptcy protection in June of 2015, emerging in January of 2016. We hear that they’ve struggled to make money on their retail long gun sales for a long time. Colt lost its primary military contract for M16 and M4 rifles in 2013.

In response to the news, one industry insider told us . . .

They’ve been losing left and right to companies both big and small. They don’t have the high end or the low end market, and they’ve finally realized that the prancing pony isn’t enough for this generation of shooters to buy less rifle for more money. Instead of getting better, they’ve given up.

TTAG has requested a comment from Colt, but has not received a response yet.

UPDATE: TTAG was able to speak directly with Paul Spitale, Senior Vice President of Colt’s commercial business line. He confirmed the above. Colt has halted production of its commercial long guns lines and is focusing its manufacturing and sales on 1911s and revolvers.

He also stressed that Colt has about 110 days of long gun inventory in its distribution network and if market conditions change down the road, they could revisit this decision.

FURTHER UPDATE – 9/19/2019: Colt has issued the following statement on their web site:

Company Response to Questions about Colt Participation in Consumer Markets