Thompson/Center Arms being divested

Good, hopefully someone/group passionate about Encores and Contenders steps in, like SSK?

The cheap entry model rifles were most surely pushed by S&W to compete with the cheapo/frugal crowd. TC's were always synonymous with quality and great service when they were in NH.

I shoot a good bit of their encores and contenders, and having to deal with Smith and wesson shit heads has always been a big headache.
 
T/C sold?? Bet they feel like Alice's Restaurant about this time. They've been injected, inspected, detected, infected,
neglected and EEEEE-jected.
 
F*ck. I need a contender.

I hope Kahr Arms buys them, they have done a great job with Magnum Research.
 
I wish they had left it the hell alone in the first place.
Those folks in Rochester where top notch.

This^

S&W screwed them over, first by promising that they wouldn't close the Rochester foundry and factory.
Then by making the Contender and Encore product lines disappear.

[angry2]
 
Years ago I was out hunting with my Hawken in the freezing rain .
Water got in between the stock and barrel and when the temperature took a nose dive it refroze and I heard a pop, the stock cracked.
Took it up to Rochester to see if i could get a new stock for it.
The guy at the counter said Sure leave it here and come back up next week it should be done.
Went up , it looked great and I asked him how much I owed him , "Oh no charge sir."
That's customer service.
Loved every T/C product I've owned.
 
Years ago I was out hunting with my Hawken in the freezing rain .
Water got in between the stock and barrel and when the temperature took a nose dive it refroze and I heard a pop, the stock cracked.
Took it up to Rochester to see if i could get a new stock for it.
The guy at the counter said Sure leave it here and come back up next week it should be done.
Went up , it looked great and I asked him how much I owed him , "Oh no charge sir."
That's customer service.
Loved every T/C product I've owned.

T/C was awesome before S&W ruined it.
I have a few one-of-a-kind Contender barrels made for me by their Custom Shop, which was located next door to the factory inside Fox Ridge Outfitters.
They also offered special order flat-side frames with no engraving, and you could even get a custom serial number on it.
I was told by a former employee that it was once a popular thing for fathers to order a custom frame for their son's college graduation, with their initials and birth date as the serial number.
(example: RJH 072267)
Of course something like that is destined to become a family heirloom.
 
In early 2020, I had a mind to get a TC Encore Pro rifle frame and a .357 magnum barrel barrel from eabco, just to see how accurate I could make .357 magnum shoot. Now I understand why it was like TC fell off the face of the earth--they did. I guess I'm not that interested anymore, but damn. That was a pretty nice little ecosystem.
 
It is too bad the Kahr Group didn't buy them, those guys are doing great things. They are doing everything SW and Ruger could have been but f*cked up.

Smith and Wesson is such a POS company.
 
There is an ongoing effort between SSK and Haus of Arms to manufacture clones of the Contender. They claim they're getting close to actual production - close enough that they put out an email a couple of weeks ago explaining how they're going to get through their pre-order list. I guess I'd say I'm cautiously optimistic they'll come out with an actual product.

SSK FIREARMS

Unfortunately that's still just one product copied from a company that wasn't mainstream, but had some solid entries in several less popular categories. I'm not at all happy that Smith & Wesson flushed the brand.
 
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It doesn't sound like they are selling TC it sounds like they are discontinuing the brand. Maybe they plan to rebrand some of the TC products as S&W. It sounds as though TC sales are down and it is too much to move production to Tenn and too expensive to keep production in Springfield. Also this will reduce the labor force for the Tenn move.
 
This is the trend within ALL the gun industry. Theres billions of dollars to potentially be made. This attracts the investor groups whom unfortunately have ZERO passion for what they are investing in . The ONLY passion is becoming more rich at the guaranteed expense of destroying a once passionately proud and profitable company. As long as the majority of gun buyers are only willing to pay $450 for a cheap plastic gun thats what the industry will focus on. I paid $850 for a new Traditions Pennsylvania .50 muzzleloader about 10 years ago , what a total POS quality gun. Screws stripped, piss poor fits , and absolutely useless CS.
 
This is the trend within ALL the gun industry. Theres billions of dollars to potentially be made. This attracts the investor groups whom unfortunately have ZERO passion for what they are investing in . The ONLY passion is becoming more rich at the guaranteed expense of destroying a once passionately proud and profitable company. As long as the majority of gun buyers are only willing to pay $450 for a cheap plastic gun thats what the industry will focus on. I paid $850 for a new Traditions Pennsylvania .50 muzzleloader about 10 years ago , what a total POS quality gun. Screws stripped, piss poor fits , and absolutely useless CS.
This......just like Marlin, someone will need to focus on quality. That costs money. But the market is not like it is for Marlin Leverguns........

The market for quality wood/blue old style muzzleloaders is small and there are a lot of custom guys doing the work now. They get high prices for these guns...but they aren't the average joe.

The average joe went to a plastic stocked/stainless breech plug removable muzzleloader and CVA pretty much has most of that market now, and honestly while not as nice as a T/C,
fits the bill.

Wood/blue muzzleloaders, there's almost nothing out there there that's good......but i'm not too sure how big the market is for a quality wood/blue muzzleloader pushing 1K in price tag.
Because thats what T/C was great at.

I have a White Mountain Carbine and I'll never get rid of it because in my eyes its irreplaceable, they don't make the quality anymore.

Bringing back the contender and stuff like that...sure.....it would help, but again....profitwise....what is the market for shit like that....very small.
 
This......just like Marlin, someone will need to focus on quality. That costs money. But the market is not like it is for Marlin Leverguns........

The market for quality wood/blue old style muzzleloaders is small and there are a lot of custom guys doing the work now. They get high prices for these guns...but they aren't the average joe.

The average joe went to a plastic stocked/stainless breech plug removable muzzleloader and CVA pretty much has most of that market now, and honestly while not as nice as a T/C,
fits the bill.

Wood/blue muzzleloaders, there's almost nothing out there there that's good......but i'm not too sure how big the market is for a quality wood/blue muzzleloader pushing 1K in price tag.
Because thats what T/C was great at.

I have a White Mountain Carbine and I'll never get rid of it because in my eyes its irreplaceable, they don't make the quality anymore.

Bringing back the contender and stuff like that...sure.....it would help, but again....profitwise....what is the market for shit like that....very small.
At least the remaining S&W product line sucks.
 
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