remmington and marlin importers

[Chapuis]

Laurie it makes you wonder if it was all a bit politically motivated with the RUC returning the order in retaliation because it had previously been delayed by the U.S. state department. Poor old Viking ending up as piggy in the middle.

Not the only time though when the police have descended en-masse on a major importer/distributor and certainly not in your neck of the woods. Thinking Pheasant Valley, York Guns. Sometimes it was justified and sometimes such as in the case of Viking above it was not. Not sure if my memory is correct and not in your neck of the woods but didn't ASI also have a bit of a problem too with the police some years ago. More unlikely candidates you couldn't think of considering their product line of mainly traditional side by side shotguns at the time.

[MistAgain]

Mistagain I wouldn't have thought so because Manhurin were never sold in any real numbers in this country and Colt revolvers were probably outsold by at least five to one by Smiths. Many so called Colt autos were actually made up guns from custom parts imported by numerous different pistolsmiths so weren't really Colts.
As for Ruger most of the Ruger sales by Viking went to the RUC.

Considering the vast model range of S & W revolvers and the price structure , the fact that they did outsell Colt revolvers by at least 5 to 1 is to be expected .
As for genuine Colt auto's like the series 70, 80 ,Gold Cup and Officer models , they outsold S & W hands down .

The Ruger 22 Auto was the best selling 22 Auto in the UK for many years , as was the 22 single action .
The GP100 was getting better sales every year , mainly due to its build quality.
And the rest of the Ruger handgun range had steady UK sales .

Viking never cut their margins to the level of P-H , and they did their best to ensure that their stockists made a worthwhile profit as well .

Bottom line , Vikibng survived ........... P-H didnt .

[Chapuis]

I've no doubt that you are absolutely correct when you say that the pricing structure and relatively low profit margins operated by PH had a big hand in their demise. I'm also sure that Laurie was right when he said that they weren't selling many rifles either despite the fact that their budget model Midland rifle was selling for only £160 brand new when launched. I also agree that there were more semi auto Colts sold that Smith & Wesson autos despite the fact that at one time S&W seemed to be introducing new models at a rate of knots, almost weekly. Smith didn't really do autos well, that is unless you look at a model 52 and some of the very late models which were by that time outclassed by the Glocks and Sigs or even the CZ75.

However I wouldn't say that genuine Colts were real big sellers either mainly because of the gradually worsening build quality. I owned several 1911s over the years the first being supplied by Salter and Varge who were the Colt importers at the time and the last being a wartime manufacture Ithaca. The Ithaca was far better manufactured than the last Colt which was evident simply by removing the slides and comparing machine marks. The Ithaca was well finished while the Colt was as rough as a badger's arse.
It was much the same with Colt revolvers. A friend owned one of the original diamondback revolvers in 38spl, a beautiful revolver in all respects. Another club member purchased a stainless Python just before the ban, it simply didn't compare and this was supposed to be their premier model. And as for the Mark V trooper another club member ended up returning it and getting his money back because it was so unreliable to then go out and buy a Smith.

While Ruger sales may have been climbing just prior to the ban despite having some good guns in their range they never exactly became popular, not even the .22 semi-auto which was considered a reasonable club starter pistol. There were simply too many other better .22 pistols out there.