Tuesday, July 03, 2012

Ulterior motive...

So, apparently S&W will no longer be the US importers for Walther, starting next year.

Instead, both Umarex USA and the newly-formed Walther Arms, Inc. will share a new corporate headquarters facility in Fort Smith, Arkansas. It's always good to see firearms companies smart enough to locate their facilities someplace other than MA, NY, or IL, but I suspect that there may have been an ulterior motive for Umarex/Walther to pick Arkansas.

They wanted to be close to the source:

9 comments:

og said...

Now that's just cold.

Funny, but cold.

Jason said...

Ouch.

That said, I'm glad the Walther PPQ won't be hobbled by S&W's lack of marketing anymore. Walther's quality is right up there with H&K's, but they don't hate you. And the trigger is second to none. Yet it doesn't sell as well as a gun everybody replaces the trigger on right out of the box, just to make it shootable. I wish gun buyers weren't a bunch of ad-driven lemmings, but they are, so let's get Walther out of the shadow of the M&P and put some glossy ads in magazines.

North said...

I'm a Walther fan.

I hope that this makes the P99 more popular.

Tam said...

P99/PPQ is a fine pistol.

Walther repair/customer service has always been spotty, and Smith really helped them out in that department. Hopefully they don't let it go to the dogs in the divorce...

Unknown said...

Zing - or maybe, Zinc!

Oh, Walther...your willingness to cut corners on the P22 doesn't impress as much as it did when the model launched. The Ruger SR22 and S&W M&P-22 Pistols are selling very well, both sporting Aluminium slides at competitive prices. Here's hoping they can bring it back with their own US team. I really liked the PPQ I tried recently.

Joe in PNG said...

Hey- from what the interwebz tell me, zinc guns are every bit as good* as ones made from steel, and if you think otherwise, you are some kind of ignorant gun snob!


*usual quote: "ive shot 100s of bullits in my highpoint ok & gloks jam alot yuo suck"

Joe in PNG said...

Also- I think it's rather sweet that Ultramex sells what are basically airsoft replica guns that shoot real (.22lr) bullets. How cool is that?

Kristophr said...

Off topic:

Some awesome from darkroastedblend.com:

heh.

Mick said...

I like the Illinois inclusion. Several years back, just before Les Baer jumped the river to Iowa, I wrote a guest article for the Galesburg IL paper that went to the ISRA and NRA. I called/wrote/emailed/visited all the gunmakers in the Rock Island and Geneseo area about the .50 cal. proposed ban, as well as the ever-unpopular "assault weapons ban" coming up. I was amazed at how much info the various companies were freely willing to provide: payroll, property taxes, fuel costs, employment figures, etc. The gist of my article was to set aside, for a moment, the "gun control" idea, and consider the financial devastation that would impact western Illinoi, and the state in general. I am a nurse by trade, shooter by avocation, and Constitutionalist since having read Atlas Shrugged in my early adulthood (not a conflict, but confirmation). I was amazed at how well-received the article was; I had not intended for that much splash. Chicago runs Illinois; Chicago politicians make a living being anti-gun, contrary to their constuents needs and desires, but they have The Machine. I've droned enough.