[skeet]

Wnchester is a name owned by Olin as previously noted... USRAC has been losing money for the last 12 yrs. The parent company Giat is an employee owned company and couldn't take the losses year after year. The Union at Winchester was not willing to make the concessions to keep the company in business. The 94's 70's and 1300 shotguns are going to be a thing of the past I guess. Closing of the plant is scheduled to be March 31 ...but don't be surprised to see it closed this week(would you want a gun made between now and March 31?) The SX-II is made in Europe and the Win O/U's are made in Japan at Miroku so they will probably stay in the pipeline at least for a while. Have also heard that they cannot make the Winchester guns here in the US for 2 yrs because of an agreement with the company and unions or some such rot. Got this info Friday from a fairly large wholesale supply place who had an inventory of approx 1 million bucks go out the door in 3 days. This was the same inventory that would have taken a year to sell in normal times. BTW that inventory figure is at distributor costs..not retail. so it really is more guns than you think and consisted of only 94's and 70's. He also has contracted (last October)for almost 500 guns that were supposed to be delivered but he doubts he will see more than half.