Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Question for Mule Deer

John, do you know the brand/maker of the barrels for the Colt light rifles?

I believe they were made at the Colt factory, but it was a long time ago and could be wrong.

MD, thanks for the response.

Not butting in but i think it was Saco Defense in Maine..

Didn't Colt contract with Saco Defense to manufacture the rifles. I've got 2 in 30-06 and there is no reference to Saso, but I seem to recall this to be the case.

I guess that it really doesnt matter who made the barrel,it shoots great!

+1

When I had Melvin Forbes work on my CLR he thought the barrels were of pretty good quality since the tooling was new. I left the Saco 30-06 barrel on my CLR and have been very happy.

Scott

Saco was indeed the company that Colt contracted with to produce the "Colt Light Rifle," which is apparently how my brain remembered the barrels were made by Colt.

They were pretty decent barrels, but Melvin had to tell Saco quite firmly that it wasn't a good idea to stack freshly-barreled actions muzzle-down on racks covered by machining chips.

There were a number of other problems during the period. The people he dealt with at the beginning (who seemed to know what they were doing) were gone within six months. But that may not have been as big a problem as it appeared at the time, since some were the guys in charge at Forbes Rifles.

Another problem was that during the Colt Light Rifle deal, Colt hired a guy whose experience was entirely in the home appliance business to take over the marketing department. I attended his first press conference at the SHOT Show, and the guy believed selling firearms was just like selling dishwashers.

It was a lot like the blind leading the deaf, which is why Colt's bankruptcy last year wasn't surprising.