Fulton used to contract their own receivers for M1As via a company called Armscorp. Armscorp went bust and no longer exists, so Fulton has to use what remains of it’s limited stock, use some of the smaller suppliers when possible, and use hand selected and older/better Springfield receivers.
What other options do they have? They could buy machinery and hire specialists to make their own castings or forgings. They could even machine it from a solid block of steel.
That would be expensive. But if the market is there and can support it. Fulton would have to consider that balance, naturally. There is a price point per unit that would have it make sense to their business model, but I’d guess the expense of such and endeavor would be above that price point.
You could make a factory that uses only 19th Century style tooling and make replica 1870 Trapdoor Springfield rifles for sale. You could employ a wooden waterwheel for powering the plant’s machinery, and LOTS of highly paid skilled workers to work the labor-intensive process. The rifles they would make, and the manner they’d make them, would be very cool! But if they cost $10,000 per copy, not enough people would buy their rifles. Especially since people can still buy ACTUAL Trapdoor Springfield at a mere fraction of that price.
But man, I’d want to tour that factory.
[update: Armscorp not closed? Hmm. That's what I get for believing what I read on the internets tubes.]
Armscorp still exists. I bought one of their receivers right after they got bought out. I wonder what Fulton's reasons for dropping them were?
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