Whelp. AI has now been sold to FN. A sad day for the UK gun industry.
Accuracy International being acquired by FN ?
Accuracy International being acquired by FN ?
Last major UK gun manufacturer is now gone....
- Thread starter MarinePMI
- Start date
Bo Diddley
Well-Known Member
Bugger...
What a great achievement from three men in a shed.... I shall celebrate their achievement tomorrow night at the karaoke
What a great achievement from three men in a shed.... I shall celebrate their achievement tomorrow night at the karaoke
HonestJohn
Well-Known Member
I doubt that very much
The owners were approaching 80 yrs old. It was kind of bound to happen TBH.
And the UK government isn't exactly friendly towards firearms companies doing business.
Already has. Never mind the oddball models like the AI/Anschutz 1727F and Model 54 versions. Probably why Anschutz just released their own chassis versioned rifles (AI wasn't interested in providing the ATX chassis anymore.)
A successful company can sell to whoever it likes!!! The owners have had their private collection of AI reference rifles up for sale with Devizes Gunsmith for some time. It is hardly vital to the armed forces. I am sure FN will still supply them and if not, other manufacturers will.
MOD is looking to procure new sniper rifles & from what I’ve seen the potential challengers to AI are in a different league. Malc was a friend of mine before he passed away & the kit he was instrumental in developing was in a different league from the stuff in service at the time. However, in recent times AI seemed more intent in pandering to the wannabe civilian market, especially in North America (no offence to our US cousins on the forum), & developing variations on a theme than looking to get ahead of the game & develop the next generation of sniper weapon system.
Yes Accuracy International's design of an aluminium chassis into which the rifle's barrelled action was fastened was a huge step forward compared to the one piece wood/composite stocks that usually housed the barrelled action for sniper rifles around the world back then in the 1970s (Remy 700, Mauser, Parker Hale etc.). But other manufacturers around the world have copied the AI chassis idea in the decades since so now that is not such a selling point. The ironic thing that gives me a chuckle is that the Victorian era Lee Enfield sniper design rifle that AI rifles actually replaced in British Army service (L42A1) was actually one step ahead of a chassis rifle in design terms as it uses a giant steel bolt to fasten the wrist of the wooden butt stock directly into a steel socket integral to the rear of the receiver making a super sturdy connection, so it didn't even need a separate chassis and receiver. A genius design that deals with accuracy issues caused by movement between the buttstock and the rear of the receiver under recoil. And in the case of these ,match-barrelled 7.62 Lee Enfields (my L39A1 is below in L42A1 homage format) the barrel was not pressure bedded by the front handguard but rather free floated, leaving little chance of the forend causing problems either (unless the front action screw comes loose). So maybe the replacements of the AI will be inspired by that ancient Lee Enfield design to use that same integral format with a few modern tweaks
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I kind of agree actually. The US market is bigger, so it makes sense on paper. But the constant delays, and a couple still born screw ups really hurt them. The AT-X, constantly being updated/fixed, with no relief for early adopters really ****ed off a lot of people, and IMHO, really hurt the brand name.
Don't get me wrong, they're still stellar rifles. But at $6K+ a rifle, and five "generations" (fixes) to the AT-X (which they finally just called the AT-XC) was a bit of a slap in the face to loyal customers. (Yes, I have a Gen 1 AT-X, that came with the non-functioning magazines, of which I had to pay to replace before they officially acknowledged the manufacturing screw up they had).
Bo Diddley
Well-Known Member
At least it's £90,000 inc VAT 
bob_lee_swagger
Well-Known Member
Malc’s personal AW & AWM were sold at auction a while or so after he died, they didn’t make anywhere near those sorts of figures 
I see that as a cynical commercial ploy to aid possible Public contracts with the UK.................
Now now, with your experience with the military, surely you know that anyone who supplies the armed forces suitably rinses the government for the product costs.
When said company then offers the same product to the civilian market, they can't then lower the price to a sensible price!
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