Smith & wesson Holding Coorporation to Acquire Thompson/Center Arms, Inc. The Transaction is expected to close in the begining of January 2007. this was posted on Varmints Den www.varminthunters.com/forum/index.php complete artical listed there. JIM

I hope that this will be a good thing... at least it should improve S&W's customer service(to be more like the superior service you get from T/C). Here are the links to S&W's press release:
http://ir.smith-wesson.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=90977&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=942841&highlight=

imho...this is a sad day. i thought t/c had everything going for them and is the firearm manufacturer i respected the most. i know it sounds OLD, but the newer products put out by them seem to suffer alot in the quality dept. triggers are rougher and longer, actions are nowhere near as tight, and fit and finish aren't what they used to be. as a matter of fact, i figured s&w wouln't make it another 10 years, unfortunately. one reader recently wrote to one of the gun mags about the dropping of the win 94 and 70 and offered that they had really been "dropped" long ago when winchester had made previous bad design changes to the guns especially in 1964. they no longer were the rifles people wanted. i think s&w is headed down the same road and it looks like they'll take t/c with them. s&w will no doubt force some changes on the t/c product such as some dumb key lock safety, or say the custom shop is a waste of money and shut it down, or who knows what. only time will tell. i just don't think that s&w has anything to offer t/c that will do anything but make them worse.

sorry for the rant and maybe i'm just being pessimistic, but i sure will miss the t/c i've grown to love.

just seeing s&w on the side of an encore bbl.....sad, sad day

Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. today announced it has agreed to acquire Thompson/Center Arms Inc. The company will pay $102 million in cash for the New Hampshire-based designer, manufacturer and marketer of hunting firearms. Smith & Wesson president and CEO Michael Golden called the acquisition "an important step in our diversification strategy" and said the move will expand the company's presence in the $1.1 billion long gun market. In conjunction with the acquisition, Gregg Ritz, Thompson/Center Arms president and CEO, will be named president of Smith & Wesson-Hunting. Ritz will continue to lead the Thompson/Center Arms operation and will head Smith & Wesson's efforts to develop its hunting business. The transaction is expected to close in January.

Very interesting. Time will tell if it's a good thing or not. Just more of the modern trend, large company buys up a little company for a better share of the economic market. The bottom line is watched and in a few years the products and quality are changed, or dropped to show profit to the share holders.

Do you guys know that T/C has designed and built a bolt action, centerfire rifle? It's called the Icon.

I really think this is just to satify S&W shareholders. S&W semi-pistol sales are way down compared to SIG, Springfield, and Glock. They are marketing and selling (co-branding) Walthers in the USA, and this (TC) will solidify them in the handgun hunting field. Future expected pressure from the DEMS to ban or limit semi's will now only be a bump in the road. From my perspective, I have only ever had one problem with all my (9) Smith's (M500) and they had UPS pick it up at my door and sent it back to me within a week. I think my trigger and lock time are 3 heads over my Rugers, and wish my Encore trigger was as good. On the other hand, IMO, I think the TC ICON is a mistake. It is very difficult to break into the premium rifle market. TC's .22 semi rifle LR fails miserably compared to a 10-22 in sales. A long standing, guns reputation is hard to turn away from. Kimber knows what its like to enter that arena. I'm not really sure what the market niche is for the ICON? Heck, Remington is now trying to compete by bringing in the Ruskie stuff and the 798 and 799; Much lower quality than even the 700SPS, but they are better than the 710! Now here's a rant for ya! It's all about sales and money; nothing else!

everone can start to cry now !we are looking at the last of the good stuff.every time s&w touches someother company they kill it !!!!and look at what s&w holding company has done to handguns(locks)what a sad way to start 07.

I unforetunately feel sad about it too.

I agree with those that think its gonna go down hill from here.

first thing u say is bye bye to the no prob its a tc will fix it or give u a new one....
then expect the cost to go up...an the quality to drop by 60% time to start buyen up a few frames an extra parts..an go custom all the time for barrels now...any thing them damm S&w guys touch turns to [censored]...i bet the TC guys are sure thanken Santa for this years gift...a hard kick to thte butt lol

the thing of it is, i think i could have accepted t/c being bought by someone like ruger. they're both known for building strong guns of sound design that are designed to last several lifetimes of hard use. or even if t/c was the one who bought smith not the other way around. that way t/c would have imposed it's will on smith. i just don't see how it can be a good thing.
in addition to t/c making the icon they're also introducing the .30t/c round in conjunction with hornady. not sure of specifics, but they're claiming 3000 fps with a 150.
smith is also getting into shotguns....a sxs, over/under, and an auto in 12 and 20. like has been said, they can't compete in the auto pistols anymore, so they're looking for something else. the only revolvers they've produced recently i like are the mountain guns and that thunder ranch 44 special. guns like those need to be in their regular line, not as special runs.

here's to hoping.

hopefully somebody at S&W will relize what a GREAT product the TC line is and not mess with it. If not we're all doomed to buying big co. junk. I will almost bet the service will not even be close to TC's...just my .02