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Ithaca Gun co. out of business?


cherok9878

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To the contrary, I think any major gun news should be relevant to firearm enthusiasts, good work.

 

I have hear they closed, but I have also heard they are moving to a new location.

 

I'm guessing they are gone or being sold again.

 

Tucker, please contact Ithaca and set the record straight, you have until 8:00 a.m. tomorrow should you choose to accept this assignment....

 

mudhen - CA

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Reading about it in another forum it would seem that they are closed up tight. Whether they reopen or not will remain to be seen, but I'd be skeptical of that if the place has the doors closed.

 

Maybe someone will buy them out and manufacture there stuff elsewhere, but who knows.

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Copied from another forum, but it answers the question nonetheless:

 

Full story here: http://www.theithacajournal.com/news/stories/20050623/localnews/2167506.html

 

Ithaca Gun closes after 124-year run

 

 

The Associated Press

 

AUBURN -- Mired in debt and struggling to compete, the Ithaca Gun Co. has ended production after more than a century in business.

 

"We're just tapped out, we can't do it any longer," Andrew Sciarabba, one of seven investors who own Ithaca Gun Co., told The Post-Standard of Syracuse.

 

Closure of the company, which had 26 employees, comes less than a year after it received $150,000 from Cayuga County for operating expenses. Ithaca Gun had missed its May and June payments on the loan, for which it had put up its equipment as collateral.

 

The company reportedly had recently completed a move from King Ferry to Auburn.

 

Sciarabba, whose group acquired the company out of bankruptcy in the mid-1990s, said Ithaca Gun was several hundred thousand dollars in debt.

 

Sciarabba said the company also owed several years worth of back excise taxes to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

 

The gun company, which had operated on a 2-acre site on Ithaca's Lake Street continuously since 1880 manufacturing shotguns, went bankrupt in the 1980s and was bought by new owners in 1989 and relocated to King Ferry.

 

Even though the company moved away from Ithaca more than 15 years ago, the news of its closure came as a disappointment to local hunting aficionados who admired its products.

 

"I think it's a terrible thing," said Joe Ripchick, who answered the phone Wednesday at Jay Street Rod & Gun Inc., a local gun store that is owned by a friend.

 

"They are an awful good gun. They have a lot of product out there," Ripchick added. "At one time it was one of the bigger things down here (in Ithaca).

 

"It gave Ithaca a good name," he added.

 

Ithaca Gun began production in 1880, and soon became known for making affordable and durable shotguns such as the Deerslayer and Deerslayer II.

 

"The closing of Ithaca Gun is another sad, but not unexpected, chapter in the life of one of America's oldest gun companies," said Dave Henderson, a lifelong sportsman who writes a twice weekly outdoors column for The Journal and other area newspapers.

 

"This marks the third financial failure under the 124-year-old Ithaca Gun name in the last 20 years and, frankly, wasn't unexpected given the shaky status of both the company and the firearms business in recent years."

 

Sciarabba said investors hope someone will buy the company's well-known name and resume production in Central New York.

 

But, he said, "I don't know if that is going to happen."

 

Meanwhile, that could shake the confidence of consumers who own or would like to buy an Ithaca-made gun -- and those who sell the firearms.

 

"More than a few people have guns at the Ithaca Gun service department awaiting repair and have no recourse to recover them," Henderson said.

 

"Certainly consumers will be reluctant to purchase an Ithaca from a dealer with no guarantee of customer service after the sale, which leaves dealers with guns in inventory that they cannot move."

 

In addition to more than a century of gun production, the company's legacy in Ithaca also includes decades worth of lead pollution.

 

Spent lead shot was disposed on land near Ithaca Falls as part of operations. A federally led clean-up program, begun in 2002, removed thousands of tons of lead-contaminated soil from the area at a cost of around $4 million.

 

Some buildings remain standing on the factory site, where a North Carolina man has for several years been considering redevelopment plans that would include lead clean-up in that area.

 

[ 06-23-2005, 05:23 PM: Message edited by: sdkidaho ]

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I'm sad to hear this. Ithaca is as American as Apple Pie. I own several M-37's

The shotguns they have been turning out in the last few years have been on the other side of the world from cheap. Steel part's, handfitted. Thrown together, plastic parts having, cookie cutter shotguns they were not.

Finding dealers was a pain however.

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Originally posted by cherok9878:

I know this is not prudent info for this site but can anyone furnish any information. Is this rumor true?

I am simply amazed by the lack of knowledge of many persons who respond to this site. The Ithaca Model 37 Police Shotgun was simply the finest of its kind, used by more police departments around the world than any other. All steel parts, put together by hand; it was a testament to American craftsmanship and served both our GI's (in numerous wars and as late as Vietnam where they were used by Navy Seals as their preferred gun) and our boys in blue for over 75 years.

 

The shotgun had unique features such as ambi ejection and the fewest moving parts of any tactical shotgun.

 

Simply stated, any person who has never owned one or never shot one has no business dissing this great name in American gunmaking. Besides, this is just one more victory for the antis. Don't you think Chuck Shumer isn't giving Sarah Brady a high five right now? For you folks out there, Mossbergs 500s are crap, Winchester 1300s are garbage, and Remingtons are simply OK in comparison to this police shotgun.

 

The company's homeland defense 20" self-defense version (issued in 2000) was simply a masterpiece and I own two of them and would stake my life on them.

 

Uninformed people simply have no business commenting on this site.

 

This is a huge loss for us all and should be mourned.

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  • 4 weeks later...

braunster

 

Amen to that !

I have 9 ITHACA,S

My deer slay 87 fixed rifled barrel is the most accurate slug gun around. I shot last years buck in the neck @ 139 yards using lightfields.

I also have a waterfowler with the very rare quad bore forcning cones. almost made production for a year before they decided it was to costly to make.

Those will be worth a bundle. if i won the lottery i would buy Ithaca and move it to central indiana.

Very good quality guns.

better quality than my SBE whose choke tubes are installed wrong and i am getting the runaround from benelli cusstomer sevice.

None of my Ithaca,s have ever failed me. Never!

how many benelli,s have hung up and didnt get a 2nd shot because of reliability problems in the field?

My sbe didnt have may problems but i have seen others whose guns are kept cleaner not shoot well.

 

Besides, Ithaca was made here in the usa and if you dont own one you are missing an awsome gun.

I am looking for a deluxe 16 gauge classic. one that is only aprox 2 years old. i think the newer ones look better and are made better that the older ones.

just my .02$

BRICE

 

 

Originally posted by braunster:

quote:
Originally posted by cherok9878:

I know this is not prudent info for this site but can anyone furnish any information. Is this rumor true?

I am simply amazed by the lack of knowledge of many persons who respond to this site. The Ithaca Model 37 Police Shotgun was simply the finest of its kind, used by more police departments around the world than any other. All steel parts, put together by hand; it was a testament to American craftsmanship and served both our GI's (in numerous wars and as late as Vietnam where they were used by Navy Seals as their preferred gun) and our boys in blue for over 75 years.

 

The shotgun had unique features such as ambi ejection and the fewest moving parts of any tactical shotgun.

 

Simply stated, any person who has never owned one or never shot one has no business dissing this great name in American gunmaking. Besides, this is just one more victory for the antis. Don't you think Chuck Shumer isn't giving Sarah Brady a high five right now? For you folks out there, Mossbergs 500s are crap, Winchester 1300s are garbage, and Remingtons are simply OK in comparison to this police shotgun.

 

The company's homeland defense 20" self-defense version (issued in 2000) was simply a masterpiece and I own two of them and would stake my life on them.

 

Uninformed people simply have no business commenting on this site.

 

This is a huge loss for us all and should be mourned.

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