I have NO idea how the myth started that AMF ruined Harley-Davidson because truth be told, AMF saved Harley from going defunct. If anything AMF failed to realize just how run down Harley-Davidson was when they bought it and just how much it would cost to upgrade the production facilities. The oil puddles under Harley-Davidsons and pee poor quality control of their motorcycles was present long before AMF bought the company. AMF also discovered that more parts of their motorcycles were leaving the factory in employee pockets and lunch boxes, than what was being sold to dealerships. Theft ran rampant back in the day. It came to the point where AMF had to dump Harley, or risk losing everything, so selling it back to the employees was a no brainer. And lets not forget that after the company was sold back to the employees there was some serious federal assistance, more than once, to help keep the company from going under even though AMF was long gone. Having lived in the Milwaukee area almost all my life and having owned a great many Harley-Davidsons I know the real story and it wasn't that AMF ruined anything at Harley. Harley almost ruined AMF.

To the question of Smith and Wesson revolvers, I too at one time, thought a pinned and recessed revolver was the best that the company ever offered, but that's just not true. Their current line of revolvers, especially those under the Performance Center banner are just as good as the old ones except perhaps in finish appeal. The old bluing that S&W used as well as Colt, was truly something to behold. But be honest, those finishes while beautiful to look at, weren't very durable. One scratch, or knick and it was all over. Finish durability back in the "day" wasn't a driving force, it was all about how pretty the gun looked sitting on the shelf at the local gun store.

For about one third of my law enforcement career I had to carry a department issued revolver. When I was issued my first P&R'd Model 66 I thought I was in Fat City! It didn't take long for us to start having problems with those revolvers with gas cutting of the frames and frame stretch which led to other issues. A few years later I was assigned to our department pistol team and I was issued a 4" Model 686 and that was truly a very sweet revolver, but shock of shocks, it wasn't pinned and recessed! But that didn't matter one bit, that gun shot like a house on fire and I never had one single problem with it. Then my department made the decision to go with a semi-auto which was the right decision based on what law enforcement was confronting, but they picked an absolute loser of a semi-auto, no not S&W, that we had nothing but problems with for the 10 years we carried them. They shot so poorly that we had to dissolve the pistol team because we just couldn't compete on a level playing field with everyone else. The rule at the time was, you HAD to use your department issued sidearm and ours sucked!

So while a lot of guys like to say the old guns were better, I just don't buy it. That's like saying old cars were better than what's available today. I think in many cases when someone does have a problem with a new made gun they jump to the internet and let everyone know about it and before you know it, the entire world thinks that one gun is indicative of a bad product. Don't kid yourself, customers had problems with the Smith and Wessons back in the old days too, but they didn't have the internet to cry their little hearts out on.

Rick