Olympic Arms is shutting its doors...

Olympic Arms

I wonder if this is going to be a trend in 2017. I can see a lot of mid level brands like Olympic closing due to saturation in the market.

Olympic Arms Announces Closing

After more than 40 years of business, it is with great sorrow that we announce that February 28th, 2017 will be the last day of operation for Olympic Arms, Inc.

The Schuetz family would like to express their heartfelt thanks to all their friends, associates, and partners that have been a part of the Olympic Arms experience. Most of all we would like to thank our loyal customers and patrons who have been with us all this time.

In the course of closing, we are announcing the following changes in policy effective immediately:

All sales are final.
No refunds or returns will be accepted after 1-25-2017.
On-line Shopping Cart will be active and effective while supplies last.
All Warranty service ceases 1-25-2017. Warranty work and repairs currently in-house will be serviced and returned.
New orders will only be taken for inventory currently in stock, or that can be built from remaining inventory.
All inventory will be liquidated.
ALL SALES will cease at close of business 28 February, 2017

Thank you for your patronage.

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Sorry to hear this...I always thought they made some fine products.

Best Regards, Les

You make garbage for long enough and this is what happens... surprised it took this long frankly

While I am not an owner or enthusiast of ARs I have seen what appears to be a saturation of the market, less interest and a Lot of used ones For sale nearly evewhere. I also read and hear what seems to a lessening of quality with some manufacturers and poor customer service. Also I have been seeing a resurgence of interest in more 'traditional' firearm patterns lately. Also the cost of ammo I think has put the 'brakes' on the days of slinging a 1000+ rounds out there.

ARs have become very much a commodity with so many makers now in the market, all with relatively equivalent products. The only survivors will be those who have the lowest manufacturing costs. Companies with weak bottom lines are not survivors. I think with the threat of oppressive gun legislation diminished under the new administration, I expect to see many more used ARs come on on the market and fewer new gun sales. But I haven't seen much evidence of that yet. That will also depress the remaining AR manufacturers.

les.b said:

Sorry to hear this...I always thought they made some fine products.

Best Regards, Les

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I have a buddy who shoots Olympic lowers on a couple
of his AR's.
Well made with nary a problem.

Sorry to hear about them going under as well.

Chuck

It seems like Olympic Arms was the first manufacturer to make a line of really accurate ARs with heavy barrels and flat top receivers to take scopes. Back in the late 1970s most people didn't think very highly of AR's or their accuracy and I remember one gunshop owner telling me most ARs he sold were less accurate than Mini-14s. Colt only made the Sp-01 back then, as used in Vietnam and I had one and it wasn't too impressive. I have since owned several AR's including Del-ton, Palmetto State Armory, Olympic Arms, and Colt and I couldn't tell any real difference in quality between any of them.

Always a bit sad for me to see something like this. I had call to contact them only once but they took good care of me and seemed like decent folks on the phone. As has been said, lots of competition these days in their market, and no doubt some cooling of that market, too.

I fully expect to see some new ARs selling in the sub-$400 price range in the near future, given the competitive environment. You can already build your own for less than that. Not too much profit left at that price. Wonder what will happen if Chinese guns are allowed to be imported again? No reason the Chinese couldn't flood the market with AR components.

It would be interesting to know how many AR type rifles have been sold the last few years,even the anti-gunners I know have one it seems. Many people bought multiples just in case and now find they don't really need 3 or 4 of them and these are now coming on the market so I think it will be hard to get high prices for new ones for quite a some time.

It would be interesting to know how many AR type rifles have been sold the last few years

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Yep I agree but I'll bet none of us would ever come close to guessing the number. Regardless, from those I have talked to in the 'biz' and other informal sources sales have come to a screeching halt and nothing to suggest they will ever approach previous levels. Actual Colt collectible ARs are few in scope and there is nothing particularly 'rare' about most aftermarket ARs to create a collector market so ARs may become a 'White Elephant' in the gun world.

Olympic Arms is the only firearms manufacturer I've ever personally toured, so I feel bad. Seems like everyone who was into budget ARs during the AWB either got a Bushmaster or Olympic.

They just couldn't find a good niche since the sunset of the ban. Too much weird and proprietary stuff that never caught on.

In a broader sense, while it sucks for the individual companies and employees, this retraction is healthy in the long run. Look at all the clowns spooling up to make/assemble AR parts after Sandy Hook. Quality sucked and prices were sky high. More than one friend of mine got hosed on uppers that didn't work well or at all. The great ones will survive.

Sucks to see any firearms manufacturer close its doors

And I hope...

tattooo said:

Sucks to see any firearms manufacturer close its doors

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And I hope it isn't catchy.

After 40 years in business, is it possible that they are just plain retiring?
I haven't read their releases on the closing, other than the above so I don't know the reason.
I'm sure the market helped drive the decision but it also could be that they want to retire.
I don't see the demise of the AR anytime soon. Thankfully, I am seeing the demise of high prices for them.

It seems I remember during the big Obama rush to buy ARs that Olympic Arms had a fire. After that I heard of people on AR15.com complaining of bad customer service and bad quality parts. That was a time period when AR15 companies should have been making a fortune because there was such high demand and people didn't care about pricing. I think Olympic Arms also made Safari Arms 1911s that had one finger groove on the front strap, and I never cared much for the look, but the 1911 market is also saturated and very competitive. Maybe they should have tried to specialize more.

I still have a Colt Match Target H-Bar I bought back in the mid 90's, Im sure that one still has some value to it.

Farmer17 said:

It seems like Olympic Arms was the first manufacturer to make a line of really accurate ARs with heavy barrels and flat top receivers to take scopes. Back in the late 1970s most people didn't think very highly of AR's or their accuracy and I remember one gunshop owner telling me most ARs he sold were less accurate than Mini-14s. Colt only made the Sp-01 back then, as used in Vietnam and I had one and it wasn't too impressive. I have since owned several AR's including Del-ton, Palmetto State Armory, Olympic Arms, and Colt and I couldn't tell any real difference in quality between any of them.

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I hear a lot of people bashing Olympic Arms quality, but I've always held a different opinion.

After I transitioned from the M1A to the AR-15 for service rifle competition, my first AR-15 service rifle was built on an Oly At-15 and it was no less accurate or reliable than any other Service Rifle I've owned since. In the off season, I added a cheek rest, mounted a scope on the carry handle and used it as a varmint rifle. It was a solid MOA all day rifle.

The flat topped AR-15 got it's start when people like me took an A1 style AR-15 upper, milled the carry handle off and added a one piece weaver rail on top to accommodate scope rings. As you note, Oly was one of the first companies to bring a flat topped AR-15 to market.

I suspect much of the Oly hate came from what I consider to be the mil-spec AR-15 snobs who seem to think that a pony on the side automatically made it a better AR-15, or that "mil-spec" parts have any relevance to the effectiveness of a civilian AR-15. That kind of marketing sells an awful lot of AR-15s - usually to shooters who don't really understand what really matters in an AR-15.

Now..to be fair, I can't speak to Oly quality after about 1995, but I do no that Oly made some great AR-15s back then.

rwsmith said:

And I hope it isn't catchy.

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I hope not as well

I agree the new administration could spell the end of some companies.

The fact remains that democratic presidents and democratic wins in mid term elections have always been some of the best marketing the gun industry has ever had, particularly when it comes to handguns and, after the 1994 AWB, evil black rifles.

I know most of the local shops stocked up heavily on firearms that thought would be in great demand after the expected HRC presidential win. I am not seeing those firearms move off those shelves at all.

Sooner or later in order to stay in business, they are going to have to cut prices and profits to move them out the door in order to turn them back into money they can re-invest in what ever might be selling. It's clear that orders for AR-15s are going to be way down for at least the next four years.