Several years later I finally got my British Contract Colt OP

[funkychinaman]

Originally Posted by Jcordell

The more I read about Smith & Wesson and Colt the more I realize that Smith was just a better run company. The people running Colt never seemed to make the best decisions. That might of been the reason that Smith got the corner on revolvers during WWII. I'm firm believer that tens of thousands of men in the American military got their first exposure to revolvers during the war and that revolver was the S&W Victory model. There were other reasons behind Smith overtaking Colt in sales in the years following WWII of course, but I think a big one was the Victory model. Similar to how Americans took a liking to the bolt action rifle after WWI. Colt made a good revolver and the company's steel was supposedly a higher grade, but the management wasn't.

You can also argue however that Colt gave those same GIs their first taste of automatics.