Facility visit / Factory Tour at Savage ???

[Kaishaku]

Hey,
Im going to visit the homecountry of Savage in 2 Weeks, and will make a roundtrip by car. My route runs close to Westfield (MA), what leeds me to the question, if its possible to make a Facility visit / Factory Tour at Savage ??? Does anybody know something about that ? For me as a foreign owner of two savages it will be kind of a dream, to visit the birthplace of my "babies"...

[scope eye]

You use to be able to visit and tour when it was "Savage owned" but now that ATK owns it they don't give a Rats Posterior about you, as far as they are concerned it is there wholesalers that are there bread and butter not they end user. this is what will happen as you pull up to the gate.

You : Hi I would like to tour the plant, I am a big Savage fan and have lots of your rifles.

Guard : Sorry you can't.

You : Awe man Really, I drove really far to see it.

Guard : Here is a catalog have a nice day.

I live less than an hour away, I know

Dean

[Kaishaku]

Hey Dean,
and thanx for the info. It´s the first time I heart about, that Savage is sold to ATK. Now I looked at google for that, and understand what had happen. What does the community of savage fans and owners in the US think about that...? On one hand it´s bad luck for me, that there won´t be a chance of making a factory tour in Westfield. But on the other hand, what does that mean for Savage rifles itself ? What about the standard of quality ?
It makes me sad to read, that another good, old and long established Company had been sold to a big and faceless company, who give a **** on tradition...

[sixonetonoffun]

A17 probably is the best answer to your question. Poorly tested designs rushed to market in order to beat the competition. Leaving consumers to become part of the testing process.

[J.Baker]

A17 probably is the best answer to your question. Poorly tested designs rushed to market in order to beat the competition. Leaving consumers to become part of the testing process.

I think that's a pretty big stretch and a bit harsh, and anyone who's ever worked in manufacturing knows that. Who's the competition? I don't see anyone else manufacturing a semi-auto 17 HMR this year - at least not for a reasonable price.

No new product is ever perfect out of the gate, and they're all going to have some teething issues. There's a big difference between doing prototype work and making pre-production samples for torture testing and actual production rifles. The pre-production stuff is often hand built/assembled by one person and as such they will tailor fit everything and catch any issues during the process. Production isn't like that at all as every part used has a tolerance, and when a product goes to production is when any issues will first present themselves.

[sixonetonoffun]

Your right I can be a little sardonic.

[GeoBoy]

I live around 2 hours from the Westfield plant and called about the tour and was told that they were doing upgrades to the plant and the tours were suspended until the upgrades were finished.

[curlymaple42]

Kaishaku, give them a call and tell them you are traveling from Germany and own their rifles and would really like to see where they were made. Maybe something good will happen. Also, let me see if I can pull a favor from a friend who is connected. I will PM you to get some info.

[Kaishaku]

Thanx so much for kind help and tips.
If the whole factory is more or less a construction area, it will be easy to understand, that they didn´t make tours. But I am not looking for a 3-hour-guided Tour, with coffee and cake and multi vision presentation. All I wish is a short look around, without disturbing anybody from work... OK, we´ll see...

[scope eye]

They will think you work for Remington, and are doing industrial espionage.

Dean

[Kaishaku]

Me, as a foreigner in the US...??
If I would think about doing that, I´ll work for Anschuetz, Walther or other german companies. But I´am still to much of a noob in that business for doing that...
I´am still working on getting below 3,5 inches on 330 yards with my 12 benchrest...