M1911.ORG visits US Firearms factory

By Hunter Lee Elliott (Hunter, )

Since my friend Mark Roberts became the vice president of marketing at USFA I have begun to hear great things about their pistols and I wanted to see the inside of the factory.

From what I saw at the USFA display at the 2008 SHOT show I began to believe the good things I heard and made arrangements with Mark to see first hand how they are put together.

My friend Jamie and I met with Mark early one Wednesday morning in preparation for the tour. Walking in the first thing I noticed was how clean the factory was, complete with white floors and all. Mark showed us a wooden display case housing parts in various stages of machining. There we learned that all the parts of the single action revolver are machined from bar stock there at the factory from the receiver to the screws and pins.

Then we entered into the factory and saw a large CNC machine that is the heart of single action revolver production. It is fully automated to the extent that material is loaded into "tombstones" (cradles that hold parts awaiting machining or after machining is completed) the computer is programmed and set. During the night the machine does it thing and in the morning completed parts are off loaded, that my friends was impressive. We then saw a small CNC machine making screws and pins for pistols awaiting assembly.

There is even a large machine that makes all the wooden stocks for the firearms, when Mark told us everything on the single action was made in house he in really meant everything.

We then went to the assemble room and checked out a rack of assembled pistols. There were parts bins with order forms listing customer specifications on custom ordered pistols. If USFA does not have a model like you are looking for you can call them and order a custom pistol to suite your needs.

Next was the finishing room where parts were polished waiting for finishing and then the bluing tanks. The centerpiece of the factory was a large display room very similar to the one set up at the SHOT show showcasing many of the models USFA catalogs. There we handled many of the display models, which were well fitted and finished. The actions of the ones we tried were very slick.

It seems USFA has a very modern approach to building firearms of an old design.

Mark took Jamie and I to a meeting room where we were shown the new catalogs and talked about the company. The owner seems committed to building fine firearms but keeping them affordable.

From what I saw I liked the USFA line and hope to try one out soon.

I would like to thank Mark for taking the time to show us around the factory and answering our questions.

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Sources:

USFA
P.O. Box 1901
Hartford, CT 06144-1901
USA

Phone: 1-860-296-7441
Fax: 1-860-296-7688

Web site: http://www.usfirearms.com/