Colt O/U shotgun of 1995

[smkummer]

These were shown in the 1995 catalog. Does anyone know if any prototypes where made?

[dfariswheel]

At least a few prototypes were made for Colt, since one is shown in the 1995 Catalog.
These almost certainly wound up in the Colt museum and may have been auctioned off in the big Colt auctions of the last few years.

This O/U gun was to have been produced in Italy for Colt, and was a symptom of everything that was wrong with Colt at that time.

The LAST thing Colt needed to try to sell was a high-end O/U shotgun.
That market in America was owned by companies like Browning, and Colt simply wasn't going to sell many guns, at a time when Colt needed to sell a lot of guns.
They sank an unknown amount of dollars into the project with trips to Italy and all the planning and purchasing work, only to abandon the project.

It was dumb ideas and spending like this that led to the Colt bankruptcy.

[smkummer]

thanks for the info

[dfariswheel]

I've done some research and found a little more info, so I have to modify my original post.

Apparently the O/U gun of 1995 was to have been made in England by Worshipful Gunmakers company of London.
It was to have two levels of engraving and was to be a 12 gauge 2 3/4" chambers with screw-in chokes.
This was to be a high end gun.
The gun was never produced, at least not for sale, but they had to produce at least a couple of prototypes.

However, I very definitely remember sometime in the 1990's that Colt was talking to an Italian gun maker about building some kind of high end double gun.
Possibly this was after the English gun was canceled.

In either case, Colt blew lots of money on planning and travel on guns that simply weren't going to sell well in America, at a time when Colt was in financial trouble and strapped for operating cash.

With Colt teetering on the edge projects like these along with disasters like the All American 2000 pistol pushed Colt over the edge into bankruptcy.