#Expanse

Colt’s Manufacturing is in hot water: A lawsuit filed in the District Connecticut court by finance company Prestige Capital is targeted at the gunmaker, with the aim of recouping half a million dollars plus legal fees and interest over what the plaintiff claims was a breach of contract during the production of the Expanse Carbine. The suit follows Colt’s scaling back of a contract for the Colt Expanse, a budget priced Colt-branded carbine whose production was farmed out to Bold Ideas, also known as Colt Competition. Colt’s contract with Bold Ideas allowed them to scale back production of the rifles – originally set at 6,000 to be delivered each quarter – but required 60 days’ notice. According to a letter cited in the suit, which was filed at the end of June, Colt scaled back production to 2,400 units per quarter “immediately” in March.

After several years of being undercut on the market by cheaper offerings from Smith & Wesson and others, Colt introduced early in 2016 a new addition to their lineup, the “Expanse” carbine, designed to cut the price tag of a Colt carbine by $200-300 versus the standard 6920. The new rifle was met with positive reviews and many felt very good about the opportunity to own a “real” Colt for significantly less than the cost of the 6920. However, is the Expanse really a Colt, or more specifically, how much of the Expanse is really Colt? Christopher Bartocci, former Colt technician, thinks the answer is “not much”. Bartocci explains why in the video embedded below:

I have been fascinated with the idea of a budget Colt rifle since I heard about the Expanse Carbine a while back. After Colt’s recent financial speed bumps I am of the opinion that as long as Colt can get the Expanse into just about every gun shop out there, it may go a long way towards getting Colt out of financial trouble.

Colt has introduced another rifle in their Expanse budget rifle lineup with a second model more in line with what shooters expect when buying a carbine AR-15. Just before SHOT Show 2016 Colt announced that they would be building a budget rifle that had a planned MSRP of just $699 to directly compete with some of the best selling carbines on the market. We have one of the CE1000 rifles in for review, and at a glance, it is nothing short of impressive. The amount of quality that we were able to purchase for under $600 street price is nothing short of outstanding.