Matchgun closure

[deadeyedick]

I recently found out that the Matchgun factory is in financial difficulty and the factory has closed.
They are still able to ship parts but no pistols are being produced.

[Gwhite]

That's very sad news, but hardly surprising. Their quality control was ruining their reputation, which undoubtedly cut into sales. It was also bleeding them dry with warranty work. I'm a great fan of their pistols (when they work), but the last time I recommended someone buy them, the two pistols friends bought had serious issues. One was fixed with a new bolt, but I still need to see if I can fix the second one.

MatchGuns was in the process of partnering with a manufacturing company that was trying to fix the reliability issues, but it appears that may have been too late. Maybe they can find someone to buy up the designs & resurrect them. I have zero idea how Italian bankruptcy laws work...

[Dcforman]

Yes, it's a shame. Best trigger of all my 22's. I'm debating going to the dark side (Pardini)...

Dave

[m1963]

We have bought Pardini 22's for years...but even Pardini does not support their 22 pistols beyond about 20 years. Italian air pistol support seems to be even less.

[Gwhite]

Walther and Pardini both have the attitude that you should buy a new pistol rather than repair an existing one if, in THEIR opinion, it is "too old".

It may be easier to get parts for older pistols if you are in Europe, the way you can for older US pistols here. I have a couple of 60 year old High Standards I just rebuilt, and I had no difficulty getting parts for them.

One problem with European gun manufacturers is that they can't resist the temptation to "fix" pistol designs that work well. That frequently means the new parts aren't compatible with older pistols. It can also mean pistol designs that worked fine have problems because they didn't test the new design thoroughly enough.

[deadeyedick]

I couldn't agree more Doug.

[M-1903A4]

While both of my Matchguns pistols work great, it took a lot of work to get the MG2RF to work reliably from a really great gunsmith to polish it up. That was after it was sent back to Italy for initial repairs. My MG5 mechanical trigger works really well and I have shot really well with it. Matchguns has really innovative designs but the quality control was lacking. That will kill a company if you cannot get those issues under control. With the factory closing, if I was still actively competing, I would probably be looking at getting something I could still gets parts and service on. The MG2RF is truly an innovative design that I got my high scores with, but there are other options out there. It is sad to see another ISSF gun manufacturer close their doors.

[william]

Another Cesare Morini business failure?

[Gwhite]

I don't know very many details, but MatchGuns is not completely dead. Hopefully the US importer will post some more definitive info soon.

[kqrxbn]

I am hoping for a comeback, just because it is interesting to have an alternative that is a bit different from the others. Perhaps they could partner up with some Germans for quality’s sake …

[kbc]

The Matchguns business started by Cesare Morini is closed for good.
There is a new owner (sole proprietor) to the business name and brand. It will be a long while before the new company can start producing firearms. I will keep you posted.