HTRN wrote:The company was founded by Don Allen, a then Airline pilot, and part time stockmaker(Dakota to this day still makes and sells stock duplicators), and his wife in 1986, because of the demand for premium CRF guns. It's been said that the Dakota 76 is the "Model 70 perfected" due to minor design changes that fix most of the complaints about the 70 action.
He died in 2003.
The company was in the middle of a massive expansion at the time, buying up Miller Arms(shuetzen rifles) Nesika Bay(one of the big names in BR actions) along with a coupla other companies. This was what led to their short term financial difficulties.
HTRN
He took on as director of the shotgun division, the director of the then defunct Ithaca Classic Doubles Company (ICDCo.), Steve Lamboy, and started having two different grades and weights of semi bespoke shotguns made (from two different mother companies SEACE and ?) and bringing back the 24 and 32 bores as well...We, some uncles and cousins, lost some deposit monies at ITCCo. but did get some of it back a couple of years later…I commented that this Lamboy had no luck, first he makes ICDCo go under and hitches onto Dakota who go into Chapter 11, or whatever the Hell it’s called that they did.
He bought out 'lil Sharps for those rimfires you liked…I remember you mentioned a variant was being made by an Italian company for Charles Daly in an old TGT thread...
Of course Miller (superb gun by the way) for Schuetzen and Nesika Bay for primarily BR actions…I think he got a gun case company and a leather goods company as well…
I know he didn’t go bankrupt and that’s why I said something like Chapter 11 for extensions to his loans…When he dies his wife took over with Charlie Kokesh as CEO…
What
HTRN said about the controlled round feed (CRF) action being better then the pre ’64 Winchester Model 70 is so very true…I just love CRF and any tactical or hunting rifle I have are all CRF excluding strictly varmint rifles…Dakota makes an action that is great and some other companies are copying them with slight variations…
Moose42, you should contact them and request the back issue of their magazine “
Dakota” or maybe the articles relating to the death and take over…They are quite informative and just slightly biased towards Dakota rifles but quite well written…Get them to send you the latest as well…
