Official: TC coming back

[Hausser1]

https://tcarms.com/

 

[280Bravo]

Gregg ritz acquires Thompson/Center.
This is going to be interesting.

 

[michiganmuzzy]

I very much hope it will be interesting. My first thought was “how can he say it with a straight face”? About the lifetime warranty and being master gun builders? I will be saving up to buy ‘something’ from them. But im not ready to be a guinea pig and buy the first of anything they make. We’ll see.

 

[smokepolehall]

K. W. Thompson Tool & Warren Center original owners of T/C. Gregg was a Spokesperson not the owner

 

[280Bravo]

Look into it.

 

[michiganmuzzy]

Is this from S&W? Or is there a new owner? Does Ritz actually help mfr guns, or is he the new voice of TC? Ive never heard of him. I’ll admit to not really following the TC Saga very closely.

 

[280Bravo]

It all over the web that he acquired it.
But I don’t know the in and out all I know he is well known in the sporting industry and ive watch some of his shows and has made a name for himself.

 

[Kelljp]

Former TC CEO

 

[Confederate rifleman]

This is good news! Ritz always struck me as a stand up fellow.
Good fortune to him!

 

[Hatchet Jack]

No fan of Ritz. He is not a stand up guy. However I will be rooting for the success of the TC comeback.

 

[retrieverman]

This is good news! Ritz always struck me as a stand up fellow.

Except for the legal trouble.

 

[jsteurrys]

Ritz is a shill. Not a fan of his or most of the advertising hunters out there these days.

 

[Confederate rifleman]

I don't recall any trouble regarding him. But then, I don't exactly have my finger on the pulse of current events. I suppose we all have our faults.
I recently was reminded of an old saying.
There's so much bad in the best of us, and so much good in the worst of us, that it behooves most of us not to talk about the rest of us.

 

[retrieverman]

I don't recall any trouble regarding him. But then, I don't exactly have my finger on the pulse of current events. I suppose we all have our faults.
I recently was reminded of an old saying.
There's so much bad in the best of us, and so much good in the worst of us, that it behooves most of us not to talk about the rest of us.

I don’t normally pay much attention what public people do in their personal lives, but when I find out a guy in the hunting industry has been charged with wildlife violations, it makes me wonder what other illegal or unethical things he’s done to get to where he is in life.

 

[LHR]

There's so much bad in the best of us, and so much good in the worst of us, that it behooves most of us not to talk about the rest of us.

Love that saying, it's so very true !

 

[Tracker12]

So what has he done that makes him not a stand up guy?

 

[Hatchet Jack]

So what has he done that makes him not a stand up guy?

I can remember when he got in trouble both times and lied to the authorities. It is extremely hard to find the news articles about both cases on the internet anymore. It’s as if they have been scrubbed.
I find it amazing how so many of the articles and information on the two cases have now been removed from the internet. I believe power and money talk.
This is about the best I can come up with.
Back in 2020 he shot a deer in Missouri just for a photo op and left the carcass to rot and got caught. He also had his hunting spot baited prior to hunting it. When confront by the authorities he lied. Below is the officers report.

————————————————————————————

This is a different case from Kentucky about 10 years earlier where he lied to game officials as well.​

Greg Ritz FINED $50,000 but Corp fined not him​

Any updated news on this case....Let to hear what the OHio hunters think of this Kuntucky government posting on DNR site.....



Apr 03, 2009

Frankfort, Ky. "“ A Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources deer biologist who noticed discrepancies while analyzing 2006 hunter deer harvest data triggered an 18-month long state and federal law enforcement investigation that produced one of the largest wildlife penalties in state history last month in United States District Court, Owensboro.

Game Trails, a more than 12,000-acre Limited Liability Corporation commercial hunting preserve in Union and Crittenden counties, controlled by sole proprietor owner and then Thompson/Center Arms President and CEO Gregg Ritz, and its site manager, William Dirk McTavish, Jr., 43, of Paducah, paid $50,000 in fines after pleading guilty to numerous misdemeanor violations of the Lacey Act of taking wildlife unlawfully, and for making false statements to Kentucky officers about the takings and interstate transporting of wildlife.

United States Magistrate Judge E. Robert Goebel ordered that Game Trails LLC, pay a $35,000 fine and McTavish pay a $15,000 fine.

Robert Christopher Helms, 40, of Booneville, Indiana, and a former Game Trails guide, faces up to five years in federal prison after pleading guilty to a felony count of threatening a federal witness. His sentencing is scheduled for June 11.

Department wildlife and deer biologist David Yancy, in August 2007, noticed numerous inconsistencies while comparing and analyzing 2006 Telecheck deer harvest data with data that Game Trails LLC supplied to Quality Deer Management Association (QDMA) in Georgia.

Yancy and department Private Lands Wildlife Biologist Phillip Sharp raised these irregularities with Union County conservation officer Lt. Greg Noel. Noel, already familiar with Game Trails and the property, enlisted the help of Crittenden County officer Randy Conway. They began the lengthy process of reconciling the Telechecked deer harvest reports of Game Trails clients with information from QDMA.

Their investigation turned up numerous instances of Game Trails employees, their friends and family chronically taking over-limits of deer, outside hunting season parameters, supplying false information to Kentucky Fish and Wildlife and using social security numbers of Game Trails clients without their permission to Telecheck their deer harvests.

State and federal officers seized hundreds of deer jawbones and documentation tying them to Game Trails from QDMA headquarters in Atlanta during the investigation. By sending the jawbones to another state, Game Trails was guilty of transporting illegally taken deer out of state and triggered the Lacey Act violations.

Noel said that the property, bordered by about 4½ miles of Ohio River, was owned by Kimball International and leased to Ritz and sharecroppers. He said that the previous owner had used local draw hunting to manage the deer herd, but that Game Trails eliminated that practice because it interfered with its filming and big buck hunting routines. As a result, the herd grew quickly and Game Trails contacted QDMA to evaluate and make recommendations about improving the deer herd.

Game Trails then supplied QDMA with completed data sheets and jawbones of harvested deer. It was this data, discovered during the investigation, which conflicted with Telecheck data.

Noel says Game Trails has recently vacated the property and is moving its operations to Ohio.




http://fw.ky.gov/newsrelease.asp?nid=513

 

[rusticbob]

Ritz family ruined T/C once. Now they want to destroy the name forever.

 

[birdog]

How? By selling to S&W?

 

[rusticbob]

When I worked there back in the late 1980’s, Warren Center and Ken Thompson were both out of the picture. T/C was owned by Wayne Brockney and Bob Gustovson. Both good guys, but from what I knew neither man were shooters. Most of the managers, including Ken and Mike French were very active shooters and hunters, and were the driving force in the growth of muzzleloading during that period.
Well after I left, and after the large fire, they sold out to Ritz. Friends who still worked there speculated that this was Greg Ritz’s opportunity to become a big man in televised hunting and sporting shows. The writing was on the wall, and the “company” became too large to give the personal attention to customers that many will admit that this great lifetime warranty and great customer service that built the brand, slowly dissolved.
So did he destroy the company by himself? No, but as soon as they became valuable enough he sold out to S&W, just like any good corporate raider would.
I still have a couple of older sidelock T/C’s, and shoot them every year. But I cannot imagine they will ever make them again, too small a market.