It's funny that this has been a hot topic on a bunch of other forums such as 24 Hour Campfire (USA), Alberta Outdoorsman (Alberta Canada), and Accurate Reloading, to name but a few, since October of last year. (They meant nothing to me John)

My own feelings are that with the upcoming defence spending cuts in the USA, and with Portugal being in dire straits, politics, more than economics, were involved.

Assembly of the American guns will start taking place in Portugal soon this year. This portends for complete manufacturing in Portugal at a later date. The latter sentence being my gut feeling.