The average consumer (at least one who has heard of Sherwood recently, which probably rules out a lot of consumers since they're something of a niche brand these days) might think of Sherwood as an American company, but Outlaw knows otherwise because they've worked extensively with Sherwood's parent company. Also, Sherwood would not have the leverage to do what was done to the Model 978 - I don't think they have enough product volume to exert influence like that, and what they do have is built by their parent company. That would be the company that was supposed to build the Model 997, before Outlaw changed partners to develop the Model 978. That means Sherwood's manufacturing partner is the one factory we KNOW wasn't going to be building the Model 978.