Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Thoughts on Remington demise

What does everyone think about the Remington bankruptcy and sell-off of their various units?

Ruger got Marlin, which I’m very happy about. Sierra got Barnes. While I don’t use Sierra bullets any place except my .375 Winchester, I say good for them. I’ve driven by the Sierra plant many times while visiting family in MO, and I’m OK with that as well.

Last year I purchased a Wally World Rem M700 in 7mm RM as a gift for a SIL. (No, he is not a prohibited person.) When sighting it in for him I noticed slightly sticky extraction using factory ammo, but didn’t think much of it. Later, when we were doing load development, the problem go noticeably worse long before we got to max loads. Before hunting season I took it back to the range with three different factory loads. Don’t recall what the factory ammo was, but one load was fine, then next slightly sticky and the third required beating the bolt back with my fist.

Now that Remington is in gone, I really don’t expect that the people who bought the non-Marlin manufacturing and are the same that ran Remington into the ground, will honor any kind of warranty. I suspect the chamber is the issue and the only fix will be to cut the barrel back and rechamber or rebarrel.

From a timing standpoint, I guess I’m glad the sale occurred before we sent the rifle back to Remington. Might have been out a rifle.

Could be the chamber just needs polished. My last Wallyworld ADL was one rough rifle in and out.

It will be Interesting to see what Ruger tries to produce under the Marlin name. I'd assume 45-70/444 will continue as soon as they're able just because no one seems to be able to keep them in stock. For Remington bolt guns, I don't see this as a Winchester-type situation. As it changed hands, "Winchester" kept making nice rifles and the current M70s are arguably the best overall quality. (Yes, I wish they were still made in America, but the Portugal guns are damn nice.) The quality of newer Remington guns, especially the SPS you'd see at box stores, was pretty cheap. There are TONS of cheap, synthetic rifles out there that shoot as well or better than 700s (Ruger, XPR, Tikka, Vanguard) and I don't think the new owners are reverting back to walnut, metal parts, and deep luster bluing that made them famous. So it's hard to see where they fit in the market in a way that keeps them in business?

It’s probably a chamber problem but the stock could be binding the action as well. Loosen all the screws and get them just tight enough to hold the gun in the stock and see if it still does it.

Remington went under because they built crap guns along with having a crap business model. It’s a prime example of what happens when people who know nothing about guns run a gun business.. I won’t even get into the pistol line. That R51.... Cmon...

That said, the new owners can start producing pre-2004 guns and will probably do very well.

Todd

Owned Rem rifles in the past.

Never developed any sort of emotional attachment to them. Just a tool. The demise is basically a non event to me.

Never bought a Rem because I wanted a Rem, I bought them because I wanted X cartridge and they happened to have one in a Rem.

They have not made much in the last 50 years that I'll miss. Even their once great "core-Lokt" bullets were cheapened many years ago, and like most things made by Remington, their concern for doing anything to the highest standard of the industry was far from their agenda. NOTHING they have done since the 1960s was very noteworthy.

So I do hate to see many American Gun Company go under because it is so delightful to the "left", but if any richly deserved to go as a victim of self inflicted wounds, it's Remington.

^^^^ This

So is anyone going to produce the 700 anymore?

Will be really interesting to see how Ruger handles the Marlin acquisition. Remington had some real growing pains in learning how to build those guns when they lost all of the institutional knowledge at the New Haven Works. Trading CNC machines for investment casting offers a whole new set of potential challenges that they will have to figure out. My hope is that they take their time and get it right, and I suspect they will.

I’m a fan of REM 700s. I like accurate rifles and with rare exceptions, the REM 700 is accurate, in my experience.

We’ll see on the Remington guns; haven’t heard of any sell off on this piece.

Vista Outdoors (CCI, Speer, Federal and others) bought the Remington ammo division. Dakota Arms is for sale, and prospects for it aren’t looking good, apparently.

I do hope somebody resurrects these brands at high quality, a la BACO/Winchester.

As previously has been said non-gun people trying to run a gun business and not paying any attention to public feedback.

Mis-steps by choosing to make too many models and compete going cheap instead of holding quality high and demanding a fair price for quality that Americans want and will pay for.

Were they the first to use pressed in checkering on wood stocks? How many years of selling dangerous trigger mechanisms can be expected to continue without the public catching on?

Naming or sometimes misnaming their new chamberings without adequate promotion. For example if 7mm-08 is a success, why not name the next one 6.5mm-08 instead of .260 Remington which suggests it is a derived from a .270 Win,?



























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When Remington bought Marlin, they moved the manufacturing equipment but not the people who knew how to use that old equipment to make good parts and guns. Thus the crappy Remlins from early on. Remington them re-blueprinted the rifles and quality went up. Don't know if they were as good as genuine JM Marlins because I don't own a Remlin. My three Marlins are all JM stamped.

Ruger, I'm sure' will turn out excellent Marlins. My understanding is Ruger will manufacture the the Marlins, or at least the levers, at their NC plant using the new blueprints Remington produced after their acquisition of Marlin. Hope to see 45-70 and 444 rifles available in the second half of 2021.

And I think it would be awesome if Ruger would reintroduce the .375 Winchester with proper chambers (not 38-55 like Marlin did) and Hornady FTX ammunition. Perfect cartridge for a lot of straight-wall hunting states.

Remington's execs, just like those in a lot of Modern American companies don't really have any understanding of their consumers. This wasn't helped by the various mergers and debt load the company had from the moment Cerebrus acquired them and then when they were divested from them later. Then there was product failure after product failure for the last 25 years.

You nailed it. Trying to help some local shooters with warranty claims of several Remington firearms over the last few years, my conclusion is that Remington is/was a manufacturing company that decided the best use for it's floor space and cnc machinery was to build firearms instead of the highly competitive field of widget makers. About 3 minutes on the phone with one of their 'techs' would convince anybody that maybe widgets would have been the better choice.

Management intent was part of the demise, along with QC and dropping many of the popular model variants.
As for QC, here's a boreshot of a 700 ADL 243 cheesy bought for his son on closeout last spring.

Ring is the full 360 degree circumference of the bore, about 1/2" ahead of the chamber. Shoots 85 Sierra HP Gameking under an inch and a half with H4895 for a reduced recoil load for the boy. Worked well this fall on a nice sized doe during Youth season. So far we haven't tried any other load or bullet.

The “footprint” will live on for certain. Not a fan of the extractor, or multi-piece bolts brazed together, but the basic layout is obviously good, just the execution has been wanting at times. 870 clones are out there too, or at least in appearance.

A Diff Perspective:

Remington has been a part of my Shooting and Hunting life since a kid in 1960. Rem 551 A, 22 RF, 870s and later 700s.

Never had a single problem with ONE! Times Change... What the % of problems to TOTAL number of products produced.
Don't know but it'd have to be VERY LOW.

I'm sorry to see ANY firearm company turn toes up >> even SaLvage or Mooseberg, (if they did).

NONE of my Rems are for sale.

Jerry

They sowed to the wind with their POS Walker trigger and reaped the whirlwind... screw them.

Only thing I ever cared for was the 870.