Madison, N.C. - Remington Arms Company, LLC ("Remington") announced Thursday its plan to expand operations at the Remington Ammunition Plant in Lonoke, Arkansas. Work on the expansion, which will include the construction of a new building, is expected to begin second quarter of 2013. The $32 million expansion plan is projected to be in operation by the second quarter of 2014.

"We are proud to provide job growth within communities that have supported us for so many years, while meeting the increasing global demand for superior ammunition products," said Jim Grahlmann, Lonoke Plant Manager. "This expansion reinforces our commitment to deliver the finest quality products for our customers."

"We continue to invest in all of our manufacturing operations because we are committed to ensuring quality, increasing product availability and improving on-time delivery," said Kevin Miniard, Chief Operating Officer of Remington. "This significant investment in Lonoke is a testament to that commitment. Our customers can count on Remington to invest in its manufacturing operations in order to ensure that its facilities are state-of-the art and its employees are the best in the industry."

They need that to keep up with DHS ammo orders (just wanted to beat the nut jobs to the punch again)

Dang! Stole my business plan!

Wonder how many rounds the expansion will add to their capacity?

Great news for my home area. Have family that works there, but was told it took them a little longer to up production this time around unlike in 2008. Maybe this was the reason for the delayed increase to production. On a side note, when my uncle worked there, he kept me in a steady supply of ammo. Was told by my cousin that still works there, they can no longer buy the ammo at current time, as some knucklehead was arrested by the Feds for selling it out of the trunk of his car.

I have a cousin that works in the existing plant in Lonoke, and has for years. He is at a high enough level in the plant that, when my wife and I were down there for a family reunion about seven years ago, he took me on a tour through the plant. I was exceedingly impressed by their dedication to quality and consistency, and amazed at the volume of high quality ammo and components that they could produce. It was worth driving all the way to central Arkansas just for that plant tour.

But, he also told me that Wally World's buyers beat them over the head for rock-bottom prices in their negotiations, and the only way they could meet those prices was to sell them all of their reject ammo that would still function safely and meet SAAMI pressure specs. In other words, WM would buy lesser quality ammo that had been rejected in Remington's normal inspection and testing processes, but was still safe to shoot (or attempt to shoot).

Then he showed me some examples of what he was talking about. He picked up ammo out of one bin and it had dents in the case walls or somewhat buggered bullets, or other cosmetic defects, but it would still chamber and fire safely, so WM wanted it. In another bin was ammo that didn't meet Remington's run-out or other dimensional specs, but again, WM would take it because it would still chamber and fire. They would take ammo that didn't meet Remington's velocity standards as well, but were still within SAAMI pressure limits. He said that WM would also take ammo that didn't meet their reliability specs, such as too many duds due to some kind of primer problem. He said that Winchester ammo typically had a higher percentage of duds than Remington, but Winchester's testing usually caught the bad lots, but WM would take 'em anyway.

He said that, of course, there wasn't enough reject ammo to fill all of WM's orders, so the majority of their ammo was as good as what you could buy at other gun, shooting supply, and sporting goods stores, but it was a crap shoot because there was no way of knowing if there was reject ammo mixed in the same box with the good stuff when you bought it at WM.

When I got back home, I told all this to a friend of mine who is some sort of district or regional manager at WM and is also an avid shooter and hunter. He said it didn't surprise him at all, because he had heard rumors about the ammo they sold, plus seen enough of it returned that he was suspicious about, and that he knew for a fact that some of the other name brand things they sell are reject or cheapened things that wouldn't be sold anywhere else.

He said that he had always suspected that some of their centerfire ammo was junk because of the amount that was returned, and what he had seen in those boxes. Also, he had actually tried to fire some that had been returned because of duds in the box. He related that he once took home a box of .30-06 ammo that had three rounds in it that the customer had attempted to fire. One fired, and two were duds. There were 17 unfired rounds left in the box and he tried to fire them. He found five more duds, and he showed me the box. It had seven dud rounds in it. He also said that he agreed with what my cousin had said about WM's Winchester ammo having more duds than the other name brands they sell, because he saw that in their customer returned ammo.

Don't misconstrue this post as a bash of any particular brand of ammo, because it is NOT. It's just a heads-up letting you know that if you want top quality centerfire ammo, WM is not the place to buy it.

Also, I'm glad to hear about this plant project finally being started because my cousin has been saying for the past few years that they needed it badly. They've been run ragged trying to keep up with demand.

Too little, too late, in many respects.

Why would Remington sell reject ammo to anybody ? It doesn't make any sence ! I don't believe Remington would sully their own name , to get rid of their blems , or rejects . Sorry , doesnt pass the BS meter !

Believe what you want. According to my cousin at the Lonoke plant, not only does Remington sell inferior quality ammo to WM, but for sure Winchester also does it too, and he believes that Federal does it as well. And my management friend at WM believes that it is true as well. My cousin says that the reason is that it is the only way that they can meet WM's price point and WM is willing to gamble with the inferior quality.

My management friend at WM told me the same thing about Homelite chainsaws, back when they sold them. A couple years later, while at a Home Depot, I had the opportunity to talk to a Homelite factory rep and asked him about it. He verified that they built saws for WM with inferior quality parts and he commented that some of them were so bad that he was amazed that they would crank and run at all. And it was all to meet WM's price point, and to hell with the quality. This guy said he had been a rep since back when Sam was alive and in that era things like this would have never happened.

Remington's yellow box stuff is junk anyway. I've never had any duds in the green box ammo but the yellow box UMC is a waste of time. Nosler sells their blems and I've never had one that was not good.They sell over runs too and at a big discount. $44 for a box of 9.3x62 beats $94.

Wal-Mart must be signing a big-azz hold-harmless. Don't see how Remington's insurance company would allow them to do that and still provide coverage. Sounds like they're just asking for some dumbazz to have an accident with out of spec ammo and sue.

Like my cousin told me, the crap ammo that WM is willing to take doesn't meet Remington's normal production specs, but it meets SAAMI specs, and there's quite a bit of slop in those specs and quite a bit of slop in acceptable "industry standards".

I was with a company for several years that was a major WM supplier. I was the QA manager and made several trips to Bentonville. I don't doubt what you are saying.

I don't buy it for a second. Sure companies build special stuff for WM such as special put ups of ammo and I would bet that the chainsaw manufacture makes special models just for WM perhaps with lower quality parts but if the model number and UPC is the same it's the same product wherever you buy it. I've dealt with WM and most everything we sold to them was special make up that we only sold to them but the normal stuff they bought was the exact same stuff we sold to everyone else, it all came off the same line and into the same bin in the warehouse.

Would be believable if WM packaged the 2nds themselves and marked them as 'Great Value' ammo! Lol I have never seen any but would like to see some so marked and priced!

Hope they make a space for quality control.

Actually I wouldn't be surprised to see that but they wouldn't be marked as normal ammo. And for most people if it's 223 or pistol ammo they wouldn't care if it was seconds or not.

Nothing surprises me here except the part about WM seeing so many ammo returns.....at least in the WMs I frequent here in PA there is a big sign that says NO ammo returns.....so unless it is different at other WMs this doesn't make sense to me.

PennDog

WM buys UNINSPECTED products from many companies. When I lived in Arkansas many small companies made fishing lures(Major brand names). They made no effort on quality, only quanity, for WM orders.

PennDog, You are correct about the "no ammo return" policy now in place at many, if not all, WM's. My tour of the Lonoke plant with my cousin took place in July of 2006 and my conversations with my friend in WM management took place not long afterwards. At THAT time, WM still took ammo returns. At least the ones in my friend's area of responsibility did.

Here is some evidence proving that WM used to take ammo returns, although this particular return was for ammo supposedly missing from the box, which is not germane to this conversation:

Gottcha Skeezix - I have never tried to return any ammo at WM and did not know of anyone else being successful in that endeavor....However, like I said I can believe what you are saying knowing how WM deals with other products! I do my best not to EVER go in that store - I like to support local businesses even if it does cost a little more! Thanks for the information - you just gave me one more reason NOT to shop there!

PennDog

Walmart Has had a no return on ammo since before 2000 at the stores that I shopped at. I have heard from some local people that work at the Remington plant at Lonoke, that they recently had a bad batch of .22 ammo that the only problem was the color of the hulls came out black and they would not sell it on the open market. They were letting employees buy it in bulk plastic bags not boxes. Way back probably in the 1980's they would let employees buy blems at a greatly reduced price, mostly shot gun shells and the box's would be marked blems and not for resale. I shot a lot of them that my MIL got with never a problem. miles

A lot of retailers have a "No Return" policy on ammo , not just Wal Mart.


Mike

Miles, one part of the plant that I did NOT get to see was where shot is made. IIRC, they have a shot tower there and I was really interested in seeing that in operation. Unfortunately, that area wasn't in operation for some reason at the time I was there and we didn't go in there.

Another place I wanted to see, but didn't get to see, was where primers are made. But I can't remember if they make them on site there or not.

The things that amazed me the most in that tour were #1): the unbelievable sheer volume of components and ammo that were in motion in the plant at all times. #2): The amazing amount of Quality Control, logistical, and set-up checks, double checks, and testing that they routinely executed flawlessly to keep the plant running smoothly, producing safe, top quality ammo (Even changing from 150 to 165gr bullets in a caliber and cartridge already running required a surprising amount of set-up changes even though the only thing that changed was the bullet weight and the powder charge weight or sometimes also powder type.) #3): I got to witness part of a changeover on one of their lines that produces shorter runs of some of the less popular cartridges like .250 Savage and .303 British. They were changing caliber and cartridge. The set-up crew was like a well oiled machine and each person knew their job profusely well. It was sorta like a couple of NASCAR pit crews working at the same time, but on VERY precise equipment and making sure everything was nearly perfect before the car took off again. #4): The amazingly sharp eyed QC inspectors. Many (if not most) defects are caught by in-process test stations but there are still some straight visual inspections of the ammo as it moves along. Those folks could spot miniscule defects on moving ammo that I could hardly see holding the cartridge or component in my hand.

I'd like to go back there and see it again.

Well all this info on WM makes sense with some Winchester white box 22-250. All fired, but report and 200 yard impacts were all over the board. 5-7 inches disspersion out of a gun that can print 1/2 or better MOA with handloads.

Was talking to a gal who's family has a trucking business. They specialize in refridgerated hauling. She told me she could tell me horror stories about Walmart standards for produce. I didn't ask her to elaborate but am guessing stuff they pick up is pretty close to "expired" before even heading to the store.

I know that Menards sells seconds. It's a lumber company and discount store. Their hardware is less likely to be threaded right, their screws are dull, nails without heads are common, lumber is not as dry as real lumber yards, more pine pitch in the studs and less quality, insulation is not as uniform in thickness neither. I know about WM. clothes being thinner cloth than other stores too. If it's safe to shoot I am sure Walmart would sell whatever they needed to cut competitors business.

Same as our Canadian tire up here, they do not buy first runs or top quality from suppliers.
You get the cheap version.
Costco up here also buys in big lots from suppliers, and they are not always top quality either.