Summer grass
Of stalwart warriors splendid dreams
the aftermath.
Matsuo Basho.
From the linked article "Some believe Remington is primarily shifting to the South to reduce labour and operational costs"
Another "Era Gone"
This move is necessary if Remington is going to be competitive in the firearms industry. Their quality control and manufacturing processes have left them with a poor reputation with most people when considering a new rifle/shotgun purchase. I haven't bought a Remington product (except primers) for over 25 years.
Cheers
Like pretty much all american recreational (i.e. bolt actions and shotguns) arms manufacturers they have not done any innovation for decades. Neither with their products, nor with their manufacturing techniques.
At the same time there are plenty of other non american manufacturers, that actually have been capable of innovation, and are able to sell genuinely good products, at competitive prices.
A remingshite with an 8+ pound trigger is just not competitive in todays market.
There's a lot of new industrial plant being built in the USA currently, especially the southern USA. Some states are offering incentives to attract businesses to set up / relocate there. Remington probably crunched the numbers and see benefits in relocating. Also, several states within the USA are far less gun tolerant and actively legislate against gun manufacturers which ends up forcing some manufacturers away. Look at Weatherby as an example. In recent years they abandoned California and relocated to Wyoming.
Weatherby is a great example, a gun friendly state asked if they were interested, helped them build the required buildings etc and then built a whole industrial area around them with ancillary services and opportunities for other businesses to move there. And also created a transport hub that best served all those new businesses, and offered land for staff to build new homes etc. A win/win for both Weatherby and Wyoming. And production costs went down considerably.
Um, who are these non-american manufacturer's that are capable of innovation and are able to sell at competitive prices? Can you post up a list, we'd probably all like to know!
There are plenty if smaller brands in the US that have made some seriously interesting kit over the last few years, most of it either doesn't get to NZ or doesn't get the expected uptake when it gets here. If you are looking at things like Tikka T3 as a comparison, not too much innovation there, basic turnbolt rifle that works but has had some shocking manufacturing issues over the time (the burst barrel era being a good case in point). No different to some of the US made gear in that regard. I will make the comment that the majority of the new calibers being innovated on over the last few decades are ex-US though.
Remington is no different to a lot of outfits that are struggling with QC or have done over the years, Boeing anyone?
Need to keep in mind that the current brand 'Remington Arms' (RemArms) has no direct lineage to the Remington Arms Company (originally incorporated as E. REMINGTON AND SONS), the latter of which should have been preserved in some way, as a brand of national historical and cultural importance.
They didn't just make firearms...
Not to mention that Remington came out with stuff in the late 1980's/1990's/2000's that the market just wasn't ready for... (titanium reciever, Short Action Ultra Magnums, first commercial carbon/composite covered barrel, electronic ignition for ammunition)
Not going to tell you what you should buy. Plenty of remington or ruger fanboys out there, and that is fine. Some people like the tinkering and their "remingtons" (after replacing pretty much every part for an aftermarket version) will work splendidly.
Its like people driving Holdens...
There are firearms available nowadays in NZ that both are accurate enough for general hunting purposes (and many even better than that) with a bolt that does not need to be worked 1000 times with some lapping compound to make it workable and do not requiring extra money for a new trigger, stock etc... And they are not just from finland.
This is what happens when corporations care about return on investment more than quality products and the people that work for them. Remington has not been "gun guys" for a long time. Hopefully they have the right people in place to make a quality product again.
Cheers
Tikka is not an economy rifle anymore.
For example, the T1x was £500 when it first came out. Now they are wanting £675 for the same rifle.
A T3x looks to be of good value when compared to a Sako, but that's only due to Sako being stupidly over-priced (£3k+ for a top model).
For what it's worth, get a secondhand Howa, stick it in a XRS or Bravo chassis and you'll have a better rifle than a stock T3.
Tikka triggers and barrels have dropped off hard, and their UPR stock is a bad joke.
And the lips of their junky mags are spreading and jamming the cartridges…. ;-]
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