Freedom Group/Cerebus have killed quite a few decent Brands and Remington is just the latest.
Let me take you back to a dark and hidden time. Let's call it "The 1990s" The AWB is in full force, mag limits are a thing, and Clinton is in the White House.
What was THE rifle to buy? Remington 700. Really had no peer. Model 70 was around (thats WInchester)
The shotgun to have: Remington 870.
It was a no brainer--their stuff just worked. I remember watching TNN for shooting shows on Saturday as a "Yute" (ok I was in my 20s) and Reminton Bragged about how their actions were the base for like 10 of the last nation Long Range championships.
Walk into one of the largest stores in Michigan and it was WALL TO WALL Remington Rifles.
Hunting Ammo? Rem Green Box.
How do you F that up?
related note: You wanted an AR-15? Recommended buy was BUSHMASTER (you can stop laughing now). Armalite was good. Colt was on the outs with the small pin and no M-16 bolt carrier. That was it. That's all we had besides Olympic Arms and no one gave them much thought. "ABC for AR-15"
Freedom Works got them too.
DPMS was never a quality brand, but they were the only 308 game before Knights, LMT, Sig (that's a whole nother post on Sig who was up, then down, now up again). They had a huge market and then Remington bought them out.
Now gone.
Para Ord--Moved from Canada to Florida. Quality went caput. Now dead. Bought by Remington.
6.8 SPC (the history of this round is a lesson in FusterCluck)
AAC
...ugh
These guys have driven so many good products (and yes once, they were GOOD) into the ground it boggles the imagination. It rivals only Colt in the ability to (no pun intended, ok maybe a little pun) shoot themselves in the foot.
I want them to recover like S&W or Ruger (man those companies were blacklisted for a LONG time).
Don't get me wrong--I love our choices today (a lot more quality at pretty good prices), but when you watch and see what they had and how they were positioned, its absolutely stupifying how this company got driven into the ground.
Uh, and you forgot they had practically every military contract too including M24, M40, M2013 --and all those are gone now. I'm not sad to see 'em go either, the MRAD is fucking amazing and Remington COULD have done something like that... But figured hey, nothing to lose, let's give 'em a shittier rifle and an AAC can to go with it!
6.8SPC... Jesus pleezus, how you can look at that fucking thing vs. Grendel and STILL pick 6.8... Yeah, just one flop after another. Grendel literally could have saved lives had it not been greed fucked by Remington, et. al.
But what ALL these issues have in common? They all stem from NOT listening to the customer. I bet EVERY decision they made came from a board room with a handful of old, out of touch billionaires who are confident they know what you need better than you do.
I talked to Larue one day. Mark or whoever the fuck he was. I told him what was wrong with his shit. He told me I didn't know what I was talking about. Had a similar conversation with AAC over the 51T --they doubled, no TRIPLED down with the 90T! And REMINGTON bought 'em right after! See how this works...
Oly literally told the US Army to take a flying fuck over improving gas blocks and handguards, they'd rather go to bat over their shitty designs vs. making it better and having 'em show up at units! I know this because I'm they guy they told to fuck off. It's funny, I still remember the ad for their FIRSH handguards...
"The best thing I like about my FIRSH handguard is that it doesn't whistle when I HALO (High Altitude, Low Opening parachute jump)" --SF operator Shit, that does it, fuck Knights because it might whistle if I ever jump at 30,000 feet.
Wow, just wow. Because lowly DMR operator here didn't HALO but did test the goddamn things and wasn't impressed at all. I sent a guy to blow one up for me and he comes back after half a can of ammo saying the gas block went downrange. We never tested any Oly shit to true material failure, it always failed by design first.
Knights sent us 3 free FF rails when they came out. I still have the one they sent me, I put it on a Beowulf AA sent me around the same time to test out (which due to us demo'ing for War College, led to a CG contract for 'em). Anyway, show Oly Knights part and ask if they can do something similar without violating patents. Nope, FIRSH is better by design. What, an extra screw? Key it so it doesn't rotate? Fuck off grunt, what do you know?
A shame, literally next exit from one of the largest infantry installations in the world... And can't turn a buck selling rifles when they walk in your door asking for 'em.
PS, if two guys in uniform walk into your store with army AMEX, you don't tell them what their job is. You acquiesce.
www.wktv.com
. he made many phone calls with his hat in his hand looking for a solution(or part i even think was all he needed to repair it). he was told “that is obsolete” and they’d give him $100 off his next remington purchase. he never bought another remington. neither have i, or my brother. or have any of our kids. 
