As I have mentioned on this forum before, I worked at Remington for 30 years in Ilion. The big decline started in 1993 when Clayton, Dublier, & Rice, an investment firm in NYC bought Remington. They threw away tooling to get replacement cost and anything else the government said they could do in the first 12 months. 19 salary individuals were let go over the age of 50, many had intricate knowledge of the inner workings. A couple came from R&D. DuPont and the new Remington ended up losing a court battle over that and had to pay all but one of those former employees undisclosed sum of money. New engineers had no idea what they were doing. The old time machine setters and technicians were basically keeping things going. Quality checks pretty much came to an end. We changed plant managers like changing your shorts. Seven years after the purchase it was sold to Cerberus Financial. That was the beginning of Freedom Group. And a continuing decline in quality. At that point we were into our 3rd group of new engineers. None of them hunted or shot. Many or the older workers who could find work elsewhere with better pay and benefits left (myself included, that's how I ended up in Illinois). Freedom Group continued to by up other gun companies on credit. When the gun demand declined a few years ago they could not pay the mortgages and filed bankruptcy, the first time. A couple years later they filed again.
Remington was put up for silent auction bids in late September. A hold was put on the auction because a prospective buyer only wanted the ammo plant in Lonoke, AR. A court judge approved of Remington being divided up into any segments that anyone wanted to purchase.
The ammo plant was purchased by Vista Outdoors. They also own Federal ammunition.
Here's a link to a list of the other buyers.
https://www.pewpewtactical.com/bankrupt-remington-sold-off/As far as who makes the worst guns, I have a friend in Wyoming that runs a sporting goods store. He says that Ruger is by far the worst to get reputable warranty work done. Like when the barrel is on rotated 10° out of line. Or drilled and tapped holes not on centerline.
As an after thought, at one time there were 54 toolmakers in the main toolroom at Remington. That was required to keep a rotating gage inspection and repair procedure in continuous operation. To manufacture close tolerance machined products you need a lot of jigs and fixtures. Six other toolmakers were located in the Powder Metal division toolroom.
Also, there were NO gunsmiths inside Remington. There was a department of gun repairmen who handled most of the complaints and repairs. Yes, some were sent to "certified" repair centers around the country. You do get hundreds of repairs a year when the company has sold millions of firearms.
If you want a good or very good Remington of any type I would look pre '93. Better yet pre 86-87. I will tell you the M700 action is by far the strongest on the market. I know how they were destructive tested, and I know what the strain gages read. No action ever came apart. I did see one come in under warranty that the owner admitted by mistake of loading using pistol powder. Looked like a midget was inside the barrel and cut it off at the recoil lug. But that was pistol powder. The people on here that reload will understand what that meant.
Keep your eyes open for an older gun. You can get the date of manufacture by contacting the Remington Historical Society and using the serial number and date code. No official relationship to Remington.
