What the Heck is Happening at Big Green?

For the past few months it seems like there’s been nothing but bad news on the Remington front.

In the beginning of 2014 we were all excited to see the Remington R51, the first non-1911 pistol from Remington in a long time. The R51 took the internet by storm, bringing tons and tons of traffic to sites like this. It seemed that something was up when the pistol didn’t make an appearance for Media Day at SHOT show, and then they started to hit store shelves, and we learned why: the craftsmanship and reliability of the R51 was sub par.

This week, I’ve read reports that Remington is refunding the purchase price of many R51 pistols to owners who sent them back to be repaired. Do they not have a fix?

Shortly after the announcement of the R51 came the Remington 700 recall of tons of rifles due to a defective trigger mechanism that can cause the guns to fire unexpectedly.

This week we’re getting news that Daniel Defense has filed suit against Remington for trademark infringement on DD chevron logo, and the term “Lighter, Stronger, Better”. Allegedly Remington (more specifically DPMS) was using similar chevron logos, and similarly worded tag lines to market their rifles. TFB has pics here.

So, I have to ask, what the heck is going on at Big Green? It seems that about the only good thing to come out of Remington in 2014 is their move to Alabama, and pulling a bunch of their manufacturing out of the hostile North East.

I want Remington to succeed, and I want to buy products from American companies, built by American workers. I hope their consolidation of many of the different brands into the Alabama facility will help get some of these kinks ironed out.