Remington Outdoor Company today announced the closure of a manufacturing facility they’ve operated in Mayfield, Kentucky. What’s produced there, you ask? The Mayfield plant makes Remington Model 783’s, 770’s and 597’s as well as Marlin 60’s, 795’s and Model XT rifles. If you’ve followed ROC’s recent history, it probably won’t surprise you to hear that they’ll be moving production of these guns to their state-of-the-art Huntsville, Alabama facility (above). I had a chance to tour the Ilion mothership as well as the impressive Huntsville operation last week (more on that to come). Here’s their press release . . .
Hopefully, they’ll offer the employees jobs at the other plant. Not much different then BRAC military base closings; consolidation of manufacturing…
The notice says severance and outplacement, that’s not the lingo you use to relocate personnel.
Oh, and I see now that “Synergy” is the new management word of the day…
Synergy means headcount reductions in corporate speak.
The real question is when does Ilion become just another upstate New York ghost town?
Remington is dead to me. Unless they send a stretch limo to my place full of hookers and blow. On Sunday while my wife’s at church for a good coupla hours.
You set a high bar for customer service, sir, and I respect that.
Even if they sent Hookers and Blow to every Remington 700 trigger issue victim, they would still owe…. I mean, hookers and blow is one fun weekend, but a good rifle that is unsafe? that is a real problem…..
Hookers and blow is a fine way of life, but it doesn’t make up for your 700-series randomly discharging and actually hurting/killing someone.
Remington has made shit for 50 years, and been quite well aware of it. FTF them.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
How quickly the mighty fall. All the world is corruption.
“Freight synergies”?
Dead to me.
Yeah, someone in management discovered a new word…
cheaper shipping
Dead to me also. I did buy some nitro turkey shells the other day .The shot and buffering was falling out the crimps were so bad. They could last 2 days in the turkey woods. To many good guns
out there to by junk
Love your moniker.
I’ve seen an uncanny number of new Rem products sent back at my gun club. They need to make better products rather than cut costs. Typical top-down managerial “solution” which accelerates rather than reverses decline.
So Reemington gets bought by Tata and moves to Bombay in 3, 2, 1…
Might be an improvement.
Or they could move the gun manufacturing to the North West Tribal Taliban areas of Pakistan.
“The new Remington 700; hand crafted by some dude in Peshawar who uses a 2 liter Coke bottle for eye protection.
But hey, at least it doesn’t fire on it’s own!”
Let’s not knock those dudes in the Pesh.
I was complimenting both their craftsmanship and their utilitarian approach to safety!
That reminded me of a welder I hired out there. He didn’t have welding goggles, he literally just closed his eyes. Already burned three of his fingers off.
Remington’s management is even more stupid than Colt’s. And brother, that’s saying something.
More stupid? Maybe, maybe not. Headed down the same path? Definitely, just a few steps behind.
Que The Doors, “This is the End”
When the music’s over, turn out the lights…
You hate to see anybody lose a job, and the language is awful, but this isn’t the worst thing to happen. On paper they hit all the right points:
1) they will have their facilities closer together, reducing shipping costs between production groups and allowing larger volume shipments in fewer lots
2) it will be easier for the non-manufacturing groups to collaborate, and shift people between units, allowing them to play to worker strengths
3) square footage ain’t cheap.
It’s disappointing they didn’t indicate they would transfer any production employees to the consolidated location.
That could be really bad news if any of the laid-off people had what would be considered a pre-existing medical condition. That will really hurt them if they get tossed into ObamaCare and it’s sky-high yearly deductible…
Trained employees with experience cost money man! Get with the program! We can manufacture with Burger King rejects at our butt-fuck-drippage-Alabama-3rd-world site. ‘Cuz we have tech that needs no one with an edumacation past the 3rd grade to run it.
You do realize that Huntsville, AL has the most PHDs per capita of any city in America except New York, right? Its a mega-hub of military contractors and aerospace. Of course there’s also NASA and the Redstone Arsenal there.
Hardly backwoods..
You do realize they didn’t move there to hire the PhD’s, right?
They moved there to hire the most desperate former anything workers, that $12 an hour and some lousy benes can buy. Depending on the study, Alabama is 30th to 45th in the nation in highschool education, and twice the national rate of illiteracy. It is the land of the close to last, and they’re ok with it.
Look, there’s nice, smart people in Alabama. I know there are. But that’s not why Remington moved there. It was cheap, and there are a whole heard of not too bright folks, desperate enough for them to take advantage of.
Do you really think Alabama’s unskilled labor force works for that much less than Kentucky’s? It’s not like the old factory is in some high-cost-of-living “union labor” bastion where even the floor-sweepers demand $30 an hour.
Stinkeye, You know why Olin left Alton IL? To not have to pay people with a lifetime of experience, something around $30 per hour.
Instead, they moved the factory to zilch-ville Mississippi and pay around $12.
Anyone remember what happened last time Remington moved production lines to a new facility?
Goodbye, Marlin Model 60. You had a good run, little buddy.
Glad I got mine when Marlin was still a thing!
They’re still making them, though the Model 60 is now a complete POS.
Sad end to the most popular .22 rifle ever, by a long margin.
The most popular 22 rifle ever is the Ruger 10/22 by a very, very wide margin. Please don’t pull “facts” out of thin air because they happen to justify your feelies.
Never actually looked at, you know, sales figures, eh? Last time I checked, 11 million was a bit bigger than 5 million. Just because there are more accessories for a 10/22, doesn’t make it more popular. My ‘feelz’ have sweet FA to do with the facts…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruger_10/22
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlin_Model_60
I actually thought the same thing. But overall sales the Marlin 60 has sold over 11 million, where the 10/22 is around 6 million sold. Look it up. Id take the 10/22 all day everyday over the Marlin 60 just for the hundreds of changes, upgrades, stocks, ect you can do to it and the fact it fires from magazine rather a tube fed. And overall I think its a better all around 22 and more accurate. But the marlin 60 has sold more overall units when we are discussing all time sales.
Ruger 10/22 has sold far more overall than the Marlin. In fact its not even close. The 10/22 is the most sold .22lr rifle by miles. The Marlins were badass 22’s. but in terms of overall number produced and sold the 10/22 is the king
Thanks for doing the research. If you prefer the 10/22 and it’s myriad accessories, I completely understand. I do wish the 60 had more geegaws. I’d build a couple in various configs (I have a few 60s).
At the end of the day, the most popular by a 2.2:1 margin is the 60. I’m fine with the limitations of 17+1 tubular, in one of the (formerly) most accurate .22s out of the box at the pricepoint, 10/22s weren’t even close in the day, but now, well, the 60 is a shadow of it’s former self and all that.
Like what you like, and whatever. That’s all cool. But know the facts. Once again, good for you that you bothered to learn what the truth really is.
Bought a remington 700 adl in 308 a few months ago….. with the idea of how bad can it really be?
Boy was i wrong. Shot it once. Traded it at cabelas for a savage model 10t. Best move I ever made.
I have an older 700 in 243 that I bought about 10 years ago. Excellent rifle. Sad how quickly it went to sh!t.
A 700-seres? Really?
No idea that they fire pretty much at random?
16V – people messed with the trigger sensitivity without going through an armorer and the 700 got a bad rap because it would go off at the slightest touch. IMHO – a design flaw that was exacerbated or initiated (you choose) by users not going through an armorer to make sure their “modifications” were sound.
Remington denied, and still denies that it was a poor trigger design, despite a recall and redesign of the old trigger group.
There’s more to the Remington hate on here but that’s the core of the trigger issue.
That’s nice revisionist history, or perhaps you just don’t know any better. They very much can go off whether you mod the trigger or not. Modding the trigger just increases the odds.
This was a known issue within the gun community as far back as I remember. I was warned as a kid that 700s could discharge pretty much anytime you chambered a round – that was the ’70s. The Walker fire control group is flawed by design, and so is the X-Mark Pro.
Do some reading, it’s a decades old story.
We can thank the Clinton’s for this.
A shame really, to see venerated companies like Colt and Remington fade away due to inept profit-only idiots driving the ship.
I have a 30 or so year old 700 BDL in .270 and love it. It has been a tack driver that has taken a lot of deer over the years. No one can tell me it’s a bad rifle I know better. I also have as my UTV rifle a Model 60 that is also more than 30 years old. The only thing besides clean it I had to replace the main spring after about 25 years. Still shoots beautifully.
And I live not too far from Mayfield. Too bad for all those folks who not only lost a job but many a career.
Things have changed big time in the 30 years since your Remington was made. Trust me. Its not even the same product anymore
Got a 597 for a song but that doesn’t matter. It’s a POS. I also bought some Rem. 12g buckshot and 12g slugs last winter that had more duds than bangs.
Remington has destroyed more rifle companies than the democrats, all the stuff made by them and their affiliates is junk, had a 710 with 30-06 factory ammo ,3 shots barrel slipped forward, sent in, shooting same ammo 12th shot bolt handle fell off on recoil, sent in ! same ammo 4 the shot reticule curled in scope, told factory too stick it up their ASS, they sent me a NIB which I promptly sold
I feel like I need to relate my positive experiences with a brand new 700 5R 308 and one I foolishly sold a year ago. I just had the first range session with the 700 and, while I haven’t gotten the calipers out, looks to be shooting between 0.5 and 0.75″ MOA with 180 gr Sierra GameKing behind 42 gr IMR 4064. First load I have tried with hunting bullets I had lying around.
We all have a pretty small sample set of data for assessing a given products quality. My sample size is 2. But, we also know that people that feel they got burned are way more vocal than the happy but silent majority. My local shop and gun range sells a crap ton of 700s and have only had a handful of issues over the years. They tend to specialize in the precision rifle niche so they don’t have any budget rifles.
Now does your cheap a$$ Walmart 700 with the Hogue stock shoot worse than your cheap a$$ Savage, again with a flexy stock? I don’t know and frankly I don’t care but people looking at that range of guns might have an unfavorable impression of Remington if it were to be true.
As far as the jobs being lost, I feel for the people personally but, come on man, if you want a guaranteed job then go work for the post office.
Im honestly shocked the entire company Remington is still in business. They have no product that i would recommend or buy over others anymore. R1911…….id buy multiple 1911’s in the same price point before i would buy this. 870…….id go Mossberg 500 or 590 all day long over this. Older 870’s were great, newer ones are glued together, cheap piles. It feels like pieces of the gun just might start flying off if you shoot it long enough. R380….come on seriously, a little late to the party, id pick just about any 380 over this one in same price and size category. 700….I think its safe to say the newer budget rifles out on the market now there are dozens of better, more accurate, better built, newer updated technology and overall better choices than the 700. Its fallen to the bottom of the barrel, even at the price. The new 700’s are embarrassing in terms of quality and craftsmanship. R51…….i would rather have a set of rocks and a slingshot. I cant think of anything they make anymore that I would put as something i would buy. Again, they have to be hurting big time. Of all the people i know into guns, none of them have bought anything Remington in a long time. And they have to be literally bleeding money with all the recalls, do overs and fixing all the mistakes they make. That kind of shit costs serious money. I just dont see how they haven’t shut down the whole operation. Its gotta be coming soon that the whole thing goes under. It cant be much longer
Remington 700 3006 my dad bought when I was 5 years old . It was his first big game rifle he bought it used killed his first deer and elk with it. I shot my first deer and my first Bull elk with it. He gave me his 870 Wingmaster he ordered in the 60s. Both of them are great examples of fine firearms. Carried and used Remington in military although they were reworked buy some of the best armorers around they never let me down. New Remington products will never get my money thats the shame of this mess
I have to laugh at all the negative comments on here about Remington. You guys bash the company for trying to streamline its operations and still give you “Made in America”. It’s not like the are moving out of the country. Maybe the reason why they are forced to consolidate and get more efficient is because of all the bashing and “Remington is dead for me” I hear. Have you ever thought about that? I just bought a Marlin XT-22 made in the Mayfield plant and I was very hesitant about it because of all the Remlin bashing on the net. Well it is one fine rifle and I plan on buy more. But hey, I am just a Canadian.
The “streamlining” is kicking talented craftsmen to the curb, and replacing them with $12 an hour desperate souls with few skills.
Remington gets blasted for selling crap and calling it pate. They sell flaming garbage, just like old GM did. Yes, how dare the customers who paid money for a functional, quality gun get pissed off when they get a lever-action that feels like it was assembled as-cast.
But you are right. You’re just a Canadian. Your country exports hot women, cannabis, and mediocre oil to the US, is generally very polite, and has no gun rights at all. You get what the Crown and your other masters allow, nothing more. Being subject to authority is in your DNA and culture, and I do hope folks can change that. But I have serious doubts, getting along is too important to Canadians, and someone with a strong opinion (however nutty) is usually deferred to. Just to keep the peace.
So, it’s been almost 3 years since the announcement. Anyone have a report on Huntsville manufactured XT-22s? I’m inclined to purchase one, but would like to hear opinions.
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