Gents,
Went into a local gunshop on saturday and was brousing in the used die area for some 35 Whelen dies ,,,,then heard "hey we have one of the new 221 fireball classics" Humm I thought,,and sauntered over and was handed the little guy.
Well I was not impressed with the fit or finish at all...the whole thing looked rushed,the checkering was real fuzzy if you can picture it. All of the lines were real shallow and the wood looked dremeled out instead of cut,there was wwood shavings literally throughout. The wood to metal fit was,,,well it wasn't ! the bolt was sloppy,,,I guess that could be for reliability issues....trigger was crisp but heavy...overall if it was supposed to impress anyone they should have shipped it to a wal-mart. I won't have one in my safe. And I did buy a gun that day-a Remington too...A P-14 in 303. 45nut

Welcome to the Remingtons of 2002! They have turned into poorly finished, poorly machined shadows of their former selves.

George

Yes, and it's sad, but the quality at Remington has gone downhill over the past couple of years -- and it is extremely evident in guns that have been produced in the last 12 months. Quality control is non-existent, and there must be no final inspection. Case in point: a Rem 700 in 7mm Ultra Mag on which the bolt would not close without extremely excessive force. A lug was was oversized and required 30 minutes of work to get it to a tolerable level. Another in .300 RUM had burrs in the chamber which put significant scratches on the case, and the bolt raceway gave the feeling of pushing the bolt across a bed of sandpaper.

Unfortunately, the glory days at Remington are but a distant memory...

If you want a good, out-of-the-box shooter, get a Howa, Tikka, CZ or even a Savage...

I opened a small gun shop in 1993. I was amazed at the problems with Remingtons starting about 1995. Something happened internally at Remington. All of the other gun manufactures seemed to be improving, not Remington. When asked by customers which gun to buy, Rem wasn't even mentioned. I always recommended,[depending on the buyers budget] Sako, first, then Tikka. Savage seemed to be improving, but I still didn't care for them. Mainly the triggers. I could see that in my area the Winchester sales were picking up also, but Rem was sliding. I think that the only reason Remington is still around is WALLMART.

What are the dates when Dupont sold Remington and then moved? They started in Ilion, NY and I think they are down South somewhere now?

The Remington custom shop was still in Ilion, last time I looked in the phonebook. But I don't know if they're making any of their production-line guns there any more.

Remington's corporate headquarters are in Madison, NC. The Ilion site still has a sizeable production facility, and still makes most Remington firearms. They have a newer gun factory in Kentucky where the 597 and the 710 are made. Most of their ammo is made in Lonoke, Arkansas.

My Classic Fireball seems on par quality-wise with the 17 yr-old 250 Sav Classic I also own, except for the "locking" device. Wood finish is nice, checkering typical, and after adjustment, a good trigger.
Unfortunately, the weather has kept me from benching it, and with deer season 5 days away, not sure when I'll check it's accuracy.
Only thing I noticed different was that the bolt has to come back about 1/8" for trigger reset; just lifting the bolt won't do...thought it was me, but dealer confirmed it's common. Just not sure why.
The magazine block seems to work great, and is of length to allow loading beyond factory OAL.
Just another opinion.