Remington Acquires Montana Rifleman

25 March 2013, 23:14

PhilR

Remington builds Bushmasters in Ilion, NY, and there was some talk about wether they will leave the state after Cuomo's Safe Act banned them. However, I read recently that Remington got an 80 million dollar contract from the government to build "assault" rifles....when Homeland Security buys them they are called personal defense weapons. They also announced a 20 million dollar expansion plan for their Ilion facility. Maybe they need a barrel builder for this contract?

25 March 2013, 23:15

D Humbarger

quote:
Originally posted by FAST996:
Freedom Group will soon own control everything. Monopolies are bad news and use to be broken up...not anymore. Higher prices and manipulation of supply. What the hell do I know.

REMINGTON
BUSHMASTER
REMINGTON MILITARY
REMINGTON LE
MARLIN FIREARMS
H&R 1871
DAKOTA ARMS
TAPCO
DPMS / Panther Arms
PARKER GUNMAKERS
BARNES BULLETS
ADVANCED ARMAMENT
PARA USA
REMINGTON PMPD
MOUNTAIN KHAKIS

and that POS george sorass will move everrything to Brazil then that other POS obummer will ban imports Done deal!

26 March 2013, 03:16

TomP

quote:
Originally posted by FAST996:
Freedom Group will soon own control everything. Monopolies are bad news and use to be broken up...not anymore. Higher prices and manipulation of supply. What the hell do I know.

Not good, should be more active companies and more lobbyists...this makes it too easy to target one company with legislation.

26 March 2013, 04:37

npd345

quote:
Originally posted by npd345:
In one of the other threads, on this site, it was said that Remington bought the barrel making business but not the rifle/action making side.

posted Mar 22, 11:02 AM Hide Post
OK, glad we got that sorted out.
Remington bought the barrelwerkes of Montana Rifleman.
The rifle building and action making operation has not changed hands.
The latter is "Montana Firearms Group" dba "Montana Rifle Company."
So it is still MRC to me:

26 March 2013, 22:32

McKay

quote:
Originally posted by D Humbarger:
quote:
Originally posted by FAST996:
Freedom Group will soon own control everything. Monopolies are bad news and use to be broken up...not anymore. Higher prices and manipulation of supply. What the hell do I know.

REMINGTON
BUSHMASTER
REMINGTON MILITARY
REMINGTON LE
MARLIN FIREARMS
H&R 1871
DAKOTA ARMS
TAPCO
DPMS / Panther Arms
PARKER GUNMAKERS
BARNES BULLETS
ADVANCED ARMAMENT
PARA USA
REMINGTON PMPD
MOUNTAIN KHAKIS

and that POS george sorass will move everrything to Brazil then that other POS obummer will ban imports Done deal!

I think the Soros ownership rumor has been de-bunked. I believe Steve Feinberg owns the Freedom Group.

27 March 2013, 00:04

ssdave

Montana has been primarily occupied by making DPMS Barrels for the past 2 years, so it's a natural they would be acquired. I think Wilson had the contract before that.

27 March 2013, 00:24

airgun1

I talked directly with DPMS 2 or 3 years ago about their barrels and who made them. This was before Rem bought them. The issue was that they were selling some pretty darn good target barrels for ridiculously low prices at Midway.

Everyone assumed that they were Wilson barrels as they had similar specs and accuracy. The man at DPMS was adamant that they had never used Wilson barrels and that they made their barrels entirely in-house.

27 March 2013, 02:39

D Humbarger

quote:
Originally posted by McKay:
quote:
Originally posted by D Humbarger:
quote:
Originally posted by FAST996:
Freedom Group will soon own control everything. Monopolies are bad news and use to be broken up...not anymore. Higher prices and manipulation of supply. What the hell do I know.

REMINGTON
BUSHMASTER
REMINGTON MILITARY
REMINGTON LE
MARLIN FIREARMS
H&R 1871
DAKOTA ARMS
TAPCO
DPMS / Panther Arms
PARKER GUNMAKERS
BARNES BULLETS
ADVANCED ARMAMENT
PARA USA
REMINGTON PMPD
MOUNTAIN KHAKIS

and that POS george sorass will move everrything to Brazil then that other POS obummer will ban imports Done deal!

I think the Soros ownership rumor has been de-bunked. I believe Steve Feinberg owns the Freedom Group.

I pray that you are right.

27 March 2013, 05:01

jeffeosso

the claim of monopoly is laughable -- midway own far more shooting sports companies, as does federal ...

think remington, or any of its holdings, makes a significant number of firearms?

one word
colt -

27 March 2013, 22:22

FAST996

quote:
Originally posted by jeffeosso:
the claim of monopoly is laughable -- midway own far more shooting sports companies, as does federal ...

think remington, or any of its holdings, makes a significant number of firearms?

one word
colt -

When comparing to the USGOV,you are right. The USGOV right now seems to have a buyers monopoly on ammunition and components. Instead of the DHS making 25 calls.....do the make 5 now? I just don't like this new paradigm of anything goes capitalism,too much power in to few hands.

29 March 2013, 04:51

setch

I wonder if Teddy R would bust these monopolies were he around today...?

29 March 2013, 07:46

BigNate

Another good company bites the dust!
Is Freedom Group a front for the Anti-gun crowd? Maybe they will monopolize the market until they control and then price us out of purchases, or shut them down altogether.

29 March 2013, 18:57

Jcchartboy

quote:
Originally posted by BigNate:
Is Freedom Group a front for the Anti-gun crowd?

Obviously it is not..or it wouldn't be supporting the production of guns!

The reality is, the company is more gun-friendly than ever. Not less. In fact, the California board of prisons recently began divesting themselves of their gun related holdings. That in turn forced Cerebus (of which the board is a large owner) to start selling their interest in freedom.

Moral of the story, neither "George Soros" nor the "Anti-gun" world are taking over Freedom in a scheme to destroy it.

Very simply, smart money got into the guns industry because there was a boat load of money to be made by consolidating poorly run firearms manufacturers.

JC

29 March 2013, 21:17

tiggertate

There's way too much competition in the firearms industry for any one group to control it. That's in large part because of technology. When it took craftmen with specific gunsmithing skills to produce factory guns, he who had the craftsmen had the market. Today guns are just another machine-made tool and the skills required are no different than most other manufacturing processes. So if a group like Freedom falls in quality or value for price, someone else will easily step in and gain market share.

Just flip through the adds in two or three gun rags. The numbers of companies are staggering.

30 March 2013, 08:23

Doug W

They used to have a good Bargain Bin on their website. I purchased several blanks from the bin.

About 4 years ago they started phasing out of the 1 off barrels and getting into large production runs.

I just happened to be in Kalispell at the time.
Any unturned barrel CM or SS blank that they had in stock that was prebored only and waiting for a future customer to specify the twist was sold for $50(as I recall) you pick the twist to clear them out.

I loaded up good.

30 March 2013, 08:37

A7Dave

Well, if they follow their past history, they'll close down operations and move everything to the South. Look what happened to Marlin, H&R, and a few others.

30 March 2013, 19:10

Jeff at MRC

First, Remington did buy the barrel shop not the action and rifle manufacturing company. The barrel shop employs about 170 people and at this point has no plans for moving as far as I know. But you will not be seeing any Dakota using an MRC action, as far as I know. Montana Firearms Group is still owned completely by us. The barrel company has some amazing people working there, so don't think the quality will fall away either. Montana Firearms Group still buys our barrel blanks from them and we just built a brand new facility right next door to them. Ownership is the only thing that has changed at this point. No worries, fellas, and have a Blessed Easter all of you!

30 March 2013, 21:19

jeffeosso

quote:
Originally posted by A7Dave:
Well, if they follow their past history, they'll close down operations and move everything to the South. Look what happened to Marlin, H&R, and a few others.

huh?

yeah, lets look at what freedom group has done .. like, say, dakota arms... they certainly didn't more them south, did they? nope, still in SD

DPMS -- still in minnesota

bushmaster -- still churning out millions of high quality products

barnes bullets -- zero impact, other then government intervention

HR? still in NY for manf (admin moved with marlin, but not manf)

look what happened to marlin ? moved out of gun and corporate unfriendly states, to places where they could pay the same wages (and then some) and the workers have DOUBLE the standard of living for same wages, greatly improved quality, and open shop states...

just where would a MONTANA based company, with montana's strong gun ownership laws, move to? colorado? where the laws forced out magpul?

of all the companies freedom group has purchased, marlin has moved ..

1, out of what, 9 major buys? marlin moved, hr, remington,para, dakota, dpms, barnes... parker, tapco ...

Luddites bug me

30 March 2013, 23:39

A7Dave

http://bulletin.accurateshoote...plant-200-jobs-lost/

"Gardner, Massachusetts Mayor Mark Hawke criticized the plant closure, saying that local officials were blind-sided by the move. He stated that Remington never contacted state or local officials prior to announcing its decision to close the Gardner factory."

http://bulletin.accurateshoote...lay-off-265-workers/

A Marlin spokesman indicated that the plant will be closed by June, 2011, and all 265 employees will be terminated via phased lay-offs starting in May, 2010. The Marlin plant closure, announced late Thursday (March 24th), came as a surprise to both Marlin employees and North Haven community leaders. Marlin plant workers reported being “blindsided”. One worker told WTNH Channel 8 that: “We never saw this coming… we were told to attend a mandatory meeting at 3:30… And then boom [that was it].” Remington has not yet issued an official statement about the factory closure, but one insider speculated that the plant was closed to “avoid union wage pressure driving retail cost upward and making the product less competitive in the modern firearms market.”

Bushmaster Plant in Maine to Close
First, the Freedom Group, which owns Remington, Bushmaster, Marlin and other companies, announced that it will close Bushmaster’s Windham, ME facility, “effective March 31, 2011″. According to an official press release: “The Company will relocate manufacturing of all Bushmaster products currently produced at Windham to other, existing Freedom Group Facilities. The move will have no impact on customers or the existing supply base.” John B. Blystone, Chairman of the Freedom Group’s Board of Directors, commented: “We are continuing to adjust our operations in order to remain competitive…. Given increasing costs and pricing pressures affecting the entire firearms industry, this action is clearly necessary[.]”

Bushmaster production went to NY. Good luck with that.

If feeling protective of jobs in my home state is being a luddite, count me in. Massachusetts has plenty of firearms manufacturers: Yankee Hill Machinery, Kahr.

"open shop states" ie, anti-union states.

30 March 2013, 23:41

A7Dave

quote:
Originally posted by Jeff at MRC:
First, Remington did buy the barrel shop not the action and rifle manufacturing company. The barrel shop employs about 170 people and at this point has no plans for moving as far as I know. But you will not be seeing any Dakota using an MRC action, as far as I know. Montana Firearms Group is still owned completely by us. The barrel company has some amazing people working there, so don't think the quality will fall away either. Montana Firearms Group still buys our barrel blanks from them and we just built a brand new facility right next door to them. Ownership is the only thing that has changed at this point. No worries, fellas, and have a Blessed Easter all of you!

Glad to hear it, you guys have a great company.

01 April 2013, 01:40

CMcDermott

The Marlin employees got back at Remington by modifying some of the manufacturing jigs - which got by the new Remington employees QC. That's why you can't buy a Marlin 1894 with the front sight set correctly - and Remington STILL hasn't fixed the problem.

01 April 2013, 04:56

ssdave

quote:
Originally posted by CMcDermott:
The Marlin employees got back at Remington by modifying some of the manufacturing jigs - which got by the new Remington employees QC. That's why you can't buy a Marlin 1894 with the front sight set correctly - and Remington STILL hasn't fixed the problem.

With employees like that, it would make it easier to make the decision to close the factory and leave! I'm somewhat neutral on the issue of unions, but attitudes like exhibited by this action make a strong argument for open shops.

dave