My view is that Remington has come so close to offering real winning guns but keeps throwing in some complication to keep their innovations from selling.
Exhibit A: The 260 Rem. A short action cartridge with incredible accuracy potential and mild recoil, with a flat trajectory and excellent penetration. Yet they don't chamber it in the classic and accurate VLS or the affordable SPS. It doesn't cost them more to make a 260 than a 30-06, so why not push their new round with an attractively priced rifle? Or one that can make use of its accuracy potential and reduce recoil even more by its weight.
Exhibit B: The Ultra Mags. Magnum bolt face, good. Full diameter to make the most of it, good. Rebated rim, eh, ok. 375 H&H length - Lost us there. They could have equaled the capacity of the Weatherby mag just by blowing out the case, and made something that would fit in a 30-06 length action and a wider range of reloading equipment. Entirely narrows the market. Now the 375 Ruger is heavily anticipated and many people are looking forward to getting one.
Exhibit C: The 35 Whelen in a fast action repeater. I don't know why they reintroduced it in the 750, which while loved by some is not loved by all, instead of the 7600, which more people agree is a desireable rifle. Yes there was an '05 special run, but if it's that hard to sell a 7600 in 35 Whelen, how will the 750 do better?
Exhibit D: Scout rifles. Savage discontinued theirs, but Rugers are selling well, though their barrels are pretty short and muzzle blasts loud. All it would take is a scout rail on the rear site and the Remington 7 or 700 could have a scout version. Put it on the SPS DM and you'll have a very attractive simple and economical but well featured rifle. This is one area where a little investment would give Remington a product without much competition.
Exhibit E: The 770. The 710 was accepted the way it was as much as it ever would be, now just sell them instead of investing more into the design in ways that don't overcome its limitations.
Exhibit F: The 10ga shotgun. Browning owns the 10ga pump market. Meanwhile Remington has a 10ga autoloader. It would not take a great deal to make a pump action variant, and they could probably beat Browning's price with something close to their well liked 870.
I think that Cerberus can see Remington's potential and will do what it can to pick up the ball where Remington's previous ownership dropped it. Hopefully it will work in a way that makes better use of the same employees and well respected designs. There's such a thing as making something more efficient by removing waste and friction, and hopefully that's what will happen with Remington.
