Just read that Remington has acquired TAPCO. That’s interesting. Because as much as Remington has turned MARLIN into a major SNAFU, they have been doing very well the Tactical stuff. Bushmaster and DPMS – for all their flaws – has been made better by Big Green. AAC, the guys that make some serious use Suppressors has had some more attention as well. Remington is putting a huge amount of effort into the Tactical Category. I find this very interesting. And now TAPCO. Well, if anything, Remington can’t screw up TAPCO, makers of cheap crap to hang off your AR. Sure, some of it isn’t bad I guess, functional, and does what it is supposed to do.
I still find the MARLIN, H&R, New England Arms purchase to be most curious. Remington wanted to get into the Lever Action business and has just about completely ruined Marlin because of it. But then again, Marlin was on a downhill slope to begin with. But I still find it funny that Remington is still having Marlin make their Savage Clones, and New England is still importing their Chinese made 870 knock-offs. I don’t get this. Did Remington really need to get into the Cheap Gun market? Or did they need to get into the Lever Market?
I tell you what though, Remington needs to get back into the Hunting market. That’s what built Big Green into Big Green. The Tactical Market has far too many competitors and Remington is gambling big time on the possibility of future Military Contracts. And while they are concentrating on Fighting Guns, the Hunting Gun market is slipping out of their grasp.
If I was going to buy a hunting rifle right now – whatever caliber – I’d be looking at Sako A7’s, Tikka, or Browning. The T3’s have come a long way and are consistently impressive with their accuracy. Browning rifles have never disappointed, in fact, their X-Bolt rifles are a top choice. I’ve not seen one that looked like it was the last rifle slapped together on a Friday evening. I’ve not seen one that couldn’t shoot. They are building them right.
Back to TAPCO. Why would Remington need to buy TAPCO? I would have thought Remington would have rather swallowed up MAGPUL, considering that they are already using a lot of MAGPUL stuff in their BushyPanthers. The MOE line is almost as universal as “A2” Furniture. Are they going to stop using MAGPUL now and go TAPCO Intrafuse? That would be a mistake, but if they own the brand, they are going to want to pimp it as much as possible. And I’ll be honest, I’d rather not have anything TAPCO on any of my AR’s.
So why TAPCO?
What does TAPCO do in the Tactical Market that no one else is really doing? AR SWAG? No… Shotgun shit? Cheap ass stocks for your Mini-14 and SKS? No. You know what comes to my mind when I first think of TAPCO?
AK-47’s. They are the Go To Guys for your AK parts. Their stocks are industry standards, and if you want a Trigger then you have to get the TAPCO G3 trigger. The only company really doing anything else for your Kalish is US PALM, but they are small potatoes compared to TAPCO’s market penetration into the AK sector.
Does this mean that REMINGTON might get into the AK business? Well, yeah, they just did. But are we going to see an R-47 rifle? Hmmm…
A quality, American-made AK with a good barrel would be the shit. I’d get one.
Same here. A Remington-quality AK? Gold, pure gold I tell you
Here’s the problem with the hunting market. Go to any typical gun shop, especially the big chain stores like Cabela’s and Gander Mountain. In every one, you’ll fine a big rack of used hunting rifles. .308, .30-06, .243, .270, and a plethora of Win Mags and Rem Mags and Short Mags and all that. Half of them come with an entry level scope. The rifles can be Remington, Savage, Winchester, Weatherby, Browning, whatever. They’re all basically the same gun. Hunting is on something of a decline nationwide, and the gun companies have been making the same bolt action hunting rifles with precious little evolution for decades, if not longer. They’ve saturated the market, and the market is shrinking. And many, many hunters buy a new rifle, shoot it a couple of times, then sell it.
I’ve never owned a bolt-action hunting rifle. I’m not alone. The young generation of shooters coming up wants ARs with Magpul crap all over them. Military-style autoloaders are outselling hunting rifles now.
Interestingly enough, Remington does make a hunting rifle I’d like: the R-25.
This last week, I only sold one or two AR’s. Sold a BUNCH of Bolt Action Rifles. A LOT of them.
Market Shrinking? It’s not, brother. AR’s are growing, but it’s not taking anything away from the Bolts.
I’d almost bet they bought TAPCO … because Magpul wasn’t for sale.
They’re getting pretty close to a one-stop shop for all your needs, even if they aren’t top of the line for many of them.
An R-47 would be interesting, but I think it would be down market from where they seem to want to go. (A quality Remgalil would be better, I think, but I don’t know how much luck they’d have with that in the market: hard to make a case for a $1000+ AK clone when you can buy a WASR, instead.)
But it is. Less people hunt now. The number of hunters nationwide went down 10% from 1996 to 2006, for a variety of reasons. There are a ton, a ton, of used hunting rifles on the market.
Hunting is bigger in some places than others. As a national pasttime, I think it’s slowly declining. ARs and AKs have been outselling the Remchester bolt rifles since 2008 at least.
What changes do you want to see to Remington’s hunting line? Don’t they make a bunch of Remington 700 variants in a bunch of calibers? Personally, I’ve got no use for the generic bolt-action, 4+1 capacity, right-handed, 24″ light barrel, no-iron-sights traditional hunting rifle. But that same basic rifle is made in a bunch of variants by Remington and a bunch of other companies. Do you feel there’s a gap in the market that Remington could jump on?
What I don’t understand is why they still make the crappy Remington 7400 when the R-25 is a superior autoloader in probably every practical way.
The problem with the R-25 is that it’s a SHORT ACTION, and the 7400 can do the Long Action calibers.
I’d like to see Remington expand the Model Seven line, their compact rifle. I’d like to see versions in 6.5 Creedmore as that’s my favorite thing in the world now.
Of course Remington bought Tapco…since they won the military contract over Colt they would be expanding their tactical line to pimp to the government since now they already have their foot in the door. Maybe they’ll go down the same road that Colt did and concentrate on their contracts and put the civilian market on the back burner and cut their line.
Now as far as bolt actions, I recently picked up a CZ 527 and it’s the cat’s ass for sure. IMO it’s the rifle that other’s just aren’t up to the same quality for the price.
I think many gun owners, in general, buy stuff and sell it soon after. If you look on most forums and shops, you can find a wide variety of used guns for sale, including bolt-actions, pistols, and ‘tactical’ guns. I’d like to seem Remington make more of a variety of very light guns with a good synthetic stock. As much as I like the look and feel of a wood stock, I want a gun that I can carry in bad weather that won’t feel like a ton after carrying it all day.
I would love to see a major US manufacturer make AK clones. With the slow decline of the surplus market there will likely be a point where it is economically viable and enough people are AK people to sustain it.
I think that while the hunting demographic is declining, it is also changing. Old hunters are dying, but they are the ones most likely to have one or three firearms for hunting and that is all. The remaining hunting demographic is increasingly made up of firearms enthusiasts who own many guns, who shoot recreationally to some degree, who owns an AR or two. This conversion of the hunting demographic means they are going to own more firearms per capita. That will keep sales for hunting arms stable while the tactical market continue to grow. Tactical sales do not take from hunting rifle sales…sales of both are a reflection on the change in the average gun owner.
I have to disagree with the assertion that Tapco is the go-to manufacturer for AK stuff. Maybe if you like cheap shit, but I’ve slowly been eliminating Tapco from most of my rifles. My primary AK these days has the Midwest smooth extended handguard mounting an Aimpoint, US Palm grip, an RSA trigger, and a folding stock of my own design and manufacture. Tapco makes a couple of good products that I still like (G2 trigger and SAW grip), but I like other stuff better.
I’m an AK guy now. Military was of course the m16 and m4 and I liked and have owned several. But recently the AK from parts kits have my attention as a goto gun and SHTF kind of rifle. Eotech sights and folding stock make for a very clean and strong package. An American version? Now that I would look forward to….
The same attitude that leads people to think of Tapco as the go-to accessories for an AK, ensures that no US maker will ever come out with an AK made in the US to US quality standards. The only way such a project would be viable is through mass production in quantities great enough to realize significant economies of scale, and no manufacturer is going to take that risk so long as most AK buyers continue to place emphasis on cheap.
And certainly not for at least another 4 years, now that the president has openly declared war on the AK-47.