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…