don’t kid yourself, the quality control has gone to hell at Remington, and that’s why they are in trouble.
I hear a lot of horror stories, but this one I know is fact. One of my best friends and hunting buddies from childhood is a gunsmith. He had two 700’s in the shop the week before deer season that didn’t have the throat cut in the barrel and wouldn’t even chamber a round. At the same time he had one in .223 that keyholed at 25 yards with 69 gr factory ammo. They had chambered a 1 in 14 twist barrel for a .22-250 instead of a 1 in 8 or 9 barrel for 223.
The 70’s Remingtons are a different story.
I had a serious issue last year with a late model 870P I bought new and sent it in for repair (back when I started shooting, a new "Police" model of any Remington was almost guaranteed to be trouble free). When I got it back, it was not only fixed, but fixed very, very well. So at least some of the people left at Ilion still knew what to do and did it superbly. But yeah, overall the post-DuPont versions of Big Green seem to have specialized in introducing mediocre new products while cutting corners on the old standbys.
As a guy who was a Remington fanboy while growing up, it has been a tough thing to watch.
Mr. niteowl77