I parted ways with Remington in April of 2003 permanently.
I had a couple of heavy Senderos that I really liked a lot, and shot a lot, one in 223 and the other in 300 Winchester. These were good guns, and I went ahead with the purchase of a 300 RUM and a 338 RUM. I had tested a good bit with the 338 RUM and turned my attention to the 300 RUM, with some thoughts of using it in Africa as a long range baboon buster....................
So I am at the bench shooting some test loads, reach up to turn the bolt, but could not find it? Looking down at the gun, there was no bolt? WTF? Looked down on the ground, and there it laid, the weld had come unglued and fell off! LOL........... OK, no big deal, so I dropped it off at the dealer at the time, and he sent it back to Remington for repairs.
Couple of weeks went by, it was returned. Now this was a new gun, NIB when purchased, maybe had 25-30 rounds fired in it. But, I had adjusted the trigger on it and that was all. Remington sent it back stating that it was NOT under warranty because the trigger had been adjusted. There was a $20 charge for putting the bolt back on. I was rather upset about this. Now it wasn't the $20, but for the life of me I could not understand what adjusting the trigger had to do with the damn bolt weld breaking and the bolt falling off the gun! The more I thought about it, the more pissed off I became. I told my dealer to put that POS on the shelf, trade it, sell it, did not matter, but I would not be taking it home, I wanted NOTHING to do with it from that day forward. He put it on the shelf and it sold at some point for some amount, I don't remember now.
I went home, and straight to the office to compose a letter to Remington. This was April 22, 2003. I have the letter on computer to this day.
Here are some excerpts from that letter..................
Some few weeks ago I was at the bench shooting some test loads through my Remington 700 in 300 Remington Ultra. After firing a round, from the corner of my eye I notice something falling off my rifle! After a brief search I found that the bolt handle had fallen off. I had a good laugh about current factory production standards, also realizing that this is without doubt an imperfect world in which we live. From this point I had my dealer send the rifle back to you people.
I had some work done to this rifle before shooting it. I had the trigger adjusted. I had hoped for enough long range accuracy to be able to take this rifle to Africa to be used on baboons. Baboons that have been shot at before, soon learn what is in and out of rifle range!
My dealer sent the rifle to you, and was returned to us yesterday repaired. Remington states that since the trigger adjustment had been made that the repairs were not under warranty! Now for the life of me I don’t understand how the bolt handle breaking off can possibly have anything to do with the trigger adjustment that we made? I am not a gunsmith by any stretch of the imagination and did not do the work myself. The work was done by a qualified gunsmith, and I do not believe that the weld coming unglued, one might say, on the bolt handle could be caused by adjusting the trigger. The charge is only $20, and I can assure you that I have $20 and that is not much of a concern. The charge will be paid promptly and in a timely manner in full. What I have a problem with is the manner in which this was handled by Remington.
I have one question I would like to propose to you guys there at Remington Headquarters. Do you know how to spell “WINCHESTER ”?
I can promise you this much, I will never purchase another new Remington product as long as I live on the face of the earth! You manufacture nothing that I can’t find elsewhere and that I probably do not already have.
With all products manufactured today there will occasionally be problems with those products regardless of the product or the business. What makes one successful is how one handles the little problems that arise from time to time! I will not buy new Remington products again, not because of $20, but because of the stand that Remington has taken on this issue! Had you said $20 for shipping, $20 for handling, or anything other than the stand that Remington took, all would have been well with your customer. You did not, I can only assume that Remington does not care for its customers, and will not stand behind its products. I regret that my first memories of shooting and firearms are now tarnished over something so trivial!
And that was the end of Remington for me. I held those convictions to be true, while I might have fudged just a bit here and there, like brass and such as that along the way, I never bought another new Remington Rifle or shotgun. I did rid myself of MOST Remington firearms I had on hand, I kept the 300 Winchester and a heavy 308 Winchester, both are on the range now, and both are used as test guns. I had a few 870s laying around, I kept some of those, gave some to the boys. I had a 35 Whelen that I was partial to, but I gave it to my son Matthew. Others I sold. I never went to the field with a Remington Rifle after that, not that I had used Remington much to begin with.
Brian at SSK knows this story well, and on occasion he will send back one of my Winchesters with a piece of Blue masking tape covering Winchester and he has written "Remington" on it to piss me off..... We get a big laugh out of it later.
Any caliber or cartridge that I ever wanted in a bolt rifle from that point forward has always been spelled........ W I N C H E S T E R.................
