I wasn't offended. I was letting my anti-T/C bias show through, I guess. I honestly wonder if the press saying that Remington bought Marlin is really accurate. The holding company that owns Remington is really buying Marlin. I'm beginning to wonder just what is going on. I can see why S&W is expanding. They are doing very well right now and can reasonably expand their line and market share. Remington, I wonder about. They showed a profit last year but for the amount of dollars they turned it was pitiful and could certainly be erased overnight by an economic downturn. And their rifles are dated... not so much the rifles but the manufacturing techniques. It is possible right now to manufacture a very accurate bolt action rifle for a very low manufacturing cost. My examples are Mossberg, Stevens, and now Marlin. I have three new Mossbergs in .30-06, .243, and .25-06 that are extremely accurate and the highest retail cost for any of them was $335! Both the O6 and the .243 were less than $300. Now Marlin is coming out with a new rifle with what is essentially the same thing as an accu-trigger and it will retail for less than $300. I'm going to be examining one at the Shot Show in a couple of weeks but I'll bet it will be a real decent entry level rifle. I'm wondering if this investment company is looking at a weak company (Remington) and positioning itself to use the brand name to take advantage of new manufacturing techniques and turn a potential disaster into a profit maker. Buying Marlin would give them that opportunity. Look at Winchester as a prime example. They closed down a dinosaur of a plant and are now manufacturing a new Model 70 somewhere else and I'll bet with state of the art manufacturing equipment and some dramatic (internal?) changes to the model... I'll look at one of them at the Shot Show as well. I think that what we are seeing is the beginning of some dramatic changes in the gun manufacturing industry.
As for my recent Mossberg rifle purchases, I have been very satisfied. All three will perform with any mass market rifle on the market... and at almost half the cost of a Remington. That is bound to change buying decisions by the new buyers... who don't give a whit about brand name if the thing shoots and handles well. Remington, right now, can't compete on the entry level market and really doesn't have a good bolt action to compete for the high grade rifle market. They have to buy foreign rifles to do that. They need to go one way or the other... or both. But not with what they are offering right now.