End of an Era: Remington shutters DPMS, Tapco, and Bushmaster
The writing has been on the wall, but alas, the other shoe has dropped. Remington Outdoors Company is closing Bushmaster, DPMS, Storm Lake Barrels, and Tapco.
Some of us who were in the AR game before the recent bloom of boutique assemblers will remember fondly the days when Colt was the overpriced option, Bushmaster the competitors AR, and the DPMS the working man’s rifle. But under management by a spineless anti-gun umbrella corporation, bankrupting and distributing, it’s now apparent that the remaining skeleton held by JP Morgan Chase which is Remington Outdoors is closing DPMS, Tapco, Storm Lake barrels, and Bushmaster.
Despite my disgust with the management choices made by their recent owners and leaders, whether Cerberus, Freedom, and JP Morgan-Chase, I’m deeply saddened to see Bushmaster and DPMS fall. I’ve personally built AR’s on over a hundred Bushmaster lowers, and a few dozen DPMS’s, and 2 or 3 times as many uppers using Bushmaster uppers and BCG’s. I’ve favored their National Match 2 stage trigger for many years. I remain to hold two as-factory Bushmaster AR’s, one an Hbar M4gery and the other a Varmint Special Stainless. One of the most accurate factory AR’s I have ever owned was a DPMS Sweet 16.
Unfortunately, the Remington Outdoor Company owners have been cowtowing to liberal pressures for years, and now they’re closing their “MSR” businesses under the guise of focusing their resources into their hunting product lines, Barnes, Marlin, AAC, and Remington. We can be certain, this is a move too late, in the opinion of their managers - as ties to these financial management companies caused Bushmaster/Remington to become an apparently lucrative target, leading to the recent Supreme Court ruling which allowed them to be held liable for the misuse of their products in the Sandy Hook shootings (under the premise of irresponsible advertising to underaged children akin the Phillip Morris lawsuits decades ago).
So I’ll end my scattered eulogy reflecting on the great products of their past and lamenting the unfortunate series of events which became their undoing by saying Remington has forever forward lost my business, but I remain to hope they will right the ship and not further ruin the names of Marlin and Remington.