It Seems That American Businesses Never Have The Money...

....to do something right, but they always have the money to do it twice. Seriously, it's like they took a page out of the US Government's manual on business management, and incorporated it into their own practices.

    Case in point: Remington Arms Company. Specifically, the R51 Semi-Automatic Pistol.

    On the surface, this thing should have been a winner. It had slim, sleek lines, good sights, a good trigger, and was touted as being one of the easiest semi-autos for women to manipulate. Based on a Remington design from the early 20th century, it promised to be The Next Big Thing in firearms.

    The gun rags featured it on their covers, raved about its ergonomics, beauty, and the novelty of making an old design new again. What they didn't talk about was how well it functioned. Those few writers that actually got to take it to the range couched their descriptions with such weasel words as "teething problems" and extolled the virtue of "only" a couple of jams.

    As with too many things these days, it was a good idea, but poorly executed.

    My own experience was limited to the three examples that came into my place of employment. All three had universally bad triggers, retracting the slide felt like dragging a railroad tie down a gravel road, and the grip safety required a vice-like grip to activate. All three sold, and all three came back for a refund.

    Now, Remington is re-releasing the R51. It's even featured on the cover of the August issue of Guns Magazine, a huge credibility risk for them. And, indeed, it seems that Remington is trying to undo the debacle; according to The Truth About Guns, they have worked out the bugs and it will be all better now. They're even willing to replace all of the substandard ones with the new version. Let's hope that the bugs are worked out, because, while the current iteration of the R51 won't do much damage to a target, it may have irreparably damaged Remington Arms reputation while simultaneously destroying the credibility of the dead tree gun rags.