This has two basic causes, and won't result in the death of Remington, as there are just too many people who want to buy 700s. The two causes are quality control, and profiteering. The first is a result of the second. When Remington got into trouble in the early part of the 2000s, gunmakers in general were in trouble. At that same time, Winchester, Savage, Marlin, Beretta, and others were all struggling. So Cerebrus swooped in and bought Remington along with some other brands, and began to try to milk the brands for profit, by making cheaper products while keeping prices high. That worked until folks caught onto the hit or miss quality, and then sales started to slip. Cerebrus spun it off and started the Freedom Group eventually, and the cycle continued with a new group doing the milking. Now they've run up as much debt as they can, paid themselves well, screwed millions of customers, and can't keep milking. So it's time for bankruptcy to restructure (read: welch on) their debt. What will happen us the debt will get restructured (and suppliers and employees will get screwed) and the brands will eventually get sold off one or two at a time until someone comes along along buys Remington and either destroys it again or brings quality back and competes with Browning, Winchester, Beretta/Sako/Tikka, Savage, and Weatherby.