Remington 2020: Controversial high-tech weapons system enters the civilian market

I grew up in the military using iron sights. That is all that I knew and was trained on. Iron sights is aiming by aligning the rear sight and front sight with the target. Only a select and specially trained few had scopes on their rifles, mostly US Army snipers and Special Operations Forces. Today that has all changed. Our military has the best weapons systems in the world. They have rifles with special holographic and red dot sights like those manufactured by EoTech and AimPoint, respectively. In both cases these military systems have proven their worth in combat and are used by law enforcement at every level.

Of course these sophisticated weapon sites always find their way into the civilian market. Early adopters snap these sights up and the market expands. That is what drives innovation, the marketplace. The latest and greatest weapon system entering the marketplace is the Remington 2020. I call it a weapon system because it is a sighting system specifically matched to a particular rifle/caliber.

Created through a collaboration between Remington Arms Company, LLC and TrackingPoint, an applied technology company in Austin, Texas, the Remington 2020 Digital Optic System revolutionizes long-range accuracy by combining hand-selected rifles, matched ammunition, digital optics and target-tracking technology into an integrated shooting system.

“The Remington 2020 System is the next significant advancement in firearms technology,” said Scott Blackwell, president of Remington. “Remington has been a leading innovation provider to hunters and shooters since 1816. Through our partnership with TrackingPoint we are now leveraging a powerful R&D network and technology engine allowing Remington to continue to enhance our consumer’s experience.  The end result; we have created the ultimate hunting and shooting confidence builder that allows the user to share their experience from start to finish.”

Bryce M. Towsley, Field Editor for American Rifleman, writes, “Every new technological advance has critics. When anything new hits the market, there are those among us who will cling to the old ways and others who will criticize the advances for ‘going too far.’ Ultimately, though, the buying public decides if it will embrace the new technology or reject it. If it brings something better to the table, it will sell. If not, it won’t.”

Bryce field tested the Remington 2020 weapon system and notes, “The 2020 has three modes. ‘Advanced Targets’ is for stationary targets, while ‘Advanced Movers’ is for moving targets and has a predictive capability that will allow for a target moving up to 10 m.p.h.—simply aim where you want to hit and the scope makes the calculations and adjustments for lead. ‘Traditional Mode’ is a mil-dot reticle with a 100-yard zero. The rangefinder still works in this mode, but the computer makes no changes and the scope functions more or less like a traditional scope where the shooter must hold over for a long shot.”

Bryce concludes, “I hope there are a lot of shooters who want in on the ground floor of this technology because without them, it withers here in the first generation. I truly believe this can be game-changing technology. The visionary shooter, the early innovator, the explorer, those who love technology, need to embrace it, buy it and force Remington and Tracking Point to evolve and develop this technology and bring this from the Model T to the modern Mustang. That’s how game-changing technology develops. If the product provides enough quality and performance to attract early buyers, and if the company recognizes this enough to keep pouring its money back into research and development, refining the concept, then I truly believe this will change the way we shoot rifles at long range.”

Like all new technology it is pricey ranging from $5,500 for a Remington Bushmaster Varminter to $5,575 for a Remington Model 700 SPS Tactical in .308 Winchester.

I put a Remington 2020 on my wish list for Christmas 2014. Santa are you listening?

Remington video demonstration of their 2020 system: