We've only had 2 Remington R1's come through the shop, and while Remington touts them as being "readily available", our distributors tell us they would take 500 of them if they could get them from Remington... so somebody isn't being straight about their "availability". I've got a waiting list for them (if they ever show up) and the $650 +/- price tag isn't a problem... but if you've got one, you're lucky to have the opportunity to field test it.
As for the Filipino parts, the Phillipines have been making 1911's since the Second World War, and I've got several that were made of Filipino parts. None of them have given me a moment's trouble, and some of the Phillipine 1911's actually seem better than some of the domestic ones.
What I'm beginning to notice as a trend, is that the gun manufacturers are hyping their products a lot and testing the waters to see if they want to put them into full-blown production, or make limited runs of them. I've seen it with several manufacturers lately, and unless 2 guns being available in a six month period is "readily available", then somebody needs to straighten out the hype and start putting the products in the stores. Ruger, Kel-Tec, and Remington have all hyped up a bunch of advertising about new products and left the customers shrugging their shoulders wondering where the guns are. We're seeing limited exposure of a lot of the "hot items" from last year's shot show, not to mention this year's... and so far, we've seen 1 PM-30, 2 R1's, and very limited runs of LCP's and no LC-9's. I realize the LC-9 was just introduced, but the other guns have been out for a while, and when the distributors can't get them... it means somebody isn't being straight with the public.
I don't have a problem selling anybody's guns... but I do have a problem selling promised products that never show up at the distributors.
WT