Brian, sure can't argue about your opinion based of the manufacturing screw-ups, to say the least; BUT suppose the slide was easy to rack, the trigger was smooth and centered and the grip safety worked as smoothly as a decent 1911. The ergos, and simplicity of the pistol is really very very good. It DOES shoot well in spite of the factory screw-ups.
I'm SURE no gunsmith, but
all the problems LOOK fixable. Most look fixable using stones, carborundum paper, dremel polishing and some patience. It does need a real trigger and pin that fits the pistol. It does need less friction/spring resistance engaging the grip safety. The moving locking block need smothing, dehorning and polishing.
The sight issues are stupid simple to fix. AS cut, Best in my opinion would be Two bored and threaded holes + hex screws on the already dead flat surface of the rear sight = good-to-go. The stamped out sear needs to be at least smoothed/polished, but best replaced with a machined part.
The FACT that there are ZERO spare parts or even mags available is beyond belief.
I actually want this pistol to run. I would even be willing to PAY for a real custom trigger if they would fix all the rest of the issues. I guess that makes me stupid, but if this pistol actually ran "as advertised" it would be a pleasure to own and shoot.
I acted as an RO today at a match, where two guys used subcompact 9mms with 6 rd and 7rd mags. They BOTH malfunctioned and were very hard to clear at least twice during a 50 rd match. When they shot, neither could hit crap with these pistols. Even with all the issues, I could easily shoot decent groups at 10 yards using hot OR light loads with the R51. The design makes it very "shootable". The hardware sucks, but is fixable---I hope.
