Remington 9mm R51

[1SOW]

Has anyone physically seen or held the Newly released (Aug 12th) Remington R51 9mm carry pistol.  (9mm +P,  locking block,  semi-auto, grip safety, internal hammer, 3.4" bbl , single stack 7+1 cap., )

Some here will remember my odyssey with the one that came out two years ago and completely failled.

I swore off Remington at that time, but   The dadgum pistol was near a perfect carry pistol (for me) and  accurate as a full size out to 25 yards.  The ones that first came out,  had some unbelievable machining problems,  finger loose sights and terrible triggers.  Some not so bad.  They were recalled.

 They (Rem.) are bragging on the NEW Models "Precision Machining"  and of course the Pedersen locking block design..   Took me a year to get my money back.

After all that,  the pistol action was amazing.  The recoil ("Action") spring is around the bbl,   no second tube in the upper.  The bore axis was near zero.  The bbl axis was was sitting on the web of your strong hand.  Almost no muzzle flip with +P ammo.  Weak hand offhand was actually easy with hot ammo.  The pistol is just over an inch thick and completely dehorned with very usable sights.

Anyway,  before I start selling R51s,  has anyone actually held one of the new ones.  Dealers are restricted,  and my closest is about 200 miles away.

[RenegadeDave]

I handled one at the shop, no glaring issues.  The reset is nonexistent and makes an M&P seem like a Glock. It was OK as far as I was concerned, but I think I would still go the XDS or Kahr CW or CT route


Sent from an iDevice.  Please forgive any grammatical or spelling errors.  If the post doesn't make sense or is not amusing then it is technology's fault and most certainly not operator error.

[SMaster]

Has anyone physically seen or held the Newly released (Aug 12th) Remington R51 9mm carry pistol.  (9mm +P,  locking block,  semi-auto, grip safety, internal hammer, 3.4" bbl , single stack 7+1 cap., )

I haven't. I waiting on you, again! 

[Earl Keese]

I've been watching two R51 threads over at 1911forums. It seems one is working well, the other not so much.
https://forums.1911forum.com/showthread.php?t=645121
https://forums.1911forum.com/showthread.php?t=645305

[SI VIS PACEM PARRABELLUM]

I've not seen one locally yet but from the online reviews and videos I've watch it looks like there could still be some reliability issues with some of them. I like the look and the old Pederson design but I think I'll pass on one of these unless they work all the bugs out.

 

[1SOW]

Thanks Earl.
It sounds like most of the original bugs were fixed,  but the action spring (recoil +) or mags may not be doing their job with some ammo.
The one I had would reliably feed and fire a mixed bag of 124gr  comp. ammo(130 +/- PF)  and 1160 FPS SD loads with 124 XTPs and 124 Speer GDs --- all reloads.   The trigger was so bad,  I had to rest my hand after a mag.  After 4 mags,  my hand needed a looong rest. 
They (Rem.) gave me the two stainless mags when I returned the pistol  for repair/refund.

The 1st Gen. R51 pistol was a great shooter,  even with no useful rear sight and a trigger that had to be pressed to the right to function. 

Even with my promise to never go back to Remington,  I'm hooked on that pistol design and function.  It carries great on a small guy,  shoots great with small hands and is 9x19.  It is not a pocket pistol;  but I can carry the R-51 at any IWB/OWB belt position,  8 rds is good  and fast accuracy out to longer distances is my preference.
It would be a great "Bug".    .........ALL IF IT's RELIABLE!

Someone convince me I'd be a fool to try again.   Maybe after some time to see how it's working out.

[slowgun45]

gentlemen,I have handled and shot the R51 this summer at a private testing range ,fired over 300 rds of various defense ammo and general range ammo,function was very good ,handled well, rem golden saber was most accurate,but CZ still my favorite

[TScottW99]

I saw a couple at the local gun show a few weeks ago. Didn't pick any of them up though.

[painter]

<snip>

Someone convince me I'd be a fool to try again.   Maybe after some time to see how it's working out.

Fool me once...shame on you.

Fool me twice...

[s0nspark]

I handled one in a local shop last week and dry fired it several times... it seemed ok and the shop said they'd had a rental that has run like a top.

I am still leery of it, from a reliability standpoint, but may pick one up for my wife if they shake out ok. She currently has a Walther CCP and I don't have many happy thoughts regarding that pistol... but she needs something with an easy to rack slide due to a wrist injury that severely limits her ability.

[milq]

The 2 that I've handled both had poor triggers with an imperceptible and long reset. By which I mean that slowly releasing the trigger I never felt the reset, then releasing part way and "looking" for the reset by pulling again in different areas. Not sure that makes sense...anyway, I did note that if not released pretty much completely it was possible to only partially catch the reset and then with a bit more pressure the trigger mechanism would slip and the trigger could be drawn all the way to the rear without working.
I wish I'd taken video so that would make more sense.

[SI VIS PACEM PARRABELLUM]

^^^^ I watched a video review and the person demonstrated the bizarre reset. I understand completely what you are saying. Really it would be nice if they got this pistol rung out but I'm afraid they have still got some flies in the ointment.

[Earl Keese]

Hard to believe a major manufacturer would screw up so bad the first time, abuse the customers that took a chance with them, then come back a second time with anything less than excellence. Supports my opinion that private equity firms suck the life out of everything they touch.

[1SOW]

The earlier model had a really bad plastic trigger with a LOT of 'side-to-side play"on a too small diameter pin!  On mine,  if the pad of the finger pressed the trigger it took Tarzan to pull it through.  If you put pressure to the right it was almost ok.  Should have been an easy QC fix looking at the linkage.   This was the biggest deal-breaker with mine.  The bad rear sight dovetail  couldn't hold the sight without some backyard shimming and re-shaping
The chambers and some locking blocks  were also poorly machined on many of the ones described in the forums.. 

I'm still convinced the design works and very well ;  but the tooling for the machine work and the absence of "ANY" human QC or even sampling,  was the problem.  The parts were waaay easier to remove and replace than a CZ 75.

Did I mention there were NO,  I mean NO spare parts were available for the earlier model.  It now says "Call this number for spare parts needed".
 

[Earl Keese]

I had an opportunity to handle and dry fire one tonight. This is the first one I've seen in person. There's a lot that I like, very slim, no rail, not too small(my hand fits a 97b/TS comfortably). The slide was very easy to manipulate and the trigger had a decent break. I forgot to check the reset because for me and my buddy there was one glaring problem. The grip safety is...odd, almost like it has two stages. When I would grip it, I could feel it stop, then I'd pull the trigger to no avail. For the trigger to work, I had to squeeze the grip harder, the grip safety would sort of pop and the trigger would then work. The grip safety definitely had a wall in the middle of its travel. Is this normal for this gun? The 20 yr old salesman actually called it a 2 stage grip safety. He also told me a Glock failed on him while breaching a room full of Chechens so that pretty much ended our conversation.