Remington R51R

[gunmut]

Just a observation about this new gun. I see a lot of bad press on the interweb about the R51. Some of it may be earned but I bought one (I always by the stuff that is different). I have put about 100 rd through it and have not had any issues. The things I like, shoots very soft, easy to shoot fast, has a good trigger.


So if you get the itch for something different, I would not be shy.


I do have many Kahrs and love them all:yo:

[b4uqzme]

Thanks. This one is still on my radar. I tend to take what I read on the interwebs with a grain of salt. 1st hand information is more valuable. If I would have listened to the bad press or the bad attitude from some gun salesmen, I never would have bought a Kahr either.

I figure that, by the time I get to see one live in a store, much of the stuff about the R51 will have shaken out. Glad yours is a good one.

[HAP1978]

I went and Googled some of the bad things about this gun and then I read your post. It is true that there will be issues with any gun just like with Kahr's. I do want an R51.

It is good to read first hand experience. Thanks for giving us your input.

[Longitude Zero]

I have two friends who all sorts of problems and have sent them back to Remington on their own dollar. With all I have seen and read a predict a massive recall.

[Jollyrogers]

My LGS set the one he got in aside for me as I had been asking about it. I admit I liked the trigger, but it ended there. Working the slide was "gritty", and it would stick in the rearward position. Tear down and reassembly was a pita IMO. Plus the machine marks where terrible. I passed. Then I saw a bunch of negative videos etc online. It just seemed so "Yugo" to me that I couldn't even begin to like it once I saw it in person.

[hardluk1]

We have one and like you with a low round count it seems great . Accurate with a good trigger pull and lite recoil impulse. But as more rounds went down the pipe it started to show small signs of problems.


. Now that's not to say that remmy is not working on some improvments as the newer pistols or released for sale while still try'n to figure out what to do with return pistol to make them right.


Remmy never has been known for dealing with real firearm problems in a timely manner taking years sometimes before a recall is issued.


See how happy you are at 300 or 400 rounds more on that new nice shooter. Watch for wear on the side of the trigger. Or just the side to side wiggle in the trigger. Or does the bolt start to wear on the aluminum frame, or any edges on the bolt starting to burr or round off. Or the slide starts to not full chamber the first round from a mag and find out it is capable of firing out of battery. All this by the time you get 400 rounds fired on a well lubed and cleaned pistol and not with rem oil .


Ours has been gone for 3 weeks and we can not be told anything about it except they are working on them. They did go back to para to try to be fixed.


In my 46 years of shooting and tuning on firearms this R51 is the first one that looks to have a number of real issues with early run pistols that can't be common sensed thru the problems with early models at least.


Heres a tread that shows all the parts out and the shortcomings from one of the owners.
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=750299


WE ,a, MY wife already has replaced the r51 with a pt111g2 as a CC choice and turns out to be a great pistol. Maybe what kahr should have made as a double stack.

[muggsy]

There are far too many proven firearms out there to screw around with a new one now. In a year or two when the bugs have been worked out maybe. I didn't sign on to be a product tester.

[Longitude Zero]

When it comes to recalls Remington only does so when forced by circumstances ala the Model 700.

[gunmut]

I will keep you posted as I run up the rd count on my R51. We will see how it goes.....

[Longitude Zero]

The Military Arms Channel and The Truth About Guns both have less than sterling reviews. The MAC has videos posted on Youtube documenting non-stop safety and functionality issues. Now the lick boot of the gun industry who never met a gun he did not give a glowing review to, GunBlast thinks it is just the cats meow. Best of luck, you will need it.

[CJB]

Cant say on the tool marks.... never seen one in person. I will say the old 51 had a weird feeling slide. Its not the simple long pull we're used to with Browning style lockup. Its definately got seperate stages to the slide on its rearward travel.

Seen reports of great triggers, terrible triggers. Sounds like Ruger, no? With fairness, my last Ruger had a to die for trigger, while the two before that were grit fests. One went back for a new transfer bar, and came back worse in the trigger dept. Go figure. I'll also say, like most Rugers, lots of use get 'em really slicked up good.

I can't imagine Remington not making things right. Some folks have said they thing the guns were made in Turkey or Romania.... except there's videos online of the various USA factories cranking out barrels and slides and frames.

I call teething pains.

[johnh]

I have often wished gun companies would resurrect some of the early 1900's semi-auto pistol designs--in particular those that were used for concealed carry. Some nice FN/Browning styled, single stacked, single action, pocket pistols with grip safety. Updated with modern sights, and built for modern cartridges. Even something based on a Savage perhaps. Many guns of the era were elegant designs, very flat, and solidly built. So when I saw the R51 I was initially excited. It seems that this may not have been the best action to resurrect though. Pedersen's design was interesting, but perhaps did not persist for good reasons. I hope it can be fixed as I would hate to see this example suggest that revisiting past platforms is not a sound practice.

[gunmut]

I fired another 100 rds today, no problems so far, that brings the rd count up to 200 total. When I cleaned it I looked for any odd wear, I didn't see any wear to speak of, the machining of the slide is better than some I've seen video of on the interweb.
When you rack the slide it does feel different than a browning design, you feel the different stages and the breech lock parts moving as you cycle it.
Still like the trigger, low recoil and it points well for me.
Time will tell.

[JERRY]

there have been "rumors" of several batches of out of spec bolt/slide blocks(?) that were farmed out and made somewhere other than Remington. this has lead to out of battery firing, failure to reset firing pin, slide lock ups..... obviously this hasn't effected every gun they had sub-contracted out for build, but a certain couple of batches are showing up and giving Remington a black eye for trying to go cheap.

[Dirt doc]

I'm glad to finally see a report on one that would run. That type of report is hard to find as most have problems going into battery or freezing up. A good friend of mine (experienced shooter) bought one to have a stable mate for his original .380 51. We took it to the range for the first time and boy what a cluster. I don't think he could get through a full mag without a problem. I shot a couple mags through it. One mag functioned fine but the second had a failure to fire. I ejected that round, reloaded it and it fired the second time. I also notice a slight sting in the web of my hand by the grip safety. By the end of that first session it locked up and my friend couldn't move the slide. It's sitting at Remington waiting to be fixed. IMO there are many better options out there.

[gunmut]

I see from one of the post that there may have been a run of bad parts. My gun is in S/N range of 5000.
I wonder if most of the trouble is from a range of build numbers??
I plan to run another 100 rds and call it good if all goes well.

[hardluk1]

Ours, was going to be my wifes cc it has a serial #000491x r51 and bought 5 weeks ago, gone home 4 weeks ago. By the time I had 300 to 350 rounds fire I started to see wear in places it should not have. After a first cleaning learning a lubing I don't clean a handgun again till I shoot 400 plus rounds. Buy 300 rounds the r51 with all the grease needed to run was was a gummed up mess and was cleaned and re lubed. Grease gets hot and get slung around in side and spreads the mess around. My biggest problem was that it would not go into battery with 8 rounds in the mag but would with 7 rounds after some number of rounds it would not go into battery with 7 then 6 then 2. Did not matter if you used the slide release or sling shot it. The dirtier it got the worse that first round function was and it can fire out of battery 1/8th". You had to give it a push to fully chamber any round. I did see rounding of edges on the breach block , buring on the radius part of the ejector and some bad machining on the breach from day one. Wear on the left side bottom of the trigger from the large amount of wiggle it had. I am a right handed shooter . By the time I sent it back that shield around the recoil spring looked like someone took heavy grit sand papper to it and made a few pass over it. I could understand some buffing of the shield but not scatching. Certain things I liked very much and my wife liked but having to push the slide fully forward on the first round of a mag could , or will get hurt one day. Just to many points of concern for as few a rounds we ran thru it for me to trust it. Mags worked fine and ammo seemed not to matter just to many rough spots for me to rely on . Also NO one at remmy CS knew anything about the pistol. Dumbest bunch of cs folks ever. If you go to the handgun section on remmys site there still know info for the r51.


If they manage to fix this handgun it now servs no need in this house.


MY wife bought a Taurus PT111 G2 as a replacement for the r51. Darn fine small pistol. Thin double stack , 12 rounds , 1.1 inch wide grip , .96 wide slide. 20oz with a better trigger than ant striker fired I have tried. Very close to the size of a shield . 400 rounds went boringly thru it with no issues. Made me really enjoy shooting in the Taurus after the r51. Called Monday about our pistols repair and again found noting was known about nothing except it was at PARA to be fixed. . . First remmy I have bought since 1976 and last. Hope they can make it right so I can atleast sell it for something.

[AIRret]

Thanks for all the updates.

Like others I really value "real" shooters opinions. So many gun magazine article will glorify EVERY gun they review.

[Barth]

Any new gun may go through teething pains.
But some initial reports have been unsettling.
I wait and watch...

[Longitude Zero]

Any new gun may go through teething pains.
But some initial reports have been unsettling.
I wait and watch...


Agreed but the trouble the R51 is having IMHO goes way beyond that to the point it is a POS hazard and Remington should recall them all for destruction and redesign it from the ground up.

[gunmut]

Ran another 100 rd through the R51 yesterday. So that is a total of 300 rds over about a month or so. It has functioned 100% without any problems, no sign of undue wear and tear or other issue that I can tell. There have not been many guns I have bought that went through their first 300 rds without some sort of issue, some small and some not.

The things I like about this weapon are the low felt recoil, good trigger, good control lay our for both right and left hand shooters (I am a lefty) and it is very flat so it conceals well. Is it the best handgun you can buy, I would not say that. I have been buying and shooting handguns for 40 + years and my search will continue for the "Best" there is. But this in my opinion a good one.

At this point I am calling it good. I shot the R51 more in short period of time with different ammo then I would with most new guns just to make sure it was going to work OK due to reading some of the bad reviews I found on the interweb. Most of the time I shoot 50 to 100 rds to look for any real issues when I buy a gun new or used. I know 300 rds is not a torture test but now I feel I can trust the gun and ammo is costly.

My guess is there where some guns that got out of the shed with bad parts, but when you read a statement about this gun or any other you may want to ask to be sure the statement is made by someone who owns or at the minimum has fired the gun in question.

Just my two cents about a gun I own and at this point have fired 300 times:D

[AIRret]

gunmut, thanks for the update!

Please keep the updates coming!!!

[jlottmc]

I have two friends who all sorts of problems and have sent them back to Remington on their own dollar. With all I have seen and read a predict a massive recall.

Recall: check, turn around time: unknown, fix to the problems that occur after reassembly: unknown.

From what I have seen the problems usually come after reassembly, and will make you think the gun went back together correctly, but in reality not so much. The worst part about it is you won't know until you shoot the thing. I'll pass, for those and a couple of other reasons.

[gunmut]

The issue that gets brought up about take down and reassembly when cleaning has to do with the slide stop and slide stop spring. The assembly is about like a polymer frame Kahr, you have to get slide stop on the right side of the spring, if you get it wrong the slide will lock back without a mag in place, easy to check out.