R51--The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

I

Ibmikey

New member
Picked up the new Remington R 51 9 mm pistol this morning, by ten o'clock had over 150 rounds through it --mag 2, round number 11 the slide remained to the rear, no other malfunctions occurred. The Good --- The pistol is nicely manufactured, fits the hand well, points nicely and accurate. The Bad--- You must hold the pistol high in order that the grip safety is fully depressed, least bit loose and the pistol does not fire....a little training should overcome this problem. The Ugly----no double ugly ! I took the pistol apart for cleaning using the instruction manual (despite my damaged ego) and un conventional methods.
Cleaned the few parts and again using the manual attempted to re assemble....this is where it really gets ugly the action spring bushing eats fingernails, the directions and tiny photos are woefully inadequate and try as I might the breech block ( although it snapped into place) blocked the slide from moving to the rear. Moving the cussed spring bushing while trying to get the barrel in the correct position is fun and again the tiny photos stink. After some time and just before retrieving a shovel and heading for the back yard the parts gave out a groan and reluctantly allowed the slide on the frame.
Remington should have another recall----on the instruction manual...make the photos larger and clearer and re think the dialog as there must be an easier way to do routine maintenance.
Really like the pistol and the way it shoots and am quite happy with my purchase, the pistol is reasonably priced and should be a great defensive pistol.

PS: checked empty cases and no signs of pressure or bulges, some of the ammo shot was the new Winchester steel case that ran through like melted butter.
 
Congrats on the new pistola Mikey! Glad the leap of faith went as hoped for. Like to hear more about it as you get comfortable with it.:)
 
DA/SA, Yes the pistol,is really neat and shoots really easy. After 100 rounds my trigger finger was begining to feel the recoil and i had to be very conscious of keeping a good tight hold and depressing the grip safety fully depressed. Now to get a holster and a few hundred more rounds down range and she will be ready for carry.
 
Find the Remington video on youtube. Should help a LOT with disassembly/reassembly.
After 100 rounds my trigger finger was begining to feel the recoil...
Click to expand...
Was that due to the trigger slapping your finger or due to the triggerguard hitting your finger?
 
John, it seemed as if some of the recoil of the pistol was transmitted through the triggger or it may have been my conscious rffort to make sure the grip safety was deactivated made my whole grip squeezing the pistol differently. Next time i shoot i will pay attention to better control of the pistol while holding the safety in and shooting, i am dry firing at home to gain trigger control.

Ok i watched one of the video's and found two major things: 1. The subject does not have arthritic hands that have lost a lot of strength. 2: Upon reassembly the subject held tne barrel forward in the slide while replacing slide on frame. This is where i had most of my trouble as (back to #1) i had a hardctime fighting the recoil spring to move the barrel assembly.
One thing the video brought out that i did not previously mention is the ease of manually working the slide...unlike many others in it's class this pistol is very easy to cycle. Thanks given from us elderly gents.
 
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Thanks Ibmikey for an honest, and unbiased review. Sounds like the gen2 R51 is a winner. Interesting that you found no sign of buldged cases, and had minimal problems. I'm sure a little trigger time will have your R51 running flawlessly. Seems that the guy that had such bad things to say in his video blg about the R51 must have gotten the only bad one I've heard, or read about.
I wanted one from the beginning, and now even more. The R51 has been moved to the top of my short list.:D
 
Cheap, I shot another box of the Win steel case without any difficulty...cases ok, then i tried some 9mm buddy reloaded for my Colt 6450 9mm carbine. The first four cartridges shot ok but bounced the brass off the top of my noodle....changed to Rem 124 gr and extraction was normal. The more i fire the pistol thre easier too overcome the grip safety has become.. I am liking this pistol a lot but will still carry my Sig P 238 or 938. Guess i should explore the world of holsters anyway..
 
Ibmikey, try pulling the slide back onto the frame, rather than pushing, and hold it vertically, grip up, muzzle down, while doing it. I've found both to help reassembly.
 
Beretta I will give it a try, the problem i had was the breech block was too high and would strike the slide. Your idea may just be the cure, thanks.
 
I took the pistol apart several more times and was able to get it back together using the above tips, still a troublesome task for me as I have dwindling strength in my fingers and had to use a non marring tool to move the barrel against the spring pressure. Also I have great difficulty holding the barrel out away from the slide when moving it onto the frame. A younger person would have less difficulty but that does not help me, a cleaning patch wrapped around the serrations on the barrel helped me hold it.
Tomorrow another hundred rounds are scheduled to go through the R 51 and all of it Winchester steel case.
 
You are not alone in finding that your once strong hands are not so strong anymore. The only thing I can say is that I may not feel 83 but sometimes my hands do; you have my sympathy and understanding.

FWIW, the complaints seem to be identical to those common over the decades from those who own and fire the original Model 51 (they are not often fired because the collector value is too high today). They are a good shooting gun, but takedown is a PITA. When Pedersen designed the original, he had to get by the Browning patents, so there was some excuse for the odd action, plus the original M51 was in .32 ACP and .380 ACP, a much easier proposition to make in a small/medium size pistol. The leap to 9x19 is a pretty big one!

Jim
 
Jim, Fired some more ammo through the R51 and found it likes brass a lot better than Win UsA forged that i bought ---later finding out it is in steel cases. Had three malfunctions with the steel and zero with brass.
The pistol, although the same size as a Makarov, looks like it is built to be expanded to .40 or .45. That would be a handful.
 
Can anyone fet the video on the Rem site showing disassembly to work? All i get is the audio on a black screen...tried two i pads and a lap top with same result. A computer person i am not.
 
gc70, Worked like a charm...the guy must have one heck of a lot more strength in his hands because I could not hold the barrel under spring tension very long. also the barrel never lines up as quickly with the front of the slide as it did for him...I will continue to practice..
thanks again mike
 
Put mine back together in under a minute today. Getting better at it. Still wouldn't be easy, though, if I had strength problems in the hands.

I'm up to 300 rounds. After trying about 8 or 10 different commercial loads, I can say that it seems to like 115 grain FMJ Federal American Eagle best in terms of accuracy. Go figure.
 
Try using the slide lock to pull the barrel forward in reassembly. Put the shank into the barrel lug like it would sit in the gun and then pull it forward enough to drop in the breech block. Hold the barrel forward a bit while you push the frame onto the slide and once the breech block slides into the slide, release the barrel. It then slides right on the frame and your fingers do not get cut up from the sharp edges on the barrel lugs.
 
Larry, once i get this assembly down pat would you like to buy a slightly used pipe wrench ? :p
I fired a box of American Eagle FMJ today and the pistol is becoming a natural shooter, the grip safety was not an issue as the pistol performed flawlessly.
 
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