The Remington R51 is back – Big Green has 4 of them on display in their booth at SHOT. They have made some changes to address some of the gun’s issues, and those changes sound good – but of course it remains an open question whether they will solve the more fundamental problems with the gun.

One revision made to the fun is to modify the extractor so it retains a solid grip on the cartridge rim when the locking block tilts as it cycles – that’s definitely a good thing. The trigger has been improved; also a good thing. The locking block has been hard-coated to prevent it from binding in the action, yet another definite improvement.

My personal concern is about the choice to have a steel locking block interacting with an aluminum frame. Remington’s rep assured me that this will not cause any problems with normal use, but I’m dubious that it won’t suffer peening and battering. The solution, of course, is to get one when they start shipping and try it out. Remington understands that after the debacle of the original R51 release, having independent reviews of the improved design will be essential, and I look forward to seeing the results of some real testing.

[ Steve says: yes, it is fixed! ]