Remington R51… Did I Screw Up?
Published: August 12th, 2016
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When this little guy was released to the public the first time, it didn’t go so well. All were recalled and customers were given the opportunity to get either a refund or wait over a year for a new pistol. Well, today I found a new one sitting in a gun show and I was thrilled… but did I make a mistake? Will it work? I’ll sure find out.
I founded TFB in 2007 and over 10 years worked tirelessly, with the help of my team, to build it up into the largest gun blog online. I retired as Editor in Chief in 2017. During my decade at TFB I was fortunate to work with the most amazing talented writers and genuinely good people!
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I have an original version R51, never received any recall notice and just recently wrote them about the replacement program (waiting for a reply, been 10 days now). Oddly, mine works quite well and I've less malfunctions than I did with my Sig P232 or P290, though not the same type of malfunctions. The Sigs wouldn't fire the round, the R51 was a full return to battery on the slide most often (about 5x's in 500 rounds) and about 5 stove pipe/eject issues in the same 500. A 2% failure rate, hmmm ?? Most of the failures 50% of the were in the first 200 rounds; is it improving with use? On the other hand, I also have an RM380 and it has been flawless for 300 rounds, and it is quite accurate and much less snappy than the Ruger LCP or S&W Bodyguard (which was returned to S&W for refund). If the reworked R51 is as good as the RM380, it'll be a very worthy piece. My original is easy on the recoil and also very accurate.
I have over 500 rounds through my replacement R51 now, and it's been flawless. Eats anything I feed it, and I'm getting another one for my wife.