My new R51 Gen 2

[Ray R]

My new Remington R51 (Gen. 2) 
I purchased an R51 the other day for $329.00. I took it home, disassembled and cleaned it and reassembled it. Took it to the range today and found it to be accurate at 5 yards shooting with its iron sights.

During the disassembly and assembly I found that the return spring was more powerful than I had thought. In Remington's video, the presenter had no trouble compressing the spring and keeping it compressed. I found it was harder to do than it looked. I had read the manual and watched the video, but was not prepared for the force I had to apply.

The slide stop was hard to push out because it is flush with the right side of the gun. I used a small screwdriver to get it out far enough to be able to pull it out from the other side.

Reinstalling the barrel was much harder than it looked in the video. It took a fair amount of force to get the barrel down far enough into the slide in order to insert the breech assembly.

Reinstalling the slide assembly took some patience and effort, but that was visible in Remington's video.

When I got to the range today, the slide locked up after each shot. I was worried until I remembered that the insertion of the slide stop required that the bottom ledge be inserted under an exposed leg of a spring. I pulled the slide stop out part way and saw I had not installed it correctly. I made sure the slide stop was rotated all the way down when I pushed it back in. This solved the problem and I went through about 25 rounds without a problem. I used a full mag with a round in the chamber and fired without a problem and used the mag release in each direction when releasing the mag.

Shooting this gun is a very pleasant experience. The recoil is noticeably less that in my Springfield Range Officer in 9mm, even though this gun is smaller and lighter. Unfortunately the muzzle blast is significantly louder when firing. This is due to the barrel being an inch shorter in the R51 than in my 1911. The trigger does break cleanly, but the 1911's trigger is better. Trigger control (keeping the sight on target when firing) was very good. I have more trouble with trigger control with my revolvers than I did with this automatic, even though they all have pivoting triggers. The white dot sights are highly visible and very easy to see. I am very happy with this gun.

I remembered all the trouble I had learning how to assemble and disassemble my 1911 until I had done it several times. The R51 is actually much simpler and after just one attempt I am now comfortable breaking it down and reassembling it.

An unusual and interesting piece of information was in the owners manual. It said to use only non-congealing lubricants. They recommended using Rem Oil which is what I had used. I know what the word congeal means, but I have never seen a lubricant specification for congealing. I called Remington's Customer Service for more information. They said some products like Frog Lube will congeal. I asked them if a grease I wanted to use (Cherry Balmz) would congeal. They checked and said it would be OK to use. I was impressed that they apparently had a chart of which lubes congeal and which lubes don't.

I will field strip the gun tomorrow and use some of Cherry Balmz Black Rifle grease when I reassemble the gun. I like the Cherry Balmz product because it is the only product that lets my Marvel .22LR adapter feed reliably (450 rounds without cleaning). This is the most accurate .22 I own (5/8" group for 5 rounds @ 50 yards). I have had it 5 or 6 years but have always had trouble with unreliable feeding. One coat of this stuff cured the problem. I was concerned that a grease would impede the timing of the action of my R51, and did not want to take a chance of inducing a problem in a gun that has had a poor initial history of reliability. I'll find out how well it works in the R51 this week.

[bzangor1]

Thanks for your very useful report!
I totally agree:  ".... the return spring was more powerful than I had thought. In Remington's video, the presenter had no trouble compressing the spring and keeping it compressed. I found it was harder to do than it looked..."  I'd say much harder.

Well, this makes me feel better; I feared it might be a defective pistol or that my strength failing since this young frail female did it with apparent ease.

Agreed: very accurate (for me), seems like NO recoil, stays on target, & ergonomics are excellent.   

[MainePlinker]

Before my first trip to the range I followed the manual's advice to break it down, clean and lube it.  I know my  70 yr old hands aren't as strong as they used to be, but this was crazy!  The person doing the u-tube video must be a gorilla!.  After cleaning and lubing, re-assembly wasn't much easier.  I'm hoping that after a few hundred rounds it will be easier!