Just an FYI for the interested.  I'm located in North Carolina and just read a post in the NC gun owners forum from a member who saw 4 "new generation" R51's in a Remington product display trailer at a gun store in Rural Hall NC.  The Remington rep didn't have a date estimate for release. This was yesterday.
It seems the R51 does exist, and is being shown by Remington, fact or fiction.??.
Barry

Remington R51 musings
Kind of long
Let me say a few words about myself. I'm a retired engineer who has been living in a suburb of Charlotte NC since 2008 after retiring from my job in upstate NY. I'm not a firearms expert but have been shooting since a teen, and carrying concealed since 1974 ( neither is easy living on Long Island NY). I have a weakness in my right arm since childhood which makes me somewhat sensitive to the effort in operating firearms. I'm also not a very good pistol shot, unlike my former police officer wife. Between the two of us we have a modest collection of firearms. Both my wife and I have small hands for our size. Well that's about all that's relevant about me.

I read about the R51 somewhat by chance, was immediately intrigued by its history and Art Deco looks. I went on the internet, and Utube and was interested in the comments and videos. I felt it would be forever before I even saw one, especially because of the difficulty finding a Glock 42 for my wife. As fortune would have it we found the Glock, and it worked great for my wife's small hands, and I found an R51 a week later at a relatively recently opened Gander Mountain super store.

For the last year I've been carrying a Ruger LC9 with a Crimson Trace. I've been carrying in my pocket with a leather pocket holster, and I would use the R51 in the same way, so the LC9 is my 'benchmark' for comparison. Let me start with some comments about the LC9. After having it and shooting it for some time, I am very comfortable with it, so why consider the Remington? Well, I couldn't recommend the Ruger if asked for my opinion, why? To make the Ruger acceptable took some time and expense. To make the long and sloppy trigger acceptable I installed a Galway Precision trigger bar and sear conversion, and while I was in there removed the annoying magazine 'safety'. Now the LC9 has a smooth and shorter trigger pull and the magazine drops freely. The Ruger was now fine and digested all ammo I tried, but after some use I encountered some failures to fire, not confidence inspiring! Some internet research and further disassembly revealed a known problem with a burr on the firing pin hole slicing off slivers of primer metal which would clog the pin channel. Some deburring seems to have cured that. Finally the LC9 has become an acceptable pocket carry piece, so why think about replacing it? Well beside the never ending desire to have the newest and coolest stuff the LC9 still has at least two shortcomings. One is the shortness of the grip, in general a necessary evil in a 'pocket' pistol, and remember, I have small hands! The second is the difficulty in racking the slide, also a necessary evil in a short barrel/ short recoil spring pistol, and remember I have weakness in my slide racking hand exasperated by age.

So now comes the R51. It's both new and cool. Let me state all that follows is just my own opinion, and you know the saying about those. I respect and appreciate all that has been Utubed and written by others, but have my own circumstances to consider. Also my experience with it is very limited at this time. That being said, this isn't a gun I would use for competition, but I would want it to be comfortable for practice, and to function well with my practice reloads as well as defensive rounds.

I won't do a lot of description, there are plenty of reviews and good photos on the web.

I would like to mention a few things, one is the marking on the slide above the ser#, 'Charlotte NC', and another is the QC code also engraved on the slide. I live in a suburb just adjacent to Charlotte, so where the heck is Remington in this area? Well it turns out that Para USA moved to another town adjacent to Charlotte a couple of years ago, and the company that holds Para also now owns Remington. So I have to conclude that the R51 is made in the Para facility. I hope this arrangement works out well for Charlotte and the companies. The code engraved on the slide was read by my QC app and is a representation of the guns serial #.

The gun is well finished on the exterior, had no loose sights, and didn't stick open when racked.
I took it to the range without my usual disassembly and cleaning, firing it with my mild 124gr lead round nose reloads, and much hotter 124gr fmj Israel made NATO loads. There were two jams, both when firing one handed and may have been due to limp wristing or lack of lube issues. Everything else worked fine. The ergonomics are excellent, all fingers fit on the grip, perceived recoil was low, the sights are large and easy to see. It pointed very naturally and was easy for me to hit with. The gun is single action, concealed hammer, and I found the trigger to be very good out of the box, far superior to the LC9, and as good or better than the wife's Glock 42. Also I found the clicky and positive grip safety easy to use and confidence inspiring, especially in a cocked pocket pistol. The lack of a perceptible trigger reset is not an issue for me, the reset distance is short. The loaded chamber indicator is just a small hole in the top of the slide, not easy to see. The LC9 has a substantial LCI that sticks up, it is very good but real fugly. The R51 has a longer slide, by about 1/2 inch, but the sight radius is almost identical. Both guns have the same capacity, and the same overall height, but the R51 doesn't have the recoil spring under the barrel and uses that to make the grip longer and more comfortable, as well as lowering the grip to barrel height. The sights on the R51 are superior to me. The R51 would fit perfectly in the leather pocket holster I use for the Lc9, if the R51 had a Crimson Trace on it. So far the R51 needs more function testing, especially with hollow point ammo.

As for the slide function. After firing I took the Remington home, disassembled, cleaned up the factory grease, lubed as I would for any gun and played with the slide. It is not smooth like 'butta', and one can feel the various stages of the unique design. The effort needed to hold the slide back is noticeably less than on the LC9, and the recoil spring is considerably weaker, but racking takes effort as one feels and overcomes the stages I mentioned. I went on the web and found some illustrations and descriptions to help me understand how the system functions. With that understanding I unleashed the Dremmel and proceeded to fluff and buff the parts that rub again each other, I won't go into those details at this time. Disassembly and reassembly are not at all difficult, however one does have to be careful with the slide stop insertion, as it is easy to reassemble with the slide stop over the stop spring, thus causing the slide to lock open every time, resulting in a single shot pistol.

The polishing did smooth things up noticeably, but I haven't function fired it since. The barrel and ramp were smooth and well polished out of the box. There is only one concern I have with the system concerning longevity of the frame, but considering I wouldn't use the R51 for high volume competition it may not be an issue.

I'm a little confused by some of the extreme criticism over just about everything concerning this gun, but I hope you find something useful in my observations despite having owned it for only a day or two.
Thanks for reading,
Barry
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Forum Admin: I am adding the photos Berry sent me to this post below - these are thumbnails, to see Barry's photos full size follow the link below to the photo gallery
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LINK: wa2bop Remington R51Photo Gallery
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