My wife bought our second R-51 maybe 6-8 weeks ago.  At that time, our local Sportsman's Warehouse still had 15 of them.  That left 14.  We didn't look until later, but her serial number is only three numbers away from mine..which I had bought well over a year ago.

Yesterday, a buddy who had shot both mine, and my wife's, R-51s bought one for his own.  His serial number is only three numbers away from my wife's. (We tried to get consecutive serial numbers, but no go, they didn't have them)  Our local Sportsman's Warehouse now has 12 left.  Apparently, they are from the first order of R-51 pistols they ever received.

They are now selling them for $199.99.  A steal in my book.  But they just aren't flying off the shelf.  My guess is there are a lot of them still around unsold, and that is why production is "suspended".

I hope they build up a following, and become desirable enough for Remington to make some more down the road.  I'm talking them up to everyone I know to go buy one at $200.  So far, my wife and I have two great shooters, and my buddy has yet to shoot his and report back, but considering all three are within 6 serial numbers of each other, it appears to have been a good run.

My R-51 is still my favorite carry weapon, by far.

I don't know what Remington could do to bring public trust in the R51 back.  Well, maybe "bringing trust back" is the wrong term, as it wasn't trusted from nearly the get go.  "Establish trust" might be a more accurate term.  I agree with others, it's likely dead.  I see Remington is offering "try before you buy" on their website, and lists of gunshops with ranges where one can test fire the R51 first to help along the decision making process.  It's a shame Remington screwed this up so badly early on.  If the gun works right, like mine has, it's a great, great, sidearm.

Mine is still functioning flawlessly.  I still love it.  And it's still my favorite carry weapon.

Our local Sportsman's Warehouse has them a $199.99 now..and at that price, as of yesterday, my wife now owns one too.  She hasn't fired it yet, but given we know the potential of the pistol, and that she absolutely loves shooting mine, it just seemed like good sense to get another.  Even if it has a problem, it's worth it, for us anyway, to send it back with the idea it will be made good.  We only have one other set of "matching" firearms, and those are Heritage "Rough-Rider" .22 revolvers.  Everything else her and I have vary widely in both function and form.  I'm more a lever-action/single-action guy overall, and she likes semi-autos and double actions, and bolt action rifles.

As a side note the fellow at Sportsman's Warehouse said they had 17 R51s in stock (16 now), and they weren't flying off the shelf, even at that price.  He actually did a "double take" when he looked at his computer screen, to verify he'd read it right.

Another thing I noticed yesterday at Sportsman's Warehouse:  The new Remington rifles, and even the Remington/Marlins, they are getting have absolutely fabulous wood on them.  Lot's a "grain" or "figuring".  I hadn't noticed that in a while.  Maybe it's just my imagination, but it seems Remington is trying to make their guns eye catching.  Some of them certainly caught my eye.

I just popped onto the Sportsman's Warehouse website to look for a different pistol my wife wants, and checked for deals on the R51.

In satin black, they are currently on sale for $249.99.  I could not find the date for the end of the sale.

Pretty good deal.

Quote from: R51Fan2017 on June 10, 2018, 09:40:02 AM
Seeleenickel,

Remington customer service from back when Remington was Remington vs. what they are today is drastic indeed. The oldest Remington I own is an 1858, and the mid range I own is a 1943 03A3. Great rifle. They don't build em like that anymore.

How was their customer service back in 1858?   

The oldest Remington I have is a mid-60's 511X bolt action .22.  It's a great shooter and VERY accurate.  Probably my favorite .22 rifle.  My wife has it's younger sibling in a mid-70's Remington 581 that her father gave her for her 16th birthday. (Ironically, the rifles are about 10 years apart, and so are my wife and I!)   The rifles are VERY similar, but use different magazines.

Back in high school I had an Italian replica 1858 Remington, but I can't honestly say I've ever even held a "real" one.  The replica was a good shooter, though.  I regret selling it or trading it away.  Back then, I was building a lot of CVA and Euroarms black powder kits, then would swap them for something else. I sold or traded away a lot of black powder firearms I wish I had now.

I finally got the chance to fire the "new" generation 1 magazine I'd picked up off Ebay.

After firing the first round, the next two rounds failed to feed.  Didn't "jam" per se..there was no "nose dive" or "stove pipe" or anything like that.  The slide merely "stuck" open, with the round just sitting there pointing straight at the chamber.  At that point, I admit I thought it was going to be $10 wasted on something that was going to end up as another project as I tried to figure out how to make the magazine work.

Then, the last few rounds fed and fired just fine.  Still thinking I was going to have to "fiddle" with it, I reloaded.  Out of the second magazine full, one round caused the slide to stick open.  I don't remember exactly which one, but it was in the latter half of the magazine..maybe fourth or fifth round.  Better, but still not good.

Reloaded a third time...fired..and all rounds cycled perfectly.  After that, I reloaded and fired a few more magazines full with no issues.  Even tried one magazine full firing as fast as I could.  I don't know that I'm ready to stake my life on that magazine just yet, since both of the original 2nd generation magazines that came with the gun work flawlessly, but I was encouraged that after minimal "break in", the magazine improved greatly and seemed to be working well.

YouTube is definitely doing some sketchy stuff with them shutting down firearms instructional and safety videos.  Brownell's is pretty darned tame when it comes to their image.  Nothing militant there by any means!

Got a text this morning from a buddy in Iowa and he'd heard on the radio that the Brownell's Channel was back up.  I just checked and sure enough, it is.

Apparently no explanation yet from YouTube for the shutdown or re-opening..

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5828905/YouTube-bans-videos-firearms-retailer-Brownells-without-warning.html

Listening to Tom Gresham on the radio just now and learned that YouTube, without warning, completely deleted Brownell's entire YouTube channel in the early morning hours of Saturday, June 9.  The Brownell's channel had 67,000 users.

They claim it violated their content policy.  YouTube is owned by Google. 

http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2018/06/youtube-terminates-brownells-youtube-channel/

I've only had to deal with Remington customer service a couple times in my life that I can remember.  Once was probably 25 years ago, and I think Remington was still a DuPont company....I have a Nylon 66 that I bought new that often tried to feed two rounds at a time.  This was back in the days before email so it was telephone calls.  I don't remember anything bad about dealing with them on the phone, and they had me send the rifle in, they fixed it for free, and I do remember the turnaround time was remarkably fast.  Don't remember the exact time, but I seem to remember having the rifle back in a week or not much more than that.  I remember being impressed.  I think I paid shipping to them, and they paid return shipping.  I'd already had the rifle a few years by then so I thought they were more than fair.  I still have the rifle and it's never had another issue.

When I bought my 783 a couple years ago now, the rifle was excellent, but the no-name scope Remington put on it was the opposite of excellent.  Around the 30-40th round, the eyepiece lens turned sideways.  I called Remington and the woman I spoke with was rather blunt and kind of sounded like she was annoyed that I'd call about the scope..her attitude seemed to be "we gave it to you free with the rifle..what did you expect, a good scope?"  NOT friendly!  I said I kind of expected it to last longer than 40 rounds is all, particularly since the rifle doesn't come with sights so the scope crapping out made it essentially useless.  I was glad I wasn't on a hunting trip! 

Since I was out at our backcountry place at the time, and wasn't going to be home for a couple more days, there was nothing to be done at the moment since I needed to send the scope back before they'd do anything.  That was understandable.  So I called back when I got home and the woman I talked to that time couldn't have been nicer.  She apologized for the impression I got from the first call, apologized for the scope failing, assured me that the scope SHOULD have lasted, and promptly set it up so that I could send it to the scope's importer at their expense.  Turnaround was NOT impressive this time.  In fact, after a few weeks, I called to see what was going on.  Granted, the scope went directly to the scope's importer, not to Remington, but I thought Remington could have done better with scope selection, and picked a supplier that would be a bit more prompt..considering the rifle was out of service with no scope.  I went and bought a Nikon scope for the rifle (Great scope!) and put the other one in a drawer when the replacement eventually arrived.  All in all, though the service was overall OK and the scope replaced, I didn't think it a stellar experience.  It didn't stop me from buying a couple more Remington products since.

Thank you for confirming that.

Now I guess the next question would be....Am I going to have problems with it?   

I've only had experience with the two magazines that came with my generation 2 pistol, and they work flawlessly. 

I didn't have any trouble stuffing the whole 7 rounds into this new one, and the rounds fed through the pistol manually with no trouble. Guess I'll take it out to the range tomorrow and see what I've got before I order another one!

Received my R-51 magazine today.  I thought I'd ordered two, but apparently I wasn't paying attention and only ordered one.  It arrived in perfect shape, and though the seller lists them as "used", it looks like new to me.

Since I just pulled it out of the envelope, I haven't had a chance to try it yet.  I did notice a couple of subtle differences from the ones that came with my pistol.  This "new to me" magazine is marked "Remington", with the "R" on the floorplate, and I'll try to post a couple of pics to show the differences...maybe these are generation one mags?  I don't know.  The major difference is that the ones that came with my pistol have a pronounced "ridge" in the middle of the follower in the magazine, while the "new" to me one does not have that ridge. The follower is flat.  The only other difference is the floor plate on the ones that came with my pistol are thicker, while the one on the magazine I received is a bit thinner.  I do not know if any of this will affect function, but if it does, I'll certainly let everyone know.

Has anyone else seen these types of differences between R-51 magazines?

I've had a Danshway (Egyptian/Maadi "Beretta" clone) 9mm for decades, and a Ruger P-89 9mm for nearly as long.  The P-89 is a great pistol, but it's large and bulky compared to many others.  Great for open carry, no so much for concealed carry or in the glovebox/center console.

I was interested in the R-51 when I first heard of them.  I loved the classic retro look, liked the smaller size, and read the initial descriptions thinking "That's the pistol for me!"..and of course they actually came out..and...well.....

So I waited and watched and saw what was going on with Remington.  In the meantime, I'd purchased a Remington 783 rifle in 7mm Magnum that is a great success!  It's a shooter!  I've had no issues with the rifle and friends of mine also knowledgeable in firearms were pretty impressed with the inexpensive rifle.  The scope that came with it was junk..Remington could have/should have done better than that no-name cheapie, but they did replace it for free (postage included both ways) and I put it in a drawer to maybe put on a .22 down the road.  I bought a Nikon 4-12 for the 783 and it's a fit.

Then I bought a new Marlin (Remington owned/made) 1895 Cowboy in .45-70.  Even though a lot of folks have had issues with Remington-made Marlins, mine has been great.  Again, no issues with the MUCH more expensive rifle!  It shoots great, functions perfectly, and bruises my arm after about 10 rounds.  I'm really a lever-action guy and I love it!

So, when Remington re-introduced the R-51 with "Generation 2", I was still very much interested, but wary and skeptical.  I read new reviews and saw some were having great success with the new ones, and some still had complaints.  A lot of complaints had to do with ergonomics, disassembly, finish, etc.  Even the most critical complaints still acknowledged the guns generally functioned pretty well now, though some had trouble with 115 grain ball ammo..but those that did struggle with 115 grain still had no trouble with 124 grain or better ammo.

So, when the rebate was active early this year, I looked into it seriously again..and though I still really wanted an R-51, the RP9 generally got much better reviews overall.  So, when I set out to the store to buy a new 9mm, I had actually intended to buy an RP9!  I held one and it DID fit my hand spectacularly.  It looked like a done deal...except for the fact that the RP9 is VERY similar in size/weight/bulk to the Ruger P-89 I already have..still, a good deal is hard to pass up.

Then I decided, "Well, let me look at the R51 too".  And once I held it, I pretty much knew the RP9 was out....I already had a 9mm like it.  The R-51 is UNLIKE anything I own..even slimmer and sleeker than on old .380 I've had for decades.  Light, small, quick.   The retro styling still appealed to me.  And given reviews were good with the right ammo, I decided that's the one.

I do not regret it.  I had an early problem with maybe three or four rounds out of the first few magazines full...the infamous "nose dive"..but then everything settled down and it has had no other trouble.  It even shoots 115 grain ball with no issues.  I generally keep the magazines loaded so the springs are constantly compressed.  Maybe that helped.  I've had no other "nose dive" issues since out of many hundreds of rounds.  Plus, it's a natural "pointer".  Even my wife was having great success hitting what she was aiming at right out of the box.  As she has about 20 years less experience shooting than I do, that is rare for her.  Certain firearms just "don't work" for her.

I'm very pleased with my decision.  Mine even has a very good trigger pull.  A couple friends who know guns have even commented on how nice the trigger is.

There's nothing I can think of that would stop me from buying another one.

There's a fellow on Ebay selling R-51 mags for $9.99 including shipping.  He lists them as "used" but listing also says "More than 10 available".  I am not affiliated with the seller in any way but noticed the listing today.  I bought a couple.  Seller has 100% positive feedback.  I noticed the seller is in "Guntersville, Alabama", and Google says that's only 37 miles from Huntsville.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Remington-R51-9mm-Magazine/292587520181?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649


Ebay is also running a 20% off discount code today " PICKDADSGIFT " on Ebay purchases over $50, so I combined with some other stuff I had in my "watch list" and got the discount..but the code expires at 7PM pacific time today...6/6/18.

The day I purchased my R-51 I brought it home, had not even fired it yet, and was sitting at my computer with the pistol on the desk (so I could get info off  it) while I registered the pistol with Remington online for the warranty, and printed out the rebate forms and such.  I had the empty box sitting on the floor next to me.

I like to keep my factory boxes, and keep them nice, so I generally store them in an attic space in one of my outbuildings so they'll stay nice and dry and in good shape.  (Don't know why I have a "thing" about it, since I never sell a gun anyway, but it was something my dad did.)

While I was typing and filling out forms, and checking and double-checking that I had everything correct with the serial number, etc. I happened to glance down at one point and was surprised to see my dog, Jillaroo, a Corgi-Blue Heeler-Mutt mix, sitting there, and apparently she'd been sitting there licking the R-51's empty factory box for a bit already....the top of the box was all damp and mottled, and the pup's tongue was turning green!  Well gosh darn it!  So much for keeping THAT box nice!  And on a just purchased brand-spanking new pistol I hadn't even had for an hour yet, ta boot! 

Well, I dried it out, and touched up the white/mottled areas with a green marker that doesn't quite match the original green, but it's as good as it's gonna get, considerin'. 

I've had that dog since it was born, and she's about 9-10 years old now, and I've never seen it lick a cardboard box before.  I have no idea why the dog would be attracted to the flavor of a brand new R-51 box...I'm thinking maybe vegetable based inks? 

I wonder if there is much of a variance in the trigger pull between pistols?  I thought mine (Generation 2-Huntsville) was pretty light and crisp right out of the box, and a couple gun-savvy folks whom have also shot my pistol commented that they thought the trigger was pretty decent for a production gun.  I don't know anyone else who owns one locally so I have nothing to compare to.

Has anyone done any trigger work successfully?   

Quote from: Engineerpower on May 30, 2018, 12:46:26 AM
What part of NM are you in? I was stationed on the Missile Range for a couple years, very interesting place. Just over the Organ Mountains from Las Cruces, love the food culture there!

I'm up outside Farmington, near the Four Corners area and the Colorado border.  Closer to Bloomfield actually.  I've only been down around White Sands once, when we took a 3 day weekend trip to Lincoln, Roswell, Carlsbad.  We camped one night in the Guadalupe Mtns. that trip.   I've always wanted to go back down on one of the two days per year that the Trinity Site (First Atomic explosion) is open to the public.