I am going to float a theory here.

Like so many others, I purchased an R51 in May 2014 and returned it to Remington August 2014. It seems we have all had similar experiences with Customer Service regarding re-release promises which repeatedly (maddeningly) get moved out a quarter year further at a time.

I, at first, wondered why Remington didn't just admit they had an Edsel and scrap the whole program. Then it occurred to me.

If Remington admitted that they were dropping the R51 program then they would have to immediately refund or otherwise compensate all of the affected owners...all at once. I don't know how many of the pistols were originally sold, but I have to figure that there were a decent number. By stringing out the "redesign process" for years and slowly buying off owners with substitute R1 (1911) pistols or refunding their money, Remington can spread the financial hit across several fiscal quarters.

So I guess we have to ask ourselves: Are we, the most committed of Remington owners, being played for suckers by Remington? Is Remington just stringing us along and hanging onto our money, interest free, for as long as we let them?

I have been living through this R51 debacle for more than a year now. I have been extremely disappointed with Remington's "Communication Policy". They have done ABSOLUTELY no proactive updating of customers since the July 2014 post on their website. Like so many others, I have received constantly changing stories when I have contacted them every few months. They HAVE MY EMAIL ADDRESS! Can't they have the courtesy to send a quick broadcast update to R51 owners when release date changes? I have several Remington shotguns and hunting rifles which have never given me any issues. It's safe to say that I was a solid Remington fan prior to this incident. I understand issues in producing a brand new gun, I can accept that. What is woefully unprofessional is their "bury their head in the sand" approach to communicating with their customers. We are all in this boat because we all "early adopted" what was supposed to be a "Rockstar" new pistol design, which means that most of us are fans of the brand to a greater or lesser extent. This is one heck of a way to treat some of your most loyal customers. They should fire (with prejudice) whomever is responsible for their R51 Customer relations program!