• Welcome to Remington R-51 Pistol Forum. Please log in or sign up.
Menu

Show posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

Show posts Menu

Messages - Hrfunk

#1
The thing that strikes me about the prospect of the R51 being discontinued is the potential for it to become a "collector's item" despite its tumultuous production run. In fact, that might even enhance its collectability. Kind of like the "Edsel" of firearms.

Howard
#2
R51 General Discussion / Re: Results so far
October 10, 2018, 02:38:35 AM
Yes, I would like to see the factory option of a lower front sight for those of us who use a different sighting method.

Howard
#3
R51 General Discussion / Re: Results so far
October 09, 2018, 12:18:43 PM
I've not found that to be the case with my 1911R1's. I'm curious, has Remington ever confirmed the "Combat Hold" for the sights, or did shooters just come up with it as a way to explain the low POI for the R51. I keep seeing people post that information in forums, but I've never seen a reference to an official comment from the manufacturer.

Howard
#4
Just as an update, I took my R51 back out to the range last Saturday and ran another trouble-free 50 rounds through it. All mags were loaded 7+1, and all fed just fine!

Howard
#5
Hi all, I decided to start a new thread to try to get the "up to the minute" report on the R51. I've now owned mine for 4 months, and as you may have seen in my videos, it took a trip back to Remington to resolve the issues I was having with it. I don't know just when my pistol was actually manufactured, I would guess last winter or early spring. At this point, I'm wondering if Remington is taking the information they are gleaning from the pistols that are being returned and incorporating changes to eliminate issues from the R51's they are building now. So to flush that out, who has the most recently manufactured R51 and how is it functioning?

Howard
#6
I'm glad it's running well for you! For the life of me, I don't know why it has taken so much time and experimentation to get these pistols running properly. I would expect that the engineers and gunsmiths employed by Remington would have figured all this out long ago. I think the R51 is a nice little carry pistol, but Holy Smokes! they've got to make them run reliably without every purchaser having to troubleshoot the things after they get them home.

Howard
#7
Good! Be sure to let me know how it works for you!

Howard
#8
Quote from: Zenshot on August 24, 2018, 11:18:39 AM
Your evaluation makes sense to me. If the lip tips the cartridge nose up, I wonder if the lip was added to help prevent nosedive jams. Has any of your ammo tried to nosedive?  On the other hand, mine will experience nosedive jams when using flat point or hollow points, so I suppose maybe the lip was not for preventing nosedives.

Out of 400+ rounds,  have experienced precisely 1 nose-dive, and that was with an FMJ round. I suspect that was an anomaly. Possibly just a bad round of ammunition.

HRF
#9
OK, see what you think of this. After comparing a photo of the breech block of another R51 (sent to me by another owner), it appear the projection at the bottom of the breech face  of my pistol was shortened noticeably. His is definitely longer and more pointed than mine (I know, that sounds weird, but stick with me). The malfunctions I was experiencing only happened on the first round from a full magazine when there was already a round loaded in the chamber. Upon firing, that longer projection might drag across the rim of the top round in the magazine. Under full magazine spring tension, the pressure exerted against the rim of the case as the slide/breech block was moving rearward, might have caused the front of the cartridge (i.e. the bullet) to cock slightly upward in the magazine. As the slide came forward, the breech face would strike the base of the cartridge that was now at too steep an angle to move up the feed ramp as it normally would. Instead, the bullet would move forward and jam against the top of the barrel. In some instances, the drag/snag against the cartridge rim was so strong that the entire cartridge was pulled/flipped out of the magazine. In those instances, the cartridge was either captured by the slide and wedged against the barrel, or it exited the ejection port with the spent casing. Those were exactly the malfunctions I was experiencing, that that longer projection on the breech block COULD have caused them in that manner.

(Does this all sound a little mentally ill?)

Howard
#10
Hi all! For any of you who were curious to know what Remington did to improved the functioning of my R51, check out the video below. In it, I disassembled the pistol and inspected it to see what was done. You might also want to see if you can spot anything I missed!

HRF

https://youtu.be/Ar0vPGXIf9I
#11
Quote from: funflyer on August 16, 2018, 09:30:07 PM
Quote from: R51Fan2017 on July 23, 2018, 08:47:06 AM
The magazines are the heart and soul of an automatic pistol. Also, I one hundred percent agree with you on capacity. What's the point of having a 7 round mag when you can only have 6 in it? I hope Big Green will get you fixed up this time. I can't believe there is such a difference in quality in comparison to the R1 and RM380 lines. You would figure since the 51 is a "heritage" pistol for them, they would have taken more pride and time in their work to make sure every aspect (especially the magazines for it) would be 100%. Best of luck to you!

Sean


Yep, and Remington even states 7+1 on their R51 page. Both my mags will feed 7+1 without fail but, only after trimming the bottom of the followers. One will still occasionally let go of, and stovepipe the last round. That mag has the widest (average)feed lips of the two, coincidence?

I looked at and measured all my other 9mm's, which are 100% reliable, and discovered something interesting. The R51 mags not only  have the widest feed lips, they have the shortest also. They're also the most inconsistent. Coincidence?

Howard, have you measured the feed lips of your most problematic mag? I'd sure like to know how wide the one is that lets loose of a live round during cycling. I watched your video again and did see the failure after you mentioned it. Here's a screen shot.

Yep. I tried to catch it with the slow-mo shot, but your photo shows it better.

Howard
#12
R51 General Discussion / Re: R51 Redemption
August 18, 2018, 06:56:30 PM
Quote from: funflyer on August 18, 2018, 06:52:05 PM
I thought he said they polished the "bolt". I assume that means they polished the Pedersen block? I'd be interested to see is it was just a polish or, if they removed material to relieve it somehow. Howard, please post some closeup pics of the block when you can. Anyway, glad to see it's running flawlessly now.

It did say "bolt". I'll let you know what I find.

Howard
#13
R51 General Discussion / Re: R51 Redemption
August 18, 2018, 06:55:40 PM
Quote from: Rog54 on August 18, 2018, 01:01:32 PM
Hi Howard,
First of all Thank You for your diligence!
I really like the style, feel, (in hand and recoil), size, cost, etc. of this gun.
I am perplexed however and feel unnaturally lucky!  I have two R51's.  A black Charlotte gun from shortly after the re-release.  And a Smoke gray Huntsville gun.  After all the troubles I have read about I almost feel I am jinxing myself by writing this.  I have had only a few, 4-6 maybe, jambs, over 300 rnds per gun).  None like in your videos. Mine were straight up stove pipes.  How can some have so many issues and others a few?  Anyway to my question/comment.  I think you said the paperwork said they polished the ramp and blamed the magazine. The magazine statement seems like foder as I think you said some of your other mags. experienced the same issue.  So if they were the cause it should still remain with them, no?  So it begs the question, what did they do to make it function.  I mirror polished both mine before the first shot.  But I find it hard to believe unpolished feed ramps are causing these issue.  I also did the other mod on one mag even before my couple jambs, (shortening the follower legs).  those and unmodified work fine?  Again perplexed!  Any ideas what they did?

Unfortunately I have not had time to disassemble the R51 since it returned (I barely had time to make the video). With a little luck, I'll have some time to take a look at it tomorrow. I'll let you know what I find.

Howard
#14
R51 General Discussion / Re: R51 Redemption
August 18, 2018, 06:53:04 PM
Quote from: R51Fan2017 on August 18, 2018, 11:03:21 AM
Howard,

Very happy for you that your R51 is working like she should!! Kudos to you for continuing to press Remington to make it right. I would have given up, and fixed it myself through trial and error. Fortunately mine worked just like that out of the box. I guess I got lucky. I will report back to you after this weekend on how mine does loading 7+1. I hope she runs like she should and doesn't give me my first failure! She's got a clean record, I would hate to mar it! Very happy for you, and please keep us posted with updates! Enjoy your new reliable R51!!

Sean

Thank you Sean! Will do.

HRF
#15
R51 General Discussion / R51 Redemption
August 18, 2018, 08:03:56 AM
Hi all! The R51 is back from Remington's warranty service. To see how it's running now, follow the link below!

HRF

https://youtu.be/e1spyYnDKjE