Consider the original 51. I have one, and it's one of my favorite pocket pistols and has been absolutely reliable. I paid around $350 for mine, but I suppose the price is higher now.
Try twice that, generally. People say the R51 is a dumb buy, but I wonder what they'd say about a six-seven hundred dollar 32/380acp?
(even if it's production quality is top notch, and you find an example that hasn't broken its breechblock...yet)
"Tops" like 'runs like a top,' or as in "the highest point of something?" I like the design as much as any, and cheerlead its potential more than most, but I think suggesting these guns are particularly 'anything' but interesting is irresponsible at this point. What the Gen 2's definitely seem to be is better than the Gen 1's. Sadly, that's not nearly enough to be competitive on its own merits, so Remington will have to continue to improve the product --as they admittedly did with subsequent production of Para and Marlin products that were initially garbage-- if they wish this line to stay around for much longer.
I've said from almost the get-go that it was a grievous mistake to dive on into the 'budget' end of the pool with these guns. While they are no longer known for it, Remington actually is capable of quality when they charge enough for it. had they introduced the pistol like S&W did the Registered Magnum, and offered a custom-shop-tuned, polished/blued slicked up version of the gun with a crisp trigger & fully loaded with the third-party goodies like night sights and holsters, and put it in something fancier than a cardboard box...
...they'd have been able to charge upwards of $1000 dollars for it to guarantee quality & function were excellent, generate a ton of positive reviews, gun-envy, and general good will toward the Pedersen action and Remington proper, "priming the pump" for subsequent pedestrian versions at a lower price point, perfected using the higher profit-margins and expectations of the luxury variant. Luxury buyers, believe it or not, are actually more tolerant of foibles since the guns are not expected to be such working tools, so long as the machines are legitimately quality.
Churning out a half-baked production prototype at a soon-to-be-closed factory using worn or incorrect tooling that leaves badly off-spec parts, cheap stamped or MIM parts to excess, that is then assembled & finished in Remington's patented "cover the awful tool and grinder marks with coarse bead-blast & parkerization finish" so they could compete on price with competitors who'd paid off their tooling (let alone design) costs years ago, was basically the worst strategy imaginable. Well, short of slipping a pre-production model into the scene of a high-profile murder
. It was actually so bone-headed an execution, with such obvious alternate paths that'd have been hard to screw up, that I almost wonder if there was some sort of tax-dodge grift a-la
The Producers going on, or something. Lord knows they got to write off a ton of operating losses what with the R51, and the 700 triggers, and AAC cratering, and the shuttering of many of their factories.
TCB
