I want a Remington R51 but there are things I must first know.

I had one that must have been a Gen 2. I loved the feel and heft of the gun. It was flawless for 200 rounds or so. Where it lost me was trying to put the blankey, blankety, blank so and so back together again after stripping it down for cleaning. I'm sure there is a trick to it that I didn't know, but when I finally did get it back together, I said never again and traded it back to the dealer I'd bought it from at a loss. I didn't care.

But I'm kinda slow, and now some time later, I wouldn't mind trying it again. Like I said, I liked the gun. This time I might just treat it like I did my High Point and just spray it with Gunscrubber, and put a drop of oil here and there. I got other guns I carry.

CajunBass said:

I had one that must have been a Gen 2. I loved the feel and heft of the gun. It was flawless for 200 rounds or so. Where it lost me was trying to put the blankey, blankety, blank so and so back together again after stripping it down for cleaning. I'm sure there is a trick to it that I didn't know, but when I finally did get it back together, I said never again and traded it back to the dealer I'd bought it from at a loss. I didn't care.

But I'm kinda slow, and now some time later, I wouldn't mind trying it again. Like I said, I liked the gun. This time I might just treat it like I did my High Point and just spray it with Gunscrubber, and put a drop of oil here and there. I got other guns I carry.

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Disassembly and reassembly was the worst feature of the original Model 51 380 automatic. They did nothing to improve that in this new version. I used to have a list of instructions and desirable implements for field-stripping an M51 - leather gloves to hold the slide back, plastic knife to get the retaining pin out, steel punch or nail-starter to lift the barrel out by the hole in its lug, and so on. To have left that unchanged was another mistake for the R51.

Oh good. I'm glad it wasn't just me.

CajunBass said:

I had one that must have been a Gen 2. I loved the feel and heft of the gun. It was flawless for 200 rounds or so. Where it lost me was trying to put the blankey, blankety, blank so and so back together again after stripping it down for cleaning. I'm sure there is a trick to it that I didn't know, but when I finally did get it back together, I said never again and traded it back to the dealer I'd bought it from at a loss. I didn't care.

But I'm kinda slow, and now some time later, I wouldn't mind trying it again. Like I said, I liked the gun. This time I might just treat it like I did my High Point and just spray it with Gunscrubber, and put a drop of oil here and there. I got other guns I carry.

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Putting an R51 back together is easier than some make it seem.



The only real "trick" is making sure the back of the locking block is as high as it will go in the slide so that the frame rails do not hit the locking block when pushing the slide onto the frame. Most YouTube videos I have seen show people doing all sorts of unnecessary things to try to get the slide on the frame. The original company video made it look nearly too easy (see at 3:27 in the video), but that is all there is to it.

Why would you want one of the most unreliable, poorly developed handguns made in the last 50 years? You’re literally better off buying a Hi-Point. They’re a better gun than a Remington R51.

I was really looking into one for $200... a lot of my interest in guns is in the mechanical/technical side of them, and the R51 has an action you don't see every day for sure. But I passed on it. Reading this thread is getting rid of whatever regret I had for that.

Having owned a 1st and 2nd generation R51, I can say that after one trip back to Remington and a tweak on the magazines my R51 runs very well. I’ve had no failures recently but doubt I could ever trust it to carry. Yet, I keep it simply because of it’s design and it fits most of my Makarov holsters.

JCooperfan1911 said:

Why would you want one of the most unreliable, poorly developed handguns made in the last 50 years? You’re literally better off buying a Hi-Point. They’re a better gun than a Remington R51.

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Why not? Sometimes I just like to find out for myself if they're as "bad" as other people say they are. I've got guns I use for serious purposes, all the rest are just for grins and giggles. If one of them turns out to be a dud...big deal. I lose a little money and go on about my life.

That's how I ended up with a Hi-Point for a couple of years. That ugly thing was a pretty decent gun. Even the Remington R51 I had worked just fine. I just hated taking it down and putting it back together. Ummmmm...I see it's still cataloged on Remington's website. Maybe after Christmas...

I have a gen2 and it has ran fine, albeit only 100 rounds or so. I bought it because I heard they had the kinks worked out of it and I wanted the design to study and shoot. I got a great deal for mine, it was $200, couldn’t pass it up, really should have bought a few of them at that price.

I like it, it feels like quality other than the plastic trigger. It is rated for +P 9mm which is a huge improvement from the old Model 91 in 32ACP and 380ACP.

A criticism I have of mine is the grip safety channel is a bit sharp in the sense that one feels the sides of the channel when squeezing.

But it’s nice to shoot and I like the styling and design. This reminds me that I should pick up a few extra magazines to have before they get discontinued and become hard to find.

JCooperfan1911 said:

Why would you want one of the most unreliable, poorly developed handguns made in the last 50 years? You’re literally better off buying a Hi-Point. They’re a better gun than a Remington R51.

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Not everyone is looking for one single gun to fill a role. I happily bought an R51 (when they were practically giving them away at $200 or so) because they were a unique little gun with a very different locking mechanism than just about anything else on the market. Even if it jammed every shot I would have kept it because I wanted it as a curiosity. I carry a different gun, and if I didn't carry that one I've got plenty of others before I'd have to rely on the M51.

And FWIW, my Gen2 hasn't jammed on me. Granted, I've only put a couple mags through it, but within that limited testing it works .

JCooperfan1911 said:

Why would you want one of the most unreliable, poorly developed handguns made in the last 50 years? You’re literally better off buying a Hi-Point. They’re a better gun than a Remington R51.

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Unless you can link to posts relating your personal bad experiences with a Gen2 R51, your opinion is based on hearsay and that was probably hearsay about the horrible Gen1 guns.

The R51 T&E guns built by Remington's R&D Center got very positive reviews from the gun writers that received them. The disaster occurred in production after Gen1 manufacturing was assigned to a plant already scheduled to close, with a workforce already told they would be losing their jobs, and with no apparent quality control.

I have a R51 with over 1,000 rounds through it. No problems, either with dis-assembly and re-assembly, I like the grip safety,, no necessary thumb action to use. And I like that it has a fixed barrel.

I loved the look of mine, hated the takedown, didn't agree that it was soft shooting, and eventually got rid of the piece of crap. It was reliable, but there are many many better guns.

I too, don’t feel it is soft shooting, but does feel like quality with the alloy frame and sleek lines. The trigger shoe does detract in my mind from its aesthetics.