This afternoon had an opportunity to handle and examine a R51 Remington

[gc70]

I can field strip it in less than 30 seconds and reassemble it in under a minute.

Do you ever have to fiddle with getting the recoil spring to line up properly for reassembly? That used to be the most frustrating part of the process for me. Now I routinely put the end of the barrel into the front of the slide to quickly and easily align the recoil spring.

 

[larryh1108]

No, I do the same as you. I push the barrel thru the slide a bit, allow the bushing to align with the cutout and then grab the front of the barrel (grip grooves provided) and drop the breech block into the slide while the barrel is forward. I then start the frame into the slide and allow it to go past the breech block before I release the barrel. This is where I had my most problems initially. I would drop the breech block in, align it and release the barrel. The frame would not accept the slide. because the breech block was in the way. Once I held the barrel until the frame slid into the slide and then released it (barrel) I stopped having reassembly issues. Like I said, once you get used to it there are no reassembly issues.

 

[gc70]

I push the barrel thru the slide a bit, allow the bushing to align with the cutout and then grab the front of the barrel (grip grooves provided) and drop the breech block into the slide while the barrel is forward. I then start the frame into the slide and allow it to go past the breech block before I release the barrel.

Interesting. I just put the slide on the frame rails and give a brisk pull like I would to rack the slide; the breech block pushes the barrel forward until it can rise over the frame's front slide rails.