Got my R51

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A pause for the COZ

New member
Woot!!! Got er...Having a sale at the house and sold a couple guns I dont need to get one I want.

Good thing I ran down to Fleet Farm right away. Got there and back before the wife got home.
I get back and she lays in with all the stuff we could have used that money for.
I said " yea thats why I ran down there so fast" Mine!!!!!

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Quick glance, comparing the R51 to my favorite carry piece my XD's 45.
Size is similar and the empty weight is about the same. A couple things I did notice right away.
The weight of the XD's is all on the top and to the front were as the the weight of the R51 is evenly distributed.
Better description would be. The XD's your handling the gun and the R51 your holding the gun.
Its very very well balanced. For me ( since every one's hands are different.) Its a glove fit.
Note: The XD's is much better balanced when its full of whooper butt kickers.:wink:
Still love it and its not going any were.

I have stuck it into the holster for my Bersa Thunder. Seems to fit well enough until I get the proper shell.
Just walking around the house drawing and presenting. It just rises right to my eye with no adjustment needed.
No rounds yet. I am going to work the action a couple thousand times and give her a good cleaning. Before I give her a work out.
I do have high hopes for this gun.

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Got a chance to put a few rounds down the pipe.

100 rounds of Winchester white box. = 100 % reliable
75 rounds of Perfecta = 9?% reliable Had one miss feed nose down in the mag.
Rest were 100%
14 rounds of Hornady XTP= 100%
14 rounds of my 147gr powder coated cast loads. sized .358= 100% reliable.

So about 200 rounds with one miss feed to break it in.
I am ok with that. Plus it shoots my hand loads :)

Accuracy... I did not shoot for accuracy but every shot landed in the 8 inch circle at 25 feet.
The few that I did try to aim good. Were just fine.
Recoil is super manageable and follow up shots are akin to a Bersa Thunder .380
Disassembly is a learned skill, It is quite different than most 9mm I have taken apart. But after the learning curve it makes sense.
I carried it all day today in the Bersa holster and it was very comfortable and easy to carry.
So far I like it.
 
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Ibmikey

New member
Coz, I have had my R 51 for about three weeks and 500 rounds through it. The only failures I had were on the first rounds I shot (Win steel case) which it did not like, giving one of the nose dives you experienced.
I really like the way it feels in the hand, points naturally and has very manageable recoil. It will not replace my Sig P 938 for carry but it is a neat pistol for carry or just plain fun shooting.
 
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chris in va

New member
I have fairly long fingers and had to sell my XD due to the grip safety not reliably disengaging. Any problems with this on the R51?
 
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rpseraph

New member
You seem excited, so I don't want to mention the three reviews and two friends that have told me to avoid the R51 at all costs. I don't want to rain on your parade by saying anything about the lack of reliability or history of failure, or number of engineers that got fired after the colossal failure that was the R51 Gen 1...

So I won't :D:D:D:D

I wouldn't trust my life to it, I would even maybe be a little scared to shoot it... but I can't fault a guy for getting a new gun!
 
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Uncle Malice

New member
Be sure to run lots of whatever hollow point you choose. Early reviews of the 2nd Gen R51 are showing them to frequently fail to feed hollow point rounds where regular FMJ's seem to work okay.

I know a lot of people make the mistake of only shooting FMJ at the range, then loading up with JHP's, expecting them to work the same.

Hope you enjoy the purchase. Good luck!
 
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jr24

New member
Glad you like it!

I would personally run plenty more of your carry hollow points prior to carry if it had a stoppage on day 1.
 
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Ibmikey

New member
Good comments but again by reporters who do not own or possibly have not even fired the new issue R51. My pistol has reliably fired over five hundred rounds of ammunition, mostly FMJ because that is what I carry in all of my pistols. I did fire a box (I am old..a box of pistol ammo contains 50 rounds) Winchester Silvertip and a box of Federal Hydra shock without incident. I have not fired any other exotic bullet configurations in my pistol, but again I carry FMJ and that is normally what I shoot.
The grip safety normally is automatically applied with a good grip, however on a couple of occasions I did not grip properly and the pistol did not fire until I quickly changed position. This is a training issue for someone who wants to carry the pistol, mine was purchased for fun shooting not concealed carry and it has met my expectations in that respect.
I respect the right for everyone to comment but it certainly would carry more weight if some factual knowledge was included.
I also have Remington 1911's and RM 380..all three are functioning just fine.
 
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gc70

New member
More signal and less noise would make the video more informative.

More than 10% of the video is devoted to carping about the slide release return spring. That spring system is not unique to the R51, also being used on the Colt Mustang and Sig SP2022 among others.
 
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TunnelRat

New member
Fair enough, but there is also a notable portion of the video that involves shooting. Specifically failures related to shooting hollowpoints that Uncle Malice mentioned. I'd love to edit all the videos on youtube for everyone or point to exact timestamps but sometimes I'm time limited when I post. I'll edit the link when I get a chance.
 
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gc70

New member
There are quite a number of decent videos of R51 testing. Unfortunately, most of them spend much more time counting incidents (look, nosedive #17!) than analyzing problems.
 
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TunnelRat

New member
Unfortunately, most of them spend much more time counting incidents (look, nosedive #17!) than analyzing problems.
Click to expand...

It's not always easy to diagnose why a pistol doesn't function. In the video it shows that Remington has modified the followers of the magazines in a way that should improve feeding as compared to the original followers, but maybe it wasn't enough or Remington didn't diagnose that issue correctly (and that's the manufacturer itself trying to diagnose the problem so you'd think they'd spend some significant time trying to resolve it, at least more than a YouTube video is going to show).

While I get your point that diagnostics offer more to the video, I could make the argument that this is more of an impressions video than an in-depth analysis. For that matter, I'm sort of the opinion that pistols should work from the factory. I've owned 70+ pistols and the vast majority of them have. Now anyone and everyone can and does make a lemon, but there are a number of single stack 9mms on the market these days that seem at least a bit more flushed out than this, and this is after a complete recall and years in-between. To me that pistol should go back to Remington and they should make it right.
 
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Co Th G

New member
The OP must be into self flagellation to own a Bersa and an R51. I wonder what other fine firearms he owns?
 
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barnbwt

New member
Unfortunately, most of them spend much more time counting incidents (look, nosedive #17!) than analyzing problems.
Click to expand...
Bear in mind this gun is under one hell of a microscope by all these reviewers who got burned on the first round (not excusing the issues, but explaining why reviewers are so fixated on them, as opposed to writing it off as "a bad magazine most likely" as is both common in other guns, and likely the case, here)

In the video it shows that Remington has modified the followers of the magazines in a way that should improve feeding as compared to the original followers, but maybe it wasn't enough
Click to expand...
My guess is the magazine bodies are the issue. If the new ones are anything like my originals, the lips are sharp (and rough, with burs) on the inside, and the spines are prone to cracking, assuming the weld bead wasn't completely ground through at the factory (one of my mags ground through the very top of one of the corners a bit). Pretty crummy, especially since there are no aftermarket mags, but it's hardly the first time a company put out cheap or lousy magazines for an otherwise functional gun. I also suspect the magazine bodies remained unchanged, since they are sourced from a third party (I want to say Mec-Gar, but these are really cheap-looking)

My reasoning for this is;
-A lot of people reporting consistent issues on the very first, or very last round (the mags also have very strong springs)
-Failure to feed steel cases from the magazines, which likely have a stronger coefficient of friction (since those mag lip burs are digging in, and steel is a harder material to scratch --aluminum case hasn't reported the same kinds of issue, and is a soft material like brass)

The other issue being mentioned is consistent malfunction with steel case for some people. My theory on this issue is related to unforeseen foibles of the Pedersen action. It depends on initial case setback; steel cases have a different coefficient of friction than brass cases. This alone could mean the difference between sufficient energy to cycle the action and a failure to eject, or even no issues at all if the chamber is smooth (or rough) enough. It could also be a design flaw, but the large number of guns that do cycle steel (like mine) suggest that is not the case. Just like Glocks don't like 10mm with thin case heads and Bobergs don't like uncrimped bullets, the R51 may not care for steel or lacquer/polymer coated steel ammunition.

Whatever the case, the R51 at least seems consistent, now; before, it was all many could do to get the gun to fire two consecutive rounds, no matter what they did. The new batch are definitely an order of magnitude above that, but obviously can still stand further refinement before standing along long-perfected designs from SIG, Glock, and Colt (and how often do we hear about crummy 1911 magazines causing issues?)

TCB
 
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