I see that Remington is re-issuing their ill-fated R51 pistol. Many sites, including
The Firearm Blog are trumpeting the news:
I had high hopes for this little gun when it was rolled out prior to the 2014 SHOT show, but subsequent problems with it lead to Remington cancelling production and recalling the pistols. I understand that they believe that they've fixed the problems now, and the first batch coming out is slated to replace the pistols that were recalled.
I wish Remington the best with this, but a lot has happened since early 2014, and it's not hard to find a single stack .380 pocket pistol these days. Still, I wish them the best of luck with the little gun.
Now, if Remington would re-introduce their 1858 revolver in a .45 Colt conversion, that might be something to get excited about.
I was an R51 "early adopter". Mine ran at first, then stopped just shy of 70 rounds. Without a detailed stripping manual, I puzzled out the unusual action, then disassembled the bolt group (yes, Vorgrimmler might have designed this delayed-blowback action) and found the firing pin channel blocked by milling debris. Flushed it out. Reassembly was interrupted while I machined a miniature "shoehorn" to slip the extractor Pillow Spring* back in place in the bolt group. Gun shot fine although there is a slight length mismatch between the rear of the frame and the rear of the slide group. Looks ugly, but works. My main complaint concerns the magazines. They have a plastic footplate which bends under the pressure of the magazine spring and threatens to come adrift, probably at the wrong time during a gunfight, according to Murphy's Law.
ReplyDeleteThe gun shoots well, points intuitively, has great sights, and can shoot the hottest Nine you can find or build, ALL.DAY.LONG. I will now send mine back for replacement.
* never even heard of this type of spring before. It is a little plastic-rubber pill which must be flattened under pressure and slipped into it's tiny space just so. If not accurately placed, it would "ooze" out and render the extractor useless or worse, it could jam the gun open just enought to maybe allow an out-of-battery discharge (the reason these guns were recalled according to scuttlebutt).
It's a 9mm.
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