The new Remington R51 pistol is actually getting more digital and dead tree ink than the new G2 Research RIP 9mm round, if that's actually possible.

We saw how the hype is just that with the new R.I.P. round and it looks as though an unbiased look at the R51 by Nick Leghorn over at The Truth About Guns reveals some profound problems with Remington's new pistola.

Overall Rating: * *
It’s a great concept, but there are serious design flaws that shouldn’t be acceptable in a modern firearm. For a gun that’s being marketed to new shooters and people with a freshly-printed concealed carry license, it’s way too easy to re-assemble the gun incorrectly. And the painful shooting experience will keep people from putting much time into practicing with the gun.

If you're thinking of buying one for carry, here are a couple of things you need to know.  Your life might depend upon reading about these issues:

When you re-assemble the R51 you must slip a small tab on the slide stop of the gun underneath this little spring. You must insert it perfectly parallel to the slide. If you tilt the slide stop upwards by as little as a 1/16th of an inch, if it rides above the spring, the gun will malfunction. As Robert found out it might even refuse to feed. Not to put too fine a point on it, replacing the slide stop properly could be the difference between life and death in a self defense situation.

10 thoughts on “Remington R51: Avoid the hype and take a pass”
  1. Since the assembly issue has been brought to light, I’m confident that I’d get it reassembled properly, so I wouldn’t worry about that. The recoil doesn’t sound like fun, though, and lack of tactile feedback when the trigger resets would drive me crazy.

  2. Yeah, I have watched the video and I think the reassembly thing is manageable for someone reasonably familiar with firearms. More concerned about the “slide bite” due to the low bore axis.

  3. I saw the review on The Truth About Guns and it looks like it was written by 2 different people. I don’t worry about the assembly issues. Doubt I’ll need to reassemble it while being shot at. The potential slide bite and the trigger issue I won’t know about until I shoot one. Same with the dimensions really. Saying it’s about the same size as a G19 tells me nothing. I have a number of pistols about that size and they all carry differently. My G23 feels the worst as it turns out.

  4. “Pull the trigger on a live round and the first issue rears its ugly head: the Remington R51 is painful to shoot, even with light loads.”….”There was another pleasant surprise: the R51 turns +P 9mm ammo into a real pussycat.”…”In fact, there isn’t a single reason to buy the Remington R51 over any of the other guns in the compact 9mm category (other than marketing) and at least one good reason to avoid it altogether.” (Can host) “As much as I’d like to mend fences with the Freedom Group, I call that an epic fail.” (Where’s the beef?)

    1. Maybe you’re just a pussy? Who cries about the pain from a 9mm defensive carry pistol?

  5. Search “Shooting and Field Stripping the Remington R51” on YouTube. This video addresses the issues brought up by The Truth About Guns. The poster of this video also has his teenage son strip and reassemble the gun in another video. The Truth About Guns obviously has a chip on his shoulder.

  6. Its a little bigger than a Kahr K9 and a little lighter. The only thing that scares me is the slide cutting people up bad on the web! Other than that I’d hope this gun turns out to be reliable as that’s the other obvious concern. I’m way too scared and poor to be a beta tester, and since the design hasn’t been in use since the original 1918 gun or whenever it was, than it has more beta-testing to prove than everything else which is a tilt-barrel design! I’m indifferent on whether a gun is metal frame or polymer though I think I prefer steel or polymer to aluminum frames. A lot of folks think a polymer frame is superior and modern but its just another material to make. If you have to have lots of styling detail on a frame its easier to mold into plastic than machine out of metal so production is cheaper with such styling with poly frames. To me that and keeping a gun light are the only good thing about poly frames otherwise I’ll take either one. BTW I’m of the opinion that a good holster and a good belt I don’t need an ultralight pistol. Summer carry places dimensional demands on carrying however.

  7. I really don’t see a problem with dis-assembly and assembly. My Taurus .40 had a similar spring in it and it wasn’t very difficult to ensure the tab on the slide stop was pushed back in properly. I haven’t shot one of these yet, but I doubt it is anywhere near as bad as my Polish P-64 when it comes to recoil and hurting your hand. I still can’t wait to get my hands on one of these.

  8. TTAG complained about a lot of things that don’t matter in the least and missed the out of battery issue that people are having with some of these guns. If anything, that should be another nail in TTAG’s coffin.

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