Remington makes two firearms that have helped define genres — the Model 870 shotgun and the Model 700 bolt-action rifle.
Both are stellar designs, with millions sold worldwide.
Somehow those two guns carried Remington through a whole lot of bad ideas and weird company purchases.
One of those odd decisions was to get into the single-stack 9mm market.
In 2014, it was prime time to roll out a single-stack 9mm handgun. These guns ruled for concealed carry; they were easy to carry, available in a capable cartridge, and relatively easy to shoot.
Remington introduced the R51 in 2014, where it became the belle of SHOT Show.
The R51 seemed to garner some serious attention with its unique look and basis on the old Remington Model 51. Not to mention it had an appealing MSRP of $389.
What’s Old Is New
John Pedersen, of Pedersen device and Model 17 fame, designed the Remington Model 51 in 1917. This early semi-auto chambered the .32 ACP and .380 ACP cartridges and, for the time, was small and handy.
This single-stack firearm chambered eight rounds of .32 ACP and seven rounds of .380 ACP. Remington marketed the gun as small and concealable, although it’s large by today’s standards.
One of the reasons why the Model 51 stood out was its interesting locking system.
Most guns this size were blowback-operated guns, resulting in a slide that often had to be quite heavy. However, Pedersen designed the Model 51 to use something called hesitation locking. The result was a breech block independent of the bolt or slide.
This system creates a delay that allows the pressure to drop to safe levels before the slide cycles. Blowback handguns do this through heavy slides or heavy recoil springs, but the Model 51 required neither.
Remington’s new R51 utilized Pedersen’s original hesitation locking system. It was scaled up to accommodate the more powerful 9mm cartridge and gave the world an alternative to Browning’s short recoil operation and the simple direct blowback guns once more.
Hesitation-locked systems allow the spring to encompass the barrel, allowing Remington to lower the bore axis considerably. The lighter slide and delayed action helped reduce recoil, while the low bore axis aids in controllability.
It’s a unique system and was a big reason why I and many others were excited to handle the R51. Where else would we ever shoot something hesitation locked?
Teething Issues
Remington released the R51, and frankly, they shouldn’t have.
Reportedly they released it against engineers’ wishes.
This opened up a cultural divide in the gun media industry that resulted in part of the industry praising the R51 and the other being honest about it.
The gun had a litany of reliability problems — it would fail to feed, fail to eject, and fail to extract. What’s worse is that it would fire out of battery, meaning it would fire before the slide fully closed.
Firearms create small explosions, and you want the round to be fully chambered with the slide closed because that mini explosion can send dangerous shrapnel out when things aren’t locked up properly.
Remington went into damage control mode, issuing a recall before scrubbing the R51 from the website completely. Some shooters reportedly received refunds, different replacement firearms, or had other actions taken to address the issues.
It would take two years before we’d see the R51 resurface.
Gen 2 Arrives
In 2016, the Gen 2 R51 arrived. It looked to fix most of the issues. Reviewers rushed to get their hands on them but this time, even its harshest critics said it was fixed.
Prices accurate at time of writing
Prices accurate at time of writing
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But this time, even the harshest critics even said they fixed it. Yet, no one cared.
By 2016, Glock had released a single-stack 9mm, and Smith & Wesson Shields were practically being given away — single stacks were everywhere.
Final Thoughts
Remington didn’t do much to push the R51 the second time around. It’s a gun tainted by a poor reputation. Remington moved on and produced the RP9 and RM380, while the R51 disappeared into the past.
In 2018 the gun was discontinued. Shortly after, Remington went belly up, and the numerous Remington-owned companies were split up and sold off.
Remington is slowly coming back under new ownership, but I doubt we’ll ever see an R51 ever produced again.
It’s a shame because the gun was a neat idea that came too late in a world clogged up by striker-fired, polymer-frame pistols all utilizing the same systems.
Do you have any experience with the R51? Let us know in the comments below. If you are interested in some of the guns that stymied the R51’s comeback, check out our article on the Best Sub-Compact Single Stack 9mm’s for Concealed Carry.
15 Leave a Reply
I recently found an R 51 in unfired condition. I shortened the magazine follower, as recommended by most owners, and since then it has been an excellent pistol. It’s fun to shoot, accurate, and so far very reliable. It is also a very nice looking art deco-ish Pistol that draws considerable amount of interest interest at the range. I am happy to own one and would recommend anyone interested in firearm history pick one up if they find one available.
I missed the gen 1 R51 back in 2014. Remington had pulled them off of the market before I decided to actually buy one. When the Gen II version I bought one right away. It was completely reliable and shot decent groups at 15 yards. But each different bullet weight I tried hit the target 15” below point of sim at 15 yards. Which meant that the front sight was roughly 1/8” too short. Totally unacceptable for a self defense gun.
After talking to a friend at my local gun store I ended up taking it to a collector oriented gun show and sold it to a Remington collector with full knowledge of the sight issue. He was thrilled to get a good price on one with box and manual.. He had no intention of ever firing it.
I still own and sometimes carry an original model 51 in 380 acp. But wouldn’t touch another R51 in 9mm. Too bad, the design had great potential. Was just poorly executed.
I have a generation two. I changed the grip and started using one brand of ammo. Since making the changes I have not had any problem with this pistol. Great shooter. I like it just fine now.
Would you mind sharing what brand of ammo you referred to? Make? Ball or JHP? I’ve got a Gen 2 with a provenance letter from Remington before, obviously, they went belly up. New, unfired in the box with a holster made for it by, I think, J&J. Not sure whether to shoot it or not. Leaning toward not as it might be more collectible, someday, as unfired. But, still curious as to the ammo. Thanks in advance.
I had a Ge 1 and Gen 2 R51. Plus an original Model 51 in .380. Neither of the modern pistols was as nice and operated as the original. I sold the Gen 2 as no one wanted the Gen 1. The Gen 1 sits in a drawer unused since 2014 in a storage room!
I have a gen 2 - purchased it when someone was blowing them out for $199. Its a VERY nice gun, shoots nice and looks nice and svelte. It still has nosediving problems with the magazines - that can be "mostly" fixed by a couple of tweaks. With that said, it shouldn't be necessary to tweak mags to get a reliable gun!
I installed the no longer available DangerCo metal trigger which is an improvement. I also purchased the DangerCo disassembly tool as I lack the prehensile tail require to take this gun apart!
Can you provide me with more details on the DangerCo disassembly tool? I want to make sure I order the correct thing. Thanks
DangerCo is out of business - or at least was last time I checked. I think the owner was on deployment.
DangerCo is apparently out of business.
I have a Gen 2 and it runs flawlessly. I’d bet my life on it
I have a gen2. Great shooter, great look, concealable. Total PIA to take apart and put back together. Only downside.
I realize this is an old article but I just found it. Anyway I have a gen 2 and occasionally take it to the range. It shoots nice with the low bore axis but better guns are everywhere. I do not trust it enough to bet my life on it compared to the reliability of my P365 but it's a fun range toy. Plus you will definitely be the only guy there with one!
My favorite ccw. I have a gen 2 and besides sanding down the mag follower legs a hair, it’s bone stock and runs perfectly.
Good read. I'd seen those advertised but never really thought about them. It sounds likes it's too bad they didn't get a better push when released.
Better if they had actually perfected the gun prior to release. No second chances.