In 2014 I purchased a R51. When Remington we called it, I shipped it back and after waiting a little over a year excepted an R1 1911 from Remington to replace it. At that time I had purchased two additional magazines for it.

This weekend, I purchased a newly released 2016 version of the gun. Haven't shot it yet. When I dug out the magazines from 2014 I noticed there were significant differences in The floorplate and follower of the magazines. Wondered if anyone had any experience or thought as to whether it 2014 versions will work in the new model and whether the magazine follower be replaced. The new magazine looks like they've redesigned it to push the round slightly higher.

I posed the question to Remington support and got this response:

"Good Morning, Although there are some differences in the floor plate, the magazines are interchangeable. Thank you for visiting Remington Country.

Thank you and best regards,
Remington Customer Services"

This really does not address the differences in the magazine follower...

I will certainly be waiting to hear if the first generation magazines will work in the new version. I've got 4 of the older mags and may consider buying the new R51.

lincen wrote:I will certainly be waiting to hear if the first generation magazines will work in the new version. I've got 4 of the older mags and may consider buying the new R51.

Wen to the range this morning and the new R51 shot great with both the old and new magazines. Guess the differences are not a problem.

Difference I notice with the new magazines is the follow has an inclined center ridge. I suspect this is to keep the last round tilted upward enough to reach the feed ramp. Seems like my old one would fail to pick up and chamber the last round sometimes.

midmouser wrote:

lincen wrote:I will certainly be waiting to hear if the first generation magazines will work in the new version. I've got 4 of the older mags and may consider buying the new R51.

Went to the range this morning and the new R51 shot great with both the old and new magazines. Guess the differences are not a problem.

Thank you for that good report ! If I do buy another R51 I would carry the second generation magazines and use the 4 old mags at the range.

Thanks again !

Welcome to the Remington Owners Forum midmouser !!

Enjoy our community...

I finally shot my Gen 2. Turns out I had not got the spring on slide release in properly and went through one mag single fire. Went back to basement and took it down, had heck of a time getting the slide back on. Must have had the barrel slightly rotated or something, pushed hard and managed to get a bite on stomach and put a hole in T-shirt when it got between dustcover and slide when it finally went on. I think their manual should have a much better picture of the spring/tab part. Went back out and ran four mags, one of Remington and the others various fmj. Had one nosedive and it was one of my originals from the gen 1. Think Remington should offer replacement followers and baseplates gratis. I still have the "outie" raised primers but not as high as on my first one. I shot from 25', my very first shot was almost center bullseye, went downhill from there, I was not working on trigger control, just trying to run the gun. All groups were plenty respectable, esp for defense purposes, pretty much variation was whether you would hit top or bottom of pocket on threat. I do want to like this puppy, liked the first one. Probably will stick to my LC9S/CT for edc though.

I got two new style magazines with my G2, but am still working on solving the nosedive problem. If Remington is saying the old style magazines still work, that tends to indicate to me it's more of a magazine spring issue. I haven't been able to identify anything from Wolff that will work yet, but am probably going that direction. I'm in the same boat--really want to like this, but sticking with the Sheild for edc for the time being.