Hi all! I'm new to there forum, and I'm also a new R51 owner. I've been interested in the R51 since it was first released in 2014, but I held off buying one due to the reported problems occurring with the original pistols. Last weekend, I came across a brand new Smoke/Gray R51 at a gun show, and the price was reasonable enough that I wanted to give the pistol a try. As an aside, I have had a youtube channel for several years which is devoted entirely to firearms and shooting. So I recorded a video of my first range outing with my new R51. To see how it performed, click the link. Also, be sure to share your thoughts as well (on the video and the R51!)

https://youtu.be/daY7W0Zl_Jc

Hello Mr. Funk,
i saw your video. here's been my continued experience regarding issues that might have been affecting your R51 with respect to the Gold dots.
1. on inserting a full mag, keep a finger on the mag release so you can feel the mag release snap so that you know the magazine is latched in. my mags make sounds when pushed home that sounds a lot like a latch clicking and more than once i tried to rack the slide, didn't pick up a round, and noticed the magazine was poking out the bottom of the grip a little bit. so make sure the mag is seated.
2. i had to put about 10 cycles through my mags before i could declare them reliable. i think the new springs just needed to take a set. this might be contributing to the issues you had with gold dots.
3. make sure when you load the magazines that the rounds are fully to the back of the magazine.
4. put some more rounds through the pistol. once i got past the first few magazine cycles i had no issues. that's why i recommend about 10 load and unload cycles. practice isn't a bad thing. you get familiar with the new pistol anyway. FMJs have been 100% from the get-go.

i had some issues with nosler hollowpoints not cycling 100%. didn't bother me, i run Winchester PDX1 124gr. +P for carry which have been 100% reliable. now after 500+ through it i might go back and re-test the Noslers.

also, and you'll hear the common complaint, the pistol shoots low. mine does. even with a "combat" sight picture, i.e. the front dot covering the target. i have a 0.140" front sight on order from Dawson Precision that i'm hoping will fix the issue. at 7 yards not so much of a big deal, at 25 yards kind of annoying. it's so convenient to carry compared to a full size auto that i had hopes of it also doubling as a small game pistol when out on hikes in the woods. but i need to get it to shoot higher before i'll be happy employing it in a small game role.

mine seems to run +Ps just fine. also this has a much lower bore axis than just about any other 9mm i have ever tried. there's almost no perceptible muzzle flip. my trigger pull, while crisp, started out kind of heavy compared to a target trigger. it's pull weight has gone down as the round count increased. people call it getting broken in. i suspect as the parts rub against each other the micro burrs get worn down. when i took mine apart and looked, the inside was as nicely machined as the outside. the barrel ramp came polished from the factory. i was a bit impressed. i like the short single action pull much better than the long pull on striker fired autos.

the more i plink with this, the more i like it. it carries effortlessly. it fits my hand well. it balances in my hand better than the tactical tupperware in my opinion. and it looks cool. i also like the fact that it's hammer fired (though internal) rather than striker fired. makes for a nicer trigger pull, and, i think, a more reliable ignition, though i have no proof of that impression.

put some more rounds through it. it gets better with use.

tdbru wrote:Hello Mr. Funk,
i saw your video. here's been my continued experience regarding issues that might have been affecting your R51 with respect to the Gold dots.
1. on inserting a full mag, keep a finger on the mag release so you can feel the mag release snap so that you know the magazine is latched in. my mags make sounds when pushed home that sounds a lot like a latch clicking and more than once i tried to rack the slide, didn't pick up a round, and noticed the magazine was poking out the bottom of the grip a little bit. so make sure the mag is seated.
2. i had to put about 10 cycles through my mags before i could declare them reliable. i think the new springs just needed to take a set. this might be contributing to the issues you had with gold dots.
3. make sure when you load the magazines that the rounds are fully to the back of the magazine.
4. put some more rounds through the pistol. once i got past the first few magazine cycles i had no issues. that's why i recommend about 10 load and unload cycles. practice isn't a bad thing. you get familiar with the new pistol anyway. FMJs have been 100% from the get-go.

i had some issues with nosler hollowpoints not cycling 100%. didn't bother me, i run Winchester PDX1 124gr. +P for carry which have been 100% reliable. now after 500+ through it i might go back and re-test the Noslers.

also, and you'll hear the common complaint, the pistol shoots low. mine does. even with a "combat" sight picture, i.e. the front dot covering the target. i have a 0.140" front sight on order from Dawson Precision that i'm hoping will fix the issue. at 7 yards not so much of a big deal, at 25 yards kind of annoying. it's so convenient to carry compared to a full size auto that i had hopes of it also doubling as a small game pistol when out on hikes in the woods. but i need to get it to shoot higher before i'll be happy employing it in a small game role.

mine seems to run +Ps just fine. also this has a much lower bore axis than just about any other 9mm i have ever tried. there's almost no perceptible muzzle flip. my trigger pull, while crisp, started out kind of heavy compared to a target trigger. it's pull weight has gone down as the round count increased. people call it getting broken in. i suspect as the parts rub against each other the micro burrs get worn down. when i took mine apart and looked, the inside was as nicely machined as the outside. the barrel ramp came polished from the factory. i was a bit impressed. i like the short single action pull much better than the long pull on striker fired autos.

the more i plink with this, the more i like it. it carries effortlessly. it fits my hand well. it balances in my hand better than the tactical tupperware in my opinion. and it looks cool. i also like the fact that it's hammer fired (though internal) rather than striker fired. makes for a nicer trigger pull, and, i think, a more reliable ignition, though i have no proof of that impression.

put some more rounds through it. it gets better with use.

Thank you for sharing your experience. As I said in the video, I really want to like the R51. I too like the way it fits my hand, I like the styling, and I like its operating system as well as it's light weight and compact design. The jury is still out on my trigger. I have not weighed it, but it feels kind of heavy. Hopefully, like yours, it will get better with time and use.

Last week, I called Remington customer service and discussed the issues I had while making the video. According to the representative I spoke with, the magazines come with "over-powered" springs. He suggested (as did you) that I should shoot the pistol some more and see if the issues go away. During my second outing this past weekend, I started to have the same type of failures with ball ammo that I was having with the Speer Gold Dots on my previous outing. Most, if not all, occurred on the first round fired (as in 1 round in the chamber and 7 loaded in the magazine).

All indications are that the magazines are loosing control of the top cartridge when they are fully loaded. This is consistent with the premise that the magazine springs are over-tensioned. A second call to Remington CS yesterday resulted in two new magazines being shipped to me. The representative I spoke with yesterday also suggested I clip one or two coils off the mag spring. He said he has made that recommendation to other customers who have subsequently reported flawless functioning in a formerly problematic R51. Since I have two new mags inbound, I'm going to give that a try with the two I have now. I will let you know how that turns out!

HRF

Mr. Funk,
i leave my magazines fully loaded during storage. i am thinking, though know not enough about spring properties, that this helps take some of the tension out of the magazine springs or gives them a "set".

seating a fully loaded magazine into an R51 with a closed slide is tough as you are compressing an already full magazine even further by pushing down on the top round a little. this has caused for me in the past issues with the magazine latch not latching because i didn't get the magazine pushed up fully enough. that's why i feel for the magazine latch to pop when i push a fully loaded magazine into the R51 with a closed slide. this, by the way, has gotten easier so i think the spring tension in the magazines is reducing over time. i worry about clipping the spring, as some have done, down the road when the springs do get weaker and being left with too weak a magazine spring.

an idea that occurred to me that might help, though i haven't tried it, is to take a small dowel stick and simply push the follower all the way to the bottom and release about 50 times. this might speed up the magazine spring taking a set. however it is fun enough to shoot that i prefer to get the 50 compression cycles done by going through ammo.

the shorter front sights (0.140" tall) are on their way from Dawson Precision. when i get them put in i'll let you know how much the POI raises.

based upon the shooting results of mine, i would venture to say that the R51 was designed with 115gr. ammo in mind and a combat sight picture. heavier bullets, in my R51, seem to shoot lower and lower as the weight goes up. i am fond of the 124-130 gr weight so am hoping the shorter front sight will help bring the POI with this weight closer to the POA. we shall see.
best regards,
tdbru

tdbru wrote:Mr. Funk,
i leave my magazines fully loaded during storage. i am thinking, though know not enough about spring properties, that this helps take some of the tension out of the magazine springs or gives them a "set".

seating a fully loaded magazine into an R51 with a closed slide is tough as you are compressing an already full magazine even further by pushing down on the top round a little. this has caused for me in the past issues with the magazine latch not latching because i didn't get the magazine pushed up fully enough. that's why i feel for the magazine latch to pop when i push a fully loaded magazine into the R51 with a closed slide. this, by the way, has gotten easier so i think the spring tension in the magazines is reducing over time. i worry about clipping the spring, as some have done, down the road when the springs do get weaker and being left with too weak a magazine spring.

an idea that occurred to me that might help, though i haven't tried it, is to take a small dowel stick and simply push the follower all the way to the bottom and release about 50 times. this might speed up the magazine spring taking a set. however it is fun enough to shoot that i prefer to get the 50 compression cycles done by going through ammo.

the shorter front sights (0.140" tall) are on their way from Dawson Precision. when i get them put in i'll let you know how much the POI raises.

based upon the shooting results of mine, i would venture to say that the R51 was designed with 115gr. ammo in mind and a combat sight picture. heavier bullets, in my R51, seem to shoot lower and lower as the weight goes up. i am fond of the 124-130 gr weight so am hoping the shorter front sight will help bring the POI with this weight closer to the POA. we shall see.
best regards,
tdbru

Thanks again! I'll be interested to learn how much difference the new front sight makes. One positive thing I discovered last weekend is that using the "combat sight picture" raised the point of impact considerably with my R51. It was actually pretty close to point of aim with the 115 grain ball ammo I was shooting (which consisted of 50 rounds of Browning, and 50 rounds of Blaser Brass). As an FYI, between the week I recorded the video above, and this past weekend's shooting of the R51, I left both magazines fully loaded in hopes the springs would relax a bit. I also alternated keeping one or the other inserted in the pistol's mag well just to depress the spring/top round a little bit further. Even so, as noted above, the performance was even worse. I got several of the failures where the top round completely jettisoned from the magazine and was captured between the top rear surface of the ejection port and the back of the barrel hood. I even had a couple of instances where the top round cleared the ejection port with the fired case, and the next round in the column fed properly into the chamber! I had a single "nose-down" FTF, that I can't equate to the magazine, and a single failure to eject a fired case. The latter I think is also related to the mag spring tension. With the top round bearing against the bottom of the locking block, I suspect the slide movement was impeded. Hence, the failure to eject.

For theses reasons, I think my mag springs are plenty strong enough to forfeit a coil or two. If I didn't have two new ones on the way, I might think twice about cutting the springs. As they are, however, I don't mind experimenting a bit with the older ones to see if I can cure their ills.

HRF

Mr. Funk,
i think sometimes nose dives happen because the slide doesn't come back far enough to get the locking block breech face back behind the top cartridge in the magazine for whatever reason, probably low recoil impulse from lightly loaded ammo with light weight bullets, and the notch on the bottom of the breech face of the locking block only comes back far enough to catch in the extraction groove of the top round. then when the slide moves forward, along with the action block, the action block just rotates the nose of the cartridge down in the magazine rather than stripping it off the magazine and into the chamber because the breech face of the locking block is not behind the cartridge. happens most often on the top round of a full magazine with stiff magazine springs and low recoil ammo. that's my theory. when i load a full magazine against a closed slide, particularly when the magazines were new and had stiffer springs, and pulled the slide back, as the locking block bottom edge dropped into the extractor groove (or rather the follower& spring pushed the top cartridge up so that the extractor groove was pushed up into bottom front lip on the locking block near the bolt face) i would hear a click and thinking the slide was all the way back, i would release the slide. this caused the top round to rotate nose down into the magazine. when i made sure that i really did pull the slide all the way back so that the breech block face was behind the top cartridge, rather than just back to the extractor groove, which on new magazines took a bunch of pull, and quick too, and then released the slide, the locking block would strip off the top round successfully and chamber it. at least that's my theory for nose down jams. Good luck with the coil clipping. i know some have reported good success with it.
best regards,
tdbru

Sooner or later we’ll figure this darn thing out!

HRF

I watched the video. It saddens me that Remington hasn't already ironed the wrinkles out of the gun. Like many others, I think they really want to like the gun, but Remington isn't exactly making it easy to do.

In seeing that the gun is consistently hitting low, with no aftermarket (or factory) sights that are adjustable, adds another reason for me to skip over it if ever shopping for another gun.

I do appreciate how you have been really straightforward with your video and not doctored it all up like many other folks on youtube occasionally do. And for that reason, I'm going to subscribe to your channel because I think you're a gun guy, and let the gun speak for itself.

Mr. Funk,
i got to thinking, my favorite loads are 124gr. - 130gr. betwen 1150 and 1200 fps. these generate lots of recoil momentum compared to standard pressure 115 gr. loads i think. my favorite factory plinking load is the Win 124gr. NATO load. the box says 1200 fps. that's the same weight and speed as Win PDX1 +P though the NATO box doesn't say +P on it anywhere. i load my hand loads to the same speed with the same weight. and my R51 is not giving me any problems. the factory hollowpoints that feed fine, now that i think about it are 124-130gr. +P loads. the Nosler HP that caused an issue, though was 124gr., chrono'd, if i recall, about 150 fps slower than listed velocity (just a little over 1000 fps rather than 1150). any HPs i've tried that chrono'd anywhere close to 1200 fps worked just fine. 115gr. ball rounds work fine, but i've not tried 115gr. HPs, just no interest i guess. so i am wondering out loud if, while the gun is still new and the springs are taking a set, if more recoil momentum is the ticket to reliable functioning? if i recall your vid was with 115gr. stuff. try some Win 124gr. NATO, and some Win PDX1 124gr. +P and see if you have any functioning issues. maybe these things require some stiff loads during break-in??
-tdbru

tdbru wrote:Mr. Funk,
i got to thinking, my favorite loads are 124gr. - 130gr. betwen 1150 and 1200 fps. these generate lots of recoil momentum compared to standard pressure 115 gr. loads i think. my favorite factory plinking load is the Win 124gr. NATO load. the box says 1200 fps. that's the same weight and speed as Win PDX1 +P though the NATO box doesn't say +P on it anywhere. i load my hand loads to the same speed with the same weight. and my R51 is not giving me any problems. the factory hollowpoints that feed fine, now that i think about it are 124-130gr. +P loads. the Nosler HP that caused an issue, though was 124gr., chrono'd, if i recall, about 150 fps slower than listed velocity (just a little over 1000 fps rather than 1150). any HPs i've tried that chrono'd anywhere close to 1200 fps worked just fine. 115gr. ball rounds work fine, but i've not tried 115gr. HPs, just no interest i guess. so i am wondering out loud if, while the gun is still new and the springs are taking a set, if more recoil momentum is the ticket to reliable functioning? if i recall your vid was with 115gr. stuff. try some Win 124gr. NATO, and some Win PDX1 124gr. +P and see if you have any functioning issues. maybe these things require some stiff loads during break-in??
-tdbru

Unfortunately, I have encountered problems with my pistol using +P ammunition. The 124 grain Gold Dots in the video are rated +P, and the 124 grain Remington Golden Sabers I tried last weekend are also +P. I wish the fix for my pistol was as easy as switching to s stouter load.

Howard