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New R51 owner: Greetings!

PostPosted: Sun Jul 22, 2018 10:36 am
by PaterNosher
A little background on what lead to my purchasing an R51:
I asked myself which of the various guns I owned was I most comfortable and confident with for daily carry. The answer came back...my IJ70-Baikal Makarov .380. To me, the size and shape were ideal. And it even fits some of my more useful 1911 holsters. However, the sights are rather crude and I don't favor slide mounted one-sided safeties. (Don't bother suggesting Walther PPK's. I've owned two of them. For all their quality, I didn't like the way they shot (for me) and sold them on in short order. ...And I wanted it in 9mm.

I began my search for a 9mm that would give me the same carry characteristics and discovered, eventually, the R51...a gun which I had previously not known about. That in itself was curious...How come I had never encountered this gun before? I keep up with all things "pistol" yet discovering the R51 was a complete surprise.

So I dived into the murky waters of gun reviews and forum posts and read all the good and bad...and decided to take a chance.

Fast-forward to now: 2 range sessions of 100 rds each 115 gr Fiocci FMJ. 4 different magazines, no mods whatsoever to gun or magazines.
+ Gun went BANG every time - No feeding, chambering or magazine issues at all.
+ Recoil is quite comfortable.
+ Single-action trigger feels quite familiar and normal to me. (I add that part because the reason I no longer own any Glocks is because of their "I'm pulling the trigger...when is this da-n thing finally going to go off?!" trigger.
+ Yes, POI is lower than I'm used to.
+ Yes, assembly/disassembly is difficult.

Advice: DO NOT attempt to follow the assembly instructions in the printed manual that comes with the gun. They are somewhere between "incomplete" and "incorrect". The best assembly instructions I've found so far is the Remington produced video on youtube. Though, either their demonstrator has extremely strong hands, or they are using en extremely weak recoil spring for the demonstration.

I'm ready to try it with some of the self-defense rounds I'm interested in: Polycase Inceptor especially. Gorilla Silverback, Fiocci Extrema.

If all works out, I may buy a 2nd R51...just because. Oh, by the way...the R51 fits the same 1911 holsters that my Makarov does.

Re: New R51 owner: Greetings!

PostPosted: Sun Jul 22, 2018 4:04 pm
by hrfunk
Good for you! I wish I could echo your comments regarding the R51’s reliability, but unfortunately, my experience has been different. I hope yours continues to serve you well. Welcome to the forum!

Howard

Re: New R51 owner: Greetings!

PostPosted: Mon Jul 23, 2018 1:23 pm
by Scorpion8
Welcome aboard and howdy!

Re: New R51 owner: Greetings!

PostPosted: Mon Jul 23, 2018 3:45 pm
by PaterNosher
hrfunk wrote:Good for you! I wish I could echo your comments regarding the R51’s reliability, but unfortunately, my experience has been different. I hope yours continues to serve you well. Welcome to the forum!

Howard


Thanks. Watched your #2 video. (Yeah, rounds getting jammed in the action and live rounds flipped on the ground are definitely "not good".) One thing I noticed in my range sessions was sometimes the mag didn't want to seat all the way using just the palm push method and I had to assist by pushing the mag release button. I'm keeping an eye on that. I wonder if your feeding problem could have anything to do with perhaps the mag not being seated as deeply as it should. You might try a test as before but also using the mag release as you seat the mag and see if theres any difference.

Re: New R51 owner: Greetings!

PostPosted: Fri Jul 27, 2018 8:28 am
by 5 iron
Glad the R51 is working out for you. I like the R51 for the same reasons that you mentioned.