Friday, 22 July 2016 11:30

Remington R51 to return August!

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Remington R51 from their website Remington R51 from their website remington.com

I know that a lot of people are not excited about the Remington R-51, especially with the defective launch and continued problems. To make matters worse Remington said it would be fixed, recalled them and then went silent. 
All references were removed and even at SHOT 2016 when I asked it was definitely the 'elephant' that they didn't want to talk about. They did confirm that it wasn't dead, but people were skeptical - how many times have we heard that before? Recent in my memory is the VLTOR Fortis/BrenTen, which I didn't even bother asking them about. But I digress.

I received an email that the new R51 will be launched August 12th and there is a big page presence on their web page:
https://www.remington.com/handguns/remington-r51/remington-r51?utm_source=bronto&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Image%20-%20Learn%20More&utm_content=THE%20PERFECTED%2051&utm_campaign=Remington%20Newsletter%E2%80%94%20R51&_bta_tid=25753419951054721914114673946897400905042185745505745581141958729401856

I am a big fan of the original R51 and the Pederson action. Yes, I understand that it is antiquated and scaling it up to 9mm +P was a tall order to begin with. However, kudos to Remington for even trying something out of the box, and at least in theory should reduce the felt recoil. I like big rounds, but quite frankly have you shot a Ruger LC9? Not horrible, but not exactly fun either.

At Shot 2014 I was super impressed with the sample R51's that they had (and they had a lot). I was suspicious at the time when they said that they were not ready to be SHOT MEDIA Days. In hindsight, it was a bad sign.
The pistol size, thinness, grip, etc. were very well designed and I said that if they worked I would get one. I guess we will see this time.

Incidentally, original MSRP (2014) was supposed to be $399. It looks like they are up $50 to $450. Still not too bad.