The Remington R51, back in action.

Well, well. Remington is back at SHOT with an updated R51. This isn’t a huge surprise, but it is newsworthy. I’d figured they were going to try again. Back in October, I was at the NASGW Show in Little Rock, and Remington had massive banners at the entrance advertising the pistol. I figured it was either a resurection of the failed design, or the worst marketing blunder since New Coke.

Either way, they had the new guns at SHOT, and I waited until the end of the day Friday, right before the booth closed, to stop in. The crowds had gone, and I got the whole story–and I find it interesting.

It seems the problems at Remington had to do with the transfer from the hand-built process to the machine work. Using the same plans, the Remington folks were able to make guns that worked. When they automated the process, something wasn’t right.

Word in the Remington booth is that the problems have been solved, and the new guns are up to spec. They’ve also fixed some of the more common complaints. They made the gun less ratchety. They put set screws in the sights. They added a positive indicator in the reset of the trigger. And they made it work.

The new guns will ship with extra mags, and come in a Pelican case. Not bad. If you have one of the old ones, you may exchange it for free. If you want one of the new ones, they’ll be available as soon as Remington replaces all of the old ones. And they have a couple of other new designs fully realized, waiting in the wings. As soon as the R51 is up and running, they’ll be rolling out those, too.

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New pins should keep sights from sliding.

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The interior of the Pelican.

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A nice case for a gun like this.

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