Remington Reboots R51
You may remember our coverage of Remington’s new R51 pistol from our SHOT Show 2014 coverage. It was a promising pistol that looked nice, felt good in the hand and, in theory, should have been a pleasant shooter. However, with no working models to try out at the SHOT Show range day, nobody got to see how it performed for themselves.
Once production models started making their way into the hands of shooters, reports started coming out about malfunctions and reliability issues. Then, as we mentioned on Twitter last week, Remington removed all mentions of the redesigned Pedersen handgun from their website and rumors started flying about what could be wrong with with it, whether it was going away for good, or what.
Remington has now released a statement with additional information about the botched first-run of R51s, saying that the pistols “did not meet Remington’s performance criteria.” Once the next, hopefully perfected, production run is going, purchasers of the first-run pistols will have the opportunity to return it and receive a new one along with extra magazines and a case.
Earlier this year, we launched the innovative R51 subcompact pistol to critical acclaim. During testing, numerous experts found the pistol to function flawlessly. In fact, they found it to have lower felt recoil, lower muzzle rise and better accuracy and concealability than other products in its class.
However, after initial commercial sales, our loyal customers notified us that some R51 pistols had performance issues. We immediately ceased production to re-test the product. While we determined the pistols were safe, certain units did not meet Remington’s performance criteria. The performance problems resulted from complications during our transition from prototype to mass production. These problems have been identified and solutions are being implemented, with an expected production restart in October.
Anyone who purchased an R51 may return it and receive a new R51 pistol, along with two additional magazines and a custom Pelican case, by calling Remington at (800) 243-9700.
The new R51 will be of the same exceptional quality as our test pistols, which performed flawlessly.
We appreciate your patience and support.
The Remington R51 IS BACK on their website. As of November 17, 2014 they have failed to respond to my request
(s) as to when they will ship my new replacement to me. They’ve had my “old” one since August 12, 2014. Annoyed? Yeah, I guess I am.