{"id":28186,"date":"2014-02-14T10:49:25","date_gmt":"2014-02-14T16:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/?p=28186"},"modified":"2014-02-14T10:50:16","modified_gmt":"2014-02-14T16:50:16","slug":"remington-r51-not-a-looker-but-why-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/remington-r51-not-a-looker-but-why-care\/28186\/","title":{"rendered":"Remington R51 – Not a looker, but why care?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RemingtonR51\"I\u2019m not a big fan of winter, or winter sports, nor the Winter Olympics. However, the Super Bowl is but a memory and baseball doesn\u2019t start for several months, and let\u2019s face it, the Olympics ARE a big deal.\u00a0\u00a0 There is an Olympic shooting sport, which was televised this year.\u00a0\u00a0 So, being iced in this week in Atlanta, I\u2019m spending an inordinate amount of time watching luge, snowboarding and speed skating.\u00a0 (Not so much figure skating but I did see the guy with the shoulder holster.)\u00a0 And while I do root for Team USA, I really find myself rooting for any athlete who is a good competitor, regardless of country, race, or sexual preference.\u00a0 Be good at your sport and be a good sport, then you\u2019ve got my vote.<\/p>\n

During commercials I\u2019m surfing the Internet for gun related items; reloading components, holsters and new guns.\u00a0 Like the new Remington R51.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m reading the reviews on many of the forum threads.\u00a0 One thing that sticks out about the R51 is eventually, in every discussion, someone (maybe everyone) will mention its looks.\u00a0\u00a0 I haven\u2019t done any empirical research but I don\u2019t think as much has been said about a gun\u2019s looks since the introduction of the Glock.\u00a0 (Actually, I think people still talk a lot about the Glock\u2019s looks\u00a0 and Gaston cries all the way to the bank every month.)<\/p>\n

Most people either like the R51\u2019s looks or hate them.\u00a0 People post things like, \u201cit\u2019s a fairly ugly gun\u2026\u201d or \u201cMaybe it will look better in person!\u201d2 or \u201cIt looks like something Ming the Merciless would carry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many mention it has a space age look and how it resembles its ancestral roots and it reminds them of the Makarov or the Whitney Wolverine.\u00a0\u00a0 But, is that how we should judge this gun?<\/p>\n

Now I rooted for and appreciated Julia Lipnitskaia\u2019s figure skating performance, regardless that she skates for Team Russia. I tip my hat to German gold medalist\u00a0Natalie Geisenbergerto for the fastest luge times.\u00a0 I don\u2019t care about their nationality, or their race, how they look or anything else.\u00a0 What I care about is how they perform.\u00a0 And shouldn\u2019t that be the same with the R51?\u00a0 With any gun, actually? What is its function?\u00a0 What \u201csport,\u201d what niche, is the R51 designed to fill?\u00a0 One wouldn\u2019t expect Natalie to figure skate nor Julie to luge.\u00a0 By the same measure the R51 shouldn\u2019t be expected to compete in USPSA.\u00a0 It\u2019s the function and performance within its intended application that\u2019s important.<\/p>\n

I can admire the STI unlimited guns. I can appreciate Turnbull\u2019s amazing creations. But I\u2019ll probably not buy any of those products.\u00a0 They do not fill any needs for me.\u00a0 I do appreciate and applaud their designs and execution.\u00a0 And there is nothing wrong with buying an object-d-arte.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m sure someone will do a gold in-lay engraving on an R51 eventually.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If that floats your boat, go for it.\u00a0\u00a0 But it seems to me far too many are criticizing new guns in general, and the R51 in particular, based on their looks and not their function.\u00a0 And for some reason the retro, space age look\u00a0 automatically gets ten points down, regardless of its intended purpose.\u00a0 It seems to me that everything about the exterior look of the R51 helps it meet its intended purpose, concealed carry.\u00a0\u00a0 Instead of putting it down because of looks they should be lauding it.<\/p>\n

I want to own one for no other reason than to wring it out; to test its meta and to have it prove it\u2019s a worthy contender for concealed carry.\u00a0\u00a0 I have a 1,000 rounds of ammo just waiting to shoot through one.\u00a0 I want to carry it, abuse it, torture it and see how it does.\u00a0 There hasn\u2019t been a really new pistol design produced in decades.\u00a0 Yes, I know this is based on a 100 year old design, but it hasn\u2019t been on the market for almost that long, so it\u2019s a \u201cnew\u201d concept against the current market.\u00a0 I think Remington is being a good sport and I\u2019m hoping the R51 will be good at its \u201csport.\u201d<\/p>\n

About the Author:<\/strong>
\n\"AlfSauve\"Alfred Sauv\u00e9 is an all around shooter and reloader.\u00a0 Having been introduced to shooting by his father at a very young age, he has an attitude of, \u201cif it goes \u2018bang\u2019 I want to try it.\u201d\u00a0 Alfred started reloading when Herter\u2019s was the biggest name in reloading equipment and has worked his way from a hammer and die, to hand tools, to progressive reloaders.\u00a0 A second generation American, he holds the principles of the founding fathers as manifested in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as sacred documents.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A veteran of the Vietnam War era, he was assigned to the USAF 437th Minuteman Wing and was a member of the USAF special recovery team.\u00a0\u00a0 Always interested in a different ways to shoot, he has competed in bowling pin, bullseye, PPC, IHMSA, GSSF, USPSA and IDPA.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I haven\u2019t done any empirical research, but I don\u2019t think as much has been said about a gun\u2019s looks since the introduction of the Glock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":28187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3317,116],"tags":[3262],"class_list":["post-28186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alf-sauve","category-bloggers","tag-remington-r51"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}