How to Disassemble Remington R51
Remington R51 Disassembly Tips
Take your time with this gun and don’t get frustrated. This is a difficult gun to take apart and put back together.
Put the parts on the benchtop in groups and in an order that makes sense for reassembly.
A lot of pins on this gun are larger on one side than the other so have a starter punch handy. This will prevent you from breaking any of your punches. You can easily make a starter punch by grinding down a broken punch.
Most of the pins on this gun are punched out left to right.
Before getting started on this disassembly, make sure you have the following tools:
Screwdriver Set
Punch Set with Starter Punch
Nylon/Brass Hammer
Bench Blocks/Hockey Pucks with Drilled Hole
Pick and Hook Set
Needle Nose Pliers
* Disclaimer: I don’t know the name of every part on this gun so if you need a reference please use this parts diagram: https://www.gunpartscorp.com/gun-manufacturer/remington/auto-pistols-rem/r51
Step 1: Field Strip
Line the notch in the slide up with the boss on the take-down lever by pulling the slide back. From the other side of the gun, push out the take-down lever while holding the slide back.
Continue to hold the slide in place and grab the knurling on the barrel. Release the slide and pull the whole slide off the frame.
Dump out the breech block. We will disassemble that in the next step.
Before letting tension off the barrel, make sure it’s straight up and down. Slowly let the tension off. As the barrel comes back, lift up. This will cause the barrel to be in a position where it can move freely back and forth but cannot be taken out because the bushing doesn’t move.
With the barrel all the way back—completely out of the front of the slide—pull the bushing forward (you might need to use a punch for this) and when you get to the notch in the slide, pull up on the bushing. This will angle the bushing upwards so that the barrel is free.
Slide the barrel out while continuing to hold the bushing and spring down (so they don’t fly across your shop) and then pull the bushing and spring out.
Step 2: Breech Block Disassembly
On the top of the breech block, remove the pin holding in the extractor. Punch it out from the bottom to the top.
Remove the extractor and the plastic buffer (used as a spring).
On the side of the breech block, remove the pin holding the firing pin and spring in. To prevent the firing pin from shooting across the room when you remove the pin, hold the firing pin in place while punching it out left to right. Pull out the firing pin and dump out the spring.
Step 3: Frame Disassembly
The grips are removed with T15 Torx Drive. Remove the grip screws. They should have a tiny rubber washer on them. Don’t lose them if they stay in the grips!
The grips are holding in two pins. While they won’t spring out, they will fall out so just be careful not to tip them out of the gun.
Before removing the main spring retaining pin, you’ll need to release the tension on the spring by releasing the hammer. Put your thumb in the way of the hammer and pull the trigger. Let the hammer down.
The plunger on the bottom of the grip will want to fly out when you take the main spring pin out so be sure to keep a finger over it. Punch the main spring retaining pin out left to right. Remove the plunger, spring, and detent from the main spring housing and separate the three parts. Pull the grip safety backstrap straight out. Don’t rock it out or else it will get stuck in the frame.
Now it’s time to remove the grip safety mechanism which is held in by the two pins that were kept in place by the grips. While removing these pins, keep the back of the frame angled down so the spring doesn’t fly out and get lost in your shop. Push out the two pins—top pin first. These are friction fit so you should be able to easily push them through.
Remove the hammer pin. This is a one directional pin with knurling on it. Punch it out left to right using a larger starter punch first. Slide the hammer out the bottom of the gun.
Take the grip safety spring out. From the back, turn it 90 degrees and pull it out.
Remove the sear pin. Again, this is a one directional pin with knurling on it so punch it out left to right. The hammer block is black with a silver spring and the sear is silver with a red spring. Those four part should just fall out the back of the gun.
Remove the disconnector by rotating down and pulling it out from the bottom of the slide.
Remove the ejector. While it is being held in by a pin sticking halfway out through the hole, there’s no need to remove the pin. Just push the ejector over, out of the way of the pin and pull up.
Take out the ambidextrous magazine release button by pushing forward and down on the spring mechanism inside the gun. Then pull the magazine release button out either side.
Punch the magazine release spring pin out. This is another one directional pin with knurling on it. Again, punch it out left to right. The magazine catch and its spring will dump out when the pin is removed.
Punch the trigger pin out left to right. Remove the trigger by pulling it all the way forward, rotating it, and then pushing it out the back of the gun. Slide the trigger spring off.
Remove the slide stop return spring—the final spring of the disassembly—from the frame. Put a punch in the way of the spring to prevent it from rotating. Then grab the opposite leg with a needle nosed pliers and pull it up and out.
Remove the trigger shoe from the trigger bar. This is a roll pin so can be punched out either way.
That’s how to completely disassemble a Remington R51. We hope you found this video and explanation useful. If you have any questions, please comment below. Thank you for reading!
