Remington RP9

[railroader]

Well I went and did it. With all the deals on the Remington RP9 pistols I kind of got sucked in. I ordered one from Brownells on Sunday for $289 shipped and it has a $100 rebate. It should get to my FFL Wednesday so I shall soon find out if I made a big mistake or I'm pleasantly surprised. Anyone else here have this gun and how does it shoot for you?

[Siggy-06]

I got one a few months ago, also during a rebate. The gun itself worked great, no issues feeding or extracting. My biggest complaints so far are: the sights are a bit on the small side but still work fine, and the grip isn't as comfortable as some other pistols(even with different backstraps). I received my rebate under 3 weeks! All in All, if you need a HI capacity 9mm under $300, the RP9 is another great option next to the SR9E and SD9VE.

[GarandTd]

Dang! That's a good deal. $189 after rebate. Hard to not get sucked in.

[railroader]

Wow, I knew they weren't very popular but I was hoping for more feed back. Fedex came to my FFL today and he wasn't home so I'm still waiting to get my gun. Hopefully tomorrow.

[FrankenMauser]

Dang! That's a good deal. $189 after rebate. Hard to not get sucked in.

No joke.
I paid $199, plus some fees. It ended up at $237 total, before I sent the rebate in.


As mentioned...

I bought one a while back.
Won't feed hollow points or any of my cast bullets.
Won't feed anything from the top of the magazine with 17 or 18 rounds loaded.
Dead trigger every 20-30 cycles/rounds.
Twice, the trigger has dropped the striker while resetting.
Jams up during take-down, and is difficult to assemble. (It shouldn't be ... but the recoil guide rod has to be lined up PERFECTLY, or the gun won't come apart or go back together.)
And more...

Not happy.

Judge yours with an open mind.
But mine has not been satisfactory. I recently ran across the MAC videos on the RP9, and my experience is very, very similar to his first pistol.


Things that I do like: (You didn't see that coming! )
Recoil spring / guide rod assembly. Solid. Captured. I like it.
Easy take-down (in theory).
The coating on the magazines.
Full "count" windows on the magazines.
Sights. -- They're a common complaint from other buyers, but I kind of like them.
The size. For a full-size pistol, it's a full size pistol. It's not pretending to be anything else.


If I hadn't made a deal with some one for my malfunctioning RP9, it would be on its way back to Remington. As is, I'm waiting on the idiot to send me a copy of his FFL (or his LGS's FFL). Maybe I should go play with it some more...

[VoodooMountain]

I really wish Remington would get their act together. It won’t be long before they close their doors at this rate.

Still, for $200 it MIGHT be worth getting one to tinker with.

[railroader]

FrankenMauser, ouch I really hope mine runs better than yours. I got a S&W Shield awhile back with a rebate for $225 and it runs like a top. I am hoping for the same with the Remington. I will shoot it soon enough and post the results.

[carguychris]

Originally Posted by FrankenMauser

Dead trigger every 20-30 cycles/rounds.

That's an intentional feature to help you tell if you're jerking or flinching. j/k

Originally Posted by FrankenMauser

Twice, the trigger has dropped the striker while resetting.

Whoa, two-round burst?

[railroader]

That's an intentional feature to help you tell if you're jerking or flinching. j/k

Now that's funny and true.

[FrankenMauser]

Too soon.
Too soon.

[railroader]

Well I picked up my new RP9 and here are my first impressions. The good first, I like the feel of the grip, the sights ok and the trigger seems decent. Now for the bad. When cleaning the barrel I checked out the rifling and the tool that cut the groove looks like it was chattering. The front half grooves by the muzzle look fine and chamber half shows machining marks that look dark. Now for the mags, I could barely get in 16 rounds let alone 18. Anyway I insert the mag and go to chamber a round and it gets stuck at the bottom of the feed ramp. It did this several times. When it did feed then I went to rack the slide again and the slide was stuck. I dropped the mag and the loaded mag came out along with a loose round that had popped out of the mag.The loose round was what had the slide locked up. With the round and the mag out of the gun the slide racked fine and ejected the chambered round. It seems that the problem is because of the mags. They are 45acp size mags with feed lips that are spaced for 9mm. They don't hold the rounds securely and they allow the rounds to tilt down which causes them to jam into the feed ramp. I will shoot it tomorrow and post the results.

[kozak6]

It's reported that they are reusing Para .38 super mags with a different floorplate, which is likely to be causing feeding issues.

I'm not sure the 9mm version is worth it when EAA's Sar pistols aren't much more and have a good track record. I'm not brave enough for the RP9, at least.

I'm hoping the .45 version will work better if it ever gets released.

[FrankenMauser]

I'm hoping the .45 version will work better if it ever gets released.

Don't hope.
Just forget.
Remington doesn't deserve it.

[armoredman]

I was kind of considering this pistol for a cheap bug out gun, but I want one that actually works...and darn near everything I've seen has been negative. Remington should stick to what they know.

[GarandTd]

The SAR, @ under $300, is a huge value, not just cheap. I have around 3000+ rounds through mine. Only hiccups were with a couple of bad rounds of Tula and I'm confident it was the rounds, not the gun. I would buy another Sar in a heartbeat.

Shame what's happening with Remington.

[railroader]

Well I went and shot the RP9 today. Overall it ran pretty good. If I loaded the mags to 16 rounds and not top them out at 18 I had no issues. At 17 or 18 rounds the first couple of rounds nose dived into the feed ramp. I ran brass and steel jacked ammo. One thing it only threw the factory ammo brass only about 3 feet so light handloads probably wouldn't work. Recoil is very light. The recoil seemed lighter than my CZ SP-01 Shadow which is a heavy steel gun. The sights were pretty much dead on with a combat hold with the front dot covering the target. Once I get the mags more broke in I will see if I can load them all the way up and have them work right. If not I will call Remington.

[GarandTd]

Glad to hear it was mostly positive.

[FrankenMauser]

Good to hear.
I hope it works out.

I may see about taking mine back out this weekend to experiment with it. The idiot I made a deal with still hasn't sent me an FFL for shipping...

[FrankenMauser]

Addendum:
I've been sitting here, watching some prairie dog poppin' videos, while handling my RP9.

I just noticed that the front sight has a hole for a pin, but none is installed. And, to confuzzle things even more, the rear sight is drilled and tapped for a set screw. But... Not only is there no set screw installed, but the hole is not square with the slide or sight. It is at an angle that makes no sense at all.

I am a mechanically-inclined individual that fabricates things, repairs whatever is necessary, builds and modifies gun parts, and just has a pretty good general understanding (and I believe plenty of experience on the matter) of gun parts and mechanical principles. I see no way that putting a set screw in this rear sight would do anything but cause issues by forcing it to walk to one side while the screw was tightened.

What the deuce?

[railroader]

FrankenMauser, here's some info on the sights. I spoke with a Remington customer service guy yesterday about spare recoil springs for the Rp9 but I also asked them about the rear sight because it has no set screw. I was told an outside company made the sight sets and that's just the way they came. He said they are press fit so they don't need a screw. The trouble
with both sights having a hole for a roll pin and a screw is the customer doesn't know they are just press fit so they think something is missing. Also according to customer service they have one height front and rear sight so hopefully your gun shoots where you want it to.

[armoredman]

Classy manufacturing and customer service right there. Did they hire the engineers from Yugo, the car guys?

[railroader]

Originally Posted by armoredman

Classy manufacturing and customer service right there. Did they hire the engineers from Yugo, the car guys?

The guy in customer service was fine. He actually was very helpful. But I can see people calling up all the time about the set screw missing. Remington would have been better off putting a screw in there with loktite just so people wouldn't call about it.

[GarandTd]

That sight detail and the explanation by CS for it are a little unsettling.

[carguychris]

^^^ This isn't the first time I've heard credible rumors that Remington is farming out various aspects of RP9 production and/or using parts from other pistols to lower production costs.

Originally Posted by armoredman

Did they hire the engineers from Yugo, the car guys?

Probably not, but perhaps it would be better if they had, given the Communist tendency to continue producing and stockpiling spare parts beyond any reasonable need. This tendency underlies the ability of U.S. importers such as CAI to cobble together so many AKlones from surplus parts and sell them so cheap. I've heard from credible sources that you can still get virtually any Yugo part.

Back to the topic at hand...

IMHO Remington can't be making much of a profit on the RP9 at the prices they've been selling them for. They may be keeping the production line running merely to fulfill their obligations to their vendors (re: the rumors above). This may not bode well for the future of the product.