Inspired by the other thread discussing Remington’s present-days woes, it occurred to me that we could use a nostalgic Remington thread for balance
My .380 Remington 51, serial PA 30214, falls in the middle of the serial range for 1920, and thus was produced just about exactly a century ago.
John Pedersen designed an excellent pistol, but by the time production ramped up after WW I, the competition from Colt and Savage was well-established for over a decade and it never really caught on. Only about 65,000 were produced, and production dropped off rapidly after the peak years of 1919-1920.
It is unique in that it was the only compact pistol of the era that was first designed for the .380 and the majority of guns was produced in that caliber ; the later .32 version appeared in much smaller quantities. In the case of all other other major American and European models that offered both calibers, the .32 outproduced/outsold the .380 by a factor of 4:1 or more.
