Ten Hyped Pistols That Let Owners Down, Including the R51 and P320

Walt Harlan runs through ten pistols that walked out of SHOT Show or a marketing campaign as the gun everyone wanted, then landed hard once regular owners got their hands on them. In a video from GUN NEWS, he pairs each launch with what actually happened a year or two later, from recalls to bankruptcies to lawsuits.

Key points

• Remington's one-two punch: the R51 wowed SHOT Show 2014 but shipped with feeding and reset failures so bad Remington recalled every unit, and the follow-up RP9 in 2017 still had slide and feed-ramp issues despite promises of better quality control.
• Kel-Tec PMR-30: the 30-round .22 mag pistol sold for up to $850, but owners found keyholed targets from a barrel twist problem, and even after a redesign Kel-Tec admitted it could still keyhole with common CCI ammo.
• Legal trouble for SIG's P320: Harlan notes departments like Dallas, Philadelphia's transit police, Washington State and Denver pulled or paused the gun, and juries have split, with a Georgia verdict against SIG and an $11 million Philadelphia award alongside SIG wins.
• Short-lived darlings: the Hudson H9 impressed shooters but the company collapsed in 2019 with fewer than 9,000 made, leaving warranty guns as orphaned parts.
• Slow redemptions: Harlan credits Walther's CCP M2 and SIG's current P365 for eventually fixing early-model problems, years after the hype faded.

Quick take

Harlan's argument is simple: wait a year and read what owners say before trusting a launch-week review, and this video backs that up with specific models, prices and outcomes rather than vague gripes.

Watch the full video: GUN NEWS