So I purchased the new Remington RM380 and it was received by my FFL today. I am both impressed and disappointed with it in different ways. I knew what to expect, but I wasn't interested in buying one because of Remington's continued quality control issues for the past 15+ years. The $100 rebate pushed me over the edge and so I ordered one for $242 last week. (I've heard some shops are as low as $229). But $242 was the cheapest price I could find and with the rebate continuing through December might be the cheapest I'll find. I thought at worst even if I didn't get the rebate I'd have a cheap practice piece that I could use at the range instead of my Rohrbaugh R9, since I don't like to put miles on it.
I have to say out of the box my impressions of its fit and finish for the price range were pretty decent. I know on youtube Hickock45 had an issue with the slide on his first one sent to him by Bud's, but I don't see any such issue popping up with this one. Unfortunately there is a good ding mark on the front of the slide that I will be communicating with Remington about. I pulled this gun new out of the plastic from an online dealer less than 1 hr after it was delivered to my gunshop, so it obviously came that way from the factory.
I nearly ordered the laser version as I was wondering if I could put that laser on my R9, but they changed the design of the trigger guard so I decided to get the regular version. On review of both I probably made the right decision, but I'm interested in hearing about anyone who has been able to make a CT laser for the RM380 work on an R9.
The recoil spring is fairly light, but coupled with the heavy hammer spring I feel that it is about right for the .380 round. I'll see when I take it to the range. The magazine release is ambidextrous and has and overly light weight spring as well. I might have to remedy this in the future with a stronger spring if I can locate the right one out of Wolff's inventory. The mag release design is clever though, so I don't think it would be easy to accidentally release since it is curved to the shape of the grip. And the mag release is ambidextrous. So I can push it either way on either side of the frame to release the mag. The biggest bad news of the magazines is that you will not be able to use them in an R9. They have a rib welded into the back spine so that the .380 ammo sits forward and in about the same place 9x19 does in a normal R9 magazine. One of the mags has a small ding on it as well. But then again, it's not a huge issue for me.
The magazines are good quality. They are parkerized and the spring is decent quality as well. Rohrbaugh grips will not work on this gun as there are cut outs for both the slide stop and the magazine release. The checkered stippling on the front of the grip of the frame is really nice. There is a plastic insert where the trigger goes into that it very sharp and I feel like I will have to file down. I feel this is something that should have been done at the factory level, not the buyer level.
Last observation I noticed after receiving it is that the extractor does not seem to be near the quality of my R9. I can see that my R9's extractor is made of spring steel like my old Beretta's, and bends inward when no round is in the chamber, while the RM380's is flush with the slide regardless.