You do realize about 90% of those malfunctions were Brown Bear steel case he kept going back to, over and over and over again, in the hopes it would magically start feeding better from the magazines, right? Kind of the same sketchy-ammo-sensitivity that RyeOnHam also ran into, come to think of it.
Wanna know what wasn't present this go-around? Bulged cases, locked slides, failure to chamber, dead triggers. I noticed all but I think one failure was a nose-dive in the magazine. A type of failure not at all uncommon for practically every type of handgun there is, for at least one particular bullet shape or cartridge combination. It'd have been nice if he had measured the OAL of the Brown Bear vs. his other ammo that worked pretty well, since it is well known that most magazine designs only function well within certain OAL limits.
It'd have been nice if it worked with that particular brand of cheap ammo along with every other cheap ammo that was tested (i.e. Fiocchi), but alas that one variety appears to not feed well. The horror...the horror... Lot of 1911 owners out there that would kill for that kind of reliability
The R51 has exactly one source of mags (Mec Gar, I believe) and frankly, they aren't the greatest. Thin weld seams nearly ground through, and sharp, burred feed lips. Remington tweaked the follower a bit this time around, but the metal of the magazine doesn't look particularly nicer, and it is telling that the issues appear exclusively related to the magazine this time (before it was more often failure to get the round in/out of the chamber once free of the magazine)
I noticed Alex noticing that hot/heavy ammo tends to cycle the gun better. I'm inclined to agree based on my experiences (my gun HATES Winchester White Box, nosedives all day long with it). The gun is designed to run +P unlike most all its competition; that may simply mean it's ideal power band is a bit higher than most compacts
I also noticed he said it was quite accurate (my thought is the excellent sights are to blame and full-length grip) and the recoil is visibly minimal in the video for practically all the loads being shot, +P or practice ammo. His hand was not bleeding after ten shots, either (once again, I find it strange how the gun is painful to even hold for some, while others can put 500 rounds down range in one sitting without even commenting about a sore palm)
His conclusion is the gun isn't sufficiently reliable to hang with its direct competitors Glock/S&W/etc. I guess I'm inclined to agree, though I also think the fact those offerings have had quality magazines developed for them over initial generations that had their own reliability issues has much to do with it. At any rate, it doesn't appear the ammo-sensitivity is widespread, or insurmountable. Practically every ammo he could scrounge up ran well but the Brown Bear and German surplus. For a defensive carry gun, isn't the adage to find a practice and carry ammo that works, and use it? I have to wonder if the gun won't be fully ready for prime time with a nicer magazine from Lancer, or something.
TCB