Are my Zombie rounds eating my gun or is my gun eating my Zombie rounds???- Ruger LC9

Chewie1128 · Oct 16, 2012

**** Updated with 2 new pictures on 10/17/2012 ****

Hello everyone I have recently purchased a new LC9 with lasermax.

This was my first concealed carry weapon and I am running into some issues with my personal defense Hornady Zombie Max rounds.

Maybe someone out there can help?

I have run a little under 200 rds through the LC9 and started noticing some metal being chipped away from the barrel, slide & trigger assembly.

I have attached some pictures to help illustrate where my issue are.

The three major problems I am running into are the following:

1. The Zombie Max rounds keep getting caught in the feed ramp randomly.

2. There are silver metal shaving appearing in the trigger group area.

3. There are also lots of copper and brass shaving accumulating throughout the inside of the gun.

I am not sure if these issues are coming from the rounds or the gun.

I took the gun back to the shop and they instructed me to keep the gun well oiled.

I spoke to Ruger and they asked me to send the gun back.

Before I send the gun back I wanted to reach out to my fellow firearm enthusiast and see if anyone had any ideas.

I appreciate your help and I look forward to your reply.

Thanks for stopping by.

**** Updated Image ****

photo 2 by berriosfl, on Flickr

**** Updated Image ****

photo 1 by berriosfl, on Flickr

image (5) by berriosfl, on Flickr

image (4) by berriosfl, on Flickr

image (3) by berriosfl, on Flickr

image (2) by berriosfl, on Flickr

image (1) by berriosfl, on Flickr

skud_dusty · Oct 16, 2012

I see absolutely nothing wrong with your gun. The wear you note and the brass shavings are probably just the gun breaking in. Get some cheap ball ammo and run a few hundred rounds more through it. Sometimes they don't like to feed hollowpoints till they are broken in a bit.

OregonPlinker · Oct 16, 2012

Yep. Clean it every 100 rounds and keep an eye out for burs or odd build up. Or atleast thats what I like to do. I dont worry about performance problems till I pass the 500 round mark. And she aint gonna look brand new for ever. Unfortunately...

Mikej · Oct 17, 2012

It looks pretty normal to me, Wifey has an LC9. There's a lot of banging around inside a gun, where there's steel on steel is going to wear the black coating off. Brass is softer than steel so there's going to be some brass flakes from the extactor, or the case where it hits the back of the barrel while chambering, or ?. Is it extracting normal, throwing the shell basicly the same each time? I'd say it's normal if so. Break-in may partly be the issue with the FTF, as mentioned above, run a couple hundred rounds of plain old factory FMJ through it. Finaly, maybe the gun just doesn't like the Zombie rounds? Try a different defensive round after further break-in.

Mike

glockman99 · Oct 17, 2012

Forget those "zombie rounds", and get yourself some Speer Gold Dots or Hornady XTP HPs.

AMProducts · Oct 17, 2012

The best thing you can do is wipe all the oil off, and spend a few days sitting in front of the TV repeatedly working the action (no cartridges). This will help parts wear in, and it's cheaper than shooting it for break in.

SynapticSilence · Oct 17, 2012

Rugers are generally great, well built guns, but they lack the fine internal finishing that many other higher-priced firearms. The burnishing you're seeing appears to be the pistol essentially breaking itself in as the high points on the metal surfaces wear themselves even. I don't have a Ruger semi-auto, but I have a Ruger Blackhawk an a Ruger SP101. Many Ruger owners, especially those who have revolvers, devote a lot of time initially to smoothing out the internals to ensure the smoothest trigger pull and other operation possible. As to the ammo, it's not unusual for the new micro-pistols like the LC9, DB9, and others to be picky on what ammo they like and or there to be a wide variance even in the same model as to what ammo it will feed. I agree you ought to shelve the Zombie rounds and switch to a different proven self defense ammo. I use Speer Gold Dot 124 grain +P round in my Kaht CM9 with total reliability. Hornady Critical Defense is anothet round that I've had good luck with. Both of these are fairly short-profile rounds that take well to the very limited space into which these tiny pistols try to pack a full Browning-style action similar to that in full-size 1911s. Use what works and try that before you send it back to Ruger. If it's broke, rest assured Ruger will fix it. I'm just not sure they even consider it broke at this point. Good luck.

johnnydwoods · Oct 17, 2012

Since Hornady Critical Defense rounds and Zombie rounds are the exact same thing (just red polymer vs. green polymer tips), I would suggest that you use up your remaining Zombie rounds at the range while practicing, and carry Critical Defense.

Maybe it's just my opinion, but I don't want to know what the headlines would read if you were to have the unfortunate need to actually use your pistol in self defense. "Crazed Gun Loon Shoots Defenseless Person With Zombie Rounds" etc. Then comes the story about the crazy gunman who was preparing for a Zombie Apocalypse. Just a thought.

FWIW - I like Hornady Critical Defense.

RVTECH · Oct 17, 2012

The best thing you can do is wipe all the oil off, and spend a few days sitting in front of the TV repeatedly working the action (no cartridges).

And (some of you may not agree) but you may want to try some Gunslick. I have used Gunslick on all my guns for years. If you don't know what Gunslick is it is a graphite based black nasty substance that comes in little tubes. Clean your gun (or don't) and put a medium amount on all bearing surfaces and then sit in front of the tv and work the action. Then go out and shoot the heck out of it. Leave it in this greasy, dirty state for a while, just wipe off what oozes out from the slide, hammer area etc, and continue to shoot it. I am talking six months or more here. Then completely disassemble the gun clean the gunslick off all the parts and reassemble and lube normally. If you shot it a lot you will notice the gunslick has 'lapped' the bearing surfaces and are much smoother than when new. I left a Winchester 94 loaded with Gunslick for FIVE years and shot it regularly. Then I completely disassembled and cleaned it, reassembled and lubed normally and it is now the smoothest operating lever action rifle I have ever flipped a lever on.

SynapticSilence · Oct 18, 2012

Guess I should actually do a bit of research before commenting. My wife refers to this as my "loose tongue syndrome." As noted after I posted my "loose tongue" reaponse, Zombie Max is the same as Hornady Critical Defense with different color polymer. I like it, too, but I switched to Gold Dots due to the excessive bullet setback I was experiencing when I would unload the gun for cleaning and rechamber a round. Bulle setback was so bad it was visible without a caliper measurement. Bullet setback is BAD -- blow-up-your-gun bad. That's especially true when you have rounds impacting and sticking on the feed ramp. As the cartridge volume decreases, pressure on ignition increases. Since these are personal defense rounds, it doesn't take a lot to push pressure past critical into "where'd my hand go?" range. No problems with the Gold Dots doing that.

tim007 · Oct 18, 2012

bwahahahahaha we all have that "loose tonge syndrome " lol its all good

arisaka · Oct 18, 2012

If Ruger said send it back, I would send it back.

Chewie1128 · Oct 25, 2012

Thank you all for your comments.

I haven't decided if I will send the gun back to Ruger or not yet.

I think that the wear on the LC9 is not normal also I don't think putting oil on the gun will solve these problems.

On the last image you will see where I indicated the location of metal flaking off of the barrel. This doesn't look like normal wear and tear.