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A few months ago I bought a Ruger SR9C 9mm. It was my first Ruger semi-auto after having owned just about everything else over time. I liked the ergonomics so much when I shot it I couldn't figure out why I'd waited so long. Plus the price point was under $400. So I went the extra mile and got a Ruger SR45. It was also a tack driver and I put a TLR-4 light/laser combo on it and was using it as my primary home defense weapon.
Then I had the SR9C out at the range. At this point I had approximately 250 rounds through the pistol with nothing but perfect function. All of a sudden, after firing one round of a 10 round magazine, the slide locked back. I dropped the slide. fired again, and it locked back again. Dropped it one more time, but this time the trigger went into total lockup. Couldn't pull it. Cleared the round, dropped the slide again, and again I couldn't pull the trigger.
I cleared the gun and went home. Once I got the slide off, it was obvious that the slide stop spring had come loose. That's not a deal killer. But what was a deal killer was that the spring, which runs up the left side of the frame from it's anchor point to it's attachment to the slide stop, had retracted and totally locked up the trigger control group -- in other words, no way to fire the pistol regardless of how many rounds I had left in the pistol. Not good. Not good at all, especially since I'd taken to carrying it after the 200 round point.
A quick web search on "Ruger SR9C Slide Stop Spring" revealed a host of people with similar problems dating back since the introduction of the SR series. So it wasn't just an isolated case, but appeared to be a problem that was causing a lot of people to have triggers that, even if they were still able to pull the trigger, could only do so by pulling as hard as they could, not to mention having to drop the slide manually on every subsequent round once that occurred.
So I shipped it back to Ruger. They do have great customer service, paying for shipping both ways and had the pistol back to me within nine days. They replaced the slide stop and the slide stop spring....and the barrel! So there were obviously other problems with the pistol than I even knew about. My bet was the barrel was peening, which is another problem the SR series apparently has been having since its inception. And since the SR45 has exactly the same slide stop spring and trigger setup as the SR9C, there was no guarantee it wasn't going to have the same problems.
I now have a Glock 19 Gen 4 and a Glock 21 to replace the Rugers. Needless to say, I'm disappointed. But I'm glad I found out before I was in a situation where it counted. I'd encourage anyone owning an SR series Ruger to do web searches on SR Slide Stop Spring and SR Barrel Peening. I suppose you really do get what you pay for. After all this time of buying and selling handguns, I should know this. And if it hadn't been something that was so clearly an issue with the design of the pistol and the ability of one flaw to render it inoperable, I probably would have given them another chance. Just can't take chances when it comes to having a pistol I can count on when I need it.
Then I had the SR9C out at the range. At this point I had approximately 250 rounds through the pistol with nothing but perfect function. All of a sudden, after firing one round of a 10 round magazine, the slide locked back. I dropped the slide. fired again, and it locked back again. Dropped it one more time, but this time the trigger went into total lockup. Couldn't pull it. Cleared the round, dropped the slide again, and again I couldn't pull the trigger.
I cleared the gun and went home. Once I got the slide off, it was obvious that the slide stop spring had come loose. That's not a deal killer. But what was a deal killer was that the spring, which runs up the left side of the frame from it's anchor point to it's attachment to the slide stop, had retracted and totally locked up the trigger control group -- in other words, no way to fire the pistol regardless of how many rounds I had left in the pistol. Not good. Not good at all, especially since I'd taken to carrying it after the 200 round point.
A quick web search on "Ruger SR9C Slide Stop Spring" revealed a host of people with similar problems dating back since the introduction of the SR series. So it wasn't just an isolated case, but appeared to be a problem that was causing a lot of people to have triggers that, even if they were still able to pull the trigger, could only do so by pulling as hard as they could, not to mention having to drop the slide manually on every subsequent round once that occurred.
So I shipped it back to Ruger. They do have great customer service, paying for shipping both ways and had the pistol back to me within nine days. They replaced the slide stop and the slide stop spring....and the barrel! So there were obviously other problems with the pistol than I even knew about. My bet was the barrel was peening, which is another problem the SR series apparently has been having since its inception. And since the SR45 has exactly the same slide stop spring and trigger setup as the SR9C, there was no guarantee it wasn't going to have the same problems.
I now have a Glock 19 Gen 4 and a Glock 21 to replace the Rugers. Needless to say, I'm disappointed. But I'm glad I found out before I was in a situation where it counted. I'd encourage anyone owning an SR series Ruger to do web searches on SR Slide Stop Spring and SR Barrel Peening. I suppose you really do get what you pay for. After all this time of buying and selling handguns, I should know this. And if it hadn't been something that was so clearly an issue with the design of the pistol and the ability of one flaw to render it inoperable, I probably would have given them another chance. Just can't take chances when it comes to having a pistol I can count on when I need it.