First LCP, wow this magazine has to be inserted HARD!

N

ninjarealist

New member
I just bought an LCP at the gun show today. I'm starting to love it already. It's just so tiny and lightweight. I can already tell that this is going to be my favorite carry gun.

However, I have to say I'm a little surprised by how HARD the magazine has to be inserted to seat itself in the gun properly. Normally when I load a magazine in an autopistol I just give it a firm but gentle slam, but with the LCP, this is not enough.

At first I thought the magazine catch was broken(I was about to be very frustrated if that was the case because my LC9s, also brand new, is having magazine issues and now that I have another carry pistol I will be sending the LC9s back to Ruger) but on inspection the magazine latch seems fine and so I wondered if I maybe just needed to load it even harder.

So I tried slamming the magazine extremely hard, almost as if I was striking it, and sure enough it worked. It makes me feel a little nervous slamming the magazine like that but the magazine does seat properly when I load it this way.

Is this normal? I have read some other stuff about some LCPs having magazine issues, but no in-depth descriptions of loading techniques. And if it matters, I am not using the pinky extension.

I'm sure some of you load all your magazines HARD but I guess I'd never really subscribed to that ideology before and had never had issues with any of my other autoloaders until now.
 
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I've had a little experience with one...push the magazine into the gun and about half way up it hits the magazine release.

(If you hold the magazine release down you, of course won't feel this-but the only reason I've ever held the magazine release down while inserting a magazine is just to confirm that's what's causing the resistance.)

A little more effort and you can push it past this point and it slides almost all the way up. At that point just a little extra pressure from your thumb and the magazine latches.

Well, at least that's been my experience with the newer, non-dashed serial number LCP.
 
@Toney Ahhh, ok so just sand down the edge where the base plate meets the frame a little? Would you reccomend any specific grit of sandpaper for polymer? I've never really sanded polymer before, but this fix you've suggested seems like a no-brainer.
 
I use the same method as Dale A. Insert till it hits then a little push on the release and it seats easily.
 
I attempted the technique that DaleA described, but no matter how hard I press it the base plate into the frame with my thumb, the magazine won't lock in place. The only way I can get the magazine to lock into place is to give the base plate a good shot with the heel of my hand, which makes me nervous given that the magazine catch is made of polymer.

EDIT

Or is it polymer after all? Based on the look and feel I could swear it was plastic, but based on what I'm reading it sounds like new LCPs should come with a metal magazine catch.

Or am I getting that wrong?
 
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I had three LCP's, first two were fine. When Ruger updated them I bought one and like you I had to literally beat the magazine in in order for it to catch. The issue is that I think something isn't quite lining up right between the magazine and the magazine catch/release. I ended up selling it since half the time the mag wouldn't properly seat, figured if I had to reload the thing I'd be screwed since the mag wouldn't seat.
 
The reason it's hard insert the magazine is because with a full mag it has to overcome alot of tension to seat properly, if you download a round or two and try to insert the mag you will see how much easier it is since there is less tension, not that I advocate downloading the magazine. However this will loosen up over time and become easier to insert.

What you can try to do until it loosens a bit is to push it in with your thumb while grasping the top of the slide and basically squeezing the two together. While this isn't great for a tactical reload, it's fine for the range.
 
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It will loosen up with use...dont worry about it. You can always load mag with slide locked back with no resistance... then hit slide release or slingshot.
 
Well, after doing research, it does seem that my pistol has the same alignment issue that Ruger45LC mentioned. It looks like I will have to send this to the factory at some point, although apparently, from a lot of the posts I've read on the ruger forums, they still function fine with the alignment issue except for the reloading troubles.

Still, I will have to send this back to the factory soon, which is ironic because I got this gun to use as a spare while I send my LC9s into the factory for...magazine issues.

Nonetheless, despite buying two guns from Ruger with out of the box issues I'm just so in love with the ergos and style of these guns that I can't imagine getting anything else as my main pocket gun.
 
I've got the SS version which is also tight. I do what dragline does in #8. Squeeze the top of the slide and bottom of the mag together...clicks right into place. It seems to be getting easier with use.

BTW: I love the little thing. No stoves, and I'm much more accurate with it when making fast target acquisition than I ever thought I would be with this short-barreled gun. Center mass with every round in a hurry is no issue. (at the range, that is). Enjoy!;)
 
It's the mag I bet

"Still, I will have to send this back to the factory soon, which is ironic because I got this gun to use as a spare while I send my LC9s into the factory for...magazine issue"

I will bet the issue you are having with the LC9 is the mag releases while you are firing it. That is what was happening to me. Sending it back to Ruger did not correct the problem, It is the mag that has the problem. I purchased two mags that were manufactured in Italy and the problem went away. Try this first......
 
That sucks dude but I'd call Ruger first thing on Monday. See what they say but they will likely ask you to send it but I'd rather be without a gun for a few weeks while it is fixed rather than have a gun that I'm questionable about.

Not sure what is up with Ruger of late, but my buddy had all kinds of problems with his LC9 dropping mags. Took three return trips before it was ever fixed.
 
A couple months ago a LGS had a used LCP in the case for a really good price. I examined it and found that the magazine would not lock into place just like the OP described. This of course was with an unloaded pistol. Naturally I passed on it and the salesman said they were going to have their gunsmith take a look at it.
 
I noticed this with my LCP as well when I bought it. It is the only semi auto that I own that I experience this with. All I started doing was just holding the magazine release in when inserting a magazine. I don't slam the mag home, just insert it normally and release the button. Works for me, YMMV.
 
I called Ruger today and told them about the issue with my LCP. They were more than happy to send me a shipper but also advised that I test the gun first by firing it to see if it didn't have any issues. I told them that I owned a few pistols and it did really seem like the magazine was out of alignment and so I at least wanted to let them know I thought there was a problem.

They said they would mail me a shipper but first advised that I still test fire the gun anyways because that way I could see if there were any other problems with the firearms. Interestingly, when I first described the magazine issue they suggested the exact same magazine insertion technique that @DaleA described in post #3.

So I will take this to the range and let you guys know how it works out but I will still send the gun back to Ruger anyways unless the magazine magically returns to alignment after firing, if only so they can see the gun and make not of the issue. A magazine that fits slightly out alignment isn't a deal breaker I guess but I still think it's valuable for them to continue to analyze the problem. I think ideally the fit would be better but what do I know.

Also let me just add that Ruger customer service was as excellent as I'd always heard it described. I was very impressed and it almost made me feel bad about calling them over an admittedly minor problem that nonetheless concerns me.
 
So, as per the instructions from Ruger, I took the gun to the range and it ran perfectly. No failures of any kind on any ammunition, which was only about 100 rounds of Remington FMJ and some Hornady FTX. I brought a lot more ammunition with me but let's just say that the LCP was not a whole lot of fun to shoot. Granted that the trigger was a lot better than what I was expecting, and the sight picture was surprisingly good, but it was hard for me to keep a really tight grip after even just one shot and so it was hard to have accurate follow up shots or mag dumps. But still I was impressed with the gun. It ran better than my LC9 out of the box and had no failures of any kind even when the gun was about to jump out of my hand. For such a small gun that carries so well that's all I could really want or hope for. And it was cheap.

Despite the fit and finish issues especially with the magazine assemblies that I've had with both of my Ruger pistols so far I'm overall very impressed with the value that their products have seemed to offer in my limited experience so far.

I am having doubts now about whether I should actually send the gun in to Ruger now. The forceful mag insert worked very consistently in practice on the range. Maybe I'll see if I can just use the shipping label to send in my LC9s instead, which has been having bigger problems also related to the magazine.
 
I've had a few LCPs do this. One method that has worked for me is to push the magazine towards the front of the pistol while inserting. As I'm inserting the magazine, I keep pressure on the bottom of the mag towards the front of the gun. It doesn't take a whole lot of effort and it seems to work. Not ideal in a stressful situation I know but it works for me.
 
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