Ruger SP101 Failure

B

BlindFaith

New member
Ruger SP101 2 1/4 inch 357 Bought NIB at a Reno gun show.
Gulped Down the Transfer Bar Safety into the action and the
gun has jammed up. Never been Shot. Just dry fired while
watching TV ( manual said dry fire was ok).
This weapon was bought for CCW.
Strong as a Tank? Well, the Tank has broken without ever
having fired a shot.
Anyone ever have this happen.?
The Faith is Lost.
 
The manual says dry fire OK but not to keep it up for any period of time. Myself I just won't do it to any gun. :barf: I hope you arn't one of those who wants to dry fire 1000 times.If you want to dry fire keep your thumb on the hammer and ease it down. :) YOU broke your new toy don't blame it on Ruger unless you only tried it a few times :rolleyes:
 
I agree with Russell

Dryfiring some is ok but to excess is a nono. I dont dri fire mine at all. Ruger will take care of it but I would want a written explaniation from Ruger on What, Why and Why not again.
 
What do you mean "gulped down"? Did the transfer bar break? Come loose? It could be that dry firing was the cause or contributed to the problem, but no way to even be half certain without knowing what happened.

BTW, I don't know of any maker who says a gun is OK to dry fire and then sets some limit on the number of dry fires. I have dry fired dozens of revolvers and pistols thousands of "snaps". With guns designed to allow dry fire, there should be no problem. Some guns should never be dry fired and can be damaged by doing so, but they are usually older guns (1900 vintage) in rimfire calibers or those that have been tampered with.

Jim
 
Any modern revo should be able to withstand thousands of dry fires. It's pretty much what you need to do to a new Smith to get that buttery smooth feel sans action job.

Call Ruger. While they won't spring for shipping, they'll fix the gun for free if they determine that it's a manufacturing defect.
 
I must have dryfired mine 1000 times, and I shoot full house magnums out of it till my hand blisters. still shoots like a champ. its the 2 1/4 DAO.
 
Ruger SP101 failure

Thanks for the replies.
The revolver was dry fired quite a bit. I didn't keep track.
Doesn't the damage of dry firing go to the Firing Pin?, making
it brittle and perhaps cracking it or having it break in two?
Thus a side purpose of the Transfer Bar is protecting the pin?
It seems to me, working the action should not damage the
internal lockwork of the handgun, but serve to smooth it up.
It appears the internal parts are not nearly as beefy as the
outside, causing a false sense of strength.

Has anyone else had their ruger's transfer bar break off and
drop down into the action, causing the weapon to freeze up?
Thanks again.
 
it sounds like the gun was defective. I had dryfired my sp101 thousands of times, and my super redhawk at least 10,000 times without fail. I have never heard of a transfer bar breaking. Have you dissassembled the gun? The transfer bar sits in a hole at the back of the trigger, and a bad job fitting or a defective part could have caused the failure. I'd send it back.
 
Im gonna go out on a limb here and say after owning 3 brand new in the box DA Ruger revo's and dryfiring the h.ll out of them, and not having a problem that perhaps your "nib" sp101 probably was tampered with prior to buying? or perhaps a factory defect of an unusual nature.
 
A revolver with a problem :eek:

I don't know what to believe in any more

Dry fire should be no more damaging to the transfer bar than real fire

Certainly not enough to see this happen

A lesson to those that think Rev's are immune to issues
 
Rugers are incredibly easy to disassemble (and reassemble, too!). It does not void their excellent warrenty to take a lood at what's going on...I'm not certain that "gulped down" the transfer bar necessarily means that its broken...
 
I've broken 2 transfer bars in Ruger single actions. Both guns were dry fired quite a bit. The transfer bar is marketed as a wonderful thing. I feel they are a weak point compared to Smiths.

Dry firing is harder on the gun than having a primer cushion the blow.

I've dry fired several Smith & Wessons extensively and had no problems. Think I'm going to get snap caps tho.

I still find revolvers to be more functionally reliable than auto's, IF the revolver has been properly cleaned before carry. Couple of my carry guns (Smith 29 and Ruger SA) have gone up to a year or more between true cleanings. They got the surface dust brushed off, but no internal cleaning. They've always worked for me. I had a Springfield 1911 that went about 600 rounds with no problems, I was ALMOST about to trust it, then 1 FTE with factory ammo. It wasn't even very dirty, just 2 boxes of shells fired through it since detail cleaned.
Like I said, my revolvers always work.

I haven't had trouble with crud building up under the extractor star when turning the gun completely vertical and hitting the extrator rod sharply to extract. Still keep it brushed out when cleaning.

I think some people don't ever clean under the star judging from some used guns I've seen for sale.
 
Sounds like you were just "lucky" and got one with a defective transfer bar. That being said; I wouldn't buy from a gun show after two different dealers told me while I was looking at used guns in their shop "We check out and test fire all our used guns, that's why we give a 30 day shop warranty. Anything that doesn’t muster goes to the gun show.”
 
This should never happen the ruger manual says nothing about limiting dry firing, it just says its OK.

Call ruger they can send you the part and you can easily replace it by stripping the gun as per the manual. If you see a problem with the trigger then you may have to send it to them, or they may even send you the part to replace.

Just be carefull not to loose the pawl spring and pawlspring plunger when you dissassemble the gun, as its a small part that tends to pop out unexpectedly.
 
Ruger SP101 Failure Results

Thanks to all....
I took the advice of several, and did the disassembly as per the manual.
During disassembly I was up to NR6 and out fell the Transfer Bar...
It just fell out...with a look of a Snap..Clean and Crisp..with the metal.
Was unable to pull out the trigger assembly. Stuck.
This indicates to me the metal of the Internals is Brittle.
A Crisp Break of the Bar.
I did a check on the serial number, It's a 2002 revolver.
I bought it in late 2004. I Called and asked the dealer about it
and he advised me, all his Rugers that are NIB come direct from
their warehouse. He's an hour away in another town by the way.
He advised me , it must of been just sitting in their warehouse,
and Ruger sent it that way.
Well.....I want to thank all of you for your info.
I consider The Firing Line to have to Cognicente of the forums.
I've lost Faith in the Quality of the Internal Structure of Ruger
Revolvers.
This weapon will be sent back to Ruger for repair.
Then set up for a consignment sale thru my local dealer.
I'll then be buying a Smith & Wesson from my local S&W Service
Center Gunstore for my CCW purposes. Maybe two.
Thanks to All.
 
BlindFaith,

First let me say that I completely support your decision to buy whichever gun want. But I find it unfortunate that you are making a decision about a company and their products based on one bad experience. Working in a gun shop I have seen DOA's in every brand and almost every model. It is never fun to go through these situations, but they are rarely indicative of the norm for any company. As everyone has already stated, Ruger will fix it, and of course you should have no issues selling it. Good luck, and let us know what you end up getting. :)

.44mag
 
Smiths

I dry fire Smiths and there has been no problem, but not to a great degree. I suppose I have 1000 dryfires on my guns over an extended period of time. I keep them cleaned/lubed well too. All stainless. I purchased a set of those red plastic snap caps for .38 at one time, but the heads on them were apparently thicker than brass or something-they would drag a bit in rotation so I quit useing them. Suppose you could take empty sized cases and superglue hard rubber into the primer pockets and make useable snap caps.(Cut off excess flush with a razor)But maybe they should be painted orange! I have made rifle snaps that way and hard rubber lasts well and works in place of the primer. But rifles don't get dry fired as much as handguns.
 
There is a simple method to dry fire a Ruger for break in (simple if you can field breakdown the gun that is). Simply remove the trigger assembly, remove the transfer bar, put the trigger assembly back in and fire to your hearts content. The hammer will simply contact the frame where it normally rests and the firing pin will never be touched. Just remember to replace the transfer bar before trying to shoot the gun. I temporarily placed a thin piece of hard rubber where the hammer rests to quieten down the hammer falling while watching TV and dry firing.
 
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