SP101 woes

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Picked up my brand new SP101, 357, 3", today. Upon inspection, I noticed the roughest crown I have ever seen, and a few other rough burrs. I decided to stick with it and take it up with Ruger if there was a problem vs passing on a pretty sweet deal. Took it home and did some casual test firing. Rough chambers made for hard extraction of 38+p loads that drop easily out of my other (Brazilian) revolvers. Seemed to shoot straight, but, the real deal killer was after 20-30 rounds the cylinder started to tie up. Turns out there is practially zero flash gap. I couldn't even get a .0015 feeler in. I probably would have polished up the burrs, but not really willing to mess with the crane/cylinder fit, so it's going back to Ruger. Thought I was moving up a bit from my Tauruses and Rossi, but so far, I'm pretty disappointed. Sure up that famed Ruger customer service comes through.

[dubber123]

I wish all revolvers came with a .0015" barrel cylinder gap, that sure beats getting one with a .009" or whatever sloppy "acceptable" tolerance is allowed nowadays. I'm sorry to hear it has issues though, hopefully it will be taken care of by Ruger.

[lefty o]

hope they straighten it out for you. ive seen enough of rugers quality in the last few years, ill never buy another.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Did my best to measure end shake. Came up with .013. The cylinder also drags on the frame window when open. It's a sad piece of work.

[LUCKYDAWG13]

Ruger did right by me I had a 12 year old safe Queen SBH with the front sight that was put on wrong they put a new barrel on and re-blued my pistol
now I did have to talk to a few people there to get them to do it but they did it was at no charge to me and shipping was free Turn around was about
2 weeks good luck

[rfd]

just got a 2017 build sp101 .357 - no issues after 425 handload rounds with cast lead bullets, over 100 shot in one session. maybe i got lucky. hah.

204089

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

.....

[NSB]

I bought one this spring. Other than a horrible trigger everything else was good. I put a Wolf spring kit in it and stoned some parts and got it slicked up pretty nice. It's a 3.06" bbl with no rear sight, but I can shoot it DA and keep ten shots under four inches at 25yds. It makes a pretty nice "woods walking" gun. That's all I got it for.

[Petrol & Powder]

I've had a bunch of SP101's over the years and all but one were good guns. I had one that was a real dog and despite my best efforts, I couldn't make it work to my satisfaction.
For the OP - Ruger will make it right. Hang in there and give that SP101 a fair trial.

[Ickisrulz]

I really like Ruger products. But I have come to the conclusion that before I buy another one I want to have it in my hands to examine. I have sent in three revolvers for work and haven't been impressed with the quality of the repairs. One Blackhawk went back three times and the front sight is still canted.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

So after some sleep and more research, I am feeling a little bit more optimistic. My endshake measurement was taken with the cylinder open which was wrong. Closed it was under .0015, so no problem there. Under closer inspection I think the cylinder was binding more around the ejector rod/yoke than on the forcing cone. I disassembled the revolver, trigger group was VERY tight, and cleaned the yoke which didn't look too bad after the 80 or so rounds I put through it, but was a bit dirty. I lubed it with a little powdered graphite and reassembled it. No obvious metal shavings despite a intermittent "chunky" feel when rotating the cylinder before cleaning vs the normal gummy feel of built up power/lube residue. Upon the next test firing the cylinder spun much more freely, but still hung up a little towards the end of 50-60 rounds. Still hopeful it will break in a bit more and continue to smooth up. Used some JB bore shine on the chambers and the empties seem to be ejecting better. I was able to pick the burr off of the rear sight. I haven't put it on paper yet, but if it looks okay I can live with the crown.

So before I send it back, I'll shoot a few hundred rounds more, do some more cleaning/ mild polishing, and papering my loads. I bought it as a knock around field gun, so if all works well, it doesn't have to look perfect. Oh, also have a package of Wolff springs on the way (which will not get sent to Ruger!).

[bedbugbilly]

Just curious . . . how are the cylinder throats? Have you measured them as opposed to bore?

Hopefully you can get things smoothed out to where it will work fine. I like Rugers and own a few but the ones I'e looked at lately I think could use a bit more quality control. I'm guessing those things happen when you sacrifice quality for quantity but if they'd clean up their act a little as far as quality goes, seems like it would save a lot of customer service repairs for returned guns that need to be put right.

[Petrol & Powder]

I think Ruger fell into the same trap as all of the other gun makers during the Obama administration panic. They were cranking guns out as fast as they could make them. I can't blame them for meeting the demand and I think they will correct quality control issues if given the chance.

The designs are good. The execution can be good or less than good.

[Artful]

Wife's DAO SP101 is a keeper but it's before the Obamanation of our gunmakers.

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

r ...

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Great info, thanks 357!

Ran another 30-40 rounds through it today. Only a little cylinder drag this time. Seems to be getting better. Put some rounds on paper at 25 yards. Got groups around 2 inches wide, but with a fair amount of vertical dispersion, most likely due to a high ES on light .38 charges. Hits were just slightly to the right. Not sure if it is just the heavy trigger or what, but it seems like a lot of SPs in reviews shoot slighty off to the right. With a little load work I'm pretty sure it will hold 2-3" at 25 yards. Lit off a few 357s, good fun!

[9.3X62AL]

This was my decision regarding my recent SP-101/327/4.2"--run the critter some, before declaring it IMPOSSIBLE TO LIVE WITH. Throats are even at .313", grooves are .312"--so that should be all right. Now--to find a decent weather-day to do some shooting, when it isn't 115*+ outside or the wind isn't howling at gale force. I do think that Wolff springs are a "given", though. OEM spring rates rival my Tula 1916 Nagant 1895's stalwart standards.

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

e ...

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Posted this in the other active SP101 thread:

With standard 158 grain 38s I can hit a 8 inch target at 25 yards more often than not. Too bad I have to send it back, as after 30 rounds or so the cylinder starts to bind due to a almost non-existant flash gap. I put the Wolff 8lb trigger and 9lb main springs in (I'll take them out before the return trip) and it seems to light off Winchester SPs just fine. I've got some CCI SP I will try next. Trigger pull is MUCH better with the new springs, but the reset is a little less positive. Ejection was horrible from the start but seems to be getting better after cleaning the chambers several times with JB bore paste. I really like it, almost hate to send it back for the 2-3 weeks it'll take to get it back.

Shot some groups today to establish POI with different loads at 25 yards. Standard 38 158 grain loads shot 4-5 inches below POA, 38+p Herco loads were pretty close, but the gun didn't like the load. The real magic happened when I loaded up the CCI primed rounds (which ignited fine). My groups shrank down considerably. I didn't have enough rounds made up to say for certain, but it looks like it wants to shoot sub 2", ugly crown and all. Now I REALLY don't want to send it back, lest they go changing things around, or worse. I'm really tempted to just take a thousandth or two off the forcing cone with a diamond hone.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

I was so excited by the previous results I decided to load some more rounds and try to duplicate the earlier results. No luck on getting a sub 2" group, but 3-4" at 25 yards is easily repeatable. For now I will blame the bright sun on the sights, and shade on the target, which made for a tough sight picture. Oh to have a Ransom rest.

The leading I had early on seems to be easing up. My assumption is that some rough spots in the bore are being worn smooth.

[Artful]

Yes, I always break 'em in with J-words then after 500 or so rounds chem clean all the copper out before trying cast.
but it's safe to assume you are polishing things up.

[mikeingeorgia]

My GP100 gave me a hard time about the cylinder rotating when I first got it too. It was binding up, and after asking around and looking at it, I saw that I was getting unburned powder (Blue Dot) under the star extractor. I ended up changing powders and now I use True Blue instead. Now it runs very reliably, enough that I shoot it in Steel Challenge matches. I'd say just stick with it a little while and yours will probably smooth up too.

[9.3X62AL]

I was FINALLY able to run 100 rounds through the SP-101 x 4.2" 327 Federal yesterday. It did smoothe up a little as this went on--hammer cocking went from near-impossible to firmly achievable, and double-action trigger went from godawful to almost-not-godawful. So, things are moving in the correct direction. The little blaster was ACCURATE, TOO! 12 oz. soft drink cans had zero chance, clear out to 60 yards--if I did my part, the rounds connected. Same story for Marie. She loved it--all the volume a shooter could want (30 Carbine Blackhawk level), but the recoil of about 38 Special +Ps. Zero leading with plain-based RCBS 32-98-SWCs @ 950 FPS, followed by Hornady 100 grain JHPs at 1400 FPS. A beautiful day in the eastern desert, topped off by a bit of shooting.