The first handgun I purchased after turning 21 (18 years ago) was the beautiful 7.5" Ruger Bisley Hunter, chambered in .44mag. In the last 18 years, this firearm has only seen 2 boxes of factory ammo out of the thousands of rounds fired through it. She has seen everything from 240gr pills at 1000fps to 310gr pills at 1400fps. My favorite, and most used load, is a 265gr boolit launched at 1250fps with a healthy dose of HS-6. This gun has eaten likely over 5K of the latter load.
Well, the other day I was working on a new load for hunting using 23gr of H-110 under a 250gr boolit. After sighting in, I was ringing a 4" plate at 50 yards at least 5 out of every cylinder. I was about 40 rounds in when it happened. I lined up my sights, squeezed the trigger, and something hit me in the face. Unsure of what happened, I looked over the firearm to see what had happened.
I didn't see anything that stood out, she seemed tight with a good lockup. Hmmm, I loaded a single round, positioned it under the hammer and fired a second time. This is when I noticed the recoil impulse felt a bit off.
I put the gun up for the day so I could investigate when I got home. Well, when I got home I discovered that I had sheered off one of the screws next to the hammer. It had broke off too deep in the threads for easy removal, so I opted to contact Ruger the next day.
All I can say about Ruger is that they are the absolute best company to deal with. The girl gave me instructions on how to ship the firearm back for a warranty repair as well as instructed me to remove any internal aftermarket parts that I wish to keep, as they will be replacing all the internal components as part of the warranty service. Unlike my experience with Smith, there was no questions about what loads have been shot, how many round have been shot, nothing of the sort. Just simply, send it back and well replace all the internal components and get her back to you ASAP free of charge except for shipping to us.