SR45 bump firing

I can't help diagnose your problem, but I can offer a warning. Do NOT fire that gun or allow anyone else to fire it until it's repaired. The BATF arrested a guy who had a malfunctioning AR-15 that doubled, after he loaned it to a friend. They classified it as an unregistered machine gun. Their decision was that it was doubling, he knew it and didn't fix it before he loaned it out, so he obviously intended to keep it that way. Pretty weak, I know, and I would never loan any gun to a friend, let alone one that was malfunctioning. It apparently stuck, even in court, so just be aware.

I think a LONG talk with the folks at Ruger is in order. I KNOW they do NOT want a firearm of theirs operating like that.
I would ask them to do a serious testing of the firearm BEFORE sending it back to you. Use factory ammo, and tell them what ammo you are using.
But, if you got into the internals of the gun, you MAY have modified a part unknowingly to where it is the cause of the problem.

Ask them to replace the gun. Explain that their attempted to repair it failed.
Also make them aware of their liability. They will either replace it or put
a more competent tech on it. ps

+1 powder smoke. He has stated things better than how I did.

Have you ever fired it without any of your "alterations"? Let them fix it again and just use it for a bit without doing anything to it besides cleaning and just see how it does. I don't think Ruger would have any liability in this case because of your altering things.

I wouldn't "polish" with 320 grit paper. I can see a lot of metal removed with 320.
Shoot it a few hundred times then polish.
Eric

eric conrad said:

I wouldn't "polish" with 320 grit paper. I can see a lot of metal removed with 320.
Shoot it a few hundred times then polish.
Eric

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320 as "polish?" Yikes! The most aggressive thing I'd consider "polish" is a hard Arkansas stone...and that only if used extremely sparingly.

"The note they sent back with the pistol said it had been test fired with 40 rounds without issue. I get it back and it bump fired on my first range test."
I respectfully suggest the problem may be shooter and/or ammo related rather than mechanical. Quit using handloads and try some generic factory ammo. I'm absolutely certain that Ruger would not return the pistol if it malfunctioned (especially multiple discharges).

So just some musings on this issue:

1) Ruger replaced a bunch of parts the first time it went back because it is significantly less expensive to replace the parts than to have a skilled technician or smith attempt to diagnose which of the parts of the FCG may be out of tolerance. Is it one part or is it tolerance stacking that caused the issue. No worries, replace all the parts (probably $10.00 or less in actual cost) and sent it to testing.

2) After having all of the parts replaced, the behavior didn't change. This would lead me to believe that the issue may be frame related. Possibly some of the holes and pivot points are out of spec or misaligned resulting in a messed up geometry of specific parts of the FCG.

Regardless of the reason, I would have that gun on it's way back to Ruger faster than it would double tap. An out of spec gun, especially one that has a propensity to double tap or give you a full auto burst, is not something I would trifle with.
Personally I don't care if your adjustment of the trigger bar fixes the issue. The fact that the gun does not operate properly when in spec production parts are in place is enough reason to raise concern.

So your gun may exhibit better than average accuracy. That's great, but the fact remains that even after going back to Ruger and having nearly all of the fire control group parts changed, the gun still exhibits the doubling issue.
That would yield one of three possible scenarios.

1) Something that was not changed out is still out of spec.
2) Something that was changed was swapped with another out of spec part.
3) There is a fundamental design problem with the action of the SR45, allowing a completely in spec gun to double.

I will discount #2 because the difference in time between when you gun was manufactured and when it was sent back should have in all likelyhood resulted in a different lot of parts being used as a replacement. Additionally I would expect that if it were related to a particular lot of parts, Ruger would have seen this issue in other customers firearms, identified it, and recalled those guns.

#3 can be discounted because if it were a design issue, there would have already been a recall, as lots and lots of people would have been seeing this behavior.

This only leaves #1

Regardless of whether or not it does it on every single load, just the hot ones, just the middle ones, just the light ones, with one particular shooter, or only on the 3rd Saturday of every other month when the moon is full, the gun is not functioning properly with factory spec parts. We are not talking about a FTF or FTE type issue but a gross failure of the trigger mechanism as a whole, allowing 2 rounds to fire from a single pull of the trigger.

Your modification of the factory parts is not the answer to what is going on. Even if you get the behavior to stop, which it appears that you have, the root cause still exists and could easily come back if your modified parts are changed out. The design of the gun is such that given all of the tolerances in the manufacturing process, and even considering tolerance stacking, the gun should still function as expected. Yours clearly does not.

From a legal perspective, you have liability as well. You have a firearm that you know will fire 2 rounds from a single pull of the trigger (this is not bump firing, this is considered fully automatic fire). The only course of action that is considered legal, from a BATFE perspective, is to have that firearm sent back to the manufacturer or to a licensed gunsmith for repair. Each and every time you take this gun out to "test" your latest modification, you are in direct violation of the law, if the gun doubles. You can say that this is just fantasy or something that would never actually happen, however the BATFE did obtain a conviction for exactly this scenario (United States vs. Olofson, 2009)

Ultimately, it is your gun, and you are more than welcome to do with it what you wish.

If it's still malfunctioning you need to have Ruger fix the problem. If they had a shot at fixing it and they failed they need to be reminded of that. They also need to be reminded of the severity of the problem. You should not try to fix it yourself. You may think you're smarter than Ruger but you're not. You don't have their resources. CALL THEM AND RESOLVE THIS ISSUE TODAY!

I still think that everyone needs to pay attention to the fact that the OP said: "The only alterations that have been made to this pistol have been a polishing of steel on steel contact points with 320 grit sandpaper." He does that and it messes up. Ruger replaced parts, the polishing with 320 grit was done again and it messed up again. It looks like it has never been fired just as it came from Ruger. There may be no problem at all, until it gets "improved". I'm glad that it looks like he may have it working properly, but, as it comes from the factory, there may have been nothing to fix.

IMO you are going to have to verify that it bumps with factory ammo. run a couple of hundred of different mfg, , 45 ammo is cheap. If it bumps send it back with the info of what ammo you fired. If it doesn't it's your ammo etc and Ruger can't really be held responsible. I suspect it will bump and it's on Ruger to fix or replace with a new gun

Shooting for 35 years and handloading for 29 doesn't make you an expert. You are on public record of owning an unregistered NFA capable firearm. It also has been modified by you. That's takes all liability away from Ruger. BATF would have a field day with this one.

From my lofty perch of handgunning for 32 years, handloading for 31, and being an FFL for 15 years in there too I'd say have a good time with your gun because you are apparently against listening to anyone but yourself. (please note there is a fair amount of sarcasm In this post and I know you will discount my junior knowledge to your vast experience)

57K said:

Like I said, and it continues to go ignored with no one actually discussing a smithing solution other than myself, so why would I want to consider very amaturish opinions. In the most likely scenarios, light loads and firing rounds very deliberately over the chrono, these are the conditions, and only conditions that the SR45 bump fired on me. Both scenarios were addressed on Friday with 75 rounds, 60 of which were rather light loads.

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I cannot comment on smithing a SR45 as I have never had y hands on one.

57K said:

Upon the first incident I talked this over with a friend of mine who is a retired professional gunsmith. He alerted me to a phenomenon where when firing, you're trigger and finger recoil to a point where the striker is released. Remember that since you're holding the trigger rearward, the striker safety is already disengaged and as the slide goes forward, the striker is allowed to do likewise where light loads are just not generating enough recoil for a full reset.

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This makes sense and should be investigated. If it can be duplicated I'd send a video to Ruger. I'm sure they would contact you at that point.