Black_Dog
Bearcat
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2016
- Messages
- 4
Today I fired my new Ruger American Compact Pistol (#8635) for the first time. Merry Christmas to me! My son and I put 355 rounds through the gun including seven varieties of ammo and from four magazines (one 12-round and three 17-round, all Ruger). Not everything went as well as hoped -- we had about a dozen jams -- so I thought I would share my results. Ammo used:
- Browning BPT, 147-grain, 50 rounds
- Federal Champion, 115-grain, aluminum case, 100 rounds
- Winchester White Box, 115-grain, 100 rounds
- Perfecta, 115-grain, 50 rounds
- Winchester Train, 147-grain, 5 rounds
- Federal Premium HST Micro, 150-grain hollow point, 5 rounds
- Remington UMC, 115-grain, 45 rounds
We mixed up the ammo, pulling from a different box with every magazine loaded, so none of these were shot exclusively at the beginning or at the end of our session. In fact, we held out four rounds of each type to fire from mixed ammo magazines at the conclusion.
The first magazine loaded with Browning BPT rounds fired flawlessly. Trouble started with the second magazine loaded with seventeen rounds of Federal Champion. My son, on leave from the Navy who has qualified as a sharpshooter with the M9, started experiencing failure to return to battery. A love tap on the back of the slide corrected the problem a couple times. On the third or forth occurrence, we saw that the guide rod was jammed at an angle in the end of the slide. After safely removing the ammo, I was able to field strip the gun (with a great deal of effort!) and reset the guide rod and spring assembly. We had no more trouble with the guide rod, but we continued to have type 3 (double feed) stoppages with the aluminum-case Federal Champion ammo. In total, the gun jammed 8 or 10 times with the aluminum-case ammo, including once in the last magazine we fired today.
The Federal Champion ammo was not the only that gave us trouble. We also experienced 2 or 3 double feeds with the brass-case Perfecta ammo toward the beginning of our shooting session.
On the positive side, the gun performed flawlessly with the other five types of ammo we used, the recoil is well mitigated, the trigger is the best stock striker-fired trigger on the market other than the Walther PPQ, the ambidextrous controls are great for me (left-handed) and everyone else in my family (right-handed), the weight and size are perfect despite complaints from fussy pundits, we experienced none of the dreaded M.A.C. thumb knuckle rub, and the grip angle is perfect for intuitive and fast target acquisition. Oh, and at $422 the price was right.
From today's experience it looks like the Ruger American Compact Pistol does not like aluminum-case ammo. I don't intend on buying any more. Has anyone else experienced this?
As for the Perfecta, I may give it another chance after I've run another 500-1000 rounds through the gun. I have not had any malfunctions with Perfecta .223 in my AR-556.
Lastly, has anyone else had a problem with the Compact's guide rod getting cockeyed and jammed in the end of the slide? This actually happened to me the very first time I charged the pistol (no ammo) after taking it out of the box. This is more concerning to me than the fact that the gun doesn't seem to like some types of cheap-o ammo.
- Browning BPT, 147-grain, 50 rounds
- Federal Champion, 115-grain, aluminum case, 100 rounds
- Winchester White Box, 115-grain, 100 rounds
- Perfecta, 115-grain, 50 rounds
- Winchester Train, 147-grain, 5 rounds
- Federal Premium HST Micro, 150-grain hollow point, 5 rounds
- Remington UMC, 115-grain, 45 rounds
We mixed up the ammo, pulling from a different box with every magazine loaded, so none of these were shot exclusively at the beginning or at the end of our session. In fact, we held out four rounds of each type to fire from mixed ammo magazines at the conclusion.
The first magazine loaded with Browning BPT rounds fired flawlessly. Trouble started with the second magazine loaded with seventeen rounds of Federal Champion. My son, on leave from the Navy who has qualified as a sharpshooter with the M9, started experiencing failure to return to battery. A love tap on the back of the slide corrected the problem a couple times. On the third or forth occurrence, we saw that the guide rod was jammed at an angle in the end of the slide. After safely removing the ammo, I was able to field strip the gun (with a great deal of effort!) and reset the guide rod and spring assembly. We had no more trouble with the guide rod, but we continued to have type 3 (double feed) stoppages with the aluminum-case Federal Champion ammo. In total, the gun jammed 8 or 10 times with the aluminum-case ammo, including once in the last magazine we fired today.
The Federal Champion ammo was not the only that gave us trouble. We also experienced 2 or 3 double feeds with the brass-case Perfecta ammo toward the beginning of our shooting session.
On the positive side, the gun performed flawlessly with the other five types of ammo we used, the recoil is well mitigated, the trigger is the best stock striker-fired trigger on the market other than the Walther PPQ, the ambidextrous controls are great for me (left-handed) and everyone else in my family (right-handed), the weight and size are perfect despite complaints from fussy pundits, we experienced none of the dreaded M.A.C. thumb knuckle rub, and the grip angle is perfect for intuitive and fast target acquisition. Oh, and at $422 the price was right.
From today's experience it looks like the Ruger American Compact Pistol does not like aluminum-case ammo. I don't intend on buying any more. Has anyone else experienced this?
As for the Perfecta, I may give it another chance after I've run another 500-1000 rounds through the gun. I have not had any malfunctions with Perfecta .223 in my AR-556.
Lastly, has anyone else had a problem with the Compact's guide rod getting cockeyed and jammed in the end of the slide? This actually happened to me the very first time I charged the pistol (no ammo) after taking it out of the box. This is more concerning to me than the fact that the gun doesn't seem to like some types of cheap-o ammo.