SR1911 Rust Issue?

In another thread a member made an allusion to what seemed like a known condition with this great pistol, to quote: "I had an SR1911 that had the rust issue."

I am the happy owner of an SR1911 full frame and an SR1911CMD. Love 'em.

So what's this rust issue all about?

Some people have had rust develop under the grips. Some people think it was from contaminated grips. Most have had no issue. Ed

Just don't look under the grips. Your gun is fine.

Wish I wouldn't have peeked. Lol

What size Allen wrench :mrgreen:

My earliest CMD had a little brown stuff under the grips that cleaned off easily.
My newest CMD had NONE. The grip panels also have a dry looking finish on them compared to the older ones leading me to believe the issue was finish related.
My 5" SR1911 (made before either of the CMD`s) had no brown stuff under the panels.

I just read this thread, got curious and checked one I traded for a few weeks ago. Found some beginning signs of pitting when I removed the custom grips. A little Flitz and elbow grease solved the problem.
I don't know what this guy had used, but back in the 60's there was some water based solvent on the gun market, maybe that was used. I had some typical water marks on the back of my grip panels.
All in all, I believe Ruger uses some of the finest stainless available, so I wouldn't expect this to be a major issue.

The "rust issue" stems from Ruger performing amateur passivation processing on stainless. It's a relatively simple chemical process but cannot be performed by a one-eyed deaf monkey, which apparently they tried in a cost-cutting move. WBR would have escorted that operator to the curb himself - but of course there are no Rugers at Ruger anymore.

I am sending my SR 1911 back to Ruger because of this issue. I bought it last year & saw some posts online about the rust shortly after. I had cleaned the black spots up with sandpaper & kept it oiled & they didn't come back until recently. I changed the factory grips for a set of the black rubber hogue grips Ruger sells a few months ago. I took them off to do something else the other day & the spots are back. I called today & spoke with "Maggie". She was polite & professional. I asked if she wanted me to e-mail a picture of the spots & she said no, they needed me to send it in for them to look at. I will post back later how they do at resolving the issue.

Edited to add: adam 12 I haven't seen any posts about anyone having an issue with this in a while. I believe whatever issues they had have been worked out. The posts I saw about it were about the same time I bought my gun, last June or July IIRC.

I have not noticed it on the two SR1911s I bought in the fall of 2012 or the SR1911CMD I bought in Jan. 2013, but live in the rather dry SW. Also when I get any new to me gun, even if new new I do at least field strip inspect and lube it and with a 1911 type pistol the grips always come off before I clean and lube. For these I have been using a CLP product made for SS guns, but not sure if that is important or not.

I had not owned the gun 2 weeks when I found out about this issue. I looked under the grips. It was under the left grip. It is as mohave sam said the passivation process was not performed properly. It is a manufacturing defect not a user caused thing. It just looked like very small black specks. Probably caused by fragments from a grinding disc or cutting implement that were imbedded in the stainless & not cleaned properly.

FedEx brought my SR 1911 back today. The work order said replaced grips, repaired grip frame, repaired slide, & test fired for function 5 rounds. As far as I can tell any evidence of rust under the grips is gone. They cleaned up some light scratches on the slide. My pistol went from me to Prescott & back in roughly a week (I dropped it at the FedEx hub last Thursday evening & it was delivered back to me today). There was also a silicone gun cloth with the Ruger logo included for my trouble.

Maybe the folks that think it was a problem with the finish on the grips are right.

I'll keep an eye on it but for now I think they have done a good job of taking care of it.

I think it strange that guys will change out triggers, disconnect safeties, but get their panties in a wad over "specks of rust"! Oh well it takes all kinds.
gramps

gramps said:

I think it strange that guys will change out triggers, disconnect safeties, but get their panties in a wad over "specks of rust"! Oh well it takes all kinds.
gramps

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If I through neglect cause a gun to rust it is my bad but I shouldn't have to deal with rust because something in the manufacturing process is done improperly or the wrong finish was used on the grips. If left unaddressed it could lead to pitting. I wanted it resolved. I don't have the equipment to bead blast something myself & I did research the passivation process before I sent it in. It did not look like something I wanted to attempt at home. FWIW all of my pistols have stock triggers & safeties. The only thing I have changed on any of them is sights and grips.

It's not really getting "your panties in a wad" when you simply ask Ruger to correct THEIR problem. I bought my gun in April, 2013. 5 months later I remove the grips I find over 50 of the dark spots between the two sides of the grips.

I contacted Ruger and their customer service was OUTSTANDING. I told them that if they felt the spots were simply cosmetic I put the grips back on and forget about it. They asked me to send the gun back to them (at their cost). After less than a week they contacted me saying they wanted to send me a new 1911. Obviously they considered it a valid concern.

The 1911 was my second Ruger firearm. In part because of their OUTSTANDING customer service I now have 5 Rugers.

Looked under mine today & theirs specks of something but it really doesn't look like rust. I tried to wipe it off with no luck. Didn't think stainless rusted?

Stainless does rust, just usually a lot slower than other steels.

Took mine off after reading this an no rust. Just a little dirty either from dust getting under the grips or from the grips themselves. It cleaned off easily.

I put my stainless Ruger in a pistol rug that had black powder contamination. I caught it while I could eliminate the rust with Emory paper, but I know that salt Peter will rust stainless.

I finally, after a few years, bought a SR1911CMD.
I bought the newest manufacturing date I could find in hopes the front site prob was fixed. ( Does anyone have a date for fixing the front site problem).
Several I looked at were March 2014 and that is what I finally got..
This was THE ONLY ONE of many that I looked at that the sides of the hammer wasn't rusted!! Some fairly bad.
I guess I better pull the grips and check under there.
With other stainless 1911s I've noticed that the new blasted stainless guns rust easily.
my sons Taurus PT1911 ( finished just like the Ruger). Rusted badly for him. I had a heck of a time cleaning it up for him.

Checked my March, 2014 CMD. No rust under grips.

Has anyone found rust under their magazine release button? A guy on another forum has reported finding some on three Rugers.