SR45

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deet

Bearcat
Joined
Mar 25, 2014
Messages
15
Long time gun owner and big fan of Ruger firearms. I posted in the Revolver section of a problem with a SP101. I recently purchased a SR45 that I have wanted for years. I got a decent deal on it, used in great shape, box, paperwork and four Ruger magazines for $400. I took it to the range and found it wouldn't feed HPs, had several failures to extract with HP and FMJ rounds. The slide would not lock back after last round. Very disappointed in this gun. Sent it to Ruger. Ruger replaced the barrel, ejector, fire control housing, slide stop spring, thumb safety assembly, trigger bar lift spring and trigger bar reset. Turn around time was two weeks.
Took it to the range and the gun functions 100% with HPs and FMJ. Ejects, feeds and the slide locks open.
After reading reviews about the SR guns, this problems should have been taken care off before these guns left the plant. Glad my gun works, but makes me weary about purchasing a used Ruger.

My question is should I keep this gun and hope it works or get rid of it. It is my nightstand gun and has to be 100% reliable. I am a little scared these problems might pop up in the future.
 

Mike J

Hunter
Joined
Aug 5, 2007
Messages
4,204
Location
GA
Only you can decide. If I ran a couple hundred rounds through it and everything worked I would probably trust it though.
 
Joined
Dec 19, 2001
Messages
10,104
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Alaska, Idaho USA
s4s4u said:
Took it to the range and the gun functions 100% with HPs and FMJ. Ejects, feeds and the slide locks open.

I don't know what more a guy could ask for. I'd keep it. Put another couple hundred rounds through it and be happy.
I like mine, it's very reliable. One thing about the 45 is you can use hardball and have success with it. I've got a fair amount of both. For PD I'd use the hollow points and I've even got various of those, but I also have a fair amount of hardball for practice and would rely on it anytime.
 
Joined
Dec 8, 2005
Messages
4,414
Location
Lemont, PA, USA 16851
Quote/ After reading reviews about the SR guns, this problems should have been taken care off before these guns left the plant. Glad my gun works, but makes me weary about purchasing a used Ruger. /Unquote

How do you know this?^^^^^ What is the percentage of these reviews about these "problems" as compared to the number of SR45s that were/are produced and work fine? Do you know how the guns are tested prior to being boxed up? Should Ruger run 400 rounds of differently configured ammo before boxing it up?

If you buy a car/boat/power saw/toaster/can opener and it has problems, do you say the same thing? Do you go on line and complain about it? How about the hundreds of thousands of SR45's that come out of the factory with no problems at all? Guess what, all those fine working guns don't get posted about how well they work. On gun forums you only see the ones that aren't working as they should and people automatically bad mouth ALL of them.

In ALL of manufacturing there are a percentage of items being turned out and bought by consumers that will not work correctly. It is a fact of life, it is understood by all manufacturers that this will happen. They try to get that percentage as low as possible but it will never be zero (unless you want your production numbers to plummet and the consumer cost to skyrocket). Some people get unlucky and get the problem item. But then there are companies that understand that and when informed, they do what they need to to get the item to work correctly. And even then, sometimes the repairs don't work. Ruger also realizes this and people have had complete firearms replaced after Ruger just couldn't get it to work correctly.

In the years that I have owned Rugers I have had to send several back. Ruger took them, fixed them and I never had any problems with those firearms again. I didn't go on forums (or before the internet talk to every single person that I could) and bad mouth the guns. I knew it could happen, it can happen to anything manufactured by humans OR machines.

If your SR45 is now functioning correctly AND you have put several hundred rounds down range without a problem, personally I would not have any problems using it for a self defense firearm. And yes, I do own a SR45 and I love it. It did have a problem when new (intermittent light primer strikes) but I didn't scream it to the world that it has a defective gun and that problem should have been caught at the factory. I called Ruger, explained my problem, sent it back with their provided shipping label and tested it when it was returned. They did replace a couple parts but they were parts in a striker fired semi auto could go bad at any time, first shot or 5000th.

I really don't know why people insist on bad mouthing these guns with problems (actually I do because the internet makes it easy to do and be basically incognito to possibly millions of readers with no repercussions). Just do what most people who bought something that has a problem, call the maker and see what they will do to remedy the problem. You really don't need to broadcast it to the world. Oh, and guess what, if enough people are contacting the manufacturer about the same problem, you will probably see a recall or an engineering change happen, the company lawyers will see to that.

Off soapbox now. And if any reply is "Well, he's a Ruger fan boy" Damn right I am, I can't say that I have seen too many firearms that work as well as Rugers do for what they sell for.
 

scubadad

Bearcat
Joined
Jul 2, 2017
Messages
44
My wife has a sr45 and had to go back for light strike issues right out of the box. 8 day turn around and now all is well. Ran 500 rounds of wolf steel cased with only a bore snake every 100 rounds and no issues. It is her night stand gun.

The sr45 is a very under rated gun. Shoot and enjoy.
 

Armybrat

Buckeye
Joined
Feb 22, 2007
Messages
1,525
Location
Round Rock, Texas
My SR9 had light strike issues at the first range session, but ran like a champ after cleaning out the striker channel. My SR45 has had no issues except slide failure to lock back after last round on two of my 3 magazines. That is a known magazine problem.... for many brands.
 

deet

Bearcat
Joined
Mar 25, 2014
Messages
15
Took the SR45 to the range and fired a box of FMJ thru it. Several FTE, the shell would stovepipe and need to be manually removed. Might just be the ammo, so I loaded up 4 magazines of JHP. Again the slide would fail to feed the round and not go into battery without me bumping the slide forward. This is the same issue as before. The slide does lock back after the last round so that is fixed. I did have 2 light primer strikes which is a new problem I didn't have before. I reloaded both light primer striked rounds and they both went off. Not sure why some problems came back and new ones happened, but I will send it back to Ruger.
 
Joined
Dec 8, 2005
Messages
4,414
Location
Lemont, PA, USA 16851
Your failure to feed the JHP's could be that the feedramp just needs to be polished, that's a easy job to do manually or just by firing just FMJ ammo for a while before trying the JHP's. JHP's and JSP (jacketed soft points) in semi-auto handguns are known to not feed real good until the feed ramp has a nice smooth surface done by normal wear or by manually smoothing it.

The light primer strikes, if not constant, could be that the SR45 needs to be detail stripped and remove the firing pin and flush out the firing pin channel, there may be some gunk (oil and such) still in the channel that is slowing down the firing pin when it is released. Also clean the firing pin spring and do not lubricate it (the lube attracts dirt and grime which can affect the movement of the firing pin).

Personally, I would do a few things first before sending it back to Ruger again
 

deet

Bearcat
Joined
Mar 25, 2014
Messages
15
Got the SR45 back from Ruger, New recoil spring and ejector. Took it out back and put 50 rounds of FMJ thru it, functioned perfectly. Then loaded up some JHP from three different manufacturers. Had a retired Marine, and an Active Army Sgt shoot the gun with me. Shot 100 times between the three of us. Ejection was perfect, no stovepipes. Mag held slide open after every last round. Had 4 failure to feed. We had to bump slide to go into battery. Had 3 light primer strikes. The gun is getting better but still needs more testing. I am headed to the range to purchase some different JHP ammo and to see if the gun smooths out.

I'm trying to be fair, but this gun should be near perfect after two trips to Ruger. Might just be a bad gun or just not the right gun for me. I will post about the range trip after I get back.
 

vulcan73

Bearcat
Joined
Aug 30, 2013
Messages
4
OP: If you must have a hand cannon next to your bed, I'd be more concerned about where I lived than a gun. Just saying...
 

deet

Bearcat
Joined
Mar 25, 2014
Messages
15
Went to the range today to test the SR45. Fired 60 rounds of Black Hills 230gr FMJ thru the gun. Functioned perfect. Loaded 40 rounds of Federal Personal Defense 165gr JHP. Gun had three light primer strikes. Everything else functioned fine.(no FTF,FTE, slide lock back after last round) I cleaned the firing pin channel before going to the range and polished the feed ramp. Polishing the ramp fixed the slide not going into battery. Cleaning the firing pin channel didn't solve the light primer strikes. I pulled the paperwork from the first trip to Ruger and see where they replaced my Fire Control Housing. I assumed that was my firing pin and spring. If that is not the case then I think I should replace my firing pin assembly and maybe my light primer strikes might go away. If you know what the fire control housing is please let me know.
 

WestTex

Single-Sixer
Joined
Dec 29, 2016
Messages
111
Since I have been into shooting handguns, the SR series is the BEST (except .22s and the SR1911) line of pistols Ruger has had.

Beats the heck out of P series in function, ergos, style.

Shows the American series to be over thought out, overpriced, ugly and way to heavy series.

Shows the SEC lineup to be a quick off the drawing board answer to the g2c Taurus.

The only thing they should have done with the SR series is tone down the LCI (for all calibers not just 9mm), have thumb safety optional, have mag disconnect optional.

I have SR45, SR 40 C, SR 9.

They , after break in, shoot great, look good , have great sights, and are ergonomic.
 
Joined
Oct 24, 2007
Messages
11,653
Location
Kentucky
RoninPA said:
I really don't know why people insist on bad mouthing these guns with problems (actually I do because the internet makes it easy to do and be basically incognito to possibly millions of readers with no repercussions). Just do what most people who bought something that has a problem, call the maker and see what they will do to remedy the problem. You really don't need to broadcast it to the world. Oh, and guess what, if enough people are contacting the manufacturer about the same problem, you will probably see a recall or an engineering change happen, the company lawyers will see to that..

The guy has a right to post his experiences here. It's RugerForum, so we should expect to see posts dealing with problems our members have with these guns. It's true that problem guns get way more exposure here than the ones that work perfectly out-of-the-box, but that's to be expected. This guy at least explained what he had to deal with and offered up his "before the return" common attempts at resolving the problems, and responded to commentary without getting abusive, which doesn't always happen. I give him props for reasonable site etiquette.

It is true that contacting the manufacturer about problems is a good idea and should ultimately result in a fix and hopefully attention being paid to an inherent problem with a certain model. But it's also true that public commentary on a website dedicated to a specific manufacturer's product will likely get that manufacturer's attention, as well . . . particularly if done with a certain degree of manners. I say no harm, no foul.

I am, by the way, a "Ruger Fan Boy" but I try to not let that get in the way of objective observation.

:)
 

deet

Bearcat
Joined
Mar 25, 2014
Messages
15
Thanks Ale-8 for the kind words. I may have seemed to be bashing Rugers, but I was really frustrated at the time of that post. I received a replacement firing pin and spring. I took the gun to the range and fired 100 HP and 100 FMJ rounds with zero malfunctions. I am really happy that this gun is working and functioning. I have a few more boxes of ammo that I will run thru it this weekend. If it continues to function 100% then it will be my permanent nightstand gun. To everyone who tried to help thanks, I was desperate for help and quite frustrated, so your help was appreciated.
 

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