SR1911 10mm Failure...And The Final Update

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Prescott, we have a problem... :shock:

I finally found the perfect hunting ammo for my SR1911 10mm. Federal Trophy Bonded Soft Points. At $1.40 per round, they're not cheap, so I wont be shooting a bunch of them at the range, but I will stoke the magazine with these for woods carry once I know how well they shoot and function.




Shot a partial box of them yesterday, and had the first stoppage I've experienced with this pistol so far. Had a weird stove pipe jam with a loaded round. Gee...Did the round deflect off the ramp and turn straight up in the magazine? Or did it just jump out of the magazine on its own? At the time, no way to know. Finished shooting the rest of the box with no further issues.

Went back out today and tried to duplicate the failure. Couldn't duplicate it. But then, all of a sudden the gun would not go into full battery, and was locked up tighter than a drum. Once I got it cleared, it still wouldn't go into battery even with no ammo in the chamber. I knew there was a serious problem, so that ended my shooting.

Took it back home, stripped it down, and this is what I found...







Was my first jam an indication that something wasn't quite right? Or was that jam a fluke, and this toggle lug failure was a whole 'nother issue that happened later? I'll never know, but Ruger has already sent me a shipping label.




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hittman

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Hey that one part seems to have a little crack in it!
:shock:
 

Nobska Light

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Longtime reader,first post. Bought a new SR1911 10mm three months ago. After about 200 rounds I had a similar lockup with an identical fracture completely through the toggle link. Looked like yours. Online search yielded no other examples, and Ruger promptly took it in hand and returned with (I assume) a new barrel within 10 days. Otherwise I am very happy with the pistol and it's accuracy. Ruger provided no explanation as to the cause of the failure, either on the phone or in writing.
 
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Nobska Light said:
Longtime reader,first post. Bought a new SR1911 10mm three months ago. After about 200 rounds I had a similar lockup with an identical fracture completely through the toggle link. Looked like yours. Online search yielded no other examples, and Ruger promptly took it in hand and returned with (I assume) a new barrel within 10 days. Otherwise I am very happy with the pistol and it's accuracy. Ruger provided no explanation as to the cause of the failure, either on the phone or in writing.

Thank you for your 1st post. :mrgreen:

I also have searched for similar failures. I have found some with other .45 barrels where the lug is far less robust, but yours is now only the 2nd one I know of with Ruger's 10mm.

Makes me leery. Do I stay away from any 10mm ammo that's hotter than the de-tuned stuff? Or do I go for it and see if I can blow it up again? I would hate to be somewhere when this was my only gun and it decided again to take a dump.

Welcome to the Forum!

WAYNO.
 

tunnug

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Thank you for this post, something to keep in mind and an eye on as I use mine.
 

rob-c

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I would be curious to know if maybe your barrels were made in the same batch.
 

Pat-inCO

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Take some pictures of the frame before you send it in.

While I'm guessing, it seems possible that the frame has also been
"modified" to an unusable configuration. :shock:

To those wondering about hot loads . . . SAAMI spec for 10mm is a flat
out ground pounder. I detune my 10mm loads to 93-95% of SAAMI. It
still produces a 600 Ft/lbs load from a 5" revolver (S&W 610).
 

ditto1958

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Dude. You dun broke yer gun.

I feel for you. If that were mine, I'd be pretty depressed. Still, I'm sure Ruger will get you fixed up in no time.
 
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I just disassembled my 10mm Ruger and found a natural stress point at the rear of the toggle mount. Seems to me this area where the crack started should have a stress relieving radius at that point. JMO of course.....not an engineer. :roll:

Dave
 

1911Tuner

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The live round stovepipe is known as Bolt Over Base misfeed, and is basically caused by the slide outrunning the magazine and catching the case in the extractor groove instead of at the rear. Most often caused by a weak magazine spring, but too much recoil spring can also cause it.

The fractured lower lug is a barrel timing issue and is caused either by the barrel stopping on the link instead of by the frame's vertical impact surface...or the barrel hitting the frame bed before or at the same time it strikes the vertical impact surface.

The condition is simple to test for.

Install the slidestop with the arm hanging vertically. Press the muzzle straight back against the edge of a bench until it stops and hold it there firmly. The slidestop arm should swing freely. If it gets into any sort of bind, the barrel is being stopped by the link, and either the link or the lower lug will break at some point...how soon depends on the severity of the slidestop pin's bind.
 

rob-c

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So 1911 tuner do you feel these are isolated occurrences ? and if I am understanding your explanation correctly this is caused by improper assembly..
 

1911Tuner

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rob-c said:
So 1911 tuner do you feel these are isolated occurrences ? and if I am understanding your explanation correctly this is caused by improper assembly..

The misfeed is pretty common with oversprung slides. The cracked lug isn't, and it's a spec issue. Either the lower lug is mislocated...the link's hole in the lug is mislocated...the vertical impact surface is machined too far to the rear...or the barrel bed isn't cut deep enough into the frame. With integral ramps on the barrels, it could also be the bottom of the lower lug itself. It could also be as simple as the link being slightly too short for this particular pistol.


In my own experience, it's rarely the frame.
 

rob-c

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1911Tuner said:
rob-c said:
So 1911 tuner do you feel these are isolated occurrences ? and if I am understanding your explanation correctly this is caused by improper assembly..

The misfeed is pretty common with oversprung slides. The cracked lug isn't, and it's a spec issue. Either the lower lug is mislocated...the link's hole in the lug is mislocated...the vertical impact surface is machined too far to the rear...or the barrel bed isn't cut deep enough into the frame. With integral ramps on the barrels, it could also be the bottom of the lower lug itself. It could also be as simple as the link being slightly too short for this particular pistol.


In my own experience, it's rarely the frame.

Thank you , I have been wanting to buy a sr1911 in 10 mm but this had me spooked a little. It won't be probably till summer before I have the funds so I will be watching the net to see if any more cracking happenes.
 

AKBman

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My SR1911 10mm suffered the same failure, I have been told this could be an issue with the link and slide stop. Ruger replaced my barrel as well and function tested it with 50 rounds of Black Hills ammunition.
 
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AKBman said:
My SR1911 10mm suffered the same failure, I have been told this could be an issue with the link and slide stop. Ruger replaced my barrel as well and function tested it with 50 rounds of Black Hills ammunition.

Black hills 10mm is not much hotter than .40 S&W. This is akin to testing a .357 Magnum revolver with .38 Specials. I wish they'd test it with ammo loaded to what 10mm is designed to be. The soft puffer ammo didn't blow my gun up. It was the near 1300 fps Federal 180 gr SP's that did it. I might have shot the soft puffer stuff for years and never knew my gun wasn't up to shooting hotter ammo.
 
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