Black SR9, Pictures and peening

[DMZ]

When the slide moves backwards in recoil, the barrel tries to stay in place due to inertia. The slide acts on the barrel through the locking surfaces to pull the barrel back in recoil with it. There's a significant amount of force applied.

I understand that. But I am saying that significant force is not being applied to the area in question. If so, what part of the slide is smashing into the barrel to hard enough to peen it?

 

[Blackhawk47]

First of all the slide should never slap barrel ridge like this. The SR9 has a design problem there are many of these pistols that are experiencing this problem.

Now let me tell you my story, I purchased my SR9 in January, shot it the next day 150 round of Winchester 115gr Factory. During cleaning I found the top front barrel ridge peened back about 1/16" and about and equal size rid pushed up, high enough to interfere with the forward motion of the slide. Called Ruger and talked with a Tech she said that should not happen and my SR9 needs to be sent in for repair. Ruger sent me an UPS over night shipping label. Off it went, got it back 10 days later with a new barrel. Shot it yesterday, 150 Rounds, same problem, it goes back again. You can cycle the slide by hand and the barrel drops down like it should and does not come close to touching the slide, I'm beginning to think the recoil spring is too heavy for standard 9m/m ammo and this keeps the barrel in place for a micro second too long allowing the slide to slap the top of the barrel.

 

[DPris]

Slide velocity was reportedly an issue in developing the pistol, and it may still be an issue.
Denis

 

[vortex1]

OH well, still happening I see.

 

[poncaguy]

Mine is an early model with 800+ rounds, mine is peening too. Not going to worry about it for now, just keep shooting it and watch this forum .

 

[RugerMarkIII]

First of all the slide should never slap barrel ridge like this. The SR9 has a design problem there are many of these pistols that are experiencing this problem.

Now let me tell you my story, I purchased my SR9 in January, shot it the next day 150 round of Winchester 115gr Factory. During cleaning I found the top front barrel ridge peened back about 1/16" and about and equal size rid pushed up, high enough to interfere with the forward motion of the slide. Called Ruger and talked with a Tech she said that should not happen and my SR9 needs to be sent in for repair. Ruger sent me an UPS over night shipping label. Off it went, got it back 10 days later with a new barrel. Shot it yesterday, 150 Rounds, same problem, it goes back again. You can cycle the slide by hand and the barrel drops down like it should and does not come close to touching the slide, I'm beginning to think the recoil spring is too heavy for standard 9m/m ammo and this keeps the barrel in place for a micro second too long allowing the slide to slap the top of the barrel.

I think that is the issue as well. That is an awful stiff spring.

 

[RonS]

There seems to be some confusion here. The part of the barrel that is damaged is the locking lug on this design. Look at the rest of the barrel, there are no locking lugs like on a 1911, and no locking block like a Beretta. The square part of the barrel locks up with the slide in the ejection port and locks the two together. When the cartridge is fired the two are locked together and move back together as a unit until the cam on the bottom of the barrel hits whatever it hits and cams the back of the barrel down out of the ejection port (by which time the pressure has dropped to a safe level) and then the barrel stops moving back and the slide continues back away from the barrel until it reaches the end of its travel. At the moment of firing, there is something like 35,000 pounds per square inch of pressure trying to push the breech face away from the chamber and that little ledge of steel where the front of the ejection port and barrel meet each other is the only thing keeping the slide from flying back and the case head from blowing out. This is a locked breech design, not a straight blowback. If you do not believe me, imagine if the barrel were round all the way back, with the square shoulder where the damage is, removed. The slide would be free to fly back under the full pressure of the fired cartridge with no delay and the case would blow out almost instantly.

I would not fire that weapon again until it has been returned to the factory for examination and service.

 

[DMZ]

There seems to be some confusion here. The part of the barrel that is damaged is the locking lug on this design. Look at the rest of the barrel, there are no locking lugs like on a 1911, and no locking block like a Beretta. The square part of the barrel locks up with the slide in the ejection port and locks the two together. When the cartridge is fired the two are locked together and move back together as a unit until the cam on the bottom of the barrel hits whatever it hits and cams the back of the barrel down out of the ejection port (by which time the pressure has dropped to a safe level) and then the barrel stops moving back and the slide continues back away from the barrel until it reaches the end of its travel. At the moment of firing, there is something like 35,000 pounds per square inch of pressure trying to push the breech face away from the chamber and that little ledge of steel where the front of the ejection port and barrel meet each other is the only thing keeping the slide from flying back and the case head from blowing out. This is a locked breech design, not a straight blowback. If you do not believe me, imagine if the barrel were round all the way back, with the square shoulder where the damage is, removed. The slide would be free to fly back under the full pressure of the fired cartridge with no delay and the case would blow out almost instantly.

I thought what was locking the breech face to the barrel was the tension of the recoil spring. When both the barrel and slide go back that spring tension holds them together until the barrel is cammed downward by a metal protrusion in the frame. The slide continues back until it's inertia is overcome by the compression of the recoil spring, which brings it forward and back into battery, camming the barrel back up into position. The barrel are locked together again by heavy spring tension.

 

[jhearne]

I just re-examined my barrel, and there is SOME peining but it is about 1/32" (if that) of an inch, but you can feel the "bur" from it on the top facets of the leading edge of the block. Whenever the first incident like this happened, Ruger told the guy that some minimal peining was going to most likely happen, but his was signifigantly more and was due to a faulty barrel. His was replaced I think, and I am not sure what has happened since.

There is a tremendous amount of force and you can't expect the block especially designed the way it is to be perfect thru 1000+ rounds from zero. Some wear is going to occur.....your holding a device that makes explosive charges go off inside it....they are not tanks, its steel and plastic no matter how you look at it, even if its a Ruger.

Josh

 

[Blackhawk47]

I don't think this ridge is a locking lug, too much clearance between it and the slide. When Ruger replaced my barrel the first time the fix on the new barrel was to open the slide to front chamber ridge 1/32". This did not fix anything, even with that much clearance the slide still was able to heavily peened the front chamber ridge on the replacement barrel.

check out pictures of damage to first barrel.

 

[mekender]

wow blackhawk, thats a whole lot more damage than i am seeing... i wish i could get better close up pics, all i have is a zoom lens and to take the pics i took, the gun was on the floor and i had to hold the camera back over 5 feet to get it to autofocus...

 

[revhigh]

I am thinking the CNC machine left that there.

Very unlikely I'd think ...

 

[revhigh]

Mine is an early model with 800+ rounds, mine is peening too. Not going to worry about it for now, .

Huh ???? The gun is beating itself to death in a metal to metal manner and you're gonna keep firing it ??? Ooookay then ....

 

[revhigh]

I don't think this ridge is a locking lug, too much clearance between it and the slide. When Ruger replaced my barrel the first time the fix on the new barrel was to open the slide to front chamber ridge 1/32". This did not fix anything, even with that much clearance the slide still was able to heavily peened the front chamber ridge on the replacement barrel.

check out pictures of damage to first barrel.

Wow, that looks horrible, especiall since it's so non symmetrical. I'd send that gun, and any gun, that looked like that back pronto. That is some really BAD machining and fit and finish.

How's your gun now that it's repaired ???

 

[jbadams66]

Those pictures worry me. Looks like I am going to wait awhile longer before I try and get a pistol.

 

[JohnKSa]

But I am saying that significant force is not being applied to the area in question.

Actually, there is.

I thought what was locking the breech face to the barrel was the tension of the recoil spring. When both the barrel and slide go back that spring tension holds them together until the barrel is cammed downward by a metal protrusion in the frame.

No, the recoil spring is holding the slide forward. Recoil overcomes the force of the recoil spring and the slide moves backward. The slide drags the barrel back with it via it's connection at the locking surfaces (what's being peened) until the unlocking mechanism tilts the rear of the barrel down and unlocks it from the slide.

I don't think this ridge is a locking lug, too much clearance between it and the slide.

The clearance is part of the problem. It lets the slide take a "running start" before slamming into the locking surface.

 

[Blackhawk47]

quote]I don't think this ridge is a locking lug, too much clearance between it and the slide.[/quote]The clearance is part of the problem. It lets the slide take a "running start" before slamming into the locking surface.[/quote]

Let me explain, the pictures I posted is the damage on the original barrel, the one that came with the SR9. When new the gap between the slide and the front chamber ridge was no more them .002. You have to have some clearance in this area to allow the barrel to move.

I sent the SR9 back to Ruger for repair. They returned it back to me with a new barrel, the gap this time between the slide and front chamber ridge is .016. So if the problem is too much clearance why would they repair my SR9 with a new barrel that has 8 times the clearance as the old barrel.

These picture is damage to the new barrel after repair by Ruger.

So it does not make any difference small gap or large gap this SR9 is still beating itself to death

Im also thinking it not the slide hitting the front barrel ridge, its the barrel coming forward hitting the slide.

 

[SmokeJumper]

Lordie......... and to think I was concerned about the Mickey Mouse fix for the magazines.

Is everyone seeing the same issue?

 

[JohnKSa]

So if the problem is too much clearance why would they repair my SR9 with a new barrel that has 8 times the clearance as the old barrel.

Well, clearance is not THE problem, but it's certainly part of the problem. As far as your question goes, it should be addressed to Ruger...

 

[airwin]

I´ve never seen or heared about such a deformation at the proven (linkless) P-Series pistols. For me as technician, it seems the edge of the barrel which is meshing into the locking lug of the slide ist too small. It looks like there is too much force for too less material. A design-flaw? Only my opinion.