Is this normal wear on SP101

[Nakagawa]

I was looking over my SP101 the other night and noticed that my forcing cone showed these marks. Specifically, if you could, take a look at the rough inner side of the forcing cone and notice the small dent/nick at the 6' O clock position of the forcing cone. My SP101 is not too old nor has it had that many rounds through it (approx. 500-600 rounds of various 38 special, 38 special +P, and .357 magnum).

Need to know if I need to worry or not. I have not had any failures of any kind nor light primer strikes or anything. I did have a 10 lb. wolff hammer spring installed, but have switched that out for the 12 lb. if that helps any.

Thank you guys.

 

[22/45 Fan]

Were you shooting a lot of lead bullets? It's hard to tell from the pictures but it looks like lead buildup in the cone.

 

[louiethelump]

It looks like it is just dirty, but it is hard to tell from the photos. If you have Lewis Lead remover (and if you don't have one you should) with the forcing cone cleaner I would use it and then look again. It looks to me like metal residue built up in the forcing cone area.

 

[dmize]

Yea it appears to me the little guy needs a good and thorough cleaning first.

 

[Nakagawa]

^This would make sense, I took it shooting two days ago and haven't had the chance to clean i up fully yet. I am going to clean it up and report back. Thanks!

 

[Nakagawa]

Well I cleaned the SP101 last night as thoroughly as possible without fully taking the gun apart. I got a lot of the powder residue off but I still have that jagged circular ring on the inner side of the forcing cone. Did some research and I found other similar threads about this and many came to the conclusion that it was corrosion of metal. This is mostly due to shooting light grain loads such as 110 gr and 125 gr. Many said to stick to heavier loads such as 148gr. I have shot a good amount of 125gr ammo and maybe put five rounds 110 gr through my SP101, so I guess the corrosion is possible. It is unfortunate as I thought the SP101 could handle any factory load there was.

I do not know how severe my case of corrosion is, though I guess I will have to be making a call to Ruger. I never have used their customer service before and do not know the process of how they go about things. Do I make a phone call to them or is there an email address to use to address my concerns?

Advice on calling Ruger or thoughts of the corrosion is appreciated!

 

[JB696]

Nothing is worn. It's lead buildup on the forcing cone. I've fired literally thousands of 125 grain lead bullets through one of my SP101's. There is no erosion or damage of any kind to the forcing cone or top strap. When shooting lead bullets it is a good idea to clean off any lead buildup every 100 rounds or so to keep this from happening.

 

[woodsy]

Clean out the lead first, as many have already noted. Then report back. What you call "corrosion" is most likely lead crap. The divot at the 6 o'clock position has nothing to do with erosion, just a dent.