LC9 Stainless Steel Guide Rod Testing & Review!
- Thread starter Stimo3
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boomer1
Single-Sixer
Stimo3 said:
Some folks may say that this thread is a great example of an infomercial. But then again, some of those folks may also want to read some unbiased and independent reviews. Thank you for responding to my source inquiry, and for informing us of Steve's schedule. :wink:
Good luck with your product. Caveat emptor!
YMMV,
boomer 8)
boomer1 said:
Yeah i can understand that, i'm sure many people will wait to see how they work on others before ordering theirs, but people like me that like to test things and find out for themselves will be the first ones to order, followed by the people that wanted more confirmation that it wouldnt mess up their gun.
I completely understand that, i'm giving my unbiased opinion, but i can see why you/people may think it is biased since i am helping him do the testing.
Thats why i took pictures, because pictures don't lie, and i now have ~600 rounds through it with the SS guide rod installed without any unnecessary wear noticeable, etc. I shot another 200 rounds today and everything still looks the same, except the tip of the guide rod needs to be polished a bit from all the residue on it
Other than that it's been functioning flawlessly and has noticeably improved my groupings @ distance when doing double taps. and BTW, not MY product just helping doing the testing for a free guide rod is all, but you/people can believe what they want to. Nice slipping that in there BTW All you have to do is do a bit of research on Steve Bedair, he's a great guy and makes really nice guide rods for multiple guns, one of the biggest in the business that i have found. He wouldn't sell an unsatisfactory product that has a chance of ruining your gun/doing any damage to it whatsoever, which is why he has multiple people testing the rods and not just one gun, because tolerances can vary between guns and it's best to test on multiple guns, which he is doing. He's not going to put a bad name on his business and ruin his reputation to sell one type of guide rod for one specific gun, he makes so many other types for guns, that one type for a specific model doesnt matter in the least bit if it doesnt function correctly, which is why he only made 1 batch at first and had me test it out, as soon as i reported back with 100 rounds through it and no excess wear and functioned flawlessly, he passed out 3 more to locals for testing. If anybody reports back with unnecessary wear, bad peening, etc. he win't be producing the guide rods and they won;t be coming out for sale and these will be the only ones made. However if the reports stay the way they have been and he likes what he see's when he inspects them, then i'll be passing on the list of how many people are interested to give him an idea of how many to start making, and which type to get ahead of the game.
Now, if this was HIS ONLY product, yeah i'd be skeptical too, but he has numerous different guide rods for numerous different types of guns, again he's not going to possibly RUIN his company trying to sell a guide rod for a gun that it doesnt function properly in, or that will hurt your gun in anyway, he's a businessman and he needs to make money, and that's not accomplished by making bad products. Obviously he's been doing pretty well in this business as he has NUMEROUS DIFFERENT guide rods out for NUMEROUS guns, so i trust his knowledge on wether a product is good or not good, not only that i can see for myself if there's any unnecessary wear in any places, which is where i tried to take detailed pics of, and will do again when i hit 1k rounds.
By next week when he's back and ready for a report on how everything has been going from everybody since he left, as long as the other 3 people have put plenty of rounds through theirs without any noticeable wear, and i'll prolly have ~1k rounds with it by then, he'll have some good, hard proven data to go from and he'll make the decision wether they're quality enough to sell, or if they have problems in other guns and won't be a good product. So far though all guns have reported back that everything has been great and i know they at least have a couple hundred rounds through theirs when he had asked, so by the time he gets back they'll have a lot more rounds through theirs, and i'll have another ~600 rounds through mine from the time i did my review, 1k with the stainless steel guide rod installed total and i'll add more pictures for people to see, as pictures don't lie.
But i'll let people decide for themselves what they want, there are already plenty of people that are interested just waiting on the final word, and there are also the people that are skeptics like yourself. FOR ME, it has helped and made a noticeable improvement. If it helps professional IDPA shooters with full-size guns that much, (MOST will switch to SS guide rods when allowed) IMO it'll do much more on a smaller gun like this, as long as it functions properly. And i understand why people are very skeptical since this gun is so close in design to the kel-tecs and they don't work on them, but again, it's NOT a kel-te, similar but different, and so far it has made a noticeable difference as i go shooting ~2 times a week.
As soon as i get more information, which will be this next weekend im guessing, i'll have a definite answer and also have all the ordering information, etc. as of right now it looks like he is going to proceed with making them as of last conversation, So sit tight, believe what you want to believe, and i'll continue to do my testing and get as many rounds as i can through it with the rod in before he gets back from his trip and is ready to inspect them all.
GaryT
Bearcat
2ndamd said:
I'd like to be included as well...
(Thanks!)
I just wanted to also let everyone know that i have written a letter to a representative at Ruger and he's going to find and answer as to wether a SS guide rod is okay to use in the LC9 AS LONG AS it's not showing any unnecessary wear on the slide, barrel, bad pitting, etc. I'll let you know what his reply is as soon as i get it. I also asked if the "flexing" as some people have stated is designed into the stock guide rod on purpose for some purpose, or if that is a myth, i wanted to clear that up too.
Even if he says it's not recommended, i'll still use it as it has worked flawlessly in my gun and improved my groupings at distance when doing double taps. So far i have seen no noticeable unnecessary wear, and even if something catastrophic happens and it ruins the slide, so what? The gun was $350, i'll buy another one.
This is why i don't mind doing the testing to MAKE SURE it's okay to use on all guns and won't do any harm to them. I just spent almost that much $ for some range ammo, so honestly if something catastrophic happened and it does that much damage (which it would have done already by now if it was going to, im sure) i'll have it replaced and move on.
I have a feeling though that as soon as some people that ORDER them and are COMPLETELY non-biased in anyway possible and they come back with good results, i really think these will become a big hit as it improves the recoil TREMENDOUSLY! This is not only proven to myself in the groupings that i shoot, but how far i'm ejecting casings. Instead of it throwing spent casings a good 10ft. it's more like 6ft. now, which is where it should be.
I do have a little theory that since the inner guide rod is so close and tight to the guide rod, when the stock plastic one gets pitted and bends, that inner recoil spring will get caught in those pits and wont work nearly as well, especially when the guide rod is bent, how is it supposed to slide on a pitted, bent rod? This is why i think my recoil spring went from being so tight that i could barely use my slide stop to release the slide, to extremely loose once i had 600 rounds through it and the stock rod was noticeably pitted, to normal when i changed out the guide rod to the SS one.
I have heard of many others complain of their LC9 ejecting spent casings too far and IMO this is the culprit. It makes complete sense, as soon as i changed my stock plastic, bending, and pitted rod for the SS one, the shells started to eject at a normal distance and the tension didn't feel as weak, with the inner spring being that tight it makes perfect sense that it wouldnt slide and operate smoothly when the guide rod is pitted and bent. Now basically the outer spring is doing all the work because the inner spring is caught on the pitted, bent rod and it's not sliding on it, causing shells to eject too far and getting too much recoil.
Even if he says it's not recommended, i'll still use it as it has worked flawlessly in my gun and improved my groupings at distance when doing double taps. So far i have seen no noticeable unnecessary wear, and even if something catastrophic happens and it ruins the slide, so what? The gun was $350, i'll buy another one.
This is why i don't mind doing the testing to MAKE SURE it's okay to use on all guns and won't do any harm to them. I just spent almost that much $ for some range ammo, so honestly if something catastrophic happened and it does that much damage (which it would have done already by now if it was going to, im sure) i'll have it replaced and move on.
I have a feeling though that as soon as some people that ORDER them and are COMPLETELY non-biased in anyway possible and they come back with good results, i really think these will become a big hit as it improves the recoil TREMENDOUSLY! This is not only proven to myself in the groupings that i shoot, but how far i'm ejecting casings. Instead of it throwing spent casings a good 10ft. it's more like 6ft. now, which is where it should be.
I do have a little theory that since the inner guide rod is so close and tight to the guide rod, when the stock plastic one gets pitted and bends, that inner recoil spring will get caught in those pits and wont work nearly as well, especially when the guide rod is bent, how is it supposed to slide on a pitted, bent rod? This is why i think my recoil spring went from being so tight that i could barely use my slide stop to release the slide, to extremely loose once i had 600 rounds through it and the stock rod was noticeably pitted, to normal when i changed out the guide rod to the SS one.
I have heard of many others complain of their LC9 ejecting spent casings too far and IMO this is the culprit. It makes complete sense, as soon as i changed my stock plastic, bending, and pitted rod for the SS one, the shells started to eject at a normal distance and the tension didn't feel as weak, with the inner spring being that tight it makes perfect sense that it wouldnt slide and operate smoothly when the guide rod is pitted and bent. Now basically the outer spring is doing all the work because the inner spring is caught on the pitted, bent rod and it's not sliding on it, causing shells to eject too far and getting too much recoil.
Little update: I got a response back from the rep. at Ruger. Of course he said since it's not a Ruger product if it does any damage the warranty will be voided, and that only Ruger made parts should be used on a Ruger, so basically CYA statement for them. Other than that, he said nothing about the gun specifically being designed to have to guide rod flex, so throw that myth out the window as i specifically asked.
Third, he said as long as there's no excess wear on the hole for the slide where the guide rod passes through and it's not affecting that area, and im not getting bad peening, then it should be okay to use although it's not covered under warranty which i already knew obviously.
My take on that response is "use it at your own risk, if it works great, go ahead and use it, if you have any problems don't ask us for warranty work to repair it." Which is about the response i was expecting, i just wanted to show that the "bending" of the stock rod is not necessary as part of the operation of the gun, and the gun can operate fine with a SS guide rod.
Third, he said as long as there's no excess wear on the hole for the slide where the guide rod passes through and it's not affecting that area, and im not getting bad peening, then it should be okay to use although it's not covered under warranty which i already knew obviously.
My take on that response is "use it at your own risk, if it works great, go ahead and use it, if you have any problems don't ask us for warranty work to repair it." Which is about the response i was expecting, i just wanted to show that the "bending" of the stock rod is not necessary as part of the operation of the gun, and the gun can operate fine with a SS guide rod.
208packinheat
Single-Sixer
Nice discussion. Just got my LC9, can't contribute but thinks to my self, a 20% increase in the cost of the gun. Hummmmm, that gets me to the $400+ range. I too like substantial upgrades, and think I will wait on the outcome a bit longer, but nice "study" and information.
Again, I was wrong on the original pricing, it'll be in the ~$25 range, I was going off what captive guide rods cost, but the LC9 should be around $25. Thanks for the compliments though, and by next week there should be at least 15 people with them, or have them ordered and on the way so there will be plenty of "non-biased" testing by other forum users.208packinheat said:
208packinheat
Single-Sixer
Ah, that is better...still awaiting the verdict from a full jury. Keep us posted.
Have ~750 rounds through it now, still looking great. I talked to Steve and he'll be back this weekend, i'll be sending him pictures and im going to make it to the range one more time and get it up to ~900 rounds fired with the SS guide rod, so as long as everything goes well with all guns they should be for sale next week!
I gave him the list of people from this/other websites that i have been posting on and he's going to get a start on making them as soon as the inspection is done. I can tell you for sure that mine is going to pass, the peening is still only noticeable if you hold it up just right to the sun, and you still cant feel it with your finger, so it's very minor. Will post another update this weekend most likely with all the information.
I gave him the list of people from this/other websites that i have been posting on and he's going to get a start on making them as soon as the inspection is done. I can tell you for sure that mine is going to pass, the peening is still only noticeable if you hold it up just right to the sun, and you still cant feel it with your finger, so it's very minor. Will post another update this weekend most likely with all the information.
UPDATE: So i just hit ~900 rounds through my LC9 with a SS guide rod installed, designed and made by Steve Bedair of Guiderod.com. Out of those 900 rounds, not 1 malfunction! I posted some pictures after the first couple hundred rounds, and im happy to report back that after almost 1k rounds there is no noticeable wear on the slide, rod, or barrel that is significant, the slight peening that the rod has is just wear and tear, and it won't get any deeper than it is now, and right now you can not feel it with your fingertip, you have to use a nail to feel the indentations. I had trouble even picking it up on my camera.
I made sure to have the guide rod positioned in the same place every time i re-installed it so i could get the most wear/tear on it as possible in the same areas that see stress on the rod every time in the same spot, so it's more of a "torture test" than it normally would as you dont make sure your guide rod is in the exact same place every install, i made i tiny mark with a marker on the head of the rod to know which way is supposed to face toward me, so all peening has been done ~160degrees around the top of the rod. Here are the pictures of all the parts that see wear (excluding the barrel as the barrel is harder metal and looks the exact same as the first picture, but if anybody really wants ill post a picture of the bottom of the barrel too to prove it has done nothing to it.
And here are the pictures:
EDIT: I wanted to add that in the picture above, you can see the little bit of bluing that gets rubbed off on the part right at the beginning of the inner side of the guide hole. If you look at the guide hole, it look like its in the middle bit its actually right where it raises and narrows in back, and near the top it did rub away just the bluing, no metal at all, and it did show up on the rod which i buffed off. This happened in the first 2-300 rounds and wasnt a problem after that. This is what Steve wants to see from the other guns, plus what type of peening/wear of bluing it does on the barrel since mine is polished and there is no bluing to be rubbed off. I can for sure say though that it is just cosmetic, and doesnt affect function of the gun just rubs off the horrible bluing job, or the part on the barrel where it makes contact.
So this is with the guide rod installed and ~900 rounds with it in, ~ 1500 total trough the gun. As you can see, the peening is EXTREMELY mild and won't affect the function of the inner recoil spring/gun. I've shot all 8 rounds as fast as i could through it, i've done NUMEROUS double taps, and i've done some accuracy shooting, trying to do a little bit of everything to test it out as much as possible in those ~900 rounds.
As for the function, i did notice a definite improvement in my double taps, especially at distance. with 14 rounds @ ~25yds that i did strictly double taps only on the picture of the target i posted, the top square has 13 holes, one just outside and low to the left. 5 of those rounds went through basically the same hole, and a total of 10 were within a ~3in. grouping, with 4 more rounds that extended that grouping out to ~7in. Not saying i could do that again, but that's the best shooting i've done with this gun, and im sure more practice has some to do with it but right when i installed the SS guide rod i could really notice a reduction in recoil.
Then again i did have peening on my stock rod in the same spot, only A LOT worse and i believe when the rod bent when firing, since the inner spring is so tight to the rod i don't think the inner spring was functioning correctly as i was ejecting spent casings ~10ft. or more. I'm guessing when the rod bent it was getting caught in the peening in the rod, because as soon as i switched out to SS, recoil noticeably reduced and i'm ejecting shells ~6ft. now, which is about what it should be. Some people will doubt this big of a noticeable difference but as soon as some people get their rods installed and review it, i guarantee they'll notice a difference too. On full-size guns professional shooters notice a difference in recoil, why wouldnt you notice a bigger difference on a smaller, lighter gun? Believe what you want, but recoil reduction was noticeable.
Gun didnt get anymore accurate, from what i could tell anyways, the only accuracy difference noticed was the groupings in my double taps. My groups might be a tiny bit tighter now, but i'll calk that up to more practice with the gun as that makes more of a difference in accuracy. I have however shot my best groupings with it installed, both double taps and single-shots, shooting for accuracy.
I'm going to be sending these pictures to Mr. Bedair for him to review, as well as get a response from him on how the local guns did with the rods installed. If all is still well, and im 99% sure it will be from the sound of it the other day when i talked to him, they'll be available for orders this next week. As soon as he give the "okay," i'll be giving him the numbers of guide rods to make for the people that asked for them on here and other places, and i'll make sure those people dont have to wait and get theirs first, because if he gets backed up on orders it may be a little wait.
To all the doubters, now you can wait and see how it functions, and what other peoples reactions are to the SS guide rod that have no affiliation with Steve whatsoever. Even though there's no grounds for me to be biased on this review as it was a test to see if it even worked in this gun in the first place (Steve was skeptical as it's really close to kel-tecs and they dont work in them) and if it did, he was going to start testing them mor and selling them. Once i reported back that i had fired a couple hundred rounds with no noticeable unnecessary wear, he passed a couple more out to locals for testing.
So anyways if anyone has any questions let me know, and i'll update the thread again as soon as i hear back from Steve. Should be later today or tomorrow.
BTW: I also wanted to mention that since the LC9 is a CCW designed gun and A LOT of people use it as their main carry gun, im going to be doing a Test & Review on my favorite Concealed Carry holster. They're IWB, but you can ask for slits for OWB too if needed, and it's made from nice leather and kydex with metal or plastic clips. It is BY FAR the most comfortable holster i've ever worn, and i do have a drawer of holsters lol, i'll post a picture of it when i do my review but it took a couple holsters before i found not only the most comfortable, best concealable holster ever, but Mr. Theis of TheisHolsters.com has the bst customer service i've ever dealt with by far! It REALLY stands out! For example i was going to vegas and it was a monday morning, and i told Mr. Theis i needed the holster by friday and would pay extra, whatever needed as i had a new gun for carry but no holster yet. He was extremely nice about it and really cares about his products, i spent 10min. with him on the phone going over exactly what i weigh, height, waist size, etc. Great guy to deal with which is why i just bought another holster for my LC9 to do a review on. Even though it's only my summertime carry piece, those times when i have to wear dress pants with tight pockets, or tuck in my shirt with jeans that are a bit tight in the pocket for pocket carry, the Theis holster will be perfect as i can barely see my FNP-40 wearing a tank top, only the butt protrudes a tiny bit when i bend over, other than that even that gun which is almost twice the size of the LC9 conceals great! I wear it all day everyday durning other months, and have even worn it on 41/2 hour car drives without being uncomfortable. So keep an eye for that one as it'll be a very good seller IMO, like i said it's the most comfortable, best concealed holster for a gun i've come across.
I made sure to have the guide rod positioned in the same place every time i re-installed it so i could get the most wear/tear on it as possible in the same areas that see stress on the rod every time in the same spot, so it's more of a "torture test" than it normally would as you dont make sure your guide rod is in the exact same place every install, i made i tiny mark with a marker on the head of the rod to know which way is supposed to face toward me, so all peening has been done ~160degrees around the top of the rod. Here are the pictures of all the parts that see wear (excluding the barrel as the barrel is harder metal and looks the exact same as the first picture, but if anybody really wants ill post a picture of the bottom of the barrel too to prove it has done nothing to it.
And here are the pictures:
EDIT: I wanted to add that in the picture above, you can see the little bit of bluing that gets rubbed off on the part right at the beginning of the inner side of the guide hole. If you look at the guide hole, it look like its in the middle bit its actually right where it raises and narrows in back, and near the top it did rub away just the bluing, no metal at all, and it did show up on the rod which i buffed off. This happened in the first 2-300 rounds and wasnt a problem after that. This is what Steve wants to see from the other guns, plus what type of peening/wear of bluing it does on the barrel since mine is polished and there is no bluing to be rubbed off. I can for sure say though that it is just cosmetic, and doesnt affect function of the gun just rubs off the horrible bluing job, or the part on the barrel where it makes contact.
So this is with the guide rod installed and ~900 rounds with it in, ~ 1500 total trough the gun. As you can see, the peening is EXTREMELY mild and won't affect the function of the inner recoil spring/gun. I've shot all 8 rounds as fast as i could through it, i've done NUMEROUS double taps, and i've done some accuracy shooting, trying to do a little bit of everything to test it out as much as possible in those ~900 rounds.
As for the function, i did notice a definite improvement in my double taps, especially at distance. with 14 rounds @ ~25yds that i did strictly double taps only on the picture of the target i posted, the top square has 13 holes, one just outside and low to the left. 5 of those rounds went through basically the same hole, and a total of 10 were within a ~3in. grouping, with 4 more rounds that extended that grouping out to ~7in. Not saying i could do that again, but that's the best shooting i've done with this gun, and im sure more practice has some to do with it but right when i installed the SS guide rod i could really notice a reduction in recoil.
Then again i did have peening on my stock rod in the same spot, only A LOT worse and i believe when the rod bent when firing, since the inner spring is so tight to the rod i don't think the inner spring was functioning correctly as i was ejecting spent casings ~10ft. or more. I'm guessing when the rod bent it was getting caught in the peening in the rod, because as soon as i switched out to SS, recoil noticeably reduced and i'm ejecting shells ~6ft. now, which is about what it should be. Some people will doubt this big of a noticeable difference but as soon as some people get their rods installed and review it, i guarantee they'll notice a difference too. On full-size guns professional shooters notice a difference in recoil, why wouldnt you notice a bigger difference on a smaller, lighter gun? Believe what you want, but recoil reduction was noticeable.
Gun didnt get anymore accurate, from what i could tell anyways, the only accuracy difference noticed was the groupings in my double taps. My groups might be a tiny bit tighter now, but i'll calk that up to more practice with the gun as that makes more of a difference in accuracy. I have however shot my best groupings with it installed, both double taps and single-shots, shooting for accuracy.
I'm going to be sending these pictures to Mr. Bedair for him to review, as well as get a response from him on how the local guns did with the rods installed. If all is still well, and im 99% sure it will be from the sound of it the other day when i talked to him, they'll be available for orders this next week. As soon as he give the "okay," i'll be giving him the numbers of guide rods to make for the people that asked for them on here and other places, and i'll make sure those people dont have to wait and get theirs first, because if he gets backed up on orders it may be a little wait.
To all the doubters, now you can wait and see how it functions, and what other peoples reactions are to the SS guide rod that have no affiliation with Steve whatsoever. Even though there's no grounds for me to be biased on this review as it was a test to see if it even worked in this gun in the first place (Steve was skeptical as it's really close to kel-tecs and they dont work in them) and if it did, he was going to start testing them mor and selling them. Once i reported back that i had fired a couple hundred rounds with no noticeable unnecessary wear, he passed a couple more out to locals for testing.
So anyways if anyone has any questions let me know, and i'll update the thread again as soon as i hear back from Steve. Should be later today or tomorrow.
BTW: I also wanted to mention that since the LC9 is a CCW designed gun and A LOT of people use it as their main carry gun, im going to be doing a Test & Review on my favorite Concealed Carry holster. They're IWB, but you can ask for slits for OWB too if needed, and it's made from nice leather and kydex with metal or plastic clips. It is BY FAR the most comfortable holster i've ever worn, and i do have a drawer of holsters lol, i'll post a picture of it when i do my review but it took a couple holsters before i found not only the most comfortable, best concealable holster ever, but Mr. Theis of TheisHolsters.com has the bst customer service i've ever dealt with by far! It REALLY stands out! For example i was going to vegas and it was a monday morning, and i told Mr. Theis i needed the holster by friday and would pay extra, whatever needed as i had a new gun for carry but no holster yet. He was extremely nice about it and really cares about his products, i spent 10min. with him on the phone going over exactly what i weigh, height, waist size, etc. Great guy to deal with which is why i just bought another holster for my LC9 to do a review on. Even though it's only my summertime carry piece, those times when i have to wear dress pants with tight pockets, or tuck in my shirt with jeans that are a bit tight in the pocket for pocket carry, the Theis holster will be perfect as i can barely see my FNP-40 wearing a tank top, only the butt protrudes a tiny bit when i bend over, other than that even that gun which is almost twice the size of the LC9 conceals great! I wear it all day everyday durning other months, and have even worn it on 41/2 hour car drives without being uncomfortable. So keep an eye for that one as it'll be a very good seller IMO, like i said it's the most comfortable, best concealed holster for a gun i've come across.
Deepwoods
Bearcat
Moderator - Is this forum open to anyone that wants to advertise or just a selected few? I presume we will try to keep it firearm focused.
I'm not advertising as there was a purchase made, so im doing a "Test & Review"," and yes if you buy a product and review it that's perfectly legal. I told you guys he gave me a guide rod to test, but i had to buy the stock guide rod + other parts to equal 10 dollars and pay for shipping, etc. in order to test it so i did pay for it.Deepwoods said:
If it was completely given to me for free and i was affiliated with the company benefiting in a way that would be advertising, but you have to be "benefiting" in some way in order for it to be "advertising." You obviously never read the directions or took a simple business 101 class have you?
I'm guessing you're not of age to buy a firearm, or at least a handgun yet with your knowledge as this IS "firearm focused," a guide rod is part of a firearm is it not? :lol: Come back in a couple years after you've finished schooling son. There's plenty of other people that have done test and reviews on other products here, otherwise you'll have to cut out every single ammunition discussion, etc because it's "advertising" lol. By your definition, any talk about anything is advertising :lol:2ndamd
Bearcat
Thanks Stimo3 for the update! It is looking good!
Hey one question: when aftermarket SS guiderods for the CZ P-01 were offered the back of the guide rod did damage to the alloy frame. Can you take pics of the frame?
Or does the guiderod not even touch the frame because the Ruger uses a Camblock system?
Just curious.
Good product review.
When are these available? soon?
Hey one question: when aftermarket SS guiderods for the CZ P-01 were offered the back of the guide rod did damage to the alloy frame. Can you take pics of the frame?
Or does the guiderod not even touch the frame because the Ruger uses a Camblock system?
Just curious.
Good product review.
When are these available? soon?
2ndamd said:
I'll take some pics of the frame for you, but from what i can tell the only thing that has made contact with the frame was part of the barrel, and i believe that was happening when i was noticing a lot more recoil with the stock rod in and the bad peening i had on the front of it. I believe my inner spring was getting caught when the stock guide rod would flex causing more recoil to be felt and also causing the barrel to make harder contact with the frame. As soon as i switched to the SS rod there was a noticeable reduction in the distance i was ejecting spent casings, and noticeably less recoil., not much but it's noticeable in my groupings when doing double taps/rapid firing.
Here's a couple pictures of the frame, but from what i see the rod in no way makes contact with anything but the barrel and the hole in the slide for the guide rod to pass through.
The first ~200 rounds i did notice i tiny bit of bluing that had rubbed off onto the tip of the rod, but there is no noticeable wear on the guide rod or the slide hole, and it looks more like wear/tear than a rubbing issue that is going to effect the gun. Again, i have ~900 rounds through it with this rod and as you can see in the picture of the slide and the hole where the guide rod passes through, right where it steps up on the inside, maybe 1/32 of an inch has JUST the bluing rubbed off, but then again i wasnt too worried about this as the bluing came off my barrel after 600 rounds really bad to the point where i polished it. After those 200 initial rounds and noticed a little bluing rub off, i had no more noticeable rubbing, not even on the guide rod itself as you can see.
Another thing you will notice if you dont have a polished barrel is where it makes contact and does the peening, it will take off a bit of the bluing on the barrel from what i've been told on the other guns that are testing them. Mine is polished so this is something that did not affect me, but if you dont have your barrel polished, it will take some of the bluing off the bottom where it contacts the rod ever so slightly, as you can see from the pictures. BTW i also shot 50 rounds of +P 124gr. Winchester Ranger T-series, which is my carry load. Just wanted to test out a box with this rod in and make sure the gun still functioned flawlessly, and of course it did but i forgot to mention that too.
BTW i just talked to Steve Bedair which is why i got a little update on the guide rods from the other people that i hadnt posted earlier. The guide rods are being brought back to him this week for inspection, and he's going to determine wether or not to list it on his page. He's not 100% sure until he checks these rods that the guys noticed bluing coming off from whhere it contacts the barrel. If it's not bad then he's going to sell them, if it takes off too much of the bluing on the barrel and any of them have more peening then mine does then he's not going to list them for sale on his website. You will be able to special order them, but because of the past, and people complaining about guide rods that he has made that rubbed off some of the bluing on the barrel, even though it functioned fine, he doesn't want to deal with selling it as a normal product because people will complain and be asking for refunds, etc. and he doesnt want to deal with that, which is the whole point of testing it in a couple guns. Because my barrel as polished i had no idea that it was rubbing off some of the bluing on the blued barrels. Again, i'll find out 100% this week weather or not he's going to list them for sale, but i do believe since it functioned in my gun satisfactory he will offer them as special orders only if he decides not to list them on his website.
I have a feeling though that it'll be fine and the people that had some of the bluing rub off probably was the exact same thing that happened to mine, but i asked Steve to send me some pictures as well of them so i can help determine if there was more contact being made on their guns than mine. If that's the case they will be special order only and not listed on the sight as they don't function perfectly in every gun and rub on some guns in different areas more than others. But again we have to wait until the rods are returned before he makes that decision.
As of my gun, it functioned as designed and ther's no noticeable excess wear in any areas as you can see from the pictures, and the peening is MUCH more mild on the SS rod than on the Stock rod, like i said befoe i believe my inner spring was getting caught in it when it bent, causing the inner spring to not function to its full potential and cause more felt recoil, and also the contact that you notice on the front of my slide from the barrel. After the SS guide rod install the contact marks have not gotten any worse so i think it has stopped making contact with the front of the rails. It is very superficial though, you cant eel anything just the crappy bluing job is coming off.
The bluing on these guns is horrible! On the top edges of my slide im already noticing a bit of it wearing off from the pocket holster i carry it in, that's REALLY bad bluing IMO. I have ~3k rounds through my FNP-40 and it doesnt have a scratch in the bluing! Also Glocks, although im not a fan of them, have GREAT bluing! These LC9's however are lacking in the good bluing department which is what caused me to polish my barrel in the first place.
To be honest on my barrel though the chamber after 600 rounds and the two thickest parts at the tip basically had most of the bluing coming off already, which is why i polished the barrel in the first place. I ended up liking it more as i think it looks better, but that's a personal opinion obviously.
Deepwoods
Bearcat
Ditto to my last, and good luck Stimo3 on your "testing" enterprise.
If anyone believes that a guide rod like this does anything other than make the gun a little heavier in the front, and potentially void the Ruger warranty, I have some really nice swampland and a few bridges in Brooklyn for sale ....
These types of 'improvements' remind me of that turbinator thing you put in your car to create a 'vortex' airflow. Does nothing but relieve buyers of their money. Use that money and buy more ammo. If the gun performed better with a rod like this ... Ruger would have designed it that way. They know FAR more about their guns than aftermarket companies trying to sell what looks like a $1 piece of metal for 25 or 30 times that much. The old saying 'If it aint broke ... don't fix it' comes to mind.
REV
These types of 'improvements' remind me of that turbinator thing you put in your car to create a 'vortex' airflow. Does nothing but relieve buyers of their money. Use that money and buy more ammo. If the gun performed better with a rod like this ... Ruger would have designed it that way. They know FAR more about their guns than aftermarket companies trying to sell what looks like a $1 piece of metal for 25 or 30 times that much. The old saying 'If it aint broke ... don't fix it' comes to mind.
REV
Specs
Single-Sixer
revhigh said:If anyone believes that a guide rod like this does anything other than make the gun a little heavier in the front, and potentially void the Ruger warranty, I have some really nice swampland and a few bridges in Brooklyn for sale ....
These types of 'improvements' remind me of that turbinator thing you put in your car to create a 'vortex' airflow. Does nothing but relieve buyers of their money. Use that money and buy more ammo. If the gun performed better with a rod like this ... Ruger would have designed it that way. They know FAR more about their guns than aftermarket companies trying to sell what looks like a $1 piece of metal for 25 or 30 times that much. The old saying 'If it aint broke ... don't fix it' comes to mind.
REV
The easiest way to cover yourself on this guide rod question is to just buy a few factory rods at $2.00 each. I did that, plus 2 takedown pins and a set of recoil springs, and just for fun I got that cobalt blue Ruger coffee mug.
Stimo3 said:I'm not advertising as there was a purchase made, so im doing a "Test & Review"," and yes if you buy a product and review it that's perfectly legal. I told you guys he gave me a guide rod to test, but i had to buy the stock guide rod + other parts to equal 10 dollars and pay for shipping, etc. in order to test it so i did pay for it.Deepwoods said:
If it was completely given to me for free and i was affiliated with the company benefiting in a way that would be advertising, but you have to be "benefiting" in some way in order for it to be "advertising." You obviously never read the directions or took a simple business 101 class have you?
I was reading your information with interest, until this post. I think you could have addressed any concern factually without the added sarcasm.
