douglas.d.johnson
Bearcat
This is so aggravating, I just have to post this to vent.
Today I picked up, from my FFL, a brand new Ruger Single-Six Hunter, which I ordered from Bud's Gun Shop in Tennessee, which is a large internet vendor. This model had been out of stock at Bud's for awhile. I received an automatic notification when a new batch came in, and I ordered one immediately. Thus, this is a brand new, factory-packaged gun, never displayed in any retail store.
Transferring any handgun is a complicated procedure in Maryland, involving, among other things, two trips to the FFL with a seven-day waiting period in between. Today the waiting period expired. I made a 40-mile round trip and picked up the gun, paying the standard (in these parts) $50 transfer fee. I took the gun home, unpacked it, and started to read the manual. The first thing I read was a warning to check to make sure that the three numbers engraved into the two interchangeable cylinders (.22 LR and .22 WMR) match the last three digits of the serial number on the frame, because "use of the wrong cylinder can cause improper alignment or timing and may result in personal injury." I removed the .22 LR cylinder, which came installed in the frame, and found that the number that is hand-engraved in the cylinder does NOT match the frame serial number -- the middle digit in the frame serial number is a "1," while the middle digit hand-engraved on the .22 LR cylinder is clearly a "2." The first and last digits do match.
You might be thinking, "Some people make a 2 that looks pretty much like a 1." But that is not the case here. The digit hand-engraved into the .22 LR cylinder is clearly a "2," with a big curve at the top and an exaggerated right-angle corner at the bottom. It cannot possibly be mistaken for a 1.
(for the skeptical, here's a photo
(The three digits scratched into the .22 WMR cylinder, which was packed in the Ruger case, match the last three digits on the frame.)
I discovered the mislabeled .22 LR cylinder early this evening, a Friday, after Ruger's customer service number was shut down for the weekend.
I suppose that it is likely that the cylinder is in fact properly fitted, and that the engraver misread the number on the frame -- given that only a single digit differs, and that the revolver had to be test fired at the factory. But I anticipate a great deal of hassle will ensue before this is straightened out. I suppose this will entail me shipping the entire revolver back to Ruger, at considerable inconvenience and delay in my ability to use the gun.
My frustration is magnified because I personally initiated, at my own expense, the administrative process by which the Maryland Handgun Roster Board approved this Ruger model to be legally sold in Maryland, a process that took about six weeks. (No handgun manufactured after 1984 may be sold in Maryland unless the model and caliber have been added to the approved list by this Board, a state agency.) I bothers me that I could go to all that trouble to buy this gun (which now will also allow Ruger to sell it to others in Maryland), but Ruger couldn't take the trouble to check the number on the cylinder, as their manual warns every end user to do, before they shipped the gun to Bud's.
I am curious as to whether anybody else has encountered this problem with a NEW, interchangeable-cylinder Ruger. I'd welcome other comments as well.
Douglas Johnson
Today I picked up, from my FFL, a brand new Ruger Single-Six Hunter, which I ordered from Bud's Gun Shop in Tennessee, which is a large internet vendor. This model had been out of stock at Bud's for awhile. I received an automatic notification when a new batch came in, and I ordered one immediately. Thus, this is a brand new, factory-packaged gun, never displayed in any retail store.
Transferring any handgun is a complicated procedure in Maryland, involving, among other things, two trips to the FFL with a seven-day waiting period in between. Today the waiting period expired. I made a 40-mile round trip and picked up the gun, paying the standard (in these parts) $50 transfer fee. I took the gun home, unpacked it, and started to read the manual. The first thing I read was a warning to check to make sure that the three numbers engraved into the two interchangeable cylinders (.22 LR and .22 WMR) match the last three digits of the serial number on the frame, because "use of the wrong cylinder can cause improper alignment or timing and may result in personal injury." I removed the .22 LR cylinder, which came installed in the frame, and found that the number that is hand-engraved in the cylinder does NOT match the frame serial number -- the middle digit in the frame serial number is a "1," while the middle digit hand-engraved on the .22 LR cylinder is clearly a "2." The first and last digits do match.
You might be thinking, "Some people make a 2 that looks pretty much like a 1." But that is not the case here. The digit hand-engraved into the .22 LR cylinder is clearly a "2," with a big curve at the top and an exaggerated right-angle corner at the bottom. It cannot possibly be mistaken for a 1.
(for the skeptical, here's a photo
(The three digits scratched into the .22 WMR cylinder, which was packed in the Ruger case, match the last three digits on the frame.)
I discovered the mislabeled .22 LR cylinder early this evening, a Friday, after Ruger's customer service number was shut down for the weekend.
I suppose that it is likely that the cylinder is in fact properly fitted, and that the engraver misread the number on the frame -- given that only a single digit differs, and that the revolver had to be test fired at the factory. But I anticipate a great deal of hassle will ensue before this is straightened out. I suppose this will entail me shipping the entire revolver back to Ruger, at considerable inconvenience and delay in my ability to use the gun.
My frustration is magnified because I personally initiated, at my own expense, the administrative process by which the Maryland Handgun Roster Board approved this Ruger model to be legally sold in Maryland, a process that took about six weeks. (No handgun manufactured after 1984 may be sold in Maryland unless the model and caliber have been added to the approved list by this Board, a state agency.) I bothers me that I could go to all that trouble to buy this gun (which now will also allow Ruger to sell it to others in Maryland), but Ruger couldn't take the trouble to check the number on the cylinder, as their manual warns every end user to do, before they shipped the gun to Bud's.
I am curious as to whether anybody else has encountered this problem with a NEW, interchangeable-cylinder Ruger. I'd welcome other comments as well.
Douglas Johnson
