Preventing Barrel peeing

[Guppy]

I have been playing the SR's for a while not trying to devolp a good trigger job technique and smooth out any bad habits. I believe that with a good trigger the fit and flat profile of the SR is my perfect handgun for CCW and defense. This is how I have fixed minor peening and prevented further peening. Done on new guns it prevents peening completely.

I have taken fine grit #400 or finer sand paper and carefully removed the knife sharp edge at the top front of the barrel hood. Just break the edge not the vertical area that locks to the slide. Remove the sharp edge only. Do NOT remove enough metal to degrade the lock up of the barrel hood to slide. Remove the sharp edge inside the slide where the edge of the barrel hood would catch.

The sharp edge of the barrel hood catches the sharp underside of the slide when operating at speed. In extreme cases the metal that is displaced and catches more against the slide making the peening consecutively worse. Simply removing the sharp edges avoids this entirely. If you look at the inside of the slide you will see a slight relief cut Ruger has put where the front top of the barrel slides as it unlocks. Lightly polishing the sharp edges completely stops the peening by leaving a smooth surface for the oposing parts to operate without catching.

Fo what it is worth Glocks peen in a different place, the slide slams into the top of the slide block every time one is fired. If you look at the under side of a well used glock you will see the metal displacement on the inside of the slide. This is perfectly normal and if you dont believe google glock peening. I mention this so you won't lose faith in the SR, it is good from the factory but with a little polishing it becomes one hell of a gun.

When I get a little time I will put together a video of all the tweaks I do to the new gun As well as the 4.5 Lb trigger job............

 

[s4s4u]

Preventing Barrel peeing

I don't let mine drink anything for three hours before bed ;-)

 

[tkarter]

Don't be getting reasonable. We all think a gun should be working perfect when we buy it. LOL

Thanks for sharing a way to make your SR9 work before you complain or send it back.

tk

 

[ArmedinAZ]

Guppy, with all due respect I'm not sure how you can say that a little polish on that edge will cure peening problems on all SR guns. It seems some peen and some don't out of the box. Your SRs could have been ones that wouldn't have whether you smoothed that edge or not. It seems Ruger got something sorted out on these later pistols. Again, no disrespect intended on your efforts.

Now, about your statement that Glocks peen, I just field stripped my 19C and am looking at the underside of the slide and slide rails as I write this. This pistol has thousands of rounds down range and has absolutely no signs of peening. VERY slight polishing is visible but nothing that remotely could be called peening. I owned a Gen 2 Glock 23 police turn in that showed a bit more polishing that my current 19 but nothing I'd call metal displacement. Who knows how many rounds it had...

Not all Glocks peen and it's not the same as the SR problem.

And as was stated, yes people do expect their new pistols to run out of the box regardless of the brand. :wink:

 

[aWoods]

Absolutely no barrel peening on my Glock. About 2k rounds through it. I'm not saying that Glocks don't have defects, just that they have a statistically low incidence of defects.

Hell, Glocks, or any gun will fail on you if you put enough rounds through it. It's just a matter of odds.

Yes, the SR9 is an excellent design, fantastic for carry, etc, however, it definitely has quality issues. If you don't mind possibly sending it back to the factory, then there's really no reason I can think of not to get one (assuming that they fixed the triggers on the new ones).

It certainly does suck to send a gun back to the factory, though. My Ruger mk iii is back at the factory again (lets see if they can actually fix it this time) and has missed a couple of range trips already =(.

 

[Thunderhawk]

Don't be getting reasonable. We all think a gun should be working perfect when we buy it. LOL

Actually, yes we do. An occasional bad unit is expected, but a flaw common to most guns in a model line is a big problem.

 

[jhearne]

Don't be getting reasonable. We all think a gun should be working perfect when we buy it. LOL

Actually, yes we do. An occasional bad unit is expected, but a flaw common to most guns in a model line is a big problem.

So your saying that over half of the SR9's and SR9c's peen then? Maybe if your counting owners on this forum specifically. Talking numbers alone it's not as big a problem as it was made to be.

As for the OP, you can do this as a preemptive measure against peening. However, any gun that would peen does so after 100+ rounds of shooting and some develop it much later (750+). It's more worthwhile to shoot the gun first, then examine for peening. If it's there, stone the burr away and let the gun wear itself in....or just send it to Ruger.

There's just not many SR9/c's peening right now, methinks Ruger's got the design tweaked enough to make it a moot point as of late.

Josh

 

[Guppy]

I have to agree the SR's are not 100% out of the box yet. In time Ruger will revise to take care of all of the minor probs. Or you can put in a little time and effort to make a $325 ugly duckling perform like a thoroughbred..............

 

[ArmedinAZ]

Or you can put in a little time and effort to make a $325 ugly duckling perform like a thoroughbred..............

I agree it's cool to buy something that's not quite right and figure out the problem and make it run like it should. Usually it's something used that I got cheap and figured I could probably fix it. Don't mind tweaking something new to make it even better. Not too crazy about needing to work on something new to make it work as it should though.

We're all gun guys and Ruger guys around here, some forgive Ruger for slipping up a bit, others don't like it, expect better from Ruger. The bigger problem is the new pistol owner who chooses a Ruger SR pistol, takes it out and it doesn't go bang or starts to do funny things to itself. Then comes on here and gets the "Don't worry, just send it in to Ruger, they'll fix it" answer. Not exactly the best way to make a new Ruger fan. :?

The really good news it that the posts with SR pistol problems seem to be dropping off and the 9c has few complaints. :wink:

 

[tkarter]

I just bought a G17 second Gen. I thought man I am going to shoot good with this thing what a sweet trigger.

I kept everything in the paper plate but now I know what I didn't buy the Glock that I could have when I bought my P89.

Everything is different for each of us. I am not like 6 billion other people and I doubt you are either.

I will keep the Glock and see if I can master it a bit. But every day carry I stick with what I can shoot well and that will be my Ruger.
tk

 

[JohnKSa]

Absolutely no barrel peening on my Glock. About 2k rounds through it. I'm not saying that Glocks don't have defects, just that they have a statistically low incidence of defects.

Peening on the underside of the Glock slide doesn't necessarily happen in every Glock but it is quite common--most of mine show some peening.

The topic is covered in the armorer's course as a known issue. It is different from the SR9 barrel peening in that it is considered to be normal wear when it occurs and it doesn't cause function problems although it is unsightly when the gun is disassembled.

 

[tkarter]

A gun dragging metal off is a problem no matter who makes it. Glock calls it normal and so can Ruger.

If they all don't do it then they didn't have the machine that made it setup correctly and went with within tolerances or maybe even sent out a red tagged gun that hadn't met the tests but the supervisor didn't want his production to be down so he vetoed the cull pile and had it sent to shipping.

Factory life is factory life. If everything was good there would be no such thing as warranty. LOL.

tk

 

[blume357]

Preventing Barrel peeing

I don't let mine drink anything for three hours before bed ;-)

exactly what I though.... and for sure no beer....
Guppy: you know the edit feature, top right corner of your post, can pee.... scratch that.... be your friend....

 

[sicboy13]

LOL I just noticed the "peeing"...

Now, about Glocks... they may not peen... because:

They `SPLODE first!

Just kidding. Just kidding...I just love that .gif.... I'll go back to my college now, Jenny..

 

[JohnKSa]

A gun dragging metal off is a problem no matter who makes it. Glock calls it normal and so can Ruger.

What the factory calls normal wear that doesn't cause functioning problems is fundamentally different from a situation that the factory acknowledges as a problem and that can cause functioning problems.

So while Glock can get away with saying peening on the underside of the slide is normal, Ruger can't say that having the locking surfaces of the barrel peen is normal since it is likely to eventually cause function issues.

If they all don't do it then they didn't have the machine that made it setup correctly and went with within tolerances or maybe even sent out a red tagged gun that hadn't met the tests but the supervisor didn't want his production to be down so he vetoed the cull pile and had it sent to shipping.

I can't speak authoritatively to the Ruger issue although it sounds more like a metallurgy issue than an out-of-spec machining problem.

On the other hand, I can speak to the Glock peening issue. It is not the result of a machining problem, it relates to the flex of the frame during recoil and is not the result of a machine or the gun being out of spec. The guns with the newer style locking blocks seem to peen less, but it doesn't eliminate the issue entirely.

Furthermore, as I tried to make clear in my first post, it happens in most Glocks--if you have a Glock that isn't showing any peening at all on the underside of the slide then it's unusual. The Glock slide peening isn't a situation of a few guns slipping past quality control. It's a known issue resulting from frame flex during normal usage and does not reflect any problem with the pistol nor does it lead to any function problems.

 

[tkarter]

Well no matter who built my gun it shouldn't be dragging of metal and reshaping any part.

If it does then I am mad at who made it.

Be it Glock, Ruger or Bum frigging Russia.

tk

 

[Raminator]

On a new production gun, I'd be very wary about removing any material. When I sent my LCP back for peening, the Ruger rep told me that it is absolutely NOT NORMAL for a LCP to peen in that area, which is the same area that it does so on faulty SR9 pistols. Any SR9 that peens is faulty and needs to be sent back to the mother ship for inspection/repair.

 

[7tcu]

The barrel of my SR9 started peening after about 200 rds. I dressed off the peened material and continued shooting. However, the peening continued so bad that it prevented the slide from locking up in it's forward position. Thus, I had no choice but send it back. It was repaired and I never had any more problems.

 

[Yosemite Sam]

I wonder how many people have learned the word "peening" from various threads on Ruger pistols. I also wonder how much is actual "peening", and not simply expected wear. I do realize some pistols are showing true peened/worked-over edges, but I think a lot of new owners see the slightest bit of wear and think, "Oh no! It's peening!" The fact that some guns actually do seem to do this has me wondering about Ruger's metallurgy. Is this a design issue or a materials issue? Do I care? Why am I still typing?

-- Sam