Problem maybe ,,help appreciated.

[crow#2]

Shot my new Sp101 357 Match champion. Factory loads don't remember which I nes and I'm not home at the moment. A after firing the empire brass is ver difficult selecting. I have to hit the ejector with heel if hand not very comfortable.lol
Also after firing about 20 rounds I can swing the cylinder open and with a couple fingers support the arm that swings out and with other hand I can move the cylinder left right up, down a few thousandths.. is this not normal and the ejector rod appears to be made with a 2 piece rod and where they join is pretty sloppy like a bad universal joint in old car. Am I explaining this right?

 

[NikA]

The SP ejector rod is jointed as you describe and there are tolerances built into every part that do not sound excessive from your descriptions.

I think you would do best to find some locals in your area with more firearms experience to help you out in real time, show you the ropes, etc.

 

[RoninPA]

Lots of variables in your post. Need to know what ammo you were shooting. I'll go a little backwards now. The ejector rod in the SP's ,GP's as well as the Redhawks ans Super Redhawks are 2 piece and they will move around some when the cylinder is open but once you start to push it to eject the empties, the are (should be) pretty solid.

With the cylinder swung open and out of the frame it (the cylinder) will move because of the tolerances of the cylinder and the shaft that holds it to the crane so that really isn't a good indication of anything being wrong. You need to close the cylinder and see how much front to rear movement the cylinder has. If you have a set of feeler gages, put one through the frame where the barrel "meets" the cylinder, while holding the cylinder back as far as it will go and tell us that dimension. It should be in the .00x" range up to .01x (hopefully not that big but it could be).

As for the hard ejection, you can look at each of the chambers and see or feel (with a small screwdriver or dental pick) for any roughness. If the chamber is rough, when the cartridge expands when fired, the roughness will make it harder to eject. High powered loads exert more force and the cartridge case expands more making the empties harder to eject. If the chambers aren't rough but mirror smooth, you might just want to fire more rounds and see if it gets better/easier. If it gets worse, then a call to Ruger might be in line.

Also, when the cylinder is swung out, with no cartridges in the chambers, push on the ejector rod and see what it feels like as you push on it like you are extracting fired cases. It should be smooth and easy to push. Then put unfired ammo in the chambers and try to eject them and see how it feels. The put some fired cases in the repeat and see it there is any difference.

Then let us know what is happening and we can go from there.

 

[crow#2]

What do you think if I polished the chambers in the cylinder . Thus should help the extraction problem.
And would it be a issue if I end up sending it To ruger
if polishing does not help.

 

[hittman]

Polish? I wouldn't, but I consider polish to be a pretty aggressive term.

But I would load up a good brass (??) brush with solvent and clean the heck out of it; several times.

 

[crow#2]

Thanks

 

[RoninPA]

Two things -
Polishing - people can be too aggressive as hittman said and you don't want to enlarge the chambers, just smooth out any roughness, but just a little at a time, testing periodically to see what is happening.

Ruger issue - there won't be any if you contact Ruger first, nicely explain what is going on and see what they recommend. If they agree with you, they will probably issue you a RA and send/email you a paid return label for you to send it back to them. You would just want to include a nicely worded letter describing what is happening and anything the you might have noticed. Turn around time is normally pretty quick, 2 weeks or less from when they receive it.

 

[hittman]

Some have put their brass brush in a DeWalt battery drill and polished the cylinders too. I think thats too aggressive too. Slow and steady …… less is more better LOL.

 

[arfmel]

If you "polish" the chambers before sending it to Ruger, they may decide not to help you with the problem. First thing I would do is try a few other brands of ammunition and see if you have trouble with all of them. If you do, ask Ruger to send you a call tag.

 

[Laserbait]

I've never heard of Ruger refusing to fix a "fixable" Ruger Firearm. They may charge you for the repair, but that's about it.

 

[beentheredone]

Does this happen with other loads/brands of ammo? If so, you may have a problem Ruger needs to see. If not, then it is the ammo at fault, and you just need to avoid that load/brand in the future.

 

[rugerguy]

what does the brass ( fired ) look like after ejecting?? easy enough to number each cartridge and check any faulty chamber.....stay away from Wolf and any steel cases, as well as certain 'reloads'........as noted above ,always start with the ammo...