Boatbuilder
Bearcat
I'm a 44 Special fan and several years ago acquired a blue flat top 4-5/8" Bisley back when Lipsey's first offered them. It had the canted barrel problem, which was promptly corrected by Ruger. In fact, the gun came back better in every way - lockup, gap, trigger - everything. It's just about my favorite handgun now and a fine shooter.
When the 5-shot GP100 came out I immediately got one from a forum member. It had the same issues reported by others - inconsistent chamber size and the ridiculous gap under the front sight. Ruger took it back and I received the fixed version a couple of weeks ago. They replaced the barrel and cylinder and overall it is an excellent revolver that shoots very well with factory Double Tap loads - under two inches DA at 7 yards. I haven't tried any of my Skeeter handloads yet. It's my first GP so I don't have a good comparison, but overall it seems like a great gun, though the forcing cone looks thin compared to my Ruger single actions.
The stainless flat top Bisley 44 Spl caught me off guard. Had I known it was coming out, I would have skipped the GP100, but in any case one found a home with me. This one has a very tight loading gate problem and unfinished metal next to the trigger guard on the bottom of the frame. It shoots really well with Skeeter loads and I'm not sure I want to send it back to fix the other problems, but I hate to pay for what looks like an unfinished gun when you turn it over.
During the same 6-7 year period when I bought the above, I also picked up a brand new SS Birdshead 44 mag and a SS 45 Colt Bisley that are both basically flawless in fit, finish, and function. Each shoots extremely well - the short Birdshead is scary accurate with 11.0 grains of Unique pushing a 255 Keith SWC and the big Bisley likes Hawk 260 HPs ahead of a sizeable dose of W296 or H110.
I guess that makes my experience 40% positive out of the box, but with service returns it's 100% if the hassle of the return and disappointment with the initial quality isn't counted. That's over the last 7 years. Prior to that, I purchased at least 5 other revolvers and a slew of No. 1s and other rifles since 1985 with nary an issue. Now I'm considering a 327 Single Seven. I don't like the quality problems at Ruger, but as long as the service department keeps up the good work, I'm tempted to keep buying them. I suppose Ruger has figured out that not everyone will return them, and that at least a decent percentage of their products are fine out of the box, so I doubt we'll see any change.
Jon
When the 5-shot GP100 came out I immediately got one from a forum member. It had the same issues reported by others - inconsistent chamber size and the ridiculous gap under the front sight. Ruger took it back and I received the fixed version a couple of weeks ago. They replaced the barrel and cylinder and overall it is an excellent revolver that shoots very well with factory Double Tap loads - under two inches DA at 7 yards. I haven't tried any of my Skeeter handloads yet. It's my first GP so I don't have a good comparison, but overall it seems like a great gun, though the forcing cone looks thin compared to my Ruger single actions.
The stainless flat top Bisley 44 Spl caught me off guard. Had I known it was coming out, I would have skipped the GP100, but in any case one found a home with me. This one has a very tight loading gate problem and unfinished metal next to the trigger guard on the bottom of the frame. It shoots really well with Skeeter loads and I'm not sure I want to send it back to fix the other problems, but I hate to pay for what looks like an unfinished gun when you turn it over.
During the same 6-7 year period when I bought the above, I also picked up a brand new SS Birdshead 44 mag and a SS 45 Colt Bisley that are both basically flawless in fit, finish, and function. Each shoots extremely well - the short Birdshead is scary accurate with 11.0 grains of Unique pushing a 255 Keith SWC and the big Bisley likes Hawk 260 HPs ahead of a sizeable dose of W296 or H110.
I guess that makes my experience 40% positive out of the box, but with service returns it's 100% if the hassle of the return and disappointment with the initial quality isn't counted. That's over the last 7 years. Prior to that, I purchased at least 5 other revolvers and a slew of No. 1s and other rifles since 1985 with nary an issue. Now I'm considering a 327 Single Seven. I don't like the quality problems at Ruger, but as long as the service department keeps up the good work, I'm tempted to keep buying them. I suppose Ruger has figured out that not everyone will return them, and that at least a decent percentage of their products are fine out of the box, so I doubt we'll see any change.
Jon
