mohavesam
Hawkeye
Well I'm now one-for-three now in the Lipsey's Single Seven guns. :evil:
I'm beginning to understand that Lipsey's does not inspect these guns, and Neither does Ruger NH?
Here's my own personal saga (not second-hand or interweb re-flush) Not a rant, just a first-person experience:
First gun - Ordered and took delivery of a 5.5" S7. Rejected it on the counter because of uneven and credit-card size b/c gap, sharp edges all-over, obvious damage to the front site (dropped on floor???), scratches on the muzzle and top of barrel, seriously ill-fitting grip panels. Both the LGS pistolsmith (a former Ruger employee) and I just shook our heads.
Second gun - LGS called when they got in a 4.625" S7, held it for me. We both gave it the once over and it looked alright - still lots of very sharp edges, this one missed de-burring, but was timed well (no cylinder ring yet) and showed no obvious damage. I bought it and fired it a few days later. Federal 100 gr ammo, perhaps the most-widely available 327FM stuff out there, shot 3-4" "groups" of varying shapes at 21' despite soft and hard rests, that's all anyone could do with it that day. OK its not a match gun or even a headshot-worthy woods gun, but its no worse than a Hi-Point... Base pin jumped fwd a couple of times and the action pins walked out a couple times, no big fix but this is a new gun right? Oh yeah, we both sliced our fingers on the sharp edges of the trigger guard when firing it. Machine marks on the grip frame indicate no inspection and no de-burring. Even a blind guy could inspect/detect the tooling on the outside, albeit he/she would need bandaids afterward. Ok, it at least shoots the indicated ammo downrange, and doesn't blind the person next to you at the range with b/c hot lead "spit".
Third gun - Found a new 4.625" being unpacked at a different LGS. Ended up buying it with the intention of selling the other somehow. Third time is a charm right? This gun still has what have become in my experience, the Single-Seven hallmarks: noticeably ill-fitting grip panels, very light-strike nomenclature on both sides of the frame, and VERY sharp edges all -over. By that I mean the ejector shroud slot could/does slice fingernails, the ejector knob itself, the frame edges are raw cut steel, the trigger guard is rough-machined and sharp burrs on all edges, and even the hammer looks like a raw part - with cutting-sharp edges all over.
To its credit, this shorty will out-shoot the other gun I own by almost half the groups, and b/c gap is very tight and even.
I've spent decades in aerospace and understand the simple steps such as tumbling/deburr, and hand-finishing that Ruger omitted and Lipsey's sold anyway. I also understand contracts and believe if Lipsey's didn't inspect these guns after so many complaints, they are complacent in the defects sold to their customers.
Sooo... I'll end up sending (edited: sent both back) both guns back to Ruger, although they should go back to Lipsey's as, I believe them to share the responsibility as they sell these guns and no one else.
The poor quality of these guns I believe, is a statement of all that is wrong with American manufacturing and the marketing-above-quality syndrome that pushes American consumers toward offshore-made products just to get value in durable goods. Its no wonder Ruger shooters in the know prefer the "old Rugers" to spending their hard-earned cash on new-production New Hampshire products. (Mr Fifer, please feel free to post this account on a NH bulletin board.)
I think Lipsey's should be embarrassed enough to include a "metal finishing kit" with these Ruger products as a standard accessory. Include bandaids..
I'm beginning to understand that Lipsey's does not inspect these guns, and Neither does Ruger NH?
Here's my own personal saga (not second-hand or interweb re-flush) Not a rant, just a first-person experience:
First gun - Ordered and took delivery of a 5.5" S7. Rejected it on the counter because of uneven and credit-card size b/c gap, sharp edges all-over, obvious damage to the front site (dropped on floor???), scratches on the muzzle and top of barrel, seriously ill-fitting grip panels. Both the LGS pistolsmith (a former Ruger employee) and I just shook our heads.
Second gun - LGS called when they got in a 4.625" S7, held it for me. We both gave it the once over and it looked alright - still lots of very sharp edges, this one missed de-burring, but was timed well (no cylinder ring yet) and showed no obvious damage. I bought it and fired it a few days later. Federal 100 gr ammo, perhaps the most-widely available 327FM stuff out there, shot 3-4" "groups" of varying shapes at 21' despite soft and hard rests, that's all anyone could do with it that day. OK its not a match gun or even a headshot-worthy woods gun, but its no worse than a Hi-Point... Base pin jumped fwd a couple of times and the action pins walked out a couple times, no big fix but this is a new gun right? Oh yeah, we both sliced our fingers on the sharp edges of the trigger guard when firing it. Machine marks on the grip frame indicate no inspection and no de-burring. Even a blind guy could inspect/detect the tooling on the outside, albeit he/she would need bandaids afterward. Ok, it at least shoots the indicated ammo downrange, and doesn't blind the person next to you at the range with b/c hot lead "spit".
Third gun - Found a new 4.625" being unpacked at a different LGS. Ended up buying it with the intention of selling the other somehow. Third time is a charm right? This gun still has what have become in my experience, the Single-Seven hallmarks: noticeably ill-fitting grip panels, very light-strike nomenclature on both sides of the frame, and VERY sharp edges all -over. By that I mean the ejector shroud slot could/does slice fingernails, the ejector knob itself, the frame edges are raw cut steel, the trigger guard is rough-machined and sharp burrs on all edges, and even the hammer looks like a raw part - with cutting-sharp edges all over.
To its credit, this shorty will out-shoot the other gun I own by almost half the groups, and b/c gap is very tight and even.
I've spent decades in aerospace and understand the simple steps such as tumbling/deburr, and hand-finishing that Ruger omitted and Lipsey's sold anyway. I also understand contracts and believe if Lipsey's didn't inspect these guns after so many complaints, they are complacent in the defects sold to their customers.
Sooo... I'll end up sending (edited: sent both back) both guns back to Ruger, although they should go back to Lipsey's as, I believe them to share the responsibility as they sell these guns and no one else.
The poor quality of these guns I believe, is a statement of all that is wrong with American manufacturing and the marketing-above-quality syndrome that pushes American consumers toward offshore-made products just to get value in durable goods. Its no wonder Ruger shooters in the know prefer the "old Rugers" to spending their hard-earned cash on new-production New Hampshire products. (Mr Fifer, please feel free to post this account on a NH bulletin board.)
I think Lipsey's should be embarrassed enough to include a "metal finishing kit" with these Ruger products as a standard accessory. Include bandaids..
