SP101 end-shake

[wow6599]

My little Ruger has a tiny bit of slop in it. The cylinder end-shake is about .005 to .0075. Is this normal? I have had a S&W 686 and GP100 that locked up tight.....no noticeable play. The gun shoots like a dream, but the cylinder slop has me a little curios.

 

[surveyor47]

Given the fact that your SP101 "shoots like a dream", I wouldnt give it a 2nd thought- unless you have been shooting some Killer Rex Load out of it. Ruger has said many times that accuray is not something that you can predict; some guns are, some guns arent. Some guns that should not be accurate, are not. Some guns that should be accurate are not. They never came up with a formula. According to "Ruger and His Guns". If it shoots, it shoots.

Funny thing that I notice is that many people prefer the SP101 over the GP100. Count me amoung them. I consider the SP101 one of the very finest handguns ever made.

 

[wow6599]

Given the fact that your SP101 "shoots like a dream", I wouldnt give it a 2nd thought- unless you have been shooting some Killer Rex Load out of it. Ruger has said many times that accuray is not something that you can predict; some guns are, some guns arent. Some guns that should not be accurate, are not. Some guns that should be accurate are not. They never came up with a formula. According to "Ruger and His Guns". If it shoots, it shoots.

Funny thing that I notice is that many people prefer the SP101 over the GP100. Count me amoung them. I consider the SP101 one of the very finest handguns ever made.

It's only got about 200 rds of .38 SPL and 100 rds of .357 Mag through it, but the .357 rds have been on the hot side. Bad thing is Ruger will not give out what they consider acceptable tolerances on their revolvers....and when I asked for a supervisor they said he would call me back later in the day. That was almost a week ago.

I agree the SP101 is one of the finest revolvers ever made, or at least my favorite.

 

[Jimbo357mag]

From a good source. The B/C gap should be between .004” and .008” with .006” being optimum. The endshake should be .002" to .005”. The 'endshake' is the difference in the B/C gap when measured pushing the cylinder all the way back minus the measurement of the B/C gap when pushing the cylinder all the way forward. :shock:

...Jimbo

 

[wow6599]

Thanks Jimbo. I guess I've got a good one then. it's at .006" static, .005" when I push it forward and .0075" when I push the cylinder back.
I am guessing at my earlier comment on .0075", as my feeler gauge .007 is very tight and the .008" can't go in unless I force it - hard.

 

[surveyor47]

Routine with Rugers is to shoot it for a while and find out what is right and wrong. More often than not, I send them back with a letter describing what is wrong. The gun usually comes back like a custom gun. It is not unusual to find spitting of back gassing in a new revolver, which they can fix pretty easily. My SP101 had a trigger so heavy and rough that it wore the skin off my trigger finger in under 100 rounds. A trip back to Ruger cured the problem. Now it "shoots like a dream" and just doesnt want to quit.