SR9 Broke

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alienbogey

Bearcat
Joined
Nov 14, 2008
Messages
71
My SR9 broke. :x

I was dry firing it in the basement (no magazine, no magazine disconnect either) when (in hindsight) racking the slide felt a little funny. I pulled the trigger, racked it again, and the trigger remained back in the 'fired' position - no reset at all.

I racked again, no trigger reset.

I tilted the pistol to one side, gave it a little shake, and a small piece of metal fell out:

[
SR9Broke1.jpg


SR9Broke2.jpg


Sorry the photos aren't better, my camera has no macro.

Can anyone identify the broken part from this piece?

It is definitely broken off of something else; under a magnifying glass you can see the broken metal on either side of the shoulder.

The trigger can be manually shoved forward, but when pulled it doesn't feel right and the striker (as viewed from behind) doesn't move at all. Also, the manual safety won't engage.

This pistol is about 7 months old and had approximately 1,000 rounds through it and been dry fired at least that much. I removed the magazine disconnect as soon as I took it out of the box.

Back to Ruger I guess.

In 25+ years of owning Ruger's this is the first that's ever broken on me. :cry:
 

Grendel

Single-Sixer
Joined
Jan 26, 2008
Messages
215
Location
FL
Looks similar to what happened to mine:

http://www.rugerforum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=34129

Basically, the tab on the striker that interacts with the "sear" on the trigger bar broke off.

Eventually, after a little argument with the service department, I got them to send me a new striker assembly free of charge.

My symptoms were just like yours: dryfire, no reset, then that piece dribbled out of the magwell.

Pretty sure if you field strip your SR9, and then remove the striker, you'll find where that part broke.

-JT
 

alienbogey

Bearcat
Joined
Nov 14, 2008
Messages
71
Grendel,

Thanks for the reply; yes, that's exactly what happened to mine:


SR9BrokeStriker.jpg



I'll be calling Ruger tomorrow (20Jul09) to see if they'll send me a new striker assembly so I don't have to ship the pistol.
 

poncaguy

Bearcat
Joined
Aug 22, 2004
Messages
46
Location
Ponca City, OK
Why I don't dry fire.............but that should not happen anyway...........need some redesign................mine has been ok so far, but I never dry fire my auto's
 

NMCB3

Bearcat
Joined
Nov 6, 2005
Messages
54
Location
Wasilla Alaska
I would not trust my life to a gun that breaks that easily. I would let Ruger fix it and up for sale it would go.
 
Joined
Apr 5, 2004
Messages
2,791
Location
Granbury, TX. USA
Okay, this is now the confirmed 5TH case of this happening that I'm aware of. What are they making the metal out of? Or at least what manufacturing process?

This has me leaning away from my purchase of this as my next Ruger.
 

810wmb

Single-Sixer
Joined
Dec 29, 2008
Messages
140
DA_TriggR4Ruger":15fmd9ld said:
Okay, this is now the confirmed 5TH case of this happening that I'm aware of. What are they making the metal out of? Or at least what manufacturing process?

This has me leaning away from my purchase of this as my next Ruger.

i know you are researching big time, i don't blame you. i have a question though. this one and the other you linked were dry fires. were all 5?

thanks
 

Grendel

Single-Sixer
Joined
Jan 26, 2008
Messages
215
Location
FL
alienbogey":sc7gvf52 said:
I'll be calling Ruger tomorrow (20Jul09) to see if they'll send me a new striker assembly so I don't have to ship the pistol.

No problem. I was dryfiring mine like mad when it broke...not for practice at the time, but to work the mating surfaces against each other. After about 400 hundred trigger presses in a row, it snapped.

Ruger tried to tell me that you can't dryfire that gun, and I told them owners were told that we shouldn't do it with the mag release installed, and the first thing I did was pop that sucker out.

Now, just to be on the safe side, I almost always dryfire with snap caps.

Good luck.

-JT
 

alienbogey

Bearcat
Joined
Nov 14, 2008
Messages
71
I called Ruger today and a very pleasant lady took my info (including a link to this thread for the pictures), referred to a technician, and called back in about an hour to say that a new striker assembly is on its way, including a post paid envelope to return the broken striker as they want to look at it.
 

Grendel

Single-Sixer
Joined
Jan 26, 2008
Messages
215
Location
FL
Jeepnik":pfwbacxt said:
Okay, so who is still using one as a self defense piece? If we hear of a few, how many are happening that aren't being mentioned here? I wonder if Ruger will do a recall?

My SR9 is my CCW and my IDPA gun. Broken striker replaced. Gun seems to be working fine. No worries.

-JT
 

810wmb

Single-Sixer
Joined
Dec 29, 2008
Messages
140
can anyone answer my question?

are most of these because of dry firing?

call me stupid, but i didn't know you could dry fire a sr9 until a couple of days ago. that night i found these threads.

grendel - it states in the manual you can dry fire it - page 16 or 17.

i was going to start dry firing mine, but i'm not now until i find out it it's the reason for the striker breaking
 

sparks701

Bearcat
Joined
Mar 27, 2009
Messages
95
Location
Illinois
I dry fire mine all the time, and I have about 7000 rounds thru it nothing has ever broken on mine. My trigger has failed to reset one time and that was within the last 300 rounds I fired. I'm sure there are alot more people out there that have good ones, just don't feel the need to brag about it.
 
Joined
Apr 5, 2004
Messages
2,791
Location
Granbury, TX. USA
810wmb":2pk2yckx said:
DA_TriggR4Ruger":2pk2yckx said:
Okay, this is now the confirmed 5TH case of this happening that I'm aware of. What are they making the metal out of? Or at least what manufacturing process?

This has me leaning away from my purchase of this as my next Ruger.

i know you are researching big time, i don't blame you. i have a question though. this one and the other you linked were dry fires. were all 5?

thanks

It would appear so, but it seams all had been done so with snap caps. :?
 

jhearne

Buckeye
Joined
Jul 14, 2007
Messages
1,365
Seems it a weak point of the Striker (thinner wall where it meets the plastic parts), I wonder is if these incidents were before or after the affected guns were recalled.....IOW, was the new trigger group installed before the striker tab broke or after?

Reason I ask is that after the guns were fitted with new trigger groups, everyone noticed a much heavier trigger pull in comparison to before the recall. I know that the Trigger Bar pushes that tab backwards a little, but I'm not sure how much force is put on it when your pulling the trigger. Is the heavier pull proportionally applied to the Striker's Tab:

Pre-Recall -> Lighter Pull/Smaller Force On Tab = Post-Recall -> Greater Pull/Greater Force On Tab.

Josh
 

alienbogey

Bearcat
Joined
Nov 14, 2008
Messages
71
Well, I can't complain about Ruger customer service.

I called on Monday and told them about the broken striker. Today, Thursday, the new striker arrived along with a postage-paid envelope to return the broken part.

No charge.
 
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