SR9c barrel peening on sides

[alchemisttwo]

New to the forum...thanks to everyone for all the great info I've read so far. I apologize if this has been covered already, but I didnt see a topic on this specific peening issue after a search of previous threads.

It appears my SR9c barrel has peening in 3 places, as marked below.

The peening on the left doesnt really concern me...but the other two spots seem to indicate a slide/barrel alignment issue.

You can make out a slight burr forming on the top of the peening on the right hand side in the pic below.

I believe the cause can be seen in the above pic...when the slide and barrel come back together, the left side of the barrel impacts the slide, which most likely causes the barrel to bounce off and impact the opposite side...causing the half-circle dent. The pistol has been flawless through 500 rounds of mixed FMJ ammo and I'd hate to send it in for something that is "normal" wear and tear. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Rei40c]

Mine looks precisely as your does, on each arrow point I have the exact same in my SR40C. Its caused zero problems and at 1500 rounds malfunction free rounds in I'm not concerned in the slightest. Should I be?

1000 grit sandpaper will take off any elevated areas in the first pick on the very top of the barrel there. Personally I'd not go sanding around the teeth at all, but its probably fine if you go very light, but I'm not going to do it...

 

[alchemisttwo]

Mine looks precisely as your does, on each arrow point I have the exact same in my SR40C. Its caused zero problems and at 1500 rounds malfunction free rounds in I'm not concerned in the slightest. Should I be?

1000 grit sandpaper will take off any elevated areas in the first pick on the very top of the barrel there. Personally I'd not go sanding around the teeth at all, but its probably fine if you go very light, but I'm not going to do it...

Thanks for the info...its good to know I'm not alone at least I planned on very slightly deburring the area on top of the barrel...but I'd agree that messing with the teeth is a risky proposition. I'd probably just take off any burrs that form while the "fitting" process is taking place. I'm just worried that this is a sign of a bigger problem that will manifest itself later.

 

[Rei40c]

Mine looks precisely as your does, on each arrow point I have the exact same in my SR40C. Its caused zero problems and at 1500 rounds malfunction free rounds in I'm not concerned in the slightest. Should I be?

1000 grit sandpaper will take off any elevated areas in the first pick on the very top of the barrel there. Personally I'd not go sanding around the teeth at all, but its probably fine if you go very light, but I'm not going to do it...

Thanks for the info...its good to know I'm not alone at least I planned on very slightly deburring the area on top of the barrel...but I'd agree that messing with the teeth is a risky proposition. I'd probably just take off any burrs that form while the "fitting" process is taking place. I'm just worried that this is a sign of a bigger problem that will manifest itself later.

I understand. Well it has at least on mine, reached a point where it has stopped. It really functions much more smoothly now then new. I think we are looking at imperfect fit and a rather violent break in period for the barrel. I remember several shots when it was new seeing burning metal burs come flying off the barrel. I haven't seen it since. The "teeth area" in the back I suppose worries me much more then any other area of the barrel in terms of wear.

 

[Gregg1LE]

When I first got my SR9,I worried about things like peening.Then I came to the "forget it,just shoot the gun".I did,and like 40c said,it stopped peening any further.Just a part of breaking in.

 

[alchemisttwo]

Thanks for the feedback. Since the gun has been flawless to date, I'll just take off the burrs while it breaks in. It does make me wonder if this happens on other compact 9's and 40's though...

 

[john16443]

As indicated already, this barrel peening can be addressed with very light sanding. Since you only have about 500 rounds through it, keep track of it as you continue to shoot.

After over 5000 rounds through my SR9, I finally sent mine back to Ruger to address this barrel peening issue. http://rugerforum.net/ruger-pistols/46885-different-kind-barrel-peening.html From the responses I got, nobody else seems to have experienced this. I also had slight peening on the hood as noted on the left arrow of your first pic, just took a fine file and gently removed it. That never returned.

Ruger replaced the slide and barrel for no cost to me.

 

[Verndog]

My SR9c had a similar issue at first. I took a small jewelers file and lighly broke those edges and the problem completely went away. Over 3,000 rounds now with no recurring issues.

 

[FergusonTO35]

It seems to me that this is due to mass produced parts assembled with no hand fitting, standard procedure in today's manufacturing. Considering how many of these guns Ruger makes its no surprise some of them exhibit flaws such as this. My SR9c has never exhibited peening.

 

[FergusonTO35]

It seems to me that this is due to mass produced parts assembled with no hand fitting, standard procedure in today's manufacturing. Considering how many of these guns Ruger makes its no surprise some of them exhibit flaws such as this. My SR9c has never exhibited peening.

 

[FergusonTO35]

It seems to me that this is due to mass produced parts assembled with no hand fitting, standard procedure in today's manufacturing. Considering how many of these guns Ruger makes its no surprise some of them exhibit flaws such as this. My SR9c has never exhibited peening.

 

[FergusonTO35]

It seems to me that this is due to mass produced parts assembled with no hand fitting, standard procedure in today's manufacturing. Considering how many of these guns Ruger makes its no surprise some of them exhibit flaws such as this. My SR9c has never exhibited peening.

 

[calee]

Ferguson you gotta do something about that stuttering....LOL.

 

[alchemisttwo]

Its responses like "my SR9c has never shown any peening" that make me wonder if a trip to AZ is worthwhile. I dont want to waste Rugers time on something that is typical...and also have to start the break-in period all over again...but then again, I also dont want to have it become a paperweight - LOL. Maybe I'll check with Ruger CS to see what they'd say.

 

[TXRuger]

Yep, I suggest you send the above pics to Ruger CS to see what they'd say.

 

[axisofoil]

Stone it. or don't. It's not an issue.

Move along.


Some people that have never experienced "peening" of any sort don't shoot a lot. Others "polish" those areas of their guns. And sometimes... sometimes... maybe they just had a 100% perfectly fitted firearm.

That being said, I'd like to be updated on what Ruger tells ya'.

 

[Rei40c]

Stone it. or don't. It's not an issue.

Move along.


Some people that have never experienced "peening" of any sort don't shoot a lot. Others "polish" those areas of their guns. And sometimes... sometimes... maybe they just had a 100% perfectly fitted firearm.

That being said, I'd like to be updated on what Ruger tells ya'.

I agree but from my personal interaction Ruger is extremely good with their customer service. My point being their first reaction ( no matter what the complaint ) will likely be an offer to take a look at the firearm via sending it back, at least for an inspection almost no matter what the complaint.

In the phone call its very unlikely the CS rep that takes the call will really understand the problem totally without seeing the pics, and probably not being an SR series owner. I just can't imagine a situation the where the call would be something like "meh its fine don't worry about it". They will want it back I think most likely.

But like you I'm interested in the response from Ruger as well. I've already decided its fine, but perhaps there's other factors involved I don't understand.

But I'm glad Alchemisttwo posted it as I had the same thing and have never heard a response from Ruger on it.

 

[alchemisttwo]

I sent them an email via their website contact form...so in "3 business days" I should hear something from them. I'll post what I find out. Hopefully they have some good technical information on why this is or is not an issue.

 

[FergusonTO35]

Ferguson you gotta do something about that stuttering....LOL.

This has been happening alot lately, I can't figure it out. :x

 

[Iron Mike Golf]

Ferguson,

Sometimes the site is slow in posting. I'll wonder if I didn't click on the Submit button and, sure enough, if I hit it, I always get a double post.

When I get a double tap, I just go and edit one of them. At the bottom is a option to delete the post.

Regards,

 

[Iron Mike Golf]

I got some peening. Seemed to be fully run in at around 700 rds. Stoned it and it's not changed in over 2000 rds.

 

[edgalang]

...It appears my SR9c barrel has peening in 3 places, as marked below...
...I believe the cause can be seen in the above pic...when the slide and barrel come back together, the left side of the barrel impacts the slide, which most likely causes the barrel to bounce off and impact the opposite side...causing the half-circle dent. The pistol has been flawless through 500 rounds of mixed FMJ ammo and I'd hate to send it in for something that is "normal" wear and tear. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

So because of this post I checked mine and sure enough...exact same thing, but never really noticed it before though. I have roughly 3k through mine and the only issues I've experienced is failure to extract after replacing the stock extractor rolled pin with a quick release version from Ruger (however FTE rate so far is 4 out of 500...so 1%).

Here's a test for you. If you lock the slide back, you'll see there's play in the barrel. If you tilt the pistol to the right and slowly close the slide shut, you'll see it'll hit the right tooth. Tilt to the left and it'll hit the left. Personally I don't see how you'd be able to avoid this unless you file the teeth down (which IMO is not a good idea because if filed too much may increase side-to-side wiggle room when its fully locked up).

 

[alchemisttwo]

So because of this post I checked mine and sure enough...exact same thing, but never really noticed it before though. I have roughly 3k through mine and the only issues I've experienced is failure to extract after replacing the stock extractor rolled pin with a quick release version from Ruger (however FTE rate so far is 4 out of 500...so 1%).

Here's a test for you. If you lock the slide back, you'll see there's play in the barrel. If you tilt the pistol to the right and slowly close the slide shut, you'll see it'll hit the right tooth. Tilt to the left and it'll hit the left. Personally I don't see how you'd be able to avoid this unless you file the teeth down (which IMO is not a good idea because if filed too much may increase side-to-side wiggle room when its fully locked up).

Yep, I definitely think the play in the barrel and slide is responsible for the issue. I'd agree that filing the teeth is a bad idea, which is why I've left it untouched until now. I'm really not sure the peening is a problem, since it hasn't affected the function of the pistol in any way, which is why I posted before I contacted Ruger. Eventually, just like everyone has said, the barrel/slide fit should be optimized and the peening will stop on its own...although I do find it odd that the barrel and slide weren't designed to avoid this. Ruger CS said they'd send me a UPS label to have it looked at...so at least we'll know if its officially a non-issue.

 

[ArmedinAZ]

It's a shame a pistol has to batter itself into working tolerance but as was stated earlier that's the way with mass produced non-fitted parts. This really doesn't look too bad, search SR9 peening to see some of the early peening issues, it would get bad enough to jam the pistol in some cases.

 

[alchemisttwo]

Ok, the SR9c has been to AZ and back in record time. I really need to commend Ruger on their outstanding customer service. I called Thurs and they emailed a shipping label. I shipped it on Friday and it arrived on Monday. They sent it back on Tuesday and its here on Thursday.

Apparently, like many of you have suggested, the barrel peening is considered "normal". The official response was:
"Upon inspection, technician replaced barrel. However, normal wear like this will show on barrel again after a few rounds. All parts functioning per design. After repair, pistol was function fired 40 rounds of Black Hills 115gr FMJ without malfunctions."

The note I included with the pistol stated that if it was normal wear and tear, that was fine with me and no repair was necessary...however, I guess they really just wanted to give me a new barrel to break in all over again - LOL. I still find it very odd that the slide/barrel alignment is off in such a way, but if Ruger says its "normal" that's all I need to know I guess.

One interesting side note: the new barrel appears to be filed down where the previous one impacted the slide. You can see the outer edges of the "teeth" have been tapered in the photo below. If they were going to file the barrel down, why didn't they just file the original barrel?