SR9c barrel peening on sides

[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?