Broke my Ruger LCP firing pin

[diversq]

New to the forum so hey there. Didn't think a post like this would be my first but hey what can I do.

Monday I was cleaning my LCP and when I dry fired it the tip of the firing pin shot across the room. I would usually have snap caps in there but after cleaning the gun the way you reassemble it forces you (or at least me) to cock the hammer and then the slide has enough room to have the holding pin reinserted. After that, since there is no de-cocker, you have to dry fire it.

Ok I realize you normally dont want to dry fire a gun. And normally I wouldn't but this LCP is a about a month old and had only 150 rounds thru it from 3 or 4 different range trips. This was its 5th or 6th cleaning. So it was bassicly pretty new.

But it seems a change was made to the gun since mine. I watched a video on dissambling the LCP on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rInO523-fYI&feature=related

Thats not my gun but there is a difference between this video and how I had to reassemble the gun. In order to get the pin into the slide rail I had to cock the hammer back with my thumb otherwise I couldn't get the slide back far enough to get the pin in. You can see in the video around 46 sec in this guy does not have that problem.

Anyway when finishing the assembly the hammer would be cocked and require a single dry-fire. Ok so if you take into account the dry fires from cleaning thats about 6 or 7 and I may have racked the slide and done it a few times when I first bought it. But at most maybe 15 or 20 times total. Now I was under the impression that it wasn't a problem to dry-fire this gun anyway. Although I would usually have snap caps in I cant believe that this few dry fires would break a pin like that.

I spoke with Ruger and they had me describe the situation and then sent me a call tag the next day. I sent it back to them and they received it on July 30th.

Thats all I know up till now. I will keep updating this thread as I get new info. Oh and please forgive me if this post is confusing, its 1:40 am and im getting tired.

 

[SHOOT1SAM]

I bought a Kimber Ultra-Elite in 1999, I think. IIRC, they were only called that for one year and the next, it was changed to the Ultra-CDP.

Anyways, with only 300 or so rounds through it, the extractor broke. Kimber took care of it, of course, and it's been 100% since.

My point is, anything can, and will, break.

Unless your dry-firing it was specifically against the instructions in the manual, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

It could also be a design that didn't live up to the real world. If it is, I'm sure Ruger is already on their way to correcting it.

This doesn't mean that I don't feel your pain over a brand-new gun breaking!

Sam

 

[skywarp_]

Common thing.


Send it in, wait a month.

 

[presspuller]

I could not watch the video due to being on dial up but I am really curious of this problem.
I do not have a LCP but I do have a Kel-Tec P-3AT which is very similar.
How did you cock the hammer?
Seems like if you were holding the hammer back with your thumb till you got the slide on and then turned loose the hammer would have stopped at the hammer block, is this what you were doing?
Sorry if this makes no sense but I am trying to see it in my mind what went on to cause this.

 

[gbelleh]

Cock the hammer on an LCP? The LCP is DAO, so the hammer shouldn't need to be decocked. This is very confusing.

The YouTube video showed the normal assembly procedure.

 

[rcmodel]

Yep!

The Kel-Tecs the Ruger is a copy of cannot be de-cocked, because they are never cocked in the first place.

The hammer always follows the slide down and comes to rest on the hammer block. The only way to cock the hammer is to pull the trigger until the hammer is cocked by the trigger bar and released.

There should be no need to do anything to take one apart except pull the slide back slightly to release spring pressure on the the cam pin and pop it out, or put it back in.

Once it's in, cyle the slide once and leave it alone. The hammer is down in it's normal resting place on the hammer block.
It is not "cocked".

rcmodel

 

[diversq]

Yes the youtube shows "normal" I didnt see this till I sent mine in and assumed my assembly was the normal way. When the frame of the gun has the slide removed the hammer is in a forward or fire position. When I would put the slide back on the rails and try to move it back to get it into position to insert the holding pin I couldn't slide it back far enough unless I cocked the hammer (which you can do with the slide off of the frame). Then I had enough room to replace the slide. I wish I took a video of it before I sent it in.

I am not trying to bash ruger, just letting people know there may be a problem with certain guns and if your assembly sounds like mine don't dry-fire it .

 

[rcmodel]

All you had to do was pull the slide back harder.

It will over-ride the hammer as normal, and then the hammer will return to the rest position when the slide goes back foreword again.

It cannot stay cocked, and there is no need to pull the trigger to un-cock it.

rcmodel

 

[presspuller]

All you had to do was pull the slide back harder.

It will over-ride the hammer as normal, and then the hammer will return to the rest position when the slide goes back foreword again.

It cannot stay cocked, and there is no need to pull the trigger to un-cock it.

That is exactly what I was thinking but was wondering if I was missing something.

 

[diversq]

well this one wouldn't. I pushed that slide as hard as humanly possiable and it was not budging. The frame though, with the slide off the frame I could with my thumb pull back the hammer, it would lock on the firing position and then release it by pulling the trigger. This seemed normal. I only ran into a problem when I tried to put the slide back on the frame. If the hammer was in the down position I was unable to bring the slide back far enough to insert the pin. I was definitely pushing hard enough but it was blocked.

 

[rcmodel]

it would lock on the firing position and then release it by pulling the trigger.

Very Defective gun then, cause they don't work that way!

rcmodel

 

[diversq]

I'm not bs'ing you that's how the gun was. Now I may be using incorrect terms but that's what it did. The gun fired fine on the range and I had no idea that this was not working correctly. It seemed fine. Funny but when I spoke to the ruger guy he asked me to what happened I described exactly what happened and how I needed to reassemble the gun and he said no problem. He didn't say what you don't do it like that or you should have done it this way. Just like he new what was wrong already.

 

[jocko]

defective firing pin

u just got a defective firing pin, no more no less. Your dry firing did not cause it. Let ruger fix it or you fix it and then shoot it like you stole it. Ruger says dry firing will not harm it, I believe that, but also why do it any more than one has to. no doubt without the slide lock, one will dry fire every magazine at least once, unless he counts his rounds, so I am very confident that you just had a bad made firing pin. It happens.

 

[diversq]

Yea probably, the gun fired great, on target, nice groups. Loved its ease of concealment and very good accuracy. I had no complaints and still don't they sent me a call tag a few days later and it was next day to them. Just waiting to get it back now. Looking forward to it too.

 

[MLKNC]

This Received From Ruger on 8-11-09

"Thank you for using the Ruger On-Line Customer Support Request Form.

This e-mail is in response to your question or comment of 08/07/2009
Request No: 37807

Comment / question:

I have recently received an LCP. I have heard a lot of rumors. What is the truth. Can the firearm be dry fired without damage?

Response:
The LCP can be dry fired and cause no damage.

If you need further information, please visit our website at www.ruger.com or contact us at:

Revolvers, shotguns, rifles, 10/22 Charger Pistol: (603) 865-2442
Pistols: (928) 778-6555
Serial Number History Information: (603) 865-2424

Please note: This e-mail is sent from a notification-only address that cannot accept incoming e-mail. Please do not reply to this message.

Sincerely,
Ruger Firearms"

Now mine is a new 371XXX series,,,,,so previous versions (not retrofitted) may have issues,,,(I'm using snap caps, just in case)

mlknc

 

[stevemis]

This and a couple of other posts about LCP issues lend quite a bit of credit to my wife's assertion that the LCP was junk. I bought her one in December, took it to the range myself for a function test, then Ruger had the recall... so it disappeared for a few weeks. When it came back, I had my wife try it... her comment was "It feels like I'm going to break it. I don't want to carry this gun."

It's now someone else's problem. This was my first ever Ruger product and likely my last.

ETA: You should be able to dry fire centerfire arms (380, 9mm, 45, etc) all day and night without causing damage. My guess is the firing pin failure could have just as easily occurred on a live round in a defensive situation. Confidence inspiring...