Ruger American Pistol safety bulletin

From the link you provided (emphasis mine):

If your 9mm Ruger American® Pistol is equipped with a silver-colored, stainless steel barrel, you should follow the inspection procedure outlined below. Retrofitted and newly manufactured Ruger American® Pistols will be equipped with a black, nitrided stainless steel barrel.

The notice alluded to the locking surfaces wearing, and causing the problem. It is possible that a redesign of the barrel portion will solve the problem, but I would keep this notice in mind, and do an inspection of these areas at every cleaning (which is a good idea with any firearm).

Slater said:

...but as far as slide cracking goes, wouldn't the slide need to be modified/strengthened to fix that issue?

Click to expand...

Not really - many times such cracks occur when the locking lugs/lug wear and develop a play when the barrel is locked. When firing, barrel and slide start to move in opposite directions and the added play from the peening results in the slide accelerating for a short time, followed by an abrupt stop when engaging the locking lug thus stretching the slide with greater force, and that leads to cracking. When that play is kept at minimum the forces that the slide exerts from the firing are smaller.

Ruger RAP9, my example is within the effected serial number range. We contacted Ruger via the internet. Provided the required information and yesterday received a large envelope containing a USPS priority mailing box prepaid, packaging material, and instructions. Simplicity, put it in your mailbox for pick up are take it to your local Post Office

Hangingrock said:

Ruger RAP9, my example is within the effected serial number range.

Click to expand...

Mine too, but it'll be a long whike before I hit the 10k round count!
Mine shows no sign of peening (yet), at about 500 round count.

Slater said:

You can send it in anyway and get the new barrel.

Click to expand...

That was my take on reading the bulletin. Mine falls into the recall category. Only a slight surface wear. I will contact Ruger this week.
It would have been a while before I could get it to the range anyway.

sparkyv said:

Mine too, but it'll be a long whike before I hit the 10k round count!
Mine shows no sign of peening (yet), at about 500 round count.

Click to expand...

I contacted Ruger. I received the return authorization along with the packaging materials,USPS flat rate box, and instructions. One returns the slide, barrel, and recoil spring assembly. You the customer are not required to wait until the quoted 10K round count.

From what I am reading they may be doing something to the slide as well. If the fix was an easy barrel replacement they would just swap barrels with customers through the mail. The barrel coating is likely dual purpose as a marking for "this one is fixed" and to slow down slide wear.

I think I am just going to wait until the wear is more pronounced. I’d rather send it in just once when the barrel and slide both would be replaced.
The wear on mine is fairly smooth in appearance. Doesn’t look anything like the picture of peening on the Ruger website.

Slater said:

So is the black Nitride supposed to be a tougher finish than the silver-colored stainless?

Click to expand...

Yes, it adds hardness and wear-resistance to the metal surface.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitriding

I sent mine in a few days ago. I love Rugers process, first time I’ve sent something into them for a recall. You submit your info on their website and wait for a package to arrive from Ruger and they have detailed instructions on what to do. On this particular recall they only want the slide assembly and barrel.

So Ruger goes the whole way for the customer, even supplying a box, shipping costs and packaging material to ship it back to them.

Most likely the slide goes back to Ruger so it can be inspected for damage, not because they want to automatically modify it. No damage, and it would just come back the same way it went to them,

I would be very surprised if Ruger paid the expense and the customers time to just inspect the product. They are going to just go ahead and replace the barrel, I would bet money on it. They know there is an issue and will just perform the retrofit. My pistol didn’t have any damage but I’m not going to wait around when they know of a fix. The stainless barrels get changed out for nitrited barrels.

On 1/14/19, I filled out the online form for the recall. 1/18/19, I received the postage paid packaging and mailed it on the 19th. Yesterday, the 29th, I received the slide/barrel assy back with a new barrel. Painless.

Just updating this thread, I had forgot about it. I received my upper assembly back from Ruger within a weeks time. I was having no issues but thought I would send it in anyways. They replaced the stainless barrel with a nitrided barrel.