Ruger Security 9 owners...

i work some at a small gun shop here in ny, the shop sells 2 or 3 a week. i do not own one but shot the one the shop uses for the display. the slide release was hard on this one to but after about a month it was much better and worn in. the new rugers seen very good for the money.

troy fairweather said:

i work some at a small gun shop here in ny, the shop sells 2 or 3 a week. i do not own one but shot the one the shop uses for the display. the slide release was hard on this one to but after about a month it was much better and worn in. the new rugers seen very good for the money.

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The correct term is slide retention lever. You aren't supposed to press down on one to release the slide. The slide serations are present on rear of it for a reason.

paulsj said:

The correct term is slide retention lever. You aren't supposed to press down on one to release the slide. The slide serations are present on rear of it for a reason.

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I was about to call BS on that...but sure enough, the manual instructions state to pull the slide back and release

D.B. Cooper said:

What I didn't like was the slide release. It took an enormous amount of force to release the slide. I was unable to release it with just my thumb while retaining a full grip on the gun. I finally had to turn the gun 90˚ (a.k.a. breaking the 180 and a DQ) and release the slide with my left hand.

Is this normal for this gun, or is this something that "wears in"? (i.e. is this something that if I just sit and lock&release the slide repeatedly while watching TV it will go away?) Or is this possibly a defect with that particular gun?

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If there is an empty mag in the gun, I'd say this is normal for most semi-auto pistols.

The magazine follower is designed to lift the slide release to hold the slide back on empty. With no mag, or with a round in the mag, the slide release is normally significantly easier to operate.

After owning the Beretta Nano, I realized I do not need a slide and did not need them in the first place. Just curious, when pulling the slide all the way back as far as possible, is it still hard to use the slide release?

With lots of slide stop use it'll wear the slide catch. With "slingshotting" the slide one avoids the slide catch swiping the notch over and over, and thus eliminating a lot of wear at that point of the slide.

Back to the OP, I've been curious about those as they are very affordable, and with Ruger's customer service seemingly a really good buy, given they shoot and handle well.

D.B. Cooper said:

Interesting. I'll be the first to admit that I'm a revolver guy, however, of all the autoloaders I've handled over the years, and of the one I'm most familiar with (92FS) I pushed down, with the strong hand thumb, on the "slide retention lever" to close the action, without pulling on the slide. If what you say is true about the Security 9, and looking at that page from the manual, it looks as though it is, that's terribly unfortunate. It seems to be an otherwise really good gun.

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The mag follower pushing up on the "slide retention lever" increases the effort needed to push it.
This is actually by design! to show you the gun is EMPTY and you are dropping the slide on an EMPTY mag.
If your experience is with a gun with the mag removed... nevermind

Edit: sorry for the echo of post #5

Tilos said:

The mag follower pushing up on the "slide retention lever" increases the effort needed to push it.
This is actually by design! to show you the gun is EMPTY and you are dropping the slide on an EMPTY mag.
If your experience is with a gun with the mag removed... nevermind

Edit: sorry for the echo of post #5

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Still a good question to which the OP hasn't clarified his answer.

Walkalong said:

And that is the easy way on any auto, pull back the slide a hair and take the pressure off.

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It depends on the auto. Some will not chamber rounds using the sling shot or overhand power stroke, and require using the slide stop/slide release to chamber rounds. The Les Baer Commanche and Kahr semi-autos are two that come to mind.

The only thing I don't like about my Security 9 is the little lip that under the slide stop. When I contacted Ruger I was told that it was not a slide release, it was a slide stop and slightly pulling the slide to the rear was the intended way to release the slide. Other then that I really like the gun.
My sister's house was broken into about a year ago. She bought herself a 12ga pump and a Taurus single stack 9mm. This Christmas I will upgrade her gun with the Security 9. I like the gun, but feel that my sister will like it more.

How to release the slide on most semi-automatic pistols is a subject of intense debate all over the internet and I'm sure many other places as well. I have never released the slide by pushing down on the retention lever. I always have racked the slide to release it. I think you will eventually wear the retention lever by pushing it down against the other retention hardware to release the slide. Kind of like a poor man's trigger job on a 1911 where you pull the trigger while pushing in on the hammer at the same time. You wear the action that way to lighten and smooth the trigger. Sorry for the digression, but releasing the slide with the retention lever just reminded me of that. And that is just me. Lots of folks think it is the right thing to do. Lot's of folks think the opposite.

I do think it significant that Ruger recommends the racking method. Why do otherwise?

Full disclosure: Ruger is my favorite gun maker. I probably learned how to operate a semi-automatic pistol by reading similar instructions for my SR9

<*(((>< said:

With lots of slide stop use it'll wear the slide catch. With "slingshotting" the slide one avoids the slide catch swiping the notch over and over, and thus eliminating a lot of wear at that point of the slide.

Back to the OP, I've been curious about those as they are very affordable, and with Ruger's customer service seemingly a really good buy, given they shoot and handle well.

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See I think so too about the wearing of the slide catch. See my post above. OPs thinking it is unfortunate to be told to rack the slide and that it maybe disqualifies the gun doesn't take into account how many people think all semi-auto should be operated that way...at least all the ones which work like that.

Jeb Stuart said:

After owning the Beretta Nano, I realized I do not need a slide and did not need them in the first place. Just curious, when pulling the slide all the way back as far as possible, is it still hard to use the slide release?

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No, you take the tension off it when you pull the slide away from it. Normally the retention lever falls automatically when the slide isn't pressing on it...as long as the magazine follower isn't holding it up.

D.B. Cooper said:

Do all of these new, polymer autoloaders (S&W Shield, Springfield XD, etc) have the same kind of "slide stop" as the Security 9? Is that kind of the new (new as in new in the past 15 years) industry standard?

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Not all of them do. The Rugers do. An interesting note - I have a Kahr that the owners manual says to release the slide with the slide stop & not to slingshot it. It is manufacturer specific. You did well if that is a deal breaker for you. It is always a good idea to research before purchase.

I think it's just needing to be broken in. The 2 LCPs and 2 EC9s, I've bought new were stiff until about 200 rounds went through each.

D.B. Cooper said:

I'm pretty sure there was an empty magazine in there.

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That's why it was so hard to operate. This is by design.

All I know is that on the M9 I carried in the Air Force, I could slam a magazine into it with my left hand, quickly hit the slide release with just my right hand thumb, and the slide would immediately and easily slam forward, loading another round and be ready for a first shot single action. All I know is that is how it should be.

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This is how nearly all auto-loaders work, and I'll assume the Ruger Security 9 would too, if you had a loaded mag in the gun.

An empty mag in the gun will make it very difficult to release the slide, by design. It is not a malfunction or problem with the gun. They all do that.

Guess it all depends on the firearm, the manual for the Springfield 911 instructs the user to depress the slide stop to load, the Taurus TCP manual says to pull the slide back and release. But I can tell you, that Taurus will not load like that, drop the slide release, it loads just fine.

D.B. Cooper said:

Do all of these new, polymer autoloaders (S&W Shield, Springfield XD, etc) have the same kind of "slide stop" as the Security 9? Is that kind of the new (new as in new in the past 15 years) industry standard?

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It's not really "new". In general, the "proper" way to recharge the gun after a reload is the slingshot method - go overhand and pull the slide back and release. That said, on a lot of handgun designs the slide stop can be pushed down with your thumb and it'll release the slide and chamber another round. If you know your gun and know it'll do that, then sure, it's fine to do it that way. However, if you develop a habit of slingshoting that will almost ALWAYS work rather than having to guess on it. Sometimes even different examples within the same family will behave differently (ie, some 1911's will easily release that way, some won't).

At the end of the day if you have a strong preference towards using your thumb to drop the slide stop then pick a gun that does that easily, but for 100% function without having to worry about "checking" if the gun behaves one way or another, it's better to slingshot.

I kinda compare it to auto-forwarding. Some guns do it really easily, some not. As such I'd never get to where I depend on a gun doing it.

Not to mention that the more driving force forward, the more assurance of the gun properly going into battery. The slight extra spring force from the extra tension due to pulling the slide back a little more to slingshot it gives a little extra oomph to the run of the slide forward than just dropping the slide retention lever. All around it is the better technique. You just have to be careful not to let your hand ride the slide forward. That lessens the spring force driving the slide forward and can cause a FTF malfunction.

I should mention that my adoption of the slingshot method was influenced to a great extent by being a leftie. It is the rare pistol that has either a right side or ambi slide retention lever. Once confirmed in slingshotting I would never do it any other way even on a gun that would allow another method.