Ruger Horror Story, Customer Service, and Range Review

Hello all,
Horror: a while back, through a series of missteps, trades, and snaffoos I ended up with a Ruger SR45. the original owner claimed he had only 100 rounds through the handgun, and when I received it, it only came with a single magazine, again the claim from the original owner was that it only came with one(a verified lie). well I took it to the range and ended up with at least 5 light strikes, a failure to eject, 2 failures to return to battery and zero lockbacks on last round out of 30 rounds. needless to say, the decision to send it to the factory was not a difficult one to make.

Customer service:it was a pain to get ahold of them. I tried a few times but since their call centers are only open during my lunch hour, it was next to impossible to set up an RMA over the phone, which is the only method which Ruger will set up an RMA. eventually I sent a less than cordial email asking to please set up an RMA via Email because I could not get through to speak to a technician to set up the return. a few days later, they called me and in less than 5 minutes I had my RMA authorized and they emailed me a shipping label. the turn around time was fast, it was only at Ruger for 3 days before they emailed me the tracking information. I was worried that they were refusing to service it because I had been up front with the fact that I was not the original owner and the fact that I was under the impression that it had been tampered with. the handgun returned yesterday and I must say I was extremely surprised. Ruger replaced the entire trigger assembly, recoil spring assembly, and striker assembly, along with a laundry list of smaller parts. the form also stated that repairs were made to the barrel and that they test fired 40 rounds before shipping back. they essentially gutted the entire frame and slide assemblies and gave me all new internals. they did not mention any work to the original magazine, but did include a free second magazine. I was not expecting anywhere near this level of service given the circumstances. besides the headache of actually setting up the return, I could not be happier with the service A+.

Range Review: I took it out today with the 3 magazines and decided to bring along my XDM45 compact that I haven't shot in a while. I must say I was not ready for the recoil, I've been shooting exclusively 9mms as of late and my 45s have been gathering dust and getting neglected so it took me a minute to get used to the recoil again. the SR45, although lower ammo capacity than I would like, is a great tool. I was extremely impressed by the accuracy at 10 yards. I did notice two issues with the handgun that I would like to point out, the magazine I sent back still fails to lock back on the last round. however, the new magazine they gave me, as well as a spare I purchased before the service trip both lock back with no problems, it's just that one mag. it's a minor annoyance so long as I mark the magazine so that it doesn't get mixed into a defense rotation(not that I'll probably ever carry this for defense). the other is something that I've been noticing with more and more of the semi autos I own, if you slam a fresh mag with the slide locked back, the slide will automatically drop. this saves time on reloads, but also creates a bit of a training problem for me, as that's something that some of my handguns do, but others don't so I will have to get good at using a slide release or not depending on the situation. overall I am extremely happy with the service, I think given the choice between a free 3rd mag, or a fully functional 2nd mag, I think I would pick the free one every time, especially considering the price of SR45 mags. other than those issues, the handgun functions 100%. i put 105 rounds of Jack Ross Reman ammo and some absolute garbage hollow point home loads I've been trying to get rid of and it didn't hiccup once.

here is the first 30 rounds through the SR45 at 10 yards.

here is 30 rounds fired from the XDM45(Ironically I used to shoot this handgun better than anything else in my collection)

here is 30 rounds fired from the SR45 at 10 yards, followed by 12 rounds fired in double taps at 5 yards.

agree on not letting them collect dust. like I said I usually shoot 9mms, mostly because of an abundance of 9mm ammo, but also becaause I usually don't get much time to shoot and when I do I'm rushing and so it's easier to grab 100 rounds of 9mm than 45. also I have a larger stockpile of 9mm than 45 so I feel more comfortable shooting it and not having to worry about the next time I'll see it for a decent price.

they are pretty thorough about pointing you to the correct call center on their website.

I don't count it as a bad ruger experience. I count it as a bad used gun experience. I end up with two types, amazing steals, and bent over a barbed wire fence by bigfoot, there's no in-between. I once bought a type I Arisaka on gunbroker, got it home and found that the stock was split from the bayonet lug all the way to the rear stock band. bought a "good" condition straight pull mannlicher carbine, there are 3 ping pong ball sized chunks of wood missing out of the butt stock area. 2 AKs, one with every problem you are told to look out for with WASR 10/63s from century, and the other has every problem you are told doesn't exist on a nice mid-to-upper bracket AK. you already know the story about the Ruger...

... then on the other side, I've got a springfield range officer with $400 laser sights on it for $650, a Beretta PX4 that I got for $100 and some junky 223 ammo I was never going to shoot, a Barreled action that I later learned was a 1903A4 sniper rifle that I got for $150, and a brand new Sig SP2022 with $150 worth of ammo for $400...

I don't think I'm going to have anyone else pick up private party trade bait anymore thanks to the ruger, and from now on, no purchases unless I can lay eyes on it first, but otherwise, I've had just enough positive deals on used guns that I'm not willing to boycott just yet.


oh and yes, I work the same hours as Ruger so I can only call on my lunch break. some people always so literal...